Yep, I’m talking about the COVID-19 Pandemic. It has been surrounding and impacting the world significantly for almost a year now, and it seems like forever, and there is no end in sight. Well, almost no end. There has been talk of a viable vaccine soon to be revealed, but I’m not holding my breath.
The impact of this pandemic has been fierce! To date over 275,000 people have died as a result of the Coronavirus. Tragedy has never seemed so profound. Without a leader to join us together and offer support, I think we have very little chance against this virus. People have politicized masks and even the virus, not believing there really is a virus and it is a hoax. Personally, even if it is a hoax, I’m going to double down on wearing a mask and social distancing just in case!! I’d rather look like a fool than be dead!
So I stay at my little studio and weave. It is the perfect thing to do during a pandemic, and I am the perfect introvert to stay by myself and not feel alone. I have my two shop dogs for company and protection, Thor and Taco, formidable chihuahuas that will take you down shoelace by shoelace! They understand English, I understand dog, so we get along. Wish they had opposable thumbs. Then they could earn their keep by weaving for me! Don’t laugh! If bears could be taught to ride bicycles back in the day when people thought it was cute rather than animal abuse, I think dogs could be taught to weave. And I think they would be happy doing it since they get so bored every day that they sleep most of the time. Sheesh!
I was without a microwave and a clothes washer for a couple of months. Now THAT was hardship! I can’t believe how much I found that I needed to reheat and had to use the stovetop! But I did find that the microwave was a great place to store opened boxes of crackers or bags of bread, to keep them out of the reach of the mouse invasion I had this summer. I even ended up putting my potatoes in the microwave because those dang mice had resorted to munching on my potatoes! I think I have caught them all now. 14 so far. Ewwwww! I think they got in this summer and took up residence when we had the entry doors open and the screen door with missing weather stripping at the bottom offered a perfect entry for a couple of mice, who then told two more, and so on. Those rascals! Anyway, I think I have caught all of them because I haven’t seen any more signs that they are around. I used to have a lot of empathy for them, but once they got into my house and started getting into my food and clothes, I started thinking of them in much different terms!! I don’t think they are so cute anymore.
Being without a clothes washer was a humbling experience. Truly! It brought me back to the days of my twenty-something years and hauling my laundry to the local laundromat. But flash forward to now and I had natural fibers in the wash that I didn’t want to put in the dryer. I also thought that 25 cents for 5 minutes in the dryer was highway robbery. So I would bring things into town to wash, and that was kind of a bonus because I could use multiple washers at the same time and get things all washed in about 30 minutes. Cool! But carrying all that wash out to the car when it was still wet, and then unloading it and carrying it upstairs to hang on the clothes line, well . . . at a minimum it had me talking to my husband about installing a dumb waiter!
But I recently snagged a deal on one of those internet selling platforms for a very nice microwave. It was actually meant for a deeper installation, so it sticks out from the cupboards kind of far. But that’s okay. Just more space inside the microwave to heat things up!
Now, the washer we bought NEW! And holy cow! All the bells and whistles!! It even has a steam cycle. So maybe I could have gotten a smaller microwave and steamed the broccoli in the washer! Okay, that thought makes my mouth pucker.
So, I think I have brought you up to date after such a long sabbatical away from this blog. I can’t guarantee how often I will get back to writing. Things are busy, busy in the Mill!