April in a pandemic

If you're reading this you've survived the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Whether you doubt the reports and suspect a dire conspiracy, or, listen and react with social distancing and masks, your life has changed.

Here at Stonecraft House we have a forty year history of sharing our old inn with other folks, helping others because we had the room. When hubby retired and our income was much lower, we wondered what to do.  My earnings as a small town attorney are meager. So, I was whining about this to my friend Terrie, another lawyer, and she said "Use what you have".  Our beloved niece Andrea had told us about airbnb, and we ventured into the world of on-line travel reservations.  One thing we didn't know was that each room is a separate listing. We learned this by having our first guest, a nice gentleman from India or Pakistan reserve our listed "room" ( which turns out is all of it if you haven't set up separate listings!) for our first weekend.  OK- our first $80.00, for the 3rd floor... oops.  But we enjoyed the guys, and I learned how to set up a separate listing for each room.  So, by last year  (2019) ,  we were ensconced happily as hosts for Rooms 3,7,8, 9/10, the  Zip-Line Tree-house, and a couple of camper sites. Hosting traveling people in our home brought in enough income to stay here. A big old house is just that: big and old. Taxes and maintenance will drown us without that tourist dollar. 

So, how about that pandemic? We de-listed (snoozed, in airbnb parlance) all of our listings except the tree house, which is outside away from the house.  Since then, we've figured out how to rent our largest listing - Rooms 9/10- with safe results.  We edited our listing to remove our signature breakfasts and add a requirement for masks and social distancing. We'll see how it works. We've got clorax wipes for wiping down the hand rails and other surfaces a guest touches, and our cleaning between guests will be more vigorous. The tree house is rented for parts of May and June, so the income may trickle in.

April was interesting - in the sense of living in interesting times.  My right hip went all wonky while I was trying to drive my RV home in March.  I had to give up in Tennessee and ask hubby Russ for help. I don't have a TV in the RV, or even a radio, so my news was solely from too-well-spaced   bouts of accessing Wi-Fi on the road. By the time Russ and our friend Liza drove down to meet me in Western Virginia we knew enough to figure that we had to self-quarantine for 14 days when we got home.  Now, when I drive Sweet Lizzy (the RV) , I amble, going 55 MPH once I get up to traveling speed.  Russ did not feel my concerns about speed.  So we raced home at 65 or 70 MPH, and sheltered in place once we got to Stonecraft House.  That was around the end of March, on a Sunday.
While I rested and chowed down on pain killers, Russ got all of the wood for the year after next split and under cover.  We react differently to uncertainty.  I duck and hover. He jumps wholeheartedly from task to task.  He's been the one to go out into the world to get groceries and my prescriptions.  My contacts have been telephonic or via Zoom.  My UU church in Tamworth has conducted video services and weekday check-ins.  What a wonderful way to relate to people.  In the past, when I attended church, I often slid out before the coffee hour.  All those people in a smallish space just made me uneasy.  Now I can attend, participate, and feel connected.  What's your April, 2020, been like?