A woman I went to HS with (her husband too) treats Facebook like her daily diary. I always found this amusing, but these daily posts about the errands they ran, who they talked to, the weather, chores they did, how they felt, etc. have started to take on new meaning. A thread.

At first I was like, "Wow their lives haven't changed much." They have two houses, one on her family farm and one "in town". This spring we got the usual count of how many of each vegetable plant she planted in the farm garden that day, her plans for canning, baking, freezing,

and casseroles with the bounty come fall. Today we heard updates on the road construction in front of the house in town and what vegetables they planted in the pots there because they just weren't in the mood to plant flowers with the construction.

This was the needle scratching the record moment for me. Not in the mood for flowers? She always plants flowers at the house in town and then enters them in the County Fair. My little microcosm of life going on uninterrupted in rural WI was suddenly at risk.

Then later another warning sign. She is HIGHLY competitive in several events at the County Fair. This time of year we are being updated on her knitting, sewing, and crocheting projects. She usually starts baking cookies, quick breads, and other stuff, which she freezes until

the fair. She has to start now because she enters some obscene amount of items in the fair (it feels like 100, but that may not be right). Seriously. We then get the ribbon count daily during fair week. These projects didn't seem to be starting.

I scrolled her feed looking for evidence that these projects were going forward as usual, but found none. I suddenly WANTED to hear about fair plans, cookie recipes, and predictions about the competition. But later today she announced she was going to skip the fair

this year (if it even took place). She was just too nervous about being around all those people. I was sad. As much for me as for her. I didn't realize what a lifeline to normal her stupid Facebook page had become. Dammit. Fin.