Looking out my back door: We're back to normal - but what's normal?

After two weeks of active (not normal) social life (nonexistent) with friends from British Columbia and then with my cousin from Sedro Woolley, Washington, and following two nights of long sleeps, my life has returned to a sedate routine. Mostly.

I could call it “routine times two.” Each day with my friends, I walked three or four or six times what I previously had been doing. Plus, I continued with my physical therapy, which means the extra walking enhanced my strength and flexibility. In two weeks time, “extra” has come to seem “normal.”

Instead of once a day, I restlessly walk twice. In the...