Gabriel McHugh

With the recent shelter in place orders my neighborhood has started leaving kind notes and signs out for support.  We have also begun a grocery delivery system if anyone needs it.  When this is all over I plan on joining a restoration project in a local climbing area. 

Because of the current shelter in place regulations I've been shopping locally in order to reduce need for postal and shipping workers getting exposed.  This also makes it easy to shop for only what I need which is essentially just food. 

Saying no to plastic grocery bags has been easier and harder under the pandemic, many stores are no longer allowing the use of reusable bags and have been automatically using paper and plastic bags.  While both options require water to produce, plastic is far less degradable and ends up in our waterways at much higher rates. It also takes quite a bit of water to grow a tree and then make it into a paper bag, faced with no easy environmentally responsible choice I've given up on bags entirely for now. I just load my groceries into the cart and then make multiple trips to carry things into my home. I have more time to spend on things like this so I dont see it as much of an inconvenience these days.  It's also helped me purchase more durable and non perishable foods so that I have to make fewer trips to the store. 

To spend time practicing gratitude for the earth outdoors I've been going on morning walks for the last week. I try and spend the first 10 minutes or so being aware of everything around me and noting it in my mind. I also take this opportunity to plan out my day as best I can to keep some structure during this different time. 

I chose to "explore my area" this week.  For me that meant biking down a some new roads and trying to get to new natural areas.  I went down to Chambers Bay on my bike this week and explored some of the paved trails they have there.  I also took advantage of the lack of cars on 5 mile drive at Point Defiance and biked past Fort Nisqually which is usually very crowded. Its been nice seeing far more people out walking/running/biking when the weather permits however the increased traffic on paved paths can be annoying.