Wednesday, April 01, 2020

Yesterday, I assigned myself a challenge by looking out a kitchen window to spot the first color that might appear in that gray-drab, rainy/snowy morning. There showed one color, the red bottom of an empty hummingbird feeder. Thus, red became the color I self-tasked to look for while outside working around the large animals, or perhaps walking through the neighborhood. I would count the appearances of red, giving my eyes and brain a job, a distraction from “coronavirus ongoing-ness”.

Prior to going outside early to feed horses, my sleepy head tried unsuccessfully to imagine where to find reds, and I couldn’t think of any. Nonetheless, the game’s rules stuck me with reds and counting them. Outside in the drizzle and light snow everything resembled the colors of the gravel on which I trod downhill toward the barn.

Woops! A red-sighting!

That cone kicked awake my mind and imagination, and shortly appeared more red.

(As a note, I tried to focus on pure reds, but age-fading and such are excuses if some objects appear somewhat on the orangey side.)

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I include the following photos, one a warning-bright and the other my headless jockey with donkey, so you’ll see my wonderfully clean property after many backbreaking days of limbing trees.

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And, finally…

Dear Friends: Colors are all around and everywhere, if we keep open minds & eyes. Diana

Tuesday, March 31, 2020\

For most of yesterday I vegged out, watching a series on Netflix, and too-often searching fridge and cupboards for TV-friendly eats. Today is a rainy one that I’ll try handling better. I can create walking activities on my long-unused treadmill. Indoor projects need completing, like replacing a few fallen-off bathroom tiles. I’ve avoided this tiling although the repair components are on the countertop. I’ve a recently-sewn skirt that needs a hem, and I’d like another knitting project–maybe a hat from a waiting pattern book? In the garage is a partially-assembled pressure washer needing more attention.

A way to avoid feeling listless and goal-less is to start actually setting plans for a day. One or two ideas popping-up will initiate a focus and bring more goals. Once you’ve created several useful goals, in big print make a list and place it where it’s easily visible. Like on a path with lots of traffic–maybe your route to the kitchen?

This morning, I read a writer’s tip, her clever goal while out walking is to create a task for her brain. She has begun searching for a specific color, usually stimulated by a chance-glance. For example, a bit of paper trash that’s pink will have her looking for and counting the number of times pink appears. Maybe it shows up as a flower or in a garment’s color. Even this little counting task reduces an over-focus on invisible disease and self-isolating.

I try this out now while in the kitchen. I’m pouring coffee and looking out a window. It’s a wet rainy morning and everything is gray. My eye catches the red of a hummingbird feeder. Okay, it’s happening, but where else might there be hints of red outside? Thin as it seems, I think of spotting a cheery-checked Flicker. Selecting a color brings it to prominence, and shortly, I’ll be out feeding horses and looking for reds with interest.

Dear Friends: Planning means accomplishing, it’s the key to doing more and better. Diana

Monday, March 30, 2020

Overnight and early morning winds are gusting in from the west and averaging 30 mph. It’ll be a chilly day although temperatures will reach into the 50s. Big western winds that can whip pitiful beings into submission will make this day mostly an insider.

I’ll not be unhappy about staying inside for Netflix has brought back one of my all time favorite series: “Last Tango in Halifax”. The series began airing on British television in 2012 and has great actors. There are Anne Reid, Derek Jacobi, and Sarah Lancashire, all wonderful! I’ll confess to having watched this series already three or four times. It’s been absent a couple of years, or has in some other way escaped my radar, before now reappearing.

The story is fun, simple, clear, layered, and compelling. An elderly widow and widower who were friends way back in high school rediscover one another on the internet. After so many years, they’re meeting for coffee and sharing old feelings about one another. It doesn’t take long before they decide to marry one another.

Meanwhile her daughter who’s an accomplished scholar and school administrator is in a complex relationship with a bumbling ex-husband, and also, in an early romantic situation with a professional colleague, a woman. His daughter has a complex relationship with the angry brother of her deceased husband. These working-women also are coping with their half-grown and observant children.

Utilizing all those complexities, it’s a wonderfully scripted series, perfectly directed and acted, and balanced with fine humor.

Derek Jacobi is a staple of British television and theater. Anne Reid is his talented match. I can’t imagine a more believable and likeable couple than those two. As always, Sarah Lancashire is superb. She’s appeared in various Netflix offerings, including “Happy Valley” (a must-watch but darker and more intense series).

Dear Friends: I highly recommend this series, I’ll happily be inside enjoying it. Diana

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Capable.Obsessed.Radical.Obstinate.Negative.Adaptive.Virtual.Irritable.Reticent.Unbalanced.Sour

Another couple of weeks of self-isolation and very different attitudes spring up as I put relevant words to phrase-initials. Today’s are hinting at an increasing OCD fous and irritability. I’m seeking essential balance by staying active mentally and physically, but over time also sensing reduced reality. All this from spending most of my hours alone to avoid the invisible, invasive pandemic.

Every few hours reveal some new twists in behaviors. During last night’s sleepless hours, my best friend, from our high school days, and I carried on a long intimate discussion–right there on Facebook. Enough of privacy, the whole world can listen! Reach out for any situation that offers an opportunity for chatting interactively and safely with someone else.

In my mind’s eye, all this will last only minutes, but in reality hints toward long-term changes.

Dear Friends: Over the long haul, how might our sequestering reveal more changes? Diana

Saturday, March 28, 2020

These days of self-isolations force the closures of non-essential public places. Those include libraries which stay in touch with borrowers by opening stacks online, adding titles, and finding ways to make it easier to search for and obtain preferred books. I like that, as an occasional consumer of online books, for sometimes I read from a tablet or cellphone. But I’m accustomed to holding an actual book and prefer reading while balancing its weight, turning pages, and pausing to feel, explore meanings, and do some thinking. Reading is a physical activity, and I’ll read print over digital versions.

Last night, during a sleepless period, I happened across an article from the “New Yorker” (March 26, 2020) by Jill Lepore (one of my favorite writers), about a free online borrowing opportunity. She wrote that, “The Internet Archive, in San Francisco, announced—and, in the blink of an eye, opened—the National Emergency Library, a digital collection of 1.4 million books. Until June 30th, or the end of the national emergency in the United States (“whichever is later”), anyone, anywhere in the world, can check books out of this library—for free.”

I followed the link to the site. Its intelligent search tool brings up many titles both new and arcane. The older titles tossed me back to my college days and access to UCLA’s Library. Then, I had a heavy-duty involvement with literature and a fascination with early British novels. The UCLA Library held many old works–from stories by Sir Walter Scott through those from the Brontes and Jane Austin.

While drinking up those authors, I stumbled across the writings of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-65). An English author living in Manchester, she was married to a Unitarian Minister and the mother of five. She also had managed to become a productive novelist. In those days women were just beginning to be published and Gaskell’s affluence and social stature gained publishers’ attention. Her best known work, and also a delightful read, was Cranford (1853), which has been serialized for British television.

I was addicted to the writings of Charlotte Bronte, a young woman who popped from nowhere and wrote great stories. (Be assured, none of the Brontes escaped me, those siblings were amazing.) Anyway, Gaskell lived about an hour’s drive from the Brontes, was friends with Charlotte, and in 1858 published, The Life of Charlotte Bronte. There, I discovered the delights of Gaskell’s writing skills, character insights, and humor that bubbled.

Those were great days of self-directed studies and early writings that held me in thrall. Those old feelings of delight returned when my Open Library search found Mrs. Gaskell, and her Cranford, Bronte, and whatever else I might wish to re-read. Maybe my future wide-awake midnight hours will have me going back to the future.

Dear Friends: Along with other changes, our increased online access is altering habits. Diana

Friday, March 27, 2020

Today will be another of tree-trimming. After deciding to ride my horse on this property, I looked more closely at the trees. Even those already trimmed had too-low limbs. I got myself outside with a chainsaw and trimmed higher. All went more slowly than anticipated, and so, I must go to it again.

If this were any time other than this Coronavirus stretch, I’d be less among my property’s trees. This trimming work has required dedication and lots of effort but has beat staying inside for hours. I suppose if we were in deeper winter, there would be fewer opportunities for adequate physical activity.

The battle beginning to rage among leadership is whether to put the nation back to work soon, or to promote longer periods of self-isolation and social distancing. We understand too little about this virus, but have learned that it’s serious and often can result in death.

It’s troubling, that people might be forced soon to return to populated workplaces to renew national productivity, but that might happen. This virus supposedly tapers off as warmer weather arrives and it’s almost summertime.

Recently, the “New Yorker” offered a link to one of its classic articles, “Crisis in the Hot Zone”. It’s about viruses and focuses on Ebola. Written in the 1990s by a very-knowledgeable Richard Preston, it’s informative, readable, and teaches. I’m passing it along:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1992/10/26/crisis-in-the-hot-zone?mbid=&source=EDT_NYR_EDIT_NEWSLETTER_0_imagenewsletter_Classics_ZZ&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Classics_Daily_032520&utm_medium=email&bxid=5be9d7b63f92a40469e7251c&cndid=48830477&utm_term=TNY_Classics

Dear Friends: What do you think about returning to work, or continuing to distance? Diana

Thursday, March 26, 2020

I spent most of yesterday burning juniper limbs previously cut and piled. The work awaiting my attention looked huge, and was. Creating those piles had taken several days for trimming, loading, and hauling. Finally, now a fire (I’m getting better at starting one), and ahead, more hours of dragging brush.

My primarily motivation has been being outside, physically active, and at least maybe beautifying the place. It seemed that something else, too, might be behind these activities. Later, while drinking a beer and watching my fire burn down, more ideas surfaced. In the beginning, I had fantasies of creating a driving trail that would follow the property borders. But much of this place is rocky, in fact, bedrocked. Pulling a cart over bedrock might wear too much on my horse, and certainly, bumping along in it would be the end of me.

The burning fire, cold beer, and a bit of hanging out encouraged my new plan. I will ride horseback on the property! With most of the invasive limbs removed, my horse can take me anywhere–along the border, through the middle, and wherever. She will move easily under limbs, and best, no branches threatening to knock me from my saddle.

It’s pleasing to know various motivations for doing all the hard work, and especially, figuring out that the results needn’t simply be cosmetic.

Dear Friends: Ahead, in another day of Coronavirus-capture, let’s stay motivated! Diana

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

My adventure in Costco yesterday won’t be repeated soon. I was anticipating that seeing a crowded parking lot would send me home, or that once inside the store I needed assurance that social distancing was being practiced. Well, so much for anticipation, beginning when I arrived. The parking lot was jammed. A line of seniors began at the tire section door and wrapped around the building. We seniors marched in lockstep. One guy sneezed once, and although straight into a handkerchief, I felt myself cringing. Inside the store, many shoppers made social distancing impossible.

All of us were in food sections with clothing and appliance areas left empty. We found purchasing limitations, like only one rotertossorie chicken and just one organic raw chicken per customer. I wanted whole raw chickens and bought several. Like everyone else, I pushed through aisles for more, like beverages, bread, cheese, salad, avocados and oranges.

Costco has been a friendly place where folks were meeting, greeting, chatting. Yesterday, none of that existed. People were focused, stone-faced, quietly pushing past one another. Many wearing face masks and gloves made visual and more possible infection spread.

Certainly, there’s no doing things as normal. Yesterday, a mobile veterinarian called to cancel her visit to my house. My farrier has asked if I want to postpone his visit to trim hooves, and I’m thinking that might be wise.

We retirees might feel less pressured than folks younger–still working and facing layoffs, trying to manage after becoming cooped with restless children. But for every one of this this situation stinks.

Dear Friends: Today I’ll try to be more creative and turn captivity into advantage. Diana

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

I drove past Costco and looked for a posting about possible new special shopping hours for folks 60+. It’s so, as the store has set aside for seniors Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. According to the posting, age must be verified before entry is allowed. Hopefully, that’ll be so.

I’m creating a list of items I want that usually are available from Costco. In the early morning hours, the store should be well-stocked, and the environment having been sanitized overnight hopefully is relatively safe for gatherings of early shoppers.

I could use a little adventure, even just a short time out and among. Setting aside best-advice to continue self-isolating, I’ve thought up some shopping criteria. For example, if outside the store its early-hours parking lot is packed with vehicles, I’ll turn and head home. As another, I want to sense once inside the store that people reasonably are practicing social-distancing.

Under today’s threatening clouds of disease, everybody is doing their best to accommodate and cope. Everything that’s in planning ultimately must ensure the safety, productivity, and optimism of people worldwide. Much depends upon our regaining of viable economies despite disease-fears and self-isolations.

Underlying everybody’s wishes to be out and about are deep concerns about possible near-future cash shortages. Societies that sustain populations, willing to work full- or part-time for income, must have and maintain-well the viable triangles of products, consumers, and cash.

As I write, it seems that American leaders have begun to talk better across the aisle. They seem be about to make some kind of deal that will ease our currently-failing economics.

Dear Friends: Anyway, I’m about to check-out the new early-morning shopping. Diana

Monday, March 23, 2020

This photo from yesterday shows my Gater loaded with juniper limbs for transporting to a staging area. That load was one of many from hours I spent sawing and lopping. Each filling of the Gater’s hydraulic dump made me forever grateful for acquiring this vehicle years ago on a whim. It’s a major workhorse.

I’m escaping Coronavirus-caging almost daily by trimming trees. It’s work that corrects long-ignored limb tangles, but is never-ending, not fun, filled with bending and lifting. Handling a 14′ long saw especially is wearing. Balancing that saw works my back muscles until standing straight is difficult. On starting to feel my head and shoulders leaning and leading, I force myself to self-straighten by positioning my head and shoulders straight over my hips. It’s a too-short fix.

This long overdue trimming that makes my place look cared-for, neater, is saving me from feelings of cabin fever and stir-crazy shpilkes. Outside, there’s more work needed that over a long stretch could keep me active and productive. For one thing, only half of my trees have been trimmed, and for another, this warming weather makes wooden steps and decking call for cleaning and protecting. To this end, and with thanks for online suppliers, in my garage a new pressure washer awaits assembly.

Dear Friends: This stressful downturn is more physical than any other in recent memory. Diana