How it happened   

COVID19 came on fast. Steve and I were packing for the trip back to the United States for Passover with family and friends when PM Netanyahu announced the first restrictions on movement:  the drivers of busses were cordoned off from riders, stores selling unnecessary goods were to close, and with the exception of health care and other essential workers, all people were to go into mandatory isolation in their homes. 

We thought, “Well, we’re leaving soon so we’ll be confined for a only few days in our apartment on Sokolov Street.”  I continued packing, cleared out drafts of a recent mystery I’d sent off, organized files on the computer and made new files for the small amount of hard copy I had brought with me to Israel months ago. 

We soon realized it wasn’t to be just a few days. Not long after Netanyahu’s announcement, Delta sent us as email to say our flight was canceled.  We tried to call the Delta office; it had abruptly closed. An email from Delta said they would reschedule. 

I continued to think some flight would turn up, the crowding and herding of people in the U.S. airports would be solved, everyone would be careful, and the crisis would disappear. 

Then the dominos began to fall.

The reschedule never came, and one by one alternatives disappeared. Delta stopped flying to Israel, United flights became sketchy, uncertain. Flights to the U.S. from Europe were prohibited by the U.S. so we couldn’t go that route; Turkey shut down.  Doors were closing; our sons in the U.S. urged us to stay in place because the U.S. was not handling the situation well. Each state was making its own restrictions, and the federal government was sluggish in its response to the needs of the states. The U.S. appeared to be a nation confused.

Since we were stuck, I decided I’d use the time to get more writing done. I could pretend I was in a comfortable prison with lax restrictions that allowed me to walk 100 meters from my “cell” and to go to the grocery store or pharmacy when I needed. 

But, there were problems. I could no longer escape the particular distractions of working at our apartment kitchen table by running off early morning to my secluded corner in the café on Arlozorov. 

I needed to make a new schedule that would suit both my husband (also a writer) and I. It turned out to be a good idea, and it turned out we would be following the new schedule for much longer than a week……

In coming postings, I’ll be outlining 

One Writer’s Daily Schedule for Living in Isolation