More thoughts in the time of COVID-19 …
As part of my upcoming move (without a date set yet) there are several things that keep popping up in my thoughts. One consistent one concerns what I will miss.
This last blast of winter (at least we’re ready for it to be the last) has taken me in several different directions. It has been similar to, but not really the same as, when we first came to live on this land.
In those winters, we had SNOW … waist high with drifts deep enough in which to lose children. There were winters when we couldn’t see out the north windows since the snow reached the eaves.
This late season has been almost as if the past is saying “Remember …”. May be a way of telling me goodbye. And that set me to thinking “Yes, I will miss you. But what I remember and am already missing no longer exists, except in flashes.”
Somethings I won’t miss … going out to the chickens thorough snow topping my boots is one of them. But I was so much younger then and had George to help with path making.
Being shut in by weather now means there isn’t much to tell you. You’ve heard my impressions of the beauty of the snow and that hasn’t changed. Being surrounded by forest is still a blessing to be savored as long as I have it. And believe it or not, when the air smells of snow it is soothing.
~~~
Current reading is a combination of fantasy (although it is predictive fantasy) in the area of lakes Huron and Michigan, and my go-to comfort reading (a time warp mystery ) takes me to England in 1933.
The fantasy is an interesting read. The author uses a real mixed bag of characters and pays no attention to chronology so the people get mixed around and the timeline is haphazard. A challenging read, but an interesting one.
Titles? Station Eleven and Elegy for Eddie.
I wonder at and am surprised by the broad spectrum of writers who envisioned this pandemic. The time, setting, and result varies, but the basics are there … and the publish dates range over the last sixty years from Heinlein, Bradbury, and Asimov to Butler and some fairly new authors, i.e. since the turn of the century.
~~~
Today I will make a trip to Yreka.
I have been having an annoying something in my right eye for about a week. It feels like a grain of sand, is at the spot next to that little tab in the corner of my eye nearest my nose, and doesn’t change position.
I’ve tried rinsing it and using allergy eyedrops. So far nothing has worked. The annoyance is not consistent. It comes and goes without discernible cause or a time schedule. Want to bet that when I see the eye doctor this morning it will stay quiet?
While in Yreka I will also pay the second installment of the property taxes and maybe do a bit of shopping. I’m running short of printer ink.
~~~
As usual, the time change had me discombobulated. I had changed my wind-up clock and the little one at my bedside, but had depended on the computer and the telephone to do their thing. They didn’t. So for all day sunday I was double checking to see just what time it was.
I found that the computer had been set on manual rather than automatic and got that corrected. Then found that my phone (landline not smart) doesn’t have an automatic setting, at least not one I can find, but I learned how to do the reset. Everything seems to finally be in sync.
Oh well …
~~~
Time to get ready to leave, so to end this week …
Thinking about Jacob wrestling with the angel … all his life, Jacob was focused on not being Esau. His identity was wrapped up in wanting to be Esau. However, he had to leave and endure his own unique problems. Maybe the struggle with the angel was emblematic of his struggle to establish his own identity.
Like Dr Seuss says “… there is nobody youer than you”. We have all been created with gifts and limitations and do our best to navigate our lives. We need to be grateful for the gifts and even the struggles we encounter along the way. Every day comes and then is gone forever. Make it count!
— Author unknown
‘til next week …