I mentioned we now live in Virginia- and I'll have to go back and post all the stuff from our short time in Tennessee. Virginia makes the fifth state I've lived in. I can't tell you how long we will stay here, it really depends on James' job. He may change positions or divisions again one day in the future. Every time we've moved, it's been because of his job. He's been with the company I think over 22 years now. We now live in Elliston, which is a very small rural "community" south of Salem, where the hubby's workplace is at. I mean really RURAL, like sometimes I get my phone out and it says "No Service" rural. Salem is south of Roanoke, which is pretty much the biggest town around. Having said that, Roanoke is NOT very big at all, to me anyhow. I've spent my entire life living just 5-10 minutes away from everything I need, whether it be Kohl's or Target, Michaels or PetSmart, Kroger or Lowe's. Now it's a good 20 minutes to just "some" of those things in Salem. The rest are about 40 minutes away in Roanoke. I will admit, traffic isn't bad here, coming from someone who lived just outside of Atlanta for almost ten years. Elliston is sandwiched in between Salem to the north, and Christiansburg to the south. I used to go to Christiansburg the most when we first moved here, but lately I've been going to Salem instead. Less stores to pick from, but it has the basics covered.
We moved here the last week of October in 2019, and since then we've had two vacations, the holidays, company visiting twice, and then of course the quarantine started. I've been "at home" in quarantine since March 12th- that was the last day I was out in public. The panic had already started here, that day I went to do my regular grocery shopping and found shelves wiped out. I had gone to my Weight Watchers meeting that morning and a lady two rows ahead of me was obviously VERY ill but as she coughed away she announced to everyone "it's not coronavirus, it's just the regular flu" and I was aghast. I told James about it when I got home and he said yeah, you're not going back out again. I have severe asthma and had just gotten over a long bout of mild pneumonia in January. I can't even pretend to think I would do well if I caught this virus, because I struggle to breathe on a normal healthy day. So I've stayed put since then, I've not seen or talked to anyone but James since that day. And in fact, that was the last week my WW meeting place was opened, so I'm not even missing those. Ever since then, James has been running all the errands- grocery shopping, the pharmacy, post office, Lowe's. Since James works for a food distribution company, he's still out there every day anyhow, so he is taking over the shopping for me. They are very safe at work- taking temperatures every day of every employee, practicing extreme social distancing- and he is equally safe when he goes out into public. If he needs to get down an aisle at the store, he waits until it is empty. He carries Clorox wipes in his truck and wipes down everything immediately. When he gets home every night, he changes into clean clothes before he can even approach me.
But we go for drives on the weekends, and sometimes I've gone on short drives around town by myself, just for a change of scenery. This past weekend I actually rode with James as he ran our errands, and I made him use the Clorox wipes before he got back in the truck. James recently hiked part of the Appalachian Trail (before it was shut down) and we took a day drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, both of which run through Roanoke. So sadly we haven't got to know our new area very well, just because we haven't had the time or opportunity yet. It IS a big change, we've never lived so out in the country before. Pros and cons, of course, mostly pros I guess. This is an area of the country where outdoor sports rule. We have so much hiking and biking and watersports here. Unfortunately most of the greenways and trails are closed right now, because people were mobbing them by the hundreds and no one was wearing PPE or keeping safe distances. Luckily I live in a very "country" setting even though it's in a planned neighborhood (called "The Ridges"), but I have nice streets to walk when the weather is pretty. Right now we're in the season where it's freezing then hot, all in the same day. I was running my heat this morning, but I have the AC on this afternoon. I was told it gets downright hot and muggy here in the summer. I'm from Florida, so I'll be the judge of that! I'll post more about life here soon, and more about the house and town. The photos in this post are from one of my neighborhood strolls. You can see how the subdivision got it's name. What beautiful views. One of the "pros" for sure!
SANDY
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