Blue-Footed Musings

Today my husband went to BJ’s and bought some groceries. We have eggs again. And crackers. If only we had a little fresh fruit (which BJ’s is not good for), it would be like heaven. Oh, well. One of us will go to the grocery store soon and buy some fruit.

Yesterday I finished my book, but that was the only task I was able to cross off my weekend to-do list for the day. Today, to make up for yesterday’s laziness, I cleaned the downstairs bathroom and part of the master bathroom. Both bathrooms really needed it, as does the third bathroom, which I haven’t gotten to yet. Pandemics have a lot of downsides, one of which is that our bathrooms get dirtier faster, because the kids are at home all day. If I were keeping a list of “Additional Ways in Which Pandemics Suck,” I would add it. But we all know how sucky pandemics are. We don’t need a list to remind us.

In yesterday’s post I talked about my weekend to-do list. Writing blog posts was #19 on the list, and once I am done writing this post, I will be able to cross it off. I will also be able to cross off #12, “Call Mom.” She actually called me first, but I didn’t answer in time, so I had to call her back. Thus I can say that I not only talked to her (which was the point of calling), but I also did literally call her. Unfortunately, I will have to replace it with “Call Eric,” because my mom told me that his wife is ill with coronavirus symptoms. 🙁 I hope she will be OK.

I am feeling extra lazy today, so I will probably focus on the least difficult things remaining on the list. For example, #1 is “Finish book.” I’ve been reading the same book for at least a month, and I’m sick of it. I’ve got about 130 pages left. That’s not a lot, and there’s no reason I can’t finish it today. And #8, “Go through stack of papers,” doesn’t sound too bad either. It will be tedious, sure, but once it’s done my office will be neater than it’s been in years.

But first I will do the unwritten task, which is to go outside and soak up a little bit of afternoon sunlight!

I made a list of things to do this weekend. I did about half of the tasks today, which is pretty good. If I do at least half of what’s left on the list tomorrow, I’ll consider that to be very good (I never expect to do everything on my list. That would be way too much pressure).

But I think I also ought to make myself a new, special list of things to do when the pandemic is over. If there’s anything this pandemic has shown me, it’s that I ought to do a better job of staying on top of things. You just never know when something will come along and keep you from doing the things you already ought to have done. I was already in desperate need of a haircut when the pandemic started, and now I have the world’s most unruly tangle of hair to manage (and I look a tumbleweed!). Plus, nearly every day I think of something I’d like to do, and then remember that I can’t. It’s frustrating.

When the pandemic is finally over, and if I survive it, I want to go out into the world and do all of the things I ought to have done and all of the things I would have liked to have done. It will be my reward for staying home like a good girl. So I will make a list, and I will call it my Post-Apocalyptic List, which sounds scary, but being “post-apocalypse” is going to be a good thing, and all of the things on my list will be good.

And then I will live happily ever after, right?

A girl can dream.

Today, to get some exercise, I walked up and down my driveway until I’d done 1,000 steps. It was an arbitrary number, and not any great distance, but it felt good to reach it. Then I wandered around the yard, picking up fallen branches and sticks and flinging them into the woods. There were a lot of them, so it was a decent amount of exercise.

A long time ago, back when I lived in Connecticut, I once visited the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport. It was the saddest zoo I’d ever been to, and the saddest thing I saw there was a tiger pacing the perimeter of its habitat. It looked so miserable, trapped. I wonder if anyone were to see me walking around my yard, would they think the same thing about me? Am I an animal pacing the perimeter of my habitat?

Our stream was running strong today from all the rain we’ve gotten lately. I stopped to listen to it for a few minutes, because burbling water is such a calming sound. (I don’t know if it’s fair to call it a “stream,” since it’s really just water flowing from a drainage pipe, but the water doesn’t know that. The water thinks it’s a stream, so Imma call it a stream). Fiddleheads are starting to sprout along the sides of the driveway. There aren’t many sweet white violets blooming yet, but there were enough in the back yard that I could smell them every time I reached down to pick up a stick.

I paused a couple of times today to think positive thoughts and to be grateful, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I wonder, though, does it still count for something? Does the intent carry any weight with the Powers That Be?

You know you’re running really low on patience when one of the kids yells, “Mommy, So-And-So hit me!” and you’re tempted to reply, “Yeah, well you probably had it coming!” Forty-seven days at home is forty-seven days of nonstop parenting, and it’s tiring. The weather, though, was gorgeous, just about worth the price of all the rainy days that came before. It was warm, sunny for most of the day, and the violets were blooming like mad.

I’m bored, but I don’t have much mental energy, so I’ve been watching a lot of TV. My current go-to show is “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” I didn’t get to see the show often when it originally aired, and I’m glad to have a second chance at it. The episodes are short, clever, and kid-friendly, just what the doctor would order if the doctor’s office weren’t closed due to the pandemic.

Hey, guess what kind of weather we had today!

If you guessed rain, you guessed correctly. If you also guessed cold, then ding ding, you were doubly correct. It was another rainy and cold day. Blech.

What else can I say about today? I gave Livia a piano lesson. I helped both children with their art projects (recreating famous works of art). My husband baked a pumpkin pie. Otherwise, Day 45 was very much like the 44 days that preceded it. Self-isolation wasn’t exactly exciting to begin with, and it hasn’t improved with time.