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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

The other day I jumped in my friend's car and we drove 550 miles from suburban Maryland to her cabin in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It felt really great to get out of town--the leaves are starting to really turn now--bright crimson topped the trees and the highways were adorned by miles and miles of white Queen Anne's Lace and flaming yellow goldenrod and blue aster and it felt like a rainbow of colors everywhere, summer turning to autumn, the earth going about its business just fine. Walking around the back roads since getting here feels like another world too--not a soul in sight and no need to pull my mask out for hours, just breathing in crisp, cool mountain air. It's been good for the soul. And yet, driving through Southern Virginia and Tennessee was a shock too--almost no one wearing a mask at the gas stations we stopped at, when in our area just outside Washington D.C most everyone wears a mask. It was like crossing over into another country. "What part of this science do you not believe in", I want to ask these people? I feel like I am working so hard to stay sane and do my part to restore some normalcy to the U.S.--writing letters to people encouraging them to vote, training to work the polls because of the poll worker shortage. I am 58 and not at low risk, but at much lower risk than people in their 70s who usually staff the polls, and I am willing to take that chance to make sure EVERYONE can vote. And yet, nothing feels like enough. Last night my dreams were crazy-anxiety- filled; over and over I kept arriving to large public gatherings with no one wearing a mask--not even me, and then I would wake up in a panic that I was nfected with COVID. Watching Trump's latest shit-show this week--getting the virus, and then pretending it wasn't a big deal--never mind that he got the best medical treatment ANYONE in the world has gotten--makes me sick to my stomach. The sheer amount of lies he tells makes me sick. I think it's just too much cognitive dissonance to withstand--the narrative he creates versus the one we KNOW that we are all living, and he gets SO Much press and attention. I cannot wait for him to be gone and have someone in the White House who actually cares about the people he serves.