1.  Okay, people, so we made a mental health choice and went to the lake. We drove from our doorstep to the lake house doorstep, unloading two coolers worth of food so we could eat in all weekend. It was only our family going so basically all our own germy oxygen/carbon monoxide transfers relocated for 48 hours.

2.  The water almost always settles me. Being able to look out across the lake lowers my blood pressure in remarkable ways; watching gigantic birds swoop across the sky doesn’t hurt either.

3.  Plus the herons. So much love for the herons.

4.  Anyhoo, off we went in the boat on Saturday, still taking all our germy oxygen/carbon monoxide transfers with us except now we were in open air. Still good.

5.  Were we meeting up with anybody? Nope. Did this become slightly more awkward in a geez, mom’s a nazi way when some kids from school were up there and hanging out together? Well, sure, but what else is new. We’re in it for the long haul.

6.  Then I started looking around and what I saw scared the hell out of me.

7.  There were dozens and dozens of pontoons crammed to the gills with people, but not in a Brady Bunch, blended-families-with-six-kids-rolling-around kind of way. There was the boat that looked like it had three separate families hanging out for the afternoon. There was the party boat pumping tunes with bikini clad girls perched on back and four guys sprawled across the front. Then there was the guy who was driving a pontoon filled with about ten blonde women in their late teens/early twenties, for heaven’s sake. Who are all these people and what the hell are they doing??

8.  We saw a parade of boats rolling in and out of the channel all damn day loaded down with people on top of each other.

9.  We pulled into the marina to refuel the boat and when I glanced up toward the store I saw – I kid you not – a motorcycle gang with at least fifteen bikers hanging out in the parking lot. wtf.

10.  I’ve been holed up in my little house for so long it can be easy to forget the outside world but there I was, staring at large groups of people basically telling the scientists to eff off, and thought oh crap, we’re doomed. The Mississippi governor shifted plans on reopening their state after health officials reported their largest increase in coronavirus diagnoses and deaths. On April 20th Kentucky saw its coronavirus cases spike after protests erupted against the lockdown. I know we can’t hole up forever, but after seeing how folks treat the current stay-at-home/social distancing order I’m a little worried about what we’ll find when we get out.