Okay, hear me out: Sicilian twins playing Coldplay on violins.
Here's a capybara getting a massage from a chicken.
And...we're down two appliances in this pandemic. At least it's the dishwasher and the microwave and not the stove and the refrigerator UNLESS I JUST JINXED MYSELF!
I keep writing this blorg post, a few words a day, and each day things get stranger, my friends. We were without running water for one day, one brief strange day of using those crinkly plastic bottles of water (city-supplied, thanks Portland!) to wash our hands and rinse our toothbrushes, and scooping buckets from the tub into the toilet to flush. Since I wrote the above, we've replaced the microwave, but the dishwasher will have to wait awhile, since a person can purchase a new dishwasher, but a person has to haul it from the sidewalk into the house on their own these days. Mark and I keep fearfully pressing our ears to the refrigerator: is it making a weird noise?
And while washing dishes by hand is a stress-relieving activity for a couple of us (Edna and me), we need the refrigerator, which is so full it feels like Christmastime.
I feel like I'm playing pandemic bingo, and I'm almost there:
- Made our own sourdough starter
- Made the whipped coffee
- Sewed a bunch of masks
- Started a 30-day ukulele class on YouTube
- Made the beneficial biscuits
- Made a comforting soup
- Got carryout from a local restaurant
- Had groceries delivered to our porch
- Donated three N95 masks (discovered in the basement) to a local hospital
- Made no-knead bread thrice
- Watched Tiger King
- Joined a family Zoom meeting
- Cried when a beloved celebrity died
- Canceled a haircut, a dentist appointment, a mammogram, a blood test, and a follow-up shingles vaccine
- Made baguettes
- Had bagels delivered to our porch
- Stood in line for 45 minutes to get into a grocery store
Things are about to enter a new strange phase as the DOT starts work this month on the roundabout project that involves our driveway. Today I gazed out the window, distracted from work, watching two guys with a...circular saw? Cut a line across the bottom of our driveway?
I went to Trader Joe's for the first time in weeks, and their system felt very organized and as safe as can be expected, with all the workers wearing (homemade) masks, and very few shoppers in the store at a time. It's like a dream, drifting around the grocery store peering over the top of my own homemade mask, my own breath like a little ghost caught in front of my mouth. I put a small container of heavy cream in my cart and then wove my way up and down the aisles before I realized it had a leak, and I'd left a long, winding Hansel-and-Gretel trail of white drops through the entire store. I pantomimed my apology to a worker. I don't know how he felt about it, since we were both wearing masks and it's hard to interpret mood through them. But in general, the TJ's folks were not their usual cheery selves.
