This (Tuesday) morning on the walk the air was thick. The mayor spent a great deal of time swatting away bugs. For some reason he draws a lot more than I ever do. Am not sure why. We talked about the flooding yesterday. A woman the mayor works with had her home flooded. She called the mayor at work for help. He managed to round up a couple of trailers and places to park them so she could empty out her house. I’m always amazed at how the people of Prescott can manage to bring out the best in each other. It really is a good thing, a grace-filled thing and something I think we take for granted and therefore don’t notice it often enough.
This week six air purifying machines will be installed—four in the school, two in the church. These machines have shown not only to actually reduce the amount of flu and colds transmitted among people but also scrub the surfaces. They’ve done studies on what it does to the Covid-19 virus and those studies will be published in a couple of weeks. We’re led to understand that the results are very promising and will enhance the safety of our school and church as people come back. Each unit costs about $750 if anyone would like to help with their purchase.
Last weekend we celebrated First Eucharist. It was indeed a surreal experience to see all those people staring back at me behind masks. I’ve said it was surreal before celebrating Mass with an empty church. It was even more surreal if that’s possible to not be able to read people’s expressions because of their face coverings. I did notice however that several of the children have grown a couple of inches since I last saw them in March. The good news is that they all still seemed to fit into their First Eucharist clothes—some just barely.
This week we celebrate the Fourth of July. The summer is half over. Hard to believe. I said to the mayor a couple of days ago that time is passing quickly but the days go by slowly. I’m not sure what distorts my sense of time so. Each day seems long but the weeks short. I suppose that means once this is behind us it won’t seem so bad. For now though, with Texas and Florida and Arizona closing down bars and restaurants and New Jersey pausing indoor seating at restaurants we have to take this virus seriously. Wear masks, wash our hands and socially distance to the best of our ability. GRS