not so distance distances

I stood at the kitchen counter staring out the window, enthralled by the flocks of geese descending over the barn to splash down in the swollen creek. Some birds circled lower and lower, while others dropped like a stone from high in the sky. The backdrop was an impossibly blue sky and white snow - ‘country snow’ untouched by the smog from the city.

Civilization is slowly shutting down but Nature continues in her rhythms, unphased.

Have you seen the videos of Italians hanging out their windows and off their balconies singing and playing instruments? Their whole situation is unbelievable and remote, like a bad fairytale set in another age. I think of the old copies of Hans Christian Anderson tales tucked away on a safe bookshelf and wonder what sort of story he would write if he were here.

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not scared, at least not for myself. We have friends and family that are considered vulnerable and I worry for them. 

I worry a bit about my brother living in a distant city with no family nearby - what if he gets sick? Who does he have to look after him if he’s in quarantine for 14 days?

We watched part of ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ with Charleton Heston and Rex Harrison last night. It’s a (slightly camp) tale about Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel. It’s quite fun to watch after having been there a few months ago.

We did a bit more ‘not so distance distancing’ tonight with Pat coming over for supper. I guess we just aren’t ready to isolate ourselves! Carm hit up the grocery store also for a few things we’d run out of… not a hoarding sort of trip, more of a ‘life is as it always has been’ trip. He said some of the shelves were well picked over, but we were able to get everything that we needed. I guess not everyone hoards onions and carrots! 

It was good to have the distraction from the world. CNN spouts out scary news broken up only by commercials about who knows what. It’s all a bit overwhelming...

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”

~John Joseph Powell

start of madness

If you let your imagination go a little wild you could almost imagine the droplets of sunshine being whipped around by the wind. Imagine a Van Gogh style sky with thrashing trees and you’d have it right. 

Birds hang on for dear life, but sing the song of Spring, a chorus of geese honking in the background. Or perhaps the geese are the excited groupies chattering amongst themselves about the concert.

And us? We are enjoying the day, mostly through the glass although we have ventured out with the crazy dog a few times. She’s bored and has too much energy. I’ve done some training practice with her, but I’m a bit lazy today and not really in the mood.

We ventured out Thursday to the vet (blood work for heartworm), and then to meet up with Kirsten and the girls for DQ. Oh yes. First DQ of the year… too bad it’s a hole in the wall sort of place with nowhere to sit down :-(

Are you practicing social-distancing? We didn’t yesterday with a trip into Costco. I needed to pick up my prescription so we added a few other things to the cart… but what a zoo! It was impossible to drive the cart anywhere and the lineup for the cash was over 20 minutes. I wished that I had brought hand-sanitizer with me as I gripped the filthy cart handle… I didn’t think of it at the time, but we should have been shopping for other people too.

Trudie & Leo came over for supper - we all kept our distance from each other… or did we? I made supper and had washed my hands, but maybe touched my face; Trudie supplied dessert which was impossible not to touch. The cook in the house is the weak link.

The government is now asking for people arriving from outside the country to self-isolate for 14 days, schools are closed for 3 weeks, the library is closed for a few weeks, sports is shut down, an increasing number of businesses are asking staff to work from home, and so it goes, more shutdowns every hour. They don’t have enough test kits. It’s crazy. 

But we have nowhere near the restrictions they have in Italy: the whole country is shut down and still the medical system is being overwhelmed with doctors having to choose who gets a respirator and who doesn’t… life and death decisions. It’s hard to believe that we were there less than 4 months ago. We could never have foreseen empty streets and shuttered shops.

The dog is going crazy with day after day of inactivity. There’s not much she can do outside so she races around the house like a maniac. Carpets and dog beds go flying in every direction as she ricochets around. 

“Barack Obama's aunt once told him, 'If everyone is family, no one is family.' It is blood that makes a tribe, a border that makes a nation. The same is true of gatherings. So here is a corollary to his aunt's saying: If everyone is invited, no one is invited—in the sense of being truly held by the group. By closing the door, you create the room.”

~Priya Parker

dancing whirling dervish

It’s possible that the winter has been too long and I have gone insane… I’ve started teaching Adia the fundamentals of dance… she’s got a few moves down and is working on some others. Not sure if she thinks I’m nuts but she goes along trying her best… until she lies down and doesn’t want to move anymore. She’s getting lots of treats but I don’t think she sees the point of it all! Maybe she needs different music to groove to. 🤣

It’s above freezing and raining today, the creek and river are in full flood, in fact I can see the powerful flow of the river from the kitchen, and it’s a long way away. I like to keep the dogs close during the overwhelming deluge lest they be swept away. If they fell in there would be no saving them - they’d be lost forever.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the return of the geese!!! I saw a flock in the distance yesterday and caught the sight of a few flying just about the house this afternoon. I haven’t seen a robin yet, but with geese and red-wing blackbirds back spring is surely on its way! Hurrah!

Spike got a haircut on his face this afternoon. It’s now a 2 person job to keep him on the grooming table - he was shaking like a leaf. I must have done something to him during some previous de-furring. It’s hard to get mad at him as he’s clearly scared.

I made a chicken broth for the dogs breakfast: 3 chicken backs broken up in some water, 90 min in the instant pot, natural release. I break up all the bones with my spatula (they turn soft and crumbly with the long cook), then distribute between a bunch of mason jars. Once cooled the fat gets skimmed off and then they go into the freezer to be thawed as required. The dogs LOVE this addition to their breakfast… of course Adia gobbles everything up no matter what it tastes like… but Spike doesn’t always eat in the morning, except when we serve chicken broth over kibble! They are not spoiled at all…

We are watching a program about the multi universe theory… and I wonder… is there a universe where I look like Sofia Lauren, and if so, why not this one?

“It is one of the secrets of Nature in its mood of mockery that fine weather lays heavier weight on the mind and hearts of the depressed and the inwardly tormented than does a really bad day with dark rain sniveling continuously and sympathetically from a dirty sky.” 

~Muriel Spark