2020 Life Logs, Day 82: All Over the Place
Date: Sunday, March 22, 2020
Weather: Sunny and Cold; High 35 degrees, Low 25 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
It’s no wonder I can’t figure out where my days are going because I bounce all over the place. I read a little bit, I write a little bit, I bounce from one project to another, and the day is gone. Today I did go to the 1:00 pm group ‘people training’ class. The instructor, Melissa, wrote and promised we would be outside, use physical distancing, wear gloves, and do everything possible to be safe. I decided to go as I am really struggling with Shadow’s training. He knows he’s the boss and I am just not able to assert dominance no matter what I do. Going today helped as Melissa watched me interact with Shadow and could then coach me in what I should and should not be doing. But Shadow is a tough one, but he is now six months old now and I really need to get on top of this. I will persist. Just as I left the class, Heather called to bring me up-to-date on Sam. At the end of our virtual birthday party on Zoom last evening, Sam fell off his skateboard and hit his head on the road. In a rush to help Ollie celebrate his rollerblade birthday gift, Sam had hopped on his board without a helmet. It ended up to be a harder fall than anyone thought at the time. He had quite a large goose egg on the back of his head but he didn’t have the symptoms of a concussion. Heather got through to the pediatrician and a trip to the ER was avoided. Not a place any of us wants to be these days. The goose egg reduced in size with icing and today Sam seems fine. But lesson learned. No skateboard, not even for a few minutes, without a helmet.
Before I went to the group training class, I got a group email from Justin and Jo announcing an 11 am Silvermouse Isolation Concert on Facebook. Their email said, “Going live again at about 11am – join us to hear some of our new material, dance, and generally just… do something while the world goes crazy?” They are using their music as a way of trying to bring people together online in these days of physical distancing. If you want to check out their Facebook page, you can click on this link: https://facebook.com/silvermouselive. After their concert ended, I decided to look online to check on the spread of the coronavirus in the UK where Jo’s parents live. I immediately saw that today was Mother’s Day in the UK and that in their county of Surrey, the cases of coronavirus jumped from 19 to 68 just today. I sent an email to wish Margaret a Happy Mother’s Day and hope to find that they hunkering down and doing just fine.
When I got home from the training class, I caught up on reading the daily logs from Mike and Linda Stuart who are now in Spain. I last checked their website on Thursday and it looked like they had made a decision to stay in Spain. But by today, that stay is uncertain. There, like here, things are changing daily. Spain is now closing down all tourist lodging which includes hotels and Airbnb’s. They had planned to stay in their current Airbnb, but the owner upped the price. So even if they can stay, they will move to another place. And if they do decide to leave, they have to figure out some way to get their bikes packed up. Linda said that with all the stores and bike shops closed, that could be difficult. But she sounded upbeat and confident that they will work this out. I got a kick out of the fact that she is doing the same daily lunch doodles with artist and author Mo Willems as Ollie is doing. Ollie loves Mo Willems books and Heather said he sat for a full hour on Friday doodling online with Mo. If you have children or grandchildren that like to draw or if you would just like to doodle, check out Mo Willems new daily doodling video: https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/mo-willems/
By late afternoon, I needed a break from how the coronavirus is affecting our lives, so I watched a couple of organic gardening videos from a current series being offered for free on the internet. One of today’s videos was about raised bed gardening and it was helpful. And then I read another chapter in my current book. Late last week I decided to read the Harry Potter series so I can talk about these books with my grandkids. I have all the books in the series sitting on my bookshelf and I am now about halfway through the first book. I’m compiling a list of questions and comments on each chapter and hope that I can get into a book dialog with Sam, Jonah, and Ollie as they are Harry Potter fans.
Today felt like winter. It was almost 20 degrees cooler than yesterday and with the wind it felt downright cold. The next few days look warmer, so hopefully I can get outside to do some gardening chores.
