I think we are in the phase of a transition curve that is: “So, when will get back to normal?”
BUT. As in all of life, we cannot go back. We will all be changed by the experience of the current circumstances, just as we are each individually changed by our personal experiences.
We will recover freedom of movement, but my hope is as the poem says, we will also experience healing … even if we didn’t think we were ill. I would not want anyone to read into my words that I think any part of this is a good thing …. BUT, I do think there is the possibility for good changes coming out of the experience: in each of our personal lives and future choices as well as worldview.
In a fictional book, about life in rural England during WWII:
“A snooty young woman interviewing a stout matron: ‘so, actually, all you’re doing at the moment is the housework, arranging and cooking meals for your husband, children and evacuees, canteen work, and voluntary fire-watching?’”
source is “A Presumption of Death” by Jill Payton Walsh.
But that was reality: 9/1/1939 – 9/2/1945 which is 6 years!
Perspective :)
It is a challenging time, but if we look at history: 1918 Spanish Flu that occurred on the tail of the horrors of WWI, WWII: 6 years of life disrupted in the U.K.! More recently the Vietnam war, HIV/Aids Pandemic, H1N1, wars in several areas … apples and oranges maybe and especially in light of the internet and instant information/statistics/opinion.
The best scientific minds and labs and companies are working as fast as humanly possible for solutions: vaccine and treatment.
Meanwhile.
The people MUST stay home.
And the people MUST laugh and play and make art and exercise and cry and pray and meditate and …. you know, live our lives, but at home!
Good grief! Here we are in a place I doubt most of us have ever been: a global health crisis … a pandemic. And while here in the U.S. we are not (at least not as of this writing) an epicenter, we are also certainly not an outlier. Mostly, I don’t think we know where we are given the lack of testing compared to other parts of the world.
At my house, it is pretty much “as usual”. I’ve worked from a home office for nearly 35
years. As of this writing, I have no
indication that my work will be disrupted, but I am not counting on that at
all, at all and given that I did not work for 4.5 months last year, my reserves
are not much so spending is currently for necessities only. But, my pantry, frig and freezer are full,
full, full – mostly thanks to the fact that I keep them that way over Winter
and was just starting to think about “eating down” when things changed. So, I continue the Winter grocery shopping
paradigm. And fortunately, I have not
yet experienced much in the way of shortage locally … well, T.P. and hand
sanitizer but I got a jump on the T.P. and I’m a soap and water person with a
home water well so was not in the sanitizer market anyway.
As far as getting ill, I have low exposure: I work from home, I don’t belong to groups
and my main socialization is via the internet.
I am truly grateful for my internet connections! Also for several wonderful neighbors as well
as some townsfolk and small business relationships. I feel incredibly fortunate in that I am both
used to and prefer a somewhat hermit-like lifestyle.
The worst thing I ever worry about is my animal companions. Emmett and Auggie are well and in addition to
the human foodstuffs in pantry and freezer, there is extra for them as well –
thanks Chewy.com!!
I will say that Auggie-boy gave me a few more white hairs
this past week when he pulled a late night … 1:00 a.m. arrival!
Sleeping off a very late night of ???
Completely out of character and routine and I don’t
know: he got shut in somewhere, treed by
something, extra cat business … GAH!
Otherwise, I have read the science and the scientist
recommendations: social distancing, wash
your hands … wash your hands … wash your hands.
All easy and doable for me.
Other than the pets, my worries are for people who do not
have the resources to withstand the 60-90-120 days of whatever they must deal
with: work from home, no work, kids out
of school, small business loss … and all of the trickle down affects of a
drastic change in lifestyle: work, play
… life.
All of that said …
and I would not wish this virus or any of the negative affects on anyone
… still, it is here and we must go forward as best we can … there may be some
incredible things that come of this:
The recognition that we do NOT need quite as many “public” events: think of the $$$$ that are spent for political campaigning “in person” that we might now see happen virtually … and not only that kind of event, but also other business marketing events. Do we really need to fly here there and everywhere to some conference, spending an inordinate amount of carbon budget when we could do just as well with a virtual event? I.E. might we accomplish some climate change goals as we come to terms with dealing with the global health crisis? Just imagine!!! Greta Thunberg writes eloquently on this topic and has encouraged “online” climate strikes during this time of required social distancing, i.e. no gatherings.
The
recognition that many of us do NOT need to work from an “office” or other work
location. In the last 10 years of my
work from home life, the amount of work we accomplish as a team via
collaborative software: Zoom,
GoToMeeting, Webinars … I am so used to
working with others via the internet that I don’t even think about travelling
for any work reason. BUT, even the technical world is not completely ready …
issues of security : https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/silicon-valley-was-first-to-send-workers-home-its-been-messy/ar-BB11b9vj?ocid=spartandhp
In my personal tech world, we talk
security ALL.THE.TIME, but we do not deal with extremely sensitive date or
protocol, so I definitely see issues with a lot of businesses. But, those can and will be resolved … remotely!
The
recognition that even socially, we *can* keep in touch via Facetime, Skype and
other virtual solutions. I am not
advocating zero face to face/in person socialization, but especially in this
kind of crisis and even as we all live further apart … there are earth friendly
options.
Telemedicine! This option has been available to me from my clinic as well as my insurer. What a great option! So many times, I would like to provide information, receive guidance and onward! Not only with my physician, but also my veterinarian. Both have been good with this, but with my vet … things are not in place to allow fees. As a consultant, who works on a $/hour, I have zero issues with being charged for phone/email/info exchange time and would rather do that than subject myself and/or my animal companions to a visit if not necessary. Currently, drive-through COV-19 test sites are being set up/tested … I am unclear how far along they are, but WOW … wonderful innovation and adaptation to challenging times.
Earth friendly.
I do not have children and so also no grandchildren, that will be impacted by the atrocious decisions made by me and my generation. But, I still wish to do what I can to mitigate the damage and inspire others to do what they can as well: fossil fuel reduction, plastic/poly reduction, over consuming … I keep thinking that I’ve gone “green” and then I find that other thing that I use/buy/send to landfill …it is crazy-hard, but I believe, absolutely necessary that we all do as much as we can.
The future is at stake.
As Greta Thunberg says:
“our house is on fire”.
It is! … and we need to stop thinking that the future will take care of itself. It will NOT unless we, all of the people on the planet Earth, educate ourselves on the science of the current global health crisis as well as the climate change crisis.
We must change how we consume, how we live and interact. That is, if we hope that planet Earth
continues to be viable for future generations.
I realize that there are different views on how we do this. I don’t intend to get into those. There is a lot of information available on
options: food choices, product packaging
awareness, travel options … and the impact of all of our choices.
Meanwhile, I think we all have opportunities to think of others. If we are in a comfortable spot … is there a
neighbor who is not? Can we offer to share
items or help someone get items? And for
those of us who currently do not have interruption of income or internet … how
can we help someone who might have those issues? In a time, when maybe our normal
“entertainment” is disrupted … good golly … so much opportunity to think about
how to help other people, to learn something new, to explore something that we
have not because there did not seem to be time to do that.
It is difficult to remain positive all of the time as our “normal” existence has been so drastically altered with the added uncertainty of how long it might go on. I think it is important, now at the beginning, to think how I can/will combat frustration, anxiety-depression at not being able to do things as I’d like.
We can focus on all of the things that we cannot do …. OR we can focus on all of the things that we CAN do. I am making a list of things I CAN do to keep in front of me.
It is a challenging and sometimes scary time, but there are
also incredible opportunities to learn, to help, to consider change.
And I was so taken by Apollonia Poilane’s passion for her craft of bread baking and the story of how she took the reins of the bakery at a VERY young age, that I tried the recipe for Avocado tartine with banana and lime!
And I LOVED it! Additionally, it is a nutritional powerhouse. I bought Apollonia’s book as well. It is both a beautiful and poignant story as well as what look to be wonderful recipes.
Ultimately, it is yet another lesson in being open to new things.
Other new baking things include:
Pumpernickel Sourdough. This turned out to be the best pumpernickel bread that I’ve had in ages!!
Einkorn Cardamom-Cinnamon naturally leavened (sourdough) rolls. Einkorn was new to me last year and it is my favorite heirloom whole grain. It worked wonderfully in this roll recipe.
Still on food, but I’ve shared before the “Souper Cubes” I like for freezing 1 cup (souper cube) portions of many things: cooked meats, beans, rice, broths …
That is chicken, shredded carrots and black beans. The very cool thing is that a cube fits in a half pint mason jar for thawing …
The freezer is this solo human’s friend and “Souper cubes” add to the ease.
New things in my personal tech experience…
DJI Osmo Action Camera … sometimes called the GoPro “killer”. Whatever. I dove into the action arena with the DJI Osmo Action.
It’s tiny!
Video is it’s strong point.
On a “selfie stick” … I also bought a gimbal, but am struggling to find time to get that set up … so meanwhile, the stick.
Unlike the GoPro, the Osmo has a front camera :)
Stay tuned … for maybe a bit. In addition to getting all of the hardware up and going, I have to spend more time learning about the editing software. SO.MUCH.GOOD.STUFF.
Good grief … last week was Thanksgiving weekend and here we are just a wee bit over 2 weeks until Christmas!
Life is now back to our normal :) … as in working, being paid timely (all is caught up and resolved YEA!!!) and we had a scrumptious Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and stuff … AND hung stockings and decked halls.
That UCLA Bruin was a gift from friends many years ago. It has survived Karl, Gus, Bob, Bear and now Auggie and Emmett…
… hopefully. Emmett has “borrowed” it from under the tree on several many occasions. Thankfully, no harm done to the Bruin. I sent a photo to my coworkers who both attended UCLA … wondering how it had survived all of these years, and received this reply:
It has survived because it is ‘Bruin Strong’.
Go Bruins! Fight! Fight! Fight!
I believe I have mentioned that I love my work group and am very grateful for the team that I work with. And am grateful for work that I love that allows me to live in a place that I love and enjoy the outdoors with my pets!
So … the weather ??? After an early start to Winter … in September … some snow, some cold and now it is warm-ish but gray and low cloud deck.
So we start the dark mornings with coffee and electric fire …
…and general togetherness.
But the length of the dark mornings often leads to a bit of pestering play :)
This week, though… a new toy for outside time:
Although I played softball into my 40’s: third and then first base … my throwing acumen has seriously degenerated.
Emmett LOVES to play fetch.
So, this launch toy. It is great fun! I’m not sure which of us has more fun.
The ring goes a good distance, but it does float! Emmett is still learning about how it goes, compared to a stick or the throw toys we have played with.
BIG.FUN!!
I hope to take some video!
Meanwhile, we enjoy some spectacular color: snow up high, dark cloud background and some gold from a sun trying to break through…
Good, good times enjoying the work and play routine … the holiday vibes and just generally being beyond grateful that all has worked out to continue as we were.
