As I was glancing back at my older blogs, I noticed the one I wrote just after the first of the year...one of my questions asked "what will this year bring?" The year 2020 has been very different and difficult. As the pandemic hit and social distancing / isolation became the new normal my life seemed somewhat normal. I'm not an overly social person so I had a good reason to stay home, read, watch TV, and basically not feel guilty about not going out except for work.
When my first travel contract of the year ended, I returned to Northern Virginia, in April, where Covid-19 was escalating. The number of new cases a day kept climbing, the ICU's where full of the basically Covid-19+ patients. The current number of cases in the hospital has drastically reduced. I'm happy to be getting back to caring for my normal patient population.
The last 3 months have been really hard, and July was emotionally draining. I've been working through a pandemic and seeing some people get better while others don't can be discouraging. Not only that, I'm away from family and friends and am geographically isolated from my social support system, I'm not going to it's hard. I finally had a 2 week period where I didn't have to care for a Covid + patient, and so I was able to make to 3 hour drive to visit my sister and her family. It was amazing to be around family, to play with my nephews and just remember that something don't change.
There are some good things that have happened. I've been doing better about getting outside and going for a run or walk, and started using the Crossrope system for exercise. I use to love to jump rope when I was younger, but I stopped at some point. Now I'm getting back into it using weighted jump ropes mixed with intervals of body weight exercise and rest. It's actually a lot more fun than running or going to the gym (for me)...I just take my ropes outside, and get in my workout while I'm enjoying some fresh air and sunshine.
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| I love these jump ropes...I've been using them for a couple weeks now. |
I've also been trying to explore some of the many National Parks in this area as things are starting to reopen again. It's a great way to enjoy the outdoors, see some amazing scenery, and often get some physical activity in with a hike or two.
So far, I've been to Shenandoah National Park:
-The mountains are amazing, I've done some short hikes here to get to some of the views.
Luray Caverns:
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| The Wishing Well |
Harper's Ferry National Park:
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| Historic Lower Town |
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| The view from the Maryland Overlook Trail |
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| The view from the Maryland Overlook Trail |
I hiked the around the park some, before completing the Maryland Overlook Trail. After it was all said and done, I'd hiked 7 miles and walked a total of 10 miles that day. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day, and a little sunburnt. Overall, it was a great day, with some fantastic views.
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