Where Have the Months Gone? A Pandemic Review

For awhile since self isolation,  I'd wake up in the morning with the title and melody from a Carpenters' song, "It's Yesterday Once More" swimming in my head. Although the song has nothing to do with our current situation, it does contain a poignant verse which spoke to me.

"Lookin' back on how it was in years gone by
And the good times that I had
Makes today seem rather sad, so much has changed"

I miss my friends, my trips, certain group activities, shopping, my appointments (yes even those), and mostly, my freedom. I suppose it is affecting me more since I am now considered "older", "senior", and "high risk group", during this time of covid-19 pandemic. The problem is that with age, there's also a certain element of urgency to get on with life, and to do all those things we always wanted to do while it's still possible. This isolation is severely impacting the time I have left to complete those activities.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not playing the world's tiniest violin here. I understand how fortunate I am. I know there are all kinds of horrific issues in the world, and there are people who were suffering prior to this, and even more so now as a result of this pandemic. The loss of jobs, the homelessness, the poverty, the hunger, the death toll, has escalated everywhere. I too have family members who are impacted.

Nonetheless, I'm no longer young enough to recoup this time, or to consider it as just a blip in my life.

On the bright side, there are things I've accomplished during my stay at home time. I'm trying hard not to think of them as "make work projects", since that would depress me. So, in an effort to make the best of my "captivity" as it were, here are some of my escapades and accomplishments over the last couple of months. This summary, is not meant to sound boastful. I have not found ways to save the world. It is rather an attempt to remind myself that I have managed to use some of the time to a good end.

It all started with new and inventive ways of cooking with food finds early on, while we were unable to shop. I've completed several blogs about that including  "Covid Cooking" 5/21/20 .

The cooking, then got interspersed with the dreaded housework, "Fanatical Tidying, Organizing, or Not! " 5/15/20, and as the weather improved,  gardening, "Pandemic Planting" 5/16/20.

For awhile, when we thought the pandemic would be short lived, we had special celebratory days. I decorated, we dressed up in costumes, and it was fun. Eventually, my poor hubby got tired of my silliness and I got sick of all the work involved, so we've put everything on a hiatus. It's only temporary, so shhhhh...don't tell.

First we celebrated the Blue Jays no home opener day this year.  We wore our fan gear and ate hot dogs, fries, and other ballpark delicacies.  Next came Maritime fish Fryday...self explanatory, but who knew I had an Anne of Green Gables outfit and would dress hubby as a fisherman in his yellow slicker?

German Day was a celebration of our heritage, complete with schnitzel, sauerkraut, spaetzle, and beer. Medieval Times was a lot of work. We wore elaborate costumes and wigs and performed feats of strength. Formal Friday was a suggestion by late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, even though I'd already thought of it. Then there was our Green Eggs and Ham party.  For Cinco de Mayo, which conveniently fell on Taco Tuesday, I made a papier mache pinata and sombrero.  Choice of food was obvious and simple.

Then,  after hearing everyone complaining about the length of their hair, it became time for a little haircutting fun.         

 Hobbies have managed to take on a new life. First, I painted a bookcase (details in blog "Now I Am An Old Purple Woman" 5/29/20).  The stool was an old rickety unpainted wreck. Now, it's an old rickety, weirdly painted wreck. I'll never be a Picasso, but I'm having fun. The easel has seen a few of my efforts.

I recently wallpapered the laundry room, practiced piano, and  reverse tie dyed a shirt (blog yet to come). I've also managed to make a dent in the pile of books I've been meaning to read.

Perhaps it's all been time well spent after all. At least that's what I'll tell myself.

There are countless jokes on the internet about the coronavirus, and this calendar year. There are comments about unused day planners, and those who say that 2020 doesn't count and we're really not a year older. I fear that I will be at least a year older before all this is over. 

After  I saw a rather humorous meme from Aunty Acid using the  movie "Groundhog Day", I now no longer hear the Carpenters' song "It's Yesterday Once More" in the morning.  Instead, I've started waking up to "I've Got You Babe".

Fanatical Tidying, Organizing, or Not!

Every now and again, someone comes up with new and wonderful ways to downsize, clean, de-clutter, or sanitize your house. The books and websites are becoming as trendy as culinary t.v. shows and cookbooks.

Understand that I'm not being critical when I say that I think each person needs to do what they find helpful to them. If spending countless hours folding and organizing your clothing into little squares is what you enjoy, go for it. If setting a timer for twenty minutes to clean areas of your house works, more power to you. There is in fact no area of my house that can be cleaned in twenty minutes, but that's another problem.

Almost everyone's heard of Marie Kondo and her philosophies by now. She's a delightful young woman who shows you how to "spark joy" by folding and organizing your underwear (of which you shouldn't have too many), into tiny bundles that stand up on their own, like little soldiers in your dresser drawer.

During this time of covid isolation, I'm continuing to provide entertainment for myself. Through it all though, I have to give kudos to hubby for tolerating my nonsense.

As I  was folding laundry last week,  I decided to Marie Kondo the sheets. That means, once they are
folded in the correct and most space efficient manner, they get placed inside a pillow case, never to be seen again. While I was doing this, I figured, why not add some pizzazz. Wow...never noticed before that the word pizzazz has pizza in it. Reminds me, it's lunch time. But alas, I digress.

So I located a ribbon, tied everything up, and left the sheets on the bed for hubby to put on the high shelf. He probably had no idea what to make of this new found pillow-like package. It was too early by a week or two for his birthday.  By the way, I doubt Marie would approve of the wrinkled case and the disorganized bow, but alas, I have to save some part of my persona lest I turn into too much of a ***Stepford wife.

It's not as though I don't have any goals or plans for each day although it's not the way it used to be when our agenda was overflowing with trips, meetings with friends, doctor's appointments, dinners out, baseball games, etc. Nowadays, the calendar is empty, save for the occasional Walmart curbside grocery pickup...our biggest outing. Apart from that,  everything is limited to what can be done around the house, inside and out, or on a walk. I guess that's about it. 

I am not, nor have I ever been a person who can blindly and rigidly follow a schedule that's laid out. I also have a limited attention span, often moving on to another thing while abandoning the first. You might call me flexible, spontaneous, scatterbrained, or whatever other word fits the category.  So I told my friend who follows the Fly Lady website, that I'd more likely be a gnat or a mosquito lady. 

Based on that idea, I came up with my own "Mosquito Lady" plan. When we were first in lockdown as I like to call it, because it sounds better than isolation, quarantine, or captivity, I was a mad cleaning machine. I had this crazy idea that I could get my whole house tidy and sterilized in a few days...something I hadn't accomplished in years of living here because I actually had an active life. I also thought I could pursue all the hobbies I'd never had time for. End result, it didn't happen. Part way through, I became resentful, fed up, and went on a ***"Dead to Me" Netflix binge.

My new plan because I am retired and fortunate to have the luxury of doing this, was to do housework and cook for an hour or two in the morning. Then after lunch, go for a walk, pursue hobbies such as reading, writing, practicing keyboard, painting, crafting and lingering in the tub (not necessarily everything every day or in that order).  This has made me much happier.  

I do occasionally make lists and meal plans, but that's difficult for me because it's not in my nature. On the other hand, I've done some pretty odd, out of my comfort zone things lately and found them strangely satisfying.  

Perhaps I'll just go binge watch some Marie Kondo videos on Netflix after all.

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***Stepford Wives - A 1970's Ira Levin book and later a movie about a group of men who created robotic versions of their wives. These robots were physically perfect and also immaculate house keepers with no individuality or interests other than keeping the men happy.

***Dead to Me - Good show. Great cast. Somewhat irreverant and unlikely, with terrific writing and cliffhangers at the end of each episode. Not everyone's taste but the clever writing makes it mine.

Lots of No Time

You'd think that during pandemic isolation, there'd be lots of time to do things...like blogs. That's actually only partly true. I must admit that I am happy about a lot of things I've accomplished...special fun days which included dressing up and torturing my spouse; working on some hobbies (painting, reading, playing keyboard, writing); house cleaning...hiss boo, no excuse, and cooking...ugh. I'm becoming more efficient, and more inventive even though I dislike both of the latter tasks. Waste of time if you ask me. On the other hand, what else do I have to do?

As I previously mentioned, I have started no fewer, (yes the correct word, rarely used anymore is "fewer") than a dozen blogs and finished only two. At least I think I finished two. There's probably one that I stole from someone else, so perhaps three. As for writing, I've done a bit...messages/emails to friends. Perhaps I can incorporate these someplace. I certainly have a lot to say, and I definitely have plenty of opinions.

I think what happened is that my head is so full of "stuff", that I can't focus on the direction I want to go with any one of my blogs. Then, there are also occasional interruptions. I read somewhere that interruptions are the greatest suppressors to imagination and trains of thought. My train is easily derailed. I have the attention span of a gnat, and am fortunate to know this about myself.  I knew a writer once that wrote during the night, quiet, isolated. I suppose that's why some authors disappear into cabins in the woods. Or perhaps that's a myth and just how we perceive writers.

It's not just the blogs that are unfinished. I currently have a partially completed painting on my easel. It still needs some layers and shading. Not an original idea I might add. I saw it someplace on google and it appealed to me. The colours have been changed to protect the innocent or however the expression goes.

I have also been working on a small piece of unpainted furniture, trying to come up with some colour and design. I figured, if I don't wreck it, I can go on to bigger and better pieces.  Besides, I'm so immature that when my friends phone and ask what I'm doing, I can say, "I'm just painting my stool."

Then I cackle and laugh like some four year old repeating the words poopoo, peepee, and diarrhea, over and over, as they love to do.

Here's a picture of my stool before I started painting it. Ha,ha.                         

Well...that's about it for now. I'll try to recap some of my other adventures later. I have already shared them on Facebook, so I suppose that also contributes to my laziness in blogging about them.

Take care. Wash your hands. This too shall pass.

The Start of a New Decade

The decade has not started well for the world.

I have begun a dozen blogs in the last couple of weeks. Somehow, they all seemed trivial under the current circumstances. On the other hand, I'll probably finish them since any distraction or form of levity these days is not a bad thing. Everyone who is alive right now, 2020, knows of course that I'm speaking about the coronavirus and self isolation.

I had already decided that Time magazine won't have to search far for its "person of the year".  Groups of people and inanimate objects have been selected in the past. Since the "ebola fighters" were picked in 2014, wouldn't the coronavirus workers be the obvious choice for this year? There are so many dedicated and essential people on the job right now, and what greater news story is there likely to be this year than entire countries being shut down from this virus? And yet, there are those that work tirelessly to help others and try to maintain a sense of normalcy.

There's a beautiful video created by children that says it all.

 https://www.facebook.com/hometownharpist/videos/517487039192560/

What about the word of the year? I can't imagine anything much different than "social distancing".

I recently watched the movie "Contagion" on Netflix. As movies do, it moved quickly and skimmed the surface of what happens when there's a world wide spread of a disease. After all, there's only so much you can squeeze into two hours. I did however, find it interesting that much of the movie looked like current news reports. It demonstrated the rapid spread throughout communities, the front line workers trying to save lives, the endless deaths, scientists' attempts to create vaccines, fraudsters taking advantage of a desperate population, and ensuing chaos in society. I was surprised that some of the terminology coined in this movie, is what is is currently being used by us all.

So that's about all I have to say on the topic at this time. I have nothing much to add as we are bombarded with news reports and horror stories daily. My last comment is simply this...I am proud of the country in which we live, and how things are being handled. Our prime minister is doing a fine job with daily morning updates to reassure a frightened population in a calm, straightforward, and respectful manner.

Stay well, my friends. The rest of my blogs will contain updates on activities during my recent  weeks in captivity.