Time stopped by (4 Stories)

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April 9, 2020.  Morning moonset across lake with dog.

Time stopped. We stepped out.

No in-person meetings.  No air travel.  No car trips to Glacier Park.  No other park trips.  No parties.

Plenty of dog walks.  Plenty of wood chopping.  Plenty of crossword puzzles.  Plenty of @numbulary Twitter posts.

Plenty of orange juice.  Plenty of coffee.  Plenty of tea.  Plenty of toast.  Plenty of cookies.  Plenty of ice cream.

Some grocery store trips.  Some hardware store trips.  Some books.  Some newspapers.  Some jigsaw puzzles.

A few family visitors.  A few small gatherings with friends.  Only a few.

Time stopped.  We stepped out.  Ready to step back in?

Profile photo of Michael Wallace Michael Wallace


Tags: time
Characterizations: right on!, well written

Comments

  1. Betsy Pfau says:

    Good summary, Michael and welcome to Retrospect. YES! I’m ready to step back in! My husband did the jigsaw puzzles, I was the one who ventured outside with mask and (at first) gloves to run errands, but you’ve summed up our lives quite succinctly.

  2. Yes Michael, I’m ready!
    And welcome to Retrospect!

  3. John Shutkin says:

    You and I were certainly on the same wave lengths with our brief stories, Mike, and I thought yours was just so well put. Thank you for it, as well as the stunning photo. And perfect title.

    Do hope you keep sharing your stories with us on Retro, even post-pandemic.

  4. Happy to see you here, Michael! You’ve captured the year with some nice details: the wood chopping is not one that’s been part of my experience but it makes for a good image. I will have to look up “numbulary.”

  5. Well! Not only did I manage to decode the meaning of “numbulary” by searching the Web, but I am now following you on Twitter.

  6. Marian says:

    Welcome, Mike. Lovely photo and summary of the year. Plenty of walks, books, and crossword puzzles for me. Ice cream, not so much!

  7. Laurie Levy says:

    I think we are ready to step back in to whatever life post-pandemic will be. It will be different for sure. Time stopped perfectly described our winter here (Chicago). Welcome to Retrospect!

  8. No this, plenty of that, some of these, a few of those…love your writing, and the photo. Looking forward to more…welcome to Retrospect!

  9. Suzy says:

    Love this, Mike! Welcome to Retrospect as a writer, since you’ve been a lurker and occasional commenter for years.

    The structure of your story is wonderful, with your lists of things of which you had “no,” “plenty,” “some”, and “few.” And how fitting that the longest list was of the items of which you had “plenty.”

    So glad we talked about RetroFlash yesterday! When you write one, please write the word RetroFlash at the end (it won’t count against your 100 words), so that if someone wants to search for all the RetroFlashes, they will find yours.

  10. I missed that my longest list was plenty–good catch!

  11. Khati Hendry says:

    Beautiful evocative description of the year, much of which really rang true for me as well. Welcome to Retrospect!

  12. Very nicely done, Michael. Good and Plenty. Just like the candy.

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