Monday, April 06, 2020

Last evening was one of high humor, following my discovery that Amazon Prime is streaming several wonderful comedy movies. I sat for hours binging on “The Birdcage”, “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, and “Some Like It Hot”. Other classics, too, are available for viewing. But enough is enough, and finally, still laughing I fell into bed.

Watching almost anything else beats attending daily the mind-numbing hours that our President manages to command on broadband. Even yesterday, at the beginning of serious holidays, Lent and Passover, Trump crowded the airways. I’ve tried escaping with Netflix but find myself unhappy with its offerings. Most quickly are tossed together, as mindless slams, bams, shoot-em-ups. Happily, other streamers are providing tested classic movies. (Unhappily, my internet package excludes Turner Movies).

Another diversion from self-isolation that works for me is having discovered online some superb bloggers. It’s slow-going, looking for really good blogs by experts in various fields, knowing in-depth their topics, expertly writing and communicating. They’re new great teachers who remind that there’s always more to learn, and appreciate, about creativity, wildlife, social trends, and the environment, to mention a few.

Today dawns beautifully. It’s time to start “summer work” with my horses. This means revising some of our now-normal routines. I’ll add exercising to get them slimmer and more muscular. I’ll add training, and especially for Pimmy who needs a job. Although I’ve long said this, she should learn to pull a cart. Training Pimmy means first finding training for myself. It’s that donkeys are not just like horses, they must be trained differently. I’ll look on YouTube for help, and somehow get Pimmy trained to drive.

Dear Friends: These strange times push us to expand interests and stimulate mindfulness. Diana

Sunday, April 05, 2020

Yesterday, rainy and drizzly, and today, the same with snow. This weather precedes more desirable spring-like conditions arriving on Tuesday. It’ll be lovely, the higher temperatures and sunshine that might ease tensions caused by isolating against an invisible devastating disease.

We seek whatever might preoccupy or just keep us busy. To that end, Netflix is full of bang-em-ups, shoot-em-ups, and acting in roles of clear winners and losers. I mostly re-watch videos from earlier years that I’ve seen. They seem better, maybe because producing them was slower, more careful, and based on scripts better-written and storyboards more intelligent and complex.

The majority of streaming choices equally are uninteresting on Amazon, Hulu, and the rest. They provide noisy mindless escapism. Daily, I argue with myself about whether to cancel streaming services and broadband (For example, why must we face “Trump Shows” that lasting throughout afternoons?). I phoned Broadband to cancel and held endlessly for a representative before finally ending the call.

None of this really surprises. Reduced staffs try to respond to bunches of people staying home and demanding. Until the condition eases, Ill keep the bandwidth and streaming services. There’s no end to finding changes that surprise. Here’s one, I went online to Amazon for a 3# bag of Zupreem bird food, a size normally costing $12. Amazon sellers now price it at $33, and up! Why that increase? To offset higher outlays for ingredients and shipping? Or are they gouging? (My cockatoo, Peaches, might learn to eat Purina Layena. My rescued racing pigeon, Gilbert, thrives on it.)

If today’s gloom keeps me inside, what other demands over distance might I attempt? One possibility is to place an order for a curb pick-up. Maybe from Target which carries just about everything from electronics to food. If I do, and whether the process works well or is lousy, I’ll write about my experience.

Dear Friends: It’s about balancing one’s temper, staying creative and productive. Diana

Saturday, April 04, 2020

This “coronavirus stock market” continues to gobble huge chunks of funds. I’m optimistic about the market’s recovery over time, but thinner cash now prevents shoes for my driving horses. An unhappy decision because driving is “my sport” and I’ll miss it. Pulling a vehicle stresses hooves, particularly over paved roads like those my horses travel routinely. They wear heavy-duty irons with highly-absorbent pads–all needing replacement every six weeks. It’s an investment unwise during a steadily-crashing stock market.

Instead I’ll ride horseback! Planning for this has challenges. First, getting on and off a horse is hard with my stiff joints and I must practice and hope for flexibility. Second, our surrounding forest venues are closed to visitors because of coronavirus. And so I will ride locally. Toward this end, I’ve removed many of my property’s low-hanging limbs and now a horse may carry me safely among the trees. I’m planning to mosey around the house a little and then move my horse to our neighborhood’s paved roads. We’ll head toward the power lines, a local outback with a loose network of dirt roadways that lets a barefoot horse trot safely.

I promise to the neighborhood: If my horse drops a pile, I’ll later return and clear it away.

Dear Friends: Please hope with me, that I manage getting on, staying on, and dismounting. Diana

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Friday, April 03, 2020

Tuning into YouTube, I watched as Dolly Parton, settled on a pink bed, read “The Little Engine”. As she read with the book’s pages showing, one easily could read along, too. Moving from Dolly’s video, I found one with Barbara Bain (among my all-time favorite television actresses) reading a children’s story, with the book’s pages showing so one could track with her. My favorite video happened when I ran across Lily Tomlin, reading “Hey That’s My Monster”. In true “Lily style” and so talented, she both read and acted-out the story’s expressions and feelings.

Aside from the delight of seeing and hearing those capable actors communicate classic stories, the well-known works themselves toss adult brains back into a children’s world. Oh, I remember that “little engine that could”. Its determined uphill struggles and its ultimate victory lent encouragement to my timid childhood. Lily’s way of reading returns me to my high school years, to drama coaches who tried to emphasize a stark difference between “interpreting” and “acting”. I never really “got it”, and now, find sheer joy as Lily successfully blurs that still-mysterious difference.

This is to say that, beginning now, my daily coronavirus-isolation activities will include story readings on YouTube. Most of these videos, while relatively brief, pleasant, and primarily performed for kids, will stir-up in many, our old memories and feelings.

Dear Friends: I hope you’re hanging-in improves, too, with available free creativity. Diana

Thursday, April 02, 2020

Yesterday dawned very cold but also clear and not windy. After feeding the large animals, I elected to work outside, to rid myself of a large pile of limbs from the trees most-recently trimmed. I’ve been trimming sections of trees and maybe have covered 60% of my property. Real progress is uncertain, because tree-trimming is like “fixing” anything else. As I progress, my trimming skills improve and the trees most-recently trimmed look better than those earlier worked on. This has been pushing progress both forward and backward, if you get my drift. Now that I’m more experienced, most trimming moves forward. So, figure that left-ahead are about 40% of my trees–or whatever!

Anyway, yesterday’s weather was very weird and not particularly unusual for Central Oregon, but I was in the middle of burning limbs! After the day’s first few hours of relative clarity, warmth, and light breezes, I happened to glance up and over to the west saw lurking rain clouds. Uh oh, if that rain happens to land here, how heavy, could it douse my fire?

I looked at the fire pit. Flames were bright and burning high. My work was only partly done.

First, hail hit. Tiny pellets clouded the environment, not much bothering the fire. I labored to keep the flames big by constantly adding fuel. Following the hail, a light rain didn’t reduce the flames but brought cold, high-gusting winds. I retrieved my outerwear blown to the ground, and donned it shielded by the horse trailer’s wind-blocking side.

That volley of hail, rain, and wind didn’t last long. Working throughout to keep alive the fire, I reduced the waiting discards. Finally, most of that weather died down, leaving the cold and winds. I soldered on and finished the job. Got myself through another day of self-isolation.

Dear Friends: Today, I’ll create a mask with a filter, to venture out for chicken feed. Diana

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