The Posse Rides Again

      Having now spent the better part of the past four weeks sheltering in place at home, I'm kind of amazed at all the things I used to do all the time that I don't especially miss.
        I don't miss going to the movies. I watch movies on the TV in our family room instead.

   I likewise don't miss going out to eat, finding myself with the time on my hands to fix more prodigious meals consumed at our kitchen table.

      Nor do I miss zipping all around on a daily basis from Kroger's to Walmart to Meijer's to Giant Eagle, where the shelves are half empty anyway these days,

...our daughter Theresa having been dutifully doing our grocery shopping for us (as well as helping out in mytiad other ways).

    But there was one thing I did miss, and that was my Panera Posse. 
    The Posse is my girl group that meets at Panera every Wednesday morning, though a Posse meeting may continue on well into the afternoon while we discuss, dissertate, dissect and group-think a plethora of topics, ranging from the personal,

​...to the local,

...to the national,

​...to the global,

...to the cosmic.

      The last time the Posse met was on Wednesday, March 3rd, and by the following week our excellent governor Mike Dewine,

...and our superlative Ohio Director of Public Health Dr. Amy Acton,

...were already warning us to start social distancing and avoiding public places.
      I was subsequently missing my Posse at lot.
     Oh, we'd call each other on the phone and chat one-on-one, which was good, but the tang and fizz of the group dynamic required the group.
      Weeks went by, and I think it was me who suggested to the group via email that we try to figure out how to meet virtually on one or another of the video platforms out there.
    However, all of us ladies being of a certain age and (low) level of techiness,

...it took a couple of weeks before one of the members discovered Houseparty,

...an easy-to-figure-out app for group chats.
     By last week most of us had figured out how to download Houseparty, and, hopefully, by next week we'll all be "in the house," as is the vernacular term for using the app.
       It's not the same as all of us being together in person, but it's wonderful all the same.