Archives for June 2020

Um, no.

An acquaintance of my mother-in-law came to our house yesterday morning. My husband met them outside. When he insisted on keeping the proper social distance the said, „But there hasn’t been any risk of infection now for a long time!“ He had gone outside to give them some of the salad he is growing. Upon hearing this ridiculous statement he turned around and went back inside without further discussion.

Yes, there has only been one new case around here in the last week. One case that has been tested. Yes, things are looking better right now and it seems okay to open some things up again. Also yes, the probability of my husband, the boy and me begin infected is rather low. But. It’s not zero. And it is especially not zero for someone who thinks they don’t need to distance themselves.

We don’t need hundreds and thousands of cases to initiate a second wave. We only need a few who are infected and a lot who think that things are safe. That’s what ‚exponential growth‘ means.

At first my husband wasn’t sure if he hadn’t over-reacted. So he told me and I sat there stunned and upset. I wasn’t sure if my reaction might be a little out of proportion either but when we told the boy he stood there in the doorway, rooted to the spot, his mouth hanging slack, speechless, trying to find the words until he did a literal facepalm.

Still a little stunned.

Anyways. I did sleep a little longer because I had gone to bed way too late. Did most of my morning routine but didn’t manage to work on the novel. Everything went fine, breakfast was had, then I went running. Look, poppy:

The halfway point:

Also, I’m trying to get better at selfies but failing.

I took a shower, my husband made lunch:

(We wrap them before eating but that way you can’t see the filling.) The spinach was from our garden. We pulled it from the freezer.

In the afternoon I did not do as much as I wanted but I felt much better. I folded two loads of laundry and put most of it away and hung up a huge load of sheets and towels and such.

Then it was already time to watch something with the boy. There was knitting. Early to bed.

I might have bought two new books. One was free and the other was „Americanah“ for only 2.49. I found it through a recommendation on a blog I like and was intrigued by the story’s connection to Nigeria. Back in the day when I was studying cultural anthropology I learned quite a bit about Nigeria. There was a lecturer there whose specialty it was. Unfortunately she was not able to go back and study more because of politics at the time. But she held this lecture and I attended for several years. She was rather nice but also extremely dull in how she delivered. So each semester the lecture would start out with a room full of students in the beginning and near the end there would be me, my friend Jutta and one other student. Up to the point where the lecturer would come to class, see that there were only two students attending and ask, „Where’s Ms. Mayer?“ Since Jutta and I were musicologist and music education major she started telling us more about Nigerian music and instruments.

So if you managed to stay awake what she was saying was actually very interesting. Staying awake was a bit challenging, though.

I’m not quite sure what I want to do today. There might be some keyboard testing and there also might be some camera testing. We’ll see.

Woke up early and did all morning routine things but novel-writing. I started reading a new book about sketch notes. There was knitting and talking with the rest of the family.

Housework, cleaning, no laundry and lunch:

Yeah for leftover lasagna.

Then I fell into a major afternoon slump. I did manage to move the keyboard from the boy’s room down to the studio at least and I re-filled three of my fountain pens:

No idea why two of the pens were leaking but the result was this:

It’s always the black ink, the one that is hardest to get off again.

I had made the mistake of putting all the chocolate in the kitchen after lunch. I’m sad to report that that chocolate is no more.

My husband and I talked a bit more about the logistics of teaching students in person again soon. I ordered some tape saying „Please keep the distance“ on it.

The Voyager episode we watched was actually rather good for a change. It was part one of „Workforce“. So far I don’t remember a single episode from seasons six or seven. Maybe I didn’t watch them when they aired in Germany. I do remember the series finale, though. Weird.

Afterwards I watched a Facebook live and tried to take visual notes but ended up taking just regular notes after all. I had no idea what pictures to put in for things like „Intellection“ or “story creation”. Then I read my way through the „Girls with Slingshots“-webcomic. Funny how I didn’t make it to bed in time.

Today there will be running. And a shower. And possibly a big afternoon slump and eating too much. Because plans should always be realistic. I can’t believe Pentecost break is halfway over. My grasp of time at the moment is so bad that I flipped the calendar to June five days late. This never happens.

Right now all my to-do lists seem rather aspirational.

I slept in because I forgot to set my alarm. Woke up at six and did my full morning routine, yeah! Including spending half an hour with the novel-in-progress. Not writing but reading and thinking. Had a good breakfast and some pleasant conversation with my husband and then the boy. When I was about to go grocery shopping the boy brought me a list from my mother-in-law.

I walked all the way there and got all the groceries. The list didn’t look all that long but the shopping cart was full. I seriously doubted I could carry all of that home by myself. Later the boy told me I should have called him on the phone. He could have come to help me. That didn’t even occur to me.

I did carry everything, resting every ten minutes or so. I’m sure my arms are a few centimeters longer now.

Came back home where my husband was right in the middle of making lasagna. So I put the groceries away as fast as I could, washed my hands a couple of times, assembled the lasagna and helped to make salad. Lunch was late:

The boy and I did the dishes and talked some more, then I sat down to get some things done. Well, I didn’t. Sat there, did some research for teaching in person again and that was it. I then watched some video, talked some more with my husband, had a sandwich for dinner and watched the „Mrs. Reynolds“-episode of Firefly. I almost feel like we should ration the episodes because there are so few.

I did manage to get to bed on time for the second day in a row, so that’s something.

I think I have such a hard time moving anything forward at the moment  because it all feels rather overwhelming. The boy is having the same problem with two things he needs to do for school. He has been procrastinating for days now.

So I better take the advice that I gave him and start with something small.

Today there will be the weekly cleaning, the changing of the sheets and some other things.

Woke up early, made the mistake of looking at my phone. Not good. Seems the US is getting crazier by the minute with the need to protest against racism in the midst of a pandemic. It’s a shame that it is necessary to protest against racism and inequality in this century still.

Did yoga, did not write, had breakfast. Talked with husband and did dishes. Then I rode my bike seven kilometers to a nearby town to get my prescription renewed. I also went to the health food store there, got all the things but forgot to stock up on my favorite mint tea.

Rode all the way back through sunny and tranquil fields, went to the pharmacy, emerged triumphant with medication. There was lunch:

Had some chocolate, did more dishes, took a break. Then waited for the boy to show up so I could show him how to mend holes in socks (his request). Apparently he forgot because he never showed.

And then I just sat there, ate mindlessly, watched videos and read. Definitely not the best use of an afternoon.

The boy and I watched an episode of Firefly (excellent as always), I started writing this post, wrote a list and went to bed.

Today there will be running, writing, yoga and some more things. I think I’ll attempt a brain dump. That might get me unstuck.