Our Apartment During A Pandemic
In the growing storm of the Coronavirus pandemic, this picture from my corner office was reassuring ─ a street and sidewalk cleaner going about his business of keeping the village clean. This is normalcy at a time fraught with the opposite. Since returning to our summer nesting grounds, we have also sought normalcy.
We have a comfortable apartment situated on the third floor above a two-floor optic shop. It was once Christl’s and a now deceased partner’s medical office. Christl and I refurbished the former medical office sixteen years ago into an apartment. In today’s pandemic world it could not be a better home base. When we think of travel restrictions between Europe and the United States, we are lucky to be back in this lovely apartment.
A tour of the apartment begins with the examination room. It is basically unchanged from the time when the medical Praxis was started in 1982. That was shortly after Christl and her former partner left crowded Munich for a rural lower Bavarian farm village atmosphere.
Our daily routine starts with getting out of the bedroom and adjoining bathroom overlooking the parking lot to the optic shop.
It quickly shifts to the kitchen and my “corner office” decorated with a floor-to-ceiling tapestry of The Empire State building. Here we have the first coffee of the day as Christl and I work our way through news and emails from family and friends on our iPhones while munching G.O.R.P. (To those unfamiliar with the term, it is an American food group of the sixties, “Good Old Raisins and Peanuts.” Although we have added cranberries, dried apricots, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and a few M&Ms over the years. This is followed by breakfast seated on barstools around the three-meter (9-feet) long tabletop.
On most days the breakfast ritual is followed by exercise in the hallway. This is on a stationary bike, a few stretches, handheld barbells, later a daily shopping walk, and weather permitting, a longer walk along the River Rott or shorter walk around the Chestnut tree alley surrounding the downtown area, which is only a block away.
Lunch is served, with fresh rolls from a bakery ─ baked that morning ─ and served in the kitchen. This time we sit on the wrap-around couch and coffee table.
In between breakfast and lunch Christl spends time in her office, which is called Ad.com and I spend my time at the corner office which is called Kitch.com. This is when we are not shopping or taking exercise outings.
The mornings and afternoons are spent in various areas of the apartment needing cleaning and hikes along the shoreline trails of a river or the Chestnut-tree Alley surrounding the remnants of the thousand-year-old City Wall surrounding the “downtown” area.
At evening news-time on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, and the German channels we are glued to the TV and with our favorite ritual of beer’n pretzels. We sit on the couch facing the TV and listen to Governor Cuomo, the №10 Downing Street report, the latest oil price in the Middle East, and finally the Bavarian and Germany reports.
We eat dinner accompanied with a glass of wine by candlelight in the dining room. Then adjourn to the living room with the TV or go to bed with a good book and start the ritual all over again.
This is a good normal life during a chaotic pandemic.
