There are almost no cars on the roads

as I do my lone pedal. 
Normally there would, even at this time on a Saturday, be plenty. People would be going to and from the shops and sport or the hardware store or simply be "out".  
I have never quite understood what it means to just go "out". I go out for a purpose but I know people who shrug and say, "We just went "out" - might have a coffee or something but really we just went out."
Right now they must need to say "in" unless they go for a walk or pedal - both things still allowed. I wonder what they are doing. The paper is full of ideas for "hibernation" - mostly things I would not want to do. 
Ms W and I had a conversation. She phoned me and said she was coming around and could I please meet her "over the fence". That phrase might become more common place. I met her "over the fence". It means me standing on the lawn and Ms W standing on the foot path. We are about three metres apart. We don't need to shout and can have a perfectly normal conversation. All I miss is her hug - and I do miss that. Ms W gives excellent hugs. 
She has had an entire week at home now. How was she getting on? So far she seems to be coping extremely well. They have eaten "properly". She has done all her set schoolwork and some more besides. According to her, "You can get heaps more done if you can just get on with it. I don't have to wait while people ask things I already know the answer to but you don't get ideas in the same way." 
Her father is not walking to the railway station and back - the way he usually goes to work - so they go for a walk or take their bikes out for twenty minutes in the middle of the day. That was her idea. I doubt her father would have thought of it. She is determined he should exercise. 
    "He's had heaps of on-line meetings and stuff like that. It's just like usual for him except he's not going anywhere."
They seem to have settled into a sort of routine for all that. I know her father does do a lot of work from home. What he does often requires intense concentration. He would be interrupted in the office.
    "And I'm lucky it is just the two of us because nobody else can wander in and interrupt either."
Her friends and class mates are finding it harder. A lot of them have siblings who will interrupt. They too often have parents working from home, parents who are not used to doing that. Their parents are certainly not used to working from home and supervising schoolwork at the same time. She also knows there are people who will be unemployed. That worries her.
But then she reminded me that I had bought tomato paste for her as well as us.
    "What are you making?" I ask
    "Pizza faces," she tells me, "We could do with a smile."
I showed her how to make those years ago. I thought she had grown out of them. It's nice to know she hasn't.
It's nice to know that some things are still the same.