Thursday, April 2, 2020

Another Day


That is Black Creek, a little meandering thing that we cross over almost every time we drive to town, but never truly see. Isn't it beautiful? I walked there today, almost two miles exactly to the bridge, two miles back. Not so far but far enough for me.

It's been another almost perfect day, weather-wise. I doubt there's been one cloud in the sky and the air is dry enough and the temperature is cool enough that I made the house as accessible to the outdoors as possible, doors open, the boundaries between inside and porches and outside blurred. This is how I love it.
Soon it will be so hot that the outdoors will require shielding ourselves from with closed doors and windows. Mothers will scream at their children, "You're letting the cold air out!" every time they open a door. Frustrated cat owners will say to their pets, "In or out? In or out? GODDAMMIT, Decide NOW!" while the cats stand by an open door, taking their own sweet time to decide whether they want to go snooze  in the shade under a tree or sit on a pillow on a chair over an air vent in the house.
But for right now it is perfect.

So today at 2 o'clock in the afternoon I had not even made my lunch. What in hell had I been doing all day? Hmmm...
I made breakfast. I actually cooked things. Mr. Moon wanted some eggs and bacon but he didn't want any vegetables in his eggs. He wanted to TASTE the eggs. So I did that.
And I went on a walk.
And I washed the clothes and hung them out.
And I gave the teenager chickens greens and fresh food.
I picked a few carrots and some arugula to make my lunch. Which, as I say, I got around to doing after two. I made a quinoa and tuna and vegetable salad, chopping up celery and carrots and onions and cucumbers and tomatoes and the arugula. I cooked the quinoa and cooled it, mixed all that up with some tuna and olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar and salt and pepper and garlic, a little stone-ground mustard, a bit of Tamari.
It was...okay.
All healthy and shit, you know.
I ate that and then I cleaned up the kitchen and made the bed and fixed up a clean bin for the baby chicks and cut up grapes and greens for them, gave them fresh water and chick feed. I took the teen chicks some grapes as well, along with a strange veggie patty I made awhile back. They attacked all of it.

I kicked bamboo.
I did some crossword puzzles.
And that is all I have done today.

Mr. Moon went on a good bike ride and saw a tom turkey. He visited (from a distance) a friend of ours who lives out in the woods nearby. He braved the Monticello feed store for cucumber seeds. I just looked up the number of cases (so far) in Jefferson County where Monticello is and they have zero. So far.
Perhaps I should be doing my shopping at the Winn Dixie.

I'm keeping a running list of things that we are going to need. We do not need anything in an emergency way at all. Not one darn thing. But the list keeps getting longer and longer and I'm wondering if it's smarter to just wait and go next week or if it's safer to go, oh, say tomorrow, because every day that passes means more infected and contagious people walking around. I know that Lily is quite willing to bring me things from when she's working but I cannot ask her to tote an entire cart's worth of things like frozen vegetables and canned tomatoes. I could, and she would, but I won't.
I think I'll just wait until next week. We have pasta, potatoes, rice, proteins from beans to venison, plenty of eggs, flour, sugar, coffee, yogurt, and yes, even toilet paper. Grits and greens. We got 'em. Cornmeal and a can of sardines.
Yeah. I do believe I've talked myself out of going to town any time soon.

I talked to Jessie a little while ago. She wanted to know how I made a certain salad dressing and I told her. Then she said, "Well, I better go and get this supper on the table. These boys should have been in bed hours ago."
It was six o'clock. I laughed.
"They should have been in bed right after Levon woke up from his nap!" she said.

Lily sent this picture earlier.


The accompanying text said, "Trying to do things takes so much longer when there are kids underfoot everywhere!" 
She was trying to make soup and bread to take to a friend who just had a baby. 
I guess Magnolia was helping. 

I found this in the yard while I was kicking bamboo.


I sent the picture out to the kids and Hank suggests that it may be a cloche. A fancy glass thing to set over little curiosity displays or to make a tiny terrarium under. I think he may be right but I'm putting it out here to see if anyone knows for sure. The glass is very thin and I am surprised that it's undamaged. I dug the algae gunk out of the decorative end (top?) and am going to give it a good washing. 

I haven't really read any news all day. What's the point? The joy of staying at home is that no matter what's happening "out there" I am safe here. To know more is to become absolutely terrified. 
That's my theory although I have had hives all day so I suppose that some part of me is at least, uh, disturbed. 

Time to go make supper. I'm making a sheet pan chicken with potatoes, arugula and garlic yogurt sauce. What have you been doing in the kitchen? Where are you on the emotion-meter? Redlining? Down there in the green somewhere? Or is your needle flashing back and forth so fast you can't keep up with it? 

We're going to make it through this. Just keep thinking about the world's most brilliant scientists who are working on it. 
As dear John Gray says, "Tits up!" 
Speaking of which, when was the last time you put on a bra? If there is ONE positive thing about this whole situation it's that bras are not even anything I have to think about from one end of the week to another.

Just let the bosoms fall where they may.

Love...Ms. Moon


22 comments:

  1. I think there's a cultural divide around tits up. Bear with me, I just got out of a highbrow zoom thing from Princeton, heh. Anyway, about tits.

    In the britspeak I grew up on, it meant done for. As in, well, that went tits up. But now I hear it as meaning stay happy. That's much better.

    In britspeak keep your pecker up! Where pecker means nose. Endless joyful confusion I'm glad to contribute to.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've heard the "tits up" meaning a worse case scenario. I think the newer way to use it, as John does, is like saying "chin up," right? My mother used to say that to me- chin up- when I was sometimes at my very worst. I used to hate that.
      I think I'm going to start using "keep your pecker up" but I'll not be meaning nose.
      I love Britspeak.

      Delete
  2. I have not worn a bra since the red bus accident, three years ago. Just some useless little sort of camisole thing that keeps my boobs off my chest skin, which I cannot tolerate. Sadly, there's a lot of them to keep off, but I've managed. Rummaging around the other day, I found my bras. (Too much spare time!) With underwires and everything. Put one on this morning. Mizerable as hell, but it involves taking off too many clothes to shed the bra. At bedtime, they go into the Goodwill bag.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Girl! Can't you take a bra off without taking your clothes off? I've been able to do this since I was in high school. But then again, I don't have huge breasts. And of course the bras have to have a hook closure. I need to give my bras a ceremonial cremation.

      Delete
  3. Is there a hole in the narrow end? I thought 18th century breast pump.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am really glad you have new baby chicks. It is always fun to watch them grow. I think I mentioned this already, but I am very much liking getting all of my groceries with the pick up option. No aisle wondering for me. I did not put a bra on much the first week or two of this staying at home, but it is getting warmer now in MN and I can't just toss on a sweatshirt to take the dog for a walk. So for the sake of my neighbors I've been suffering through.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who CARES what neighbors think? That's my opinion but then again, I do always put on a bra-like garment when I am going to go to town and be in places where strangers are apt to be found and that makes no sense. I just haven't been able to let myself do the grocery pick-up thing yet. It makes a lot of sense, though.

      Delete
  5. In the mornings I have been trying to stick to some kind of a routine, though I'm not sleeping for shit. I get professional-dressed, at least from the waist up, because my days have been incessant Zoom meetings with faculty and other administrators. But I have worn the same pair of leggings for three weeks. And only my house-bra, and a sports bra to run in. (Ok, to be fair, i have to upholster myself with multiple sports bras to run in). And we've resorted to having our groceries delivered, and when Rob goes to the store, I make him wear a mask. Much to his chagrin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I change up my outfit many times a day but usually only do to temperature change although of course I garden on one specific pair of overalls and when I walk I wear a different set of clothing. And a bra is involved there but it's not much of a bra and I'm not running.
      Grocery delivery, like pick-up, is probably a very good thing to do.

      Delete
  6. I was thinking today that we should probably get at least two weeks worth of food in, maybe even a month, by week's end. I don't even know how to calculate that. but April may be bad, has the potential to be bad. we are safe here at the house with all this space around us as long as we can stay put.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. As long as we stay at home we are safe. Well, if we don't have visitors. God, that's hard.
      I'm going to go to the store this coming-up week. I have a list a mile long but most of it I could live without. Like pickle relish- wasn't I just saying that I have way too many pickles? I'm pretty sure I could make my own relish.

      Delete
  7. Amen to no bras! I hate those things but if I go out in public (not much these days) I need to wear one.

    I would say the pretty glassware you found is (a) a cloche (b) a stemware glass - if the top is broken on the outside or (c) a bell - if the top is broken on the inside where the ringer would have been attached.

    They keep saying they may start recommending that we all wear some form of non professional mask/scarf when we go out. Obviously saving the medical grade ones for the healthcare workers. I'm thinking I may start making some washable cloth masks. I guess we'll see.

    Have fun with those sweet chicks before they are grown up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really need to make some masks. I know that. I don't know why I haven't.
      The glass thing has to be a cloche. No breakage on it at all.

      Delete
  8. Living in a more northerly clime, I doubt that anybody in The British Isles has ever said, "You're letting the cold air out!" but many have said "You're letting the warm air out!" I have never worn a bra but when I was younger I unhooked a few - usually after a bit of awkward fumbling. Bra manufacturers didn't make it easy!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are such a braggart, Mr. P! I'm sure you were an absolute expert at bra removal. Have you ever watched "Bull Durham"? If you haven't, you should. It's a great movie. But there's a scene that shows Kevin Costner unhooking a stocking from a garter belt (British- suspender) with incredible smooth prowess.

      Delete
  9. I was reading the news this morning and our premier said that we should expect to reach the peak number of cases here in Alberta around mid May. Bloody hell, that's still six weeks away and I'm tired now.

    I was talking to a young friend the other day, she's had one bit of bad news after another for the past year. I said to her that's the hard part of being an adult, knowing that bad things will happen for no reason and you just have to find a way to live with it. Time to take my own advice and pull my head out of my ass.

    I'm glad you two are staying safe. I was reading about the US and how much worse the south will be affected. It's scary. Stay safe my friend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The US in general is going to get a lot worse because of the way our leaders have been handling this and in the south, I'm afraid it's going to be terrible because our so-called leaders are stupid asses.
      Sorry. No way to make that sound any prettier. It's just the truth.
      But yes. We all have to be prepared for a lot more.
      Sigh.

      Delete
  10. Of course it's a cloche. If you're in any doubt, google images for "cloche glass".
    It's lovely, lucky you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did google "cloche glass" and that's what it has to be. Hank figured it out first. He's my Trivia King guy.
      It is pretty. I wonder if its old or not. No real way to tell.

      Delete
  11. I love the cloche! (Or whatever it is!) What a fabulous find, and right in your own yard. I wonder how long it's been lying out there?

    I try to shop as little as possible, but realistically I wind up at the store every three days or so. Too often, really. We're just not used to stocking up on large quantities of food.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good question, Steve- and why have I never seen it before? It was laying under a tree in the front yard where I've spent quite a bit of time weeding in the past sixteen years.
      As long as you're being as safe as possible, I guess going to the store every few days is all right. It just freaks me out to go out in public.

      Delete

Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.