NO Easter egg hunts. NO family dinners. NO joyful gatherings. This year is different from the years most of us have known. Businesses closed. Schools and churches closed. Many people are working from home or unemployed. Lots of fear and panic running through the country. All kinds of rumors and fear mongering and dis-information flying about. Not sure who to listen to or what to believe...
It is finally starting to look like spring out there. Yards are greening up, wildflowers are popping up everywhere and even a few mushrooms showing up. Then the nights got cold again, almost down to freezing. Strange weather. It was almost 90 one day last week and then 50 the next. Never sure how to dress, but it doesn't really matter since I (for one) am staying in my pajamas much of the day. Some days I think, Maybe I'll go out and do some yard work ! And then look down at my pj's and think.. well, maybe tomorrow. lol So, I have ventured out to fill bird feeders and sweep my front porch and stuff a few times, but really no yard work has gotten done.
I'm doing what many people are doing: cooking a lot, reading more, napping extensively, and watching way too much tv. I have been watching a lovely British series called LarkRise to Candleford that has entranced me. And now it has started over, so it must have been a short lived series. Set in 18th century Oxfordshire, a story of 2 small hamlets, one a farming burg and one a bigger town. Marvelous. Watching lots of less marvelous tv as well, some things we generally watch and some we don't.
My son was here for a late midday dinner. I roasted a chicken and made candied sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, herbed stuffing, gravy, and some giant wheat germ and flaxseed rolls. We ate until we were beyond full and then he left and we vegged out. I cleaned up all the kitchen and dishes, and then took about an hour nap. When I got back up , I asked him if he as hungry and he said not really and neither was I. So, we had some dessert (I made Creme Brulee earlier this morning to have for dessert, but no one had room. I had enough chicken leftover to make another meal, as well as some of the other things too. I am being very frugal about using up all the things in the fridge in one way or another. I saw a recipe for a soup made with leftover stuffing, and they said it was a lot like a matzoh soup, so I might just try that. It's raining really hard again right now. Tonight's temps are supposed to drop into the low 30's again. We talked to my father-in-law up in Wisconsin and they are having a lot of snow again. He is in a nursing rehab place now. It's disheartening talking to him sometimes. He doesn't understand why his wife can't come see him and why he can't go home. A common dilemma I suspect with older people who can't take care of themselves or their spouses. We try to call him a couple of times a week at least. Here is a picture of our table this afternoon...
2 hungry boys over there. lol
OK-- it's time to see how the tediously slow updating is going with the laptop. I've been using it a lot since I've been using Zoom and Jit.si for meetings and stuff. Hopefully it will be done soon. I've been trying to delete a bunch of the crap that came on this laptop and they sure make it hard to uninstall programs. Grrr... I don't have much memory on it and am trying to free up space.
Wish me luck.
Here in Illinois, we are on about week 3 or 4 (I can't remember) of the official quarantine and sheltering in place. I was already limiting my forays into the world before that... I have mostly stayed home and took my last dr and grocery and bank trip yesterday morning. I won't be leaving the house for at least the next 2-3 weeks. Himself is still working, so far. And not just working, but working 6 days a week, 16 + hours of OT every week the past 3 weeks. I worry that he will get run down, but I'm pumping him full of vitamin C and Elderberry and Zinc and cooking him nutritious meals. He was young when I got him, but he turned 60 in February... Pursuant to the meme above, we haven't spent too much time at home together yet, so there's hope that we will still celebrate 28 years in June. lol
There's still stupid shitshows going on in DC. He just fired the watchdog of the relief act. So he can get money where he wants it ? I'm sure. The rich are making a killing off this whole thing. I am not going to say anymore on this. What I am going to say is that I can't believe how stupid people are being in regard to this whole pandemic. I heard somebody yesterday say that they believe this is just a conspiracy to try to discredit the ..."best President this country has ever had." This President does not need a conspiracy to be discredited. He's done that all by himself. People being stupid and congregating because they think none of this applies to them or whatever. All I can say is this:
We'll see what the process of natural selection has to say about it.
Hereabouts is as it is almost everywhere, I suspect. Lots of the things we want/need aren't available when we want/need them. Panic buying is rampant. I have to admit that I have bought a few things more than I may need, but since I always keep a stocked pantry I'm not too worried. And having been poor most of my life, I can make magic meals out of very little ingredients. There was none of the bread we like on the shelves a few weeks ago, so I started baking bread again. Then there was no flour or yeast, but that has settled down. Personally I am good for ingredients, because that's how my pantry is stocked. Not with any already prepared foods (except the ones I have prepared and canned... like tortellini in marinara sauce and a couple of soups) . Things have slowed way down in my life, and I am loving it. No commitments, nowhere to be, nothing to do. Well... plenty to do here, as always, but you know what I mean. The few times I have been out, the whole world seems slower. Reading about how in India and China pollution levels have dropped and they are seeing blue skies for the first time in years. Fewer cars on the roads. Fewer people in the markets. So.Much.Less.Noise. The earth must be sighing in relief.
The economic side of this is scary, but like I have said before ... when you are poor these things don't affect you so much. And we have survived some scary things before, and I am sure we can survive this. We own our home, so no worries about repo. We have plenty of disaster supplies and camping tools in case the electric gets shut off because we can't pay it. (We have lived though earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes. We've got this. We have a cistern and plenty of spring water if the city water gets shut off. (We didn't have city water for 2/3 of the years we have lived here, so we know what to do). So for now, I'll stay away from foolish people and practice safe distancing and common sense. I'll speak up when I need to, and shut my pie hole when I don't. (Maybe). lol
I've been baking bread and making desserts and growing fat and sassy. There was a time when fat meant affluent. I am affluent in all the right places. lol Someday Rubenesque woman will be all the rage again, and I will be a frontrunner in the race. Until then, I will be okay with myself, no matter what. No matter how grey, no matter what I weigh. I will never be tall enough- I've given up on that.
I am in the final (I hope) stages of recovering from a brutal surgery (February) that consisted of my Achilles tendon being detached, split, bone spurs and fragments removed and stitched all back up again. It was no weight bearing for over 3 weeks and then partial in a boot for another 3. The incision healed nicely, but it's still tender and doc said it will be for a while. But the godawful pain of that spur shredding my tendon is gone, and for that I am grateful. It did ease me into the social quarantine, I must say.
It's looking like spring here on Honeysuckle Hill. The peach and cherry trees are in bloom, the grass is greening up and the trees are leafing out. It was hot for a couple of days then a near tornado blew through and this morning it was in the low 30's. Up to 55 today (hopefully) and very sunny and beautiful skies out there. I plan on [maybe] doing a little yard work today. We'll see. NO rush...we're gonna be here a while.
