Dog-walking and wiffle ball: Work-from-home Lexingtonians enjoy sunshine amid COVID-19

On the second official day of spring, Lexingtonians unchained themselves from their virtual desks and joined the singing birds and gnats in the sunshine to get a break from their largely homebound reality.

With partly cloudy skies and temperatures above 70 Friday, those who have been working at home for the past week took advantage of one of the few public spaces left untouched by the global coronavirus pandemic — the city’s parks.

But the calls for social distancing did not end on park grounds. Almost everyone interviewed on Friday said the same thing: Come outside, but keep your distance.

“Get out for your own mental well-being,” said Woodford Snowden, a teacher at Sayre School who spent part of the morning walking his dog through the green and flower-filled Henry Clay Estate.

Sayre stopped in-person classes on Monday, and Snowden said working from home has helped him better realize how critical interpersonal communication is to teaching.

“That human connection is vital,” Snowden said. “We take it for granted until we’re having to talk six feet away from each other.”

Being outside “is a gift for me,” Snowden said, and encouraged more folks to come outside but to be responsible about it.

Snowden’s advice matches that of Gov. Andy Beshear, whose Twitter feed as of late has been filled with dog walking pictures and outdoor exhortations.

Susan Straub, the city’s communications director, said previously that Lexington “cannot close or enforce the closure of outdoor playgrounds, sport courts, or hiking trails.” But parks department’s public activities have been canceled.

“We want to encourage people to be outside, just not in large groups,” Straub wrote.

Properly spaced joggers and frisbee golfers dominated Shilito Park while intense games of pickleball broke out at Kirklevington Park.

In the afternoon, rackets flew on half of the Woodland Park tennis courts while the other half was reserved for a game of wiffle ball between University of Kentucky seniors near the end of their spring break before weeks of online classes.

The nearby baseball diamond was muddy and teeming with bugs, said Sydney Otten, explaining why she and her roommates decided to set up their game on the tennis court and designate the corners of the court as bases.

“We’ve been trapped inside,” said Sally Boone, adding that getting to play games outside made everything feel “more normal.”

This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 5:53 PM.