AS MONDAYS GO, today was a doozy in the 215.

A drenching, daylong rain turned our backyard into swampland, and chilly temperatures imparted a nasty rawness that made outdoor activity a dreadful prospect. Schools, it was announced, would be closed for another two weeks — and, my goodness, of course it’s going to be longer than that. The governor put the entire region under a stay-at-home order — no going out unless it’s life-sustainingly necessary.

You really can’t get much more Monday than that.

But there was also a moment that helped reframe things.

This afternoon, I was attending a Zoom meeting in our home office. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw one of the cats slip inside the ajar doorway, and my interior voice said, “Goddammit.”

Oh, have I not mentioned that both of the cats’ litter boxes sit less than 10 feet from where I was perched, laptop open in front of me, WITH VIDEO ENABLED?

I shot a glance at the “You” thumbnail on my screen and breathed a discreet sigh of relief when I saw that nothing below my shoulders was visible in the frame. Still — when you’re trying to be professional in these most business casual of times, hearing the telltale scritch scritch scritch of paws against plastic makes you feel a couple rungs below the guy whose toddler and infant bounded into the room, on camera, as he was delivering punditry on live television.

All the same, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. Life goes on, and we all need to take care of the most urgent of matters, whether we have two legs or four.

We’re all doing our best, all making it up as we go. And, come on, if Sawyer or Shadow were teleconferencing in my bathroom, I wouldn’t let that stop me if nature called. | DL