Day by following day the world we live in -- at least the exterior world, outside our own intimate surroundings -- seems to become more and more unfamiliar. The world order doesn't seem quite as orderly any longer, if it ever truly was. The veneer of civilization and civility, political rectitude and mass obedience to the greater good of the wider social weal seems to be faltering, the cracks becoming wider, people more ferociously socially fractured.

Who might have imagined a scenario in plain sight building to such a momentum? That a sitting president of the most powerful country in the world would deliberately incite his personal followers to disgrace the entire nation, urging them on to demonstrate their displeasure that a slightly larger majority of the country had agreed it was time for the man to step away from authority and be replaced by someone else promising to lead his country in a more rational, equitable direction?

How could it be possible that the kind of social upheaval leading to the wreckage of a country's unity, its economic destruction, the cause of millions of its people seeking refuge abroad from the ravages of internal conflict, fatigue with deprivation, facing starvation and lack of medical care that erupted in Syria and Venezuela, Congo and South Sudan, Mali and Yemen would take place in the great United States of America?

Any sane person sensitive to the needs of any population could only feel compassion for the ordinary individual who wants nothing more than to live in harmony with others. Not the kind of harmony that China imposes on its population/s, but a human rights harmony of peace and security, with opportunities to live decent and secure lives. How strange it is that a population that has just about everything that people could conceivably require to live those decent and secure lives has become so distanced from one another, as to embrace 'conspiracy theories' and submit to racial stereotyping and victimization?

But then, who would ever have been able to imagine a world turned upside down and inside-out through the emergence of an unseen predator that seeks entrance to the human body to enable it to proliferate, replicate endlessly, seeking out an ongoing succession of new bodies to infect, a pestilence whose virulence is now so prevalently opportunistic that it has become close to unstoppable, waxing and waning like the moon, impervious to intervention.

Impacting us personally by its haunting threat and the fear that those we love may be victimized. Changing our lives in subtle ways. Today I had an 'appointment' with my cardiologist, a telephone 'consultation'. Truth to tell, much preferred than that we would leave the house, drive to a hospital, have an ecogram, meet with the doctor and generally feel out of syncronization with normalcy in any event. This was much less invasive; nothing to report, all's well.

The day proceeding as it should, all the little things one does to pass a day, habitual and necessary. Including our afternoon ramble through the woodland trails with our two little companions Jackie and Jillie. Giving them the opportunity to socialize with other dogs, large and small, increasingly being brought to the ravine which we had for so many years virtually to ourselves. 

 Not that our two little poodles are very socially inclined.  Even when Jackie watches over my shoulder perched on an arm of the family room sofa as I download photographs from my digital camera to my desktop computer where photos of him and his sister in the woods flash on the screen, he growls and snarls at the sight of other 'dogs' even if they're very familiar dogs, himself and Jillie.

It always feels good to be out there, striding along. Taking a little longer to ascend the  hills, briefly resting once we crest them before carrying on. Descending one hill, ascending another. Delving into the ravine, hearing the creek washing itself downstream. Our cleated boots crunching into the snow-and-ice-packed forest trails.

Once back home again, a rip-through-the-house run by the two little black imps that usually concludes with a vigorous tussle. And then they hunt me down in the kitchen conveying their need for a pick-up-snack. We forgot to get cauliflower when we went shopping on Tuesday, so now they're getting two salads daily, the snack and another after their dinner. Comprised of little pieces of cucumber, bell pepper, snap peas and grape tomatoes. They love their vegetables.