afternoon drift

At first, I wished that I had planned this one better. Now, I'm forced into a way to insert some really rich profanity. White on white, maybe.

I never really minded the hermit life because it was by choice and I knew there was all manner of crazed doings going on out in the world- parties, parades, flash mobs, drive bys- you know, Life.

Now it's disturbing. Our town has a curfew.

I don't want to dwell on imagined outcomes, but I inherited a lot of hard times angst from that same grandmother who taught me embroidery. Not that she ever complained.

They did what they had to do. Tenant farmers during the Great Depression. She would take slivers of soap, soften them, then press them together into a multi-colored lump to keep on soaping. Teabags used all day long. Real rag rugs.

 This morning I set up online shopping for two different grocery stores. It took two to find the things I wanted.

It was good to see the stores limiting the quantities of things people can buy. You pick a time window, they bag it up, email you when it's ready, you pull up and they drop it in your trunk.

Two twenty pound bags of their favorite dry food and another forty pounds of cat litter was the find.

Knowing that at least Salem (the black and white one) and this demon know how to kill stuff and go to the bathroom outside is comforting.  He gets very pissy when I try to pry him out of the sewing chair.

It's my day off. Stop looking at me like that.

biding my time

I learned very young to never say "I'm bored" out loud or you'd find yourself sitting at the kitchen table polishing silverware, cleaning the parakeet's cage with a toothbrush and Windex, or hand whisking the stair carpets - all three floors worth. There is no end of tedious housekeeping tasks that a five-year-old can do if her Grandmother hears those dread words. Being bored was unacceptable.

Aside from forced child labor, I still have Nelly to thank for introducing me to needle, thread & hoops.

So here's the nearest reading pile. TV has too much temptation to drop in the news. We all know what's going on and what we need to do, I hope. Not that I'm putting my head in the sand. Just not letting the sand clog my eyes, ears, nose, and heart.

More about things to read soon.

Thanks for the tip, Dee. The heating pad is my new best friend.

No particular injury to my back, but my job (Yay! I still have one and will as long as there are lawyers) and my avocation keep me in a chair way too many hours and I'm paying for that.

I miss walking and hope to get back to it soon. New sneakers arrived just the other day.  I went to the park yesterday, but couldn't even find a place to park for the families with SUVs fulla kids. Good for them. I have a yard that needs picking up and a street to stroll.

This, a reminder of Things I Used to Do and Look Forward to Doing Again, soon as Spring starts thinking about Summer. Big and Batik.

Show us your drawers!

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 Tattoos, haircuts, and a cat who believes he's a dog.

tense times

He pulled the dusty cassette player off the shelf. I cleaned it, put in batteries but the tape playing mechanism was dead. The radio worked though and he was spellbound.

We had a great long day together today. His school has closed for the upcoming weeks. But I won't have much hand in his care.

 I'm going to welcome Spring here at home, lessening my exposure as much as possible. I guess, statistically, I'm in the risk group. I spent the big chunk of January with a respiratory infection that had me pissing myself with every damn cough.

So, not much will change. I work from home as it is. Have little to no social life and no travel plans to cancel.

I'm a little annoyed that it's probably smart to not pick up a book that I held at the library. I hate e-books, but I guess I better get over that.

Like everyone, hard emotions are running deep and wide. Last night I put on the movie "Yesterday". A piece of fluff to play in the background while I stared angrily at the manuscript, not really focusing. Even though the film is overly sweet and gently lame, hearing bits and pieces of the Beatles music was enough for me to leave it on. Then, there came a scene that hit me in the heart like a brick and I cried full bore, ugly for ten minutes. If I'd been in a theater, I would have been asked to leave.

I may need to do that daily for a while. You?

candy

Eye candy is all I have to offer for the moment. Soul candy is what a lot of us are craving, but that's going to take some time to uncover.

My disappointment in the way the patriarchy has swept aside the best-qualified candidate is like a toothache. I can only hope that the smarter of the two old white men living on borrowed time will call her to be the VP.

Here the tangible work from the past year. A few other things, those crossovers with text, have gone on to new homes.

The shirking lizard-brained part of me wants to start a new piece, but I have a lot of other things that need my attention now. Maybe, if I get quarantined.