Category: Thoughts

Some of these I have already mentioned. Just trying to remind us all that there is always a silver lining. Always? Usually. Usually? Often. Often? Sometimes.

1. Less traffic.
2. No mo ro bo (Robot calls have stopped at our house.)
3. Less rushed with a looser schedule. (No, I didn’t say “loser”.)
4. More time to pull weeds, both here and with my friends.
5. Time to redesign my website.
6. Catching up on To-Be-Read stack of books.
7. Wearing Crocs exclusively, no matter what the outfit.
8. More time with my cats, Tucker, Jackson, and Pippin.
9. Time to make jelly from elderberry juice frozen who knows when.
10. Can knit during a Zoom meeting, which would not be acceptable if we were meeting in person.

    

    

    What have you noticed as a good unintended consequence?

1. I went to Visalia for the first time in several weeks and the lack of traffic was nice.
2. I drove a little over the speed limit, and was passed in a blur by every car that came near me. Fueled by frustration, rebellion, and a desire for adventure, no matter how small?
3. It troubles me that I was not carded at the grocery store when I was there during the Senior Hours. (And those hours are probably the reason for the light traffic. . . who else goes to Visalia at 5:45 a.m.??)
4. Many of the bulk bins at Winco are back! These are the ones overhead that require pulling a lever rather than the ones below that provide a scoop so you can reach in the barrel and gather your own food.
5. The library sent me a notice that I have 2 books due today. Well, yes, indeed, they have been due since March, but the drop-box is locked. But maybe the notice means the library will be reopening soon!
6. I started a new project that will be on my blog next week.
7. A drawing student came to my home, set up her own table and chair in my driveway, and we had a lesson. This worked because it wasn’t hot this week. No photos – I often live my life without documenting it, particularly when it involves other people. 
8. Here is an article that explains how viruses are spread, describing which behaviors are high or lower risk: The Risks
9. Here is an article (long, helpful) about the unintended consequences of the shut down: SJVSun.com
10. Farewell-to-Spring wildflowers are thick around Kaweah Lake: beautiful pinky-lavender flowers that make me sad. The green is gone and the heat is on its way.

P.S. The reason it troubled me to not be carded is that I wanted people to say “You couldn’t possibly be a senior!!” Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. . .

1. Why in a town called Three Rivers do people buy water?
2. Why do people wear masks when they are alone in their own cars?
3. Why does IHeartRadio play the same commercials as many as five times in a row?
4. Why do people only return phone calls after you’ve given up waiting for them and have left the room (or the phone)?
5. Why do people tailgate?
6. Why is there so much conflicting information about The Virus?
7. Why do I knit faster when I think I might run out of yarn?
8. What happens to worn out batteries on electric cars?
9. WHAT AM I GOING TO WORK ON NOW THAT MY COMMISSIONS ARE COMPLETED??

I’ll figure out something. Always have.

Beauty restores. Beauty comforts. Beauty heals. You cannot overdose on beauty. 

He has made everything beautiful in its time. . . Ecclesiastes 3:11a

I saw this on Instagram, and don’t know who to credit. Totally tickles my funny bone.

My business referral group, Business Network International, tells us to meet with other members in our chapter once a week. We need to truly know one another to confidently refer business. This friend and I met at the river and properly socially distanced.

This is probably the best my studio garden will look all year. Everything is temporary (including this stupid virus, so there.)

As a very late adopter of tech, until a few weeks ago I didn’t know what FaceTime was. This week, a dear friend and I had a long visit via FaceTime – what a treat! We’ve known each other since 5th or 6th grade and after a decades long separation, we reunited about 4 years ago. I showed her some artwork; she sang me a song and I “met” her husband.  (Sorry, no photo for this.)

My friends/customers put this on Facebook, and then sent it to me as a screenshot because they know I would enjoy the setting for their goofy post. Makes me grin. (Yes, I know there shouldn’t be an apostrophe in “it’s” but I didn’t write it. Or its. Or it’s.)

May you find some fun on Saturday. (Remember when you wished weekends would last forever? What do you think about that now?)

1. People who work in grocery stores, post offices and are delivery drivers are the salt of the earth.
2. I am more of a hugger than I realized. Gotta stop that impulse!
3. Why are different organizations raising money for healthcare workers when it seems that the newly unemployed waiters and waitresses and restaurant cooks are the ones who need the money?
4. It is impossible to ever finish either yard work or housework.
5. Everyone responds differently to a crisis, particularly a crisis no one has experienced before and with all sorts of conflicting instructions.
6. I have everything I need and much of what I want, including music, books, and yarn, and yet it is so much fun to order new things.
7. Fiction is a great escape.
8. Any excuse for ice cream or chocolate will do.
9. There are so many ways to reach out to other people, and so many people are using them to say, “How are you doing?” as a real question instead of just a standard line of greeting.
10. People who are in separate locations but can make music as if they are all in the same place just boggle my mind.
11. I love oranges, orange groves, and orange blossoms.

Lots of thoughts have come to me as we are shut down. Some are new, some are just a reinforcement of something I’ve already known or suspected.

1. News exists to alarm, excite, upset, and capture attention. This is more important to news channels than to inform.
2. Everything can be politicized, even something as universal as a virus.
3. The library is a bigger part of my life than I realized. I have BOUGHT 3, no, 4 BOOKS in the past several weeks, something I usually refrain from doing because I don’t like to own too much stuff. (All non-fiction, so they will be underlined and referred to for awhile.)
4. Growing food is very difficult. I thought I had figured out how to grow broccoli by protecting it underneath from gophers, around from deer, and above from birds. The aphids snuck in the remaining holes. 
5. Rural living has lots of advantages over urban life.
6. Staying stocked up on essentials is a good way to live at all times. Not hoarding, but simply stocked up.
7. Neighbors are a hugely helpful part of life. These are conversations I’ve participated in or overheard: “Do you have room in your green can?” “I made some hand sanitizer – do you want some?” “We picked more oranges than we can use – would you like some?” “I made too much soup so I am bringing you dinner!” “May I borrow your pole saw?” “I’m going grocery shopping – do you need anything?” “Want to go for a walk?” “Here is a CD of encouraging music that I made.” “I made bread, and there is a loaf with your name on it.”
8. It is wise to limit one’s consumption of “news”.
9. My face is the itchiest location on the planet.
10. Focusing on what we have, the blessings in our homes, yards and neighborhoods keeps away the fear and frustrations.

This got too long. It will be continued tomorrow.