Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Maggie Says Hi

We're here. We're doing okay. Maggie would like more treats now, please.
I've gone through a bottle of vanilla rum since all this started. Fortunately, we have a new bottle. (It's delicious in root beer.)
I have a little plant inside, being alive and all. Mmm, basil.
There is this Seussian thing blooming outside.
It's probably to blame for my recent increase in allergies, but at least it's gorgeous while it makes me sneeze.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Not Always What It Feels Like, But

I read something recently that I found very interesting:
"...don't forget: Being brave feels like being scared. Being strong feels like being too overwhelmed to cope. You are brave and strong."
Food for thought, eh?

Friday, March 27, 2020

Not the Weekend It Used to Be

This has been a tough week. Surviving it is a good thing, even if weekends don't mean what they used to.

The elephant in the room is of course the coronavirus, and I'm torn between trying to stay informed and not getting panicked. I've felt the literal weight of it on me this week, like a lead apron at the dentist's office.

Work was rough, for another thing, and it's hard not to think about COVID-19 all the time when half of what we're seeing come in these days is on the topic. Then, the report I had for most of the week was in PowerPoint. Editing in PowerPoint is maddening, almost as maddening as working on something by an author who doesn't care:
  • about subject-verb agreement
  • rules of punctuation
  • getting drug names right every time, yes, every single time. 
I have never cared less about doing a good job--I still tried to do a good job as much as possible, but oh, it's a struggle to care about this right now. Hmm, your 140 slides on immuno-oncology simply must be published this month, eh? The demand is so high? Really?

Sigh. He cares. Maybe his manager cares. I can't believe anyone else cares much right now, but what do I know? If I'm right, it's even less likely than usual that anyone will notice mistakes I missed. It was better when I sent it back than it was when I got it, that's for sure.

I'm just so tired. I lay in bed Thursday morning before getting up, thinking how tired I already was.

I can think of a few good things that happened this week, so I'll end on those. My plan to reach out to someone every day did feel like a good thing to do. For a few friends who are doctors, I specified that I don't need to hear back from them, but wanted them to know I was thinking of them. Other messages turned into exchanges, conversations that helped my mood for moments, at least. Every little bit helps.

Getting the lanai function back was huge! The longer this goes on, the less we get out, the more it will help us to see out, see light.

I got a couple of books; I had a credit, and decided that I'd like to own the Murderbot books in hard copy (in addition to the ebooks and audio versions I already have), so I got the first two. The Martha Wells section of my bookshelf looks quite robust.
Last night I had my first Zoom get-together, organized by the knitting group down here. It was fun! Slightly chaotic, as we all learn how it works, but it was nice to see everyone. Other than a routine medical thing on Tuesday, I haven't been out of the house much lately, and in fact it feels longer than it has been really (time is all wibbly-wobbly lately, isn't it?).

And it took an email from Petsmart to remind me, but Maggie's birthday was this week. The process is now 8!
"Does this mean I get treats? More treats?"

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Finally

It's back!
Pretty much everything else about the day has sucked, but at least we have that. Hanging in,

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Listen to Maggie

Maggie would like to encourage you to Keep Clean During Quarantine.
Are you listening?

Monday, March 23, 2020

Something Else, and Maggie Pix

In case you could use something fun and silly for a few minutes, here's early Cookie Monster:



Then, here are a thousand (approx) Maggie pictures from the last week. Look at as many as you like.




















Sunday, March 22, 2020

Knit-Knit-Knitting

To cope with today, this morning I started writing down all the "I could do this" and "I should do that" things that came to mind. Trying to stave off the stir-crazies, you know? Not big things, just things. I made tuna salad (yum). Set up a batch of cold-brew coffee. Cleaned the toilet. Sent a text. Tidied up the back of my car (and felt a pang to see the bag I use for library books; I have plenty to read, and I approve of closing libraries now, but I miss the library).

I also sent an email to a friend; it occurred to me this morning that I could reach out to friends and family in this time of isolation, and maybe increase my virtual sense of connection, anyway. I'm going to try and send one to a different person every day, and see if it helps.

Another item on my list was knitting, because I don't always make myself pick the knitting up, but generally enjoy it when I do.

I had a small setback recently with the Trianglegram shawl, where I realized my count was off in the current section. See how there's a loop at the end of each row?
Can you tell where one's missing on this side? Yeah, down near the bottom. Of course.
Since I didn't want to tink back the whole thing, I decided to frog it, but first I got another needle and threaded it through the blue stitches at the bottom. Slightly fiddly:
But then I ripped the red out, and ended up with the blue stitches right where I wanted them, which was very satisfying. They were even on the needle aligned the right way.
And back onward, being careful to remember the YO at the beginning of each row this time.
In knitting-adjacent news, I ordered a new project bag, which came in the mail this week.
Cute fabric, fun shape, supporting a small business: wins all around!

Well made, too; I recommend.
In other small-but-happy news:
  • I'm going to get a tax refund.
  • The NHL Network is showing something about the Bruins' Cup win from 2011 this evening.
  • When I changed my sheets yesterday, I went with a very apt message via Sandra Boynton.

How about you? Feel free to vent on the current situation, or share things you're trying to do, to find the bright side.

Friday, March 20, 2020

Still Here

These days, I tell you. These days.

I don't have to tell you that the world has gone mad; we're all going through that. Mom and I are mostly staying in, and going stir-crazy with it.

Which is, of course, made far worse by the continuing, unending work happening in our building. Six weeks of noise and mess and more noise, and it's not done!

They've entirely ripped out the lanai on the floor above us (now that was loud), as well as doing the repair work on ours and others'. That all isn't done yet either, and no, we don't have our railings or screens back up from what they took down a week ago.

This morning they painted our lanai, meaning that we had to bring everything inside and it looks like a furniture warehouse. The cat had to be shut into my room while the painting went on, and was a sad and perplexed kitty (who also slept part of the time, certainly).

In other words:
I have at least discovered that root beer with vanilla rum in it is delicious. I may like it better than Coke with caramel vodka. So there's that. Hang in there, people.

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Now _Those_ Are Titles

I just remembered something that happened last month but that I'm pretty sure I never wrote about. It's a good silly "let's think of something else for a moment" item for the current world situation.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that back in the 80s, I did a year between high school and college at a boarding school in England (that must have come up before, right?). It was an interesting experience in a lot of ways, but I was also a fish out of water in a lot of ways. Which I could attribute to the different country and the general being-a-teenager thing, but that isn't really all of it.

They've recently started a connection-type website/program thing, which I decided to go ahead and register for. Why not, right?

Well. Here's what I found when I was asked to enter my title of choice. Mrs, Ms, Dr?














If that doesn't show the sort of school it is/was, what would? There are some real doozies on there. "Ms" looks pretty boring. What would you choose?