I don’t know about you but I prefer to distance myself at this time, not only from people due to the current pandemic, but from social media sources especially for news. If I’m being honest I rarely use social media lately as it is, mostly because of the fact I’m in the process of trying to find a new home. Which if you’ve ever tried to purchase a home you know my current troubles. Not to mention that I just heard closing on a new home may be delayed from an already staggering 45+ days to who knows how long due to current events, but you don’t care about this, so I digress.

I have however been doing my fair share of reading about local and global current events and I always prefer not to be misinformed by memes and incorrectly put together infographics. So please join me in practicing the CDCs recommended guidelines on how to protect yourself from this new and ever evolving epidemic. If you don’t want to click through I’ll sum it up from their website below.

• Know how it spreads

• There is currently no vaccine to prevent COVID-19

• The best way to prevent this illness is to avoid exposure

• It is currently thought to spread mainly from person-to-person

• Take steps to protect yourself

• Wash or clean your hands often, soap and warm water for 20+ seconds (cold water works just as well, warm is preferable) especially after touching high contact areas in public places

• If soap and water aren’t available a hand sanitizer with an alcohol content of 60% or greater will suffice, coat hands thoroughly and rub together until dry

• Avoid touching your, or anyone else’s face, eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands

• Avoid close contact with those who are sick and distance yourself from others especially if it is spreading in your local community

• Take steps to protect others

• Stay home if your sick

• Cover your coughs or sneezes with a tissue or use the crook of your elbow

• Throw used tissues away (who doesn’t?)

• Immediately wash or sanitize hands after using a tissue

• If you are sick wear a face mask especially when occupying space with others. You do not need to wear a face-mask if you aren’t sick, unless caring for those who are (please stop hoarding masks I hear that medical facilities are having trouble keeping in stock and if the health care system falls we’re all screwed)

• Clean and disinfect high contact surfaces, clean them with soap and water first if they are dirty (I wouldn’t go nuts in your home but if you’re like me then you are still commuting and working so it wouldn’t hurt to disinfect high contact areas around your workplace or office. Food prep has a once an hour policy that seems good for the bathroom door handle or the Kurieg in the break room or the fridge handle. Worst case it wont hurt anything.)

Ultimately we will rely on the healthcare system and those in the medical fields to help slow, stop the spread or eradicate this from our current daily lives. Please thank anyone you may know that is in the industry. Also take a moment to use your better judgement before you go out and hoard countless flats of water, every chub of ground beef you can fit in your freezer or more bananas than Donkey Kong has eaten in his digital life. The world isn’t ending as of yet, so there is no reason that we can’t continue to function like civilized humans. Practice human kindness in a time where tensions can run high and stress on our normal daily lives may be compounded by this evolving situation.

Now on to my weekly practice because this is the whole reason I started writing this blog.

This week I finally got to move on to the second work book, which threw me just a bit when I saw the practice drill. Which more or less looks like the strand of hair that wraps around Homer Simpson’s head. /\/\/\/\/\/ It is an exercise to get your hand and muscle movements accustomed to starting a word at the bottom left, executing it with a fluid up down motion and ending at the top right. Looking at exemplars ahead in the book or a quick trip to google searching Spencerian examples or even looking at

will give you a good idea of what I’m talking about. Keeping these guys in line if you will was quite the task, if I may say I also poorly executed them at best. Try as I might it looks like I need to fill a few more pages with this than I’d originally thought. It just goes to show you even though something looks very simple it isn’t always easy to do. but I’m sure that you have an experience in life that you can relate to this.

Until next week, stay positive, hopefully at home and check on your loved ones, friends and co-workers that you get along with to make sure that in this difficult time they have someone to reach out to and speak with if they need to. Oh and if you need someone to talk to leave a comment below or hit me up with a DM on Instagram I’d be happy to chat if you need or want someone to chat with.

Happy practicing