There’s a lot of this going on
because at home, a crew of guys was working furiously to replace this:
with this:
(can I get some extra love for knowing what a plenum (and octopus) is?)
I’m calling this “Study in Tans” which is pretty ritzy for a picture of Ginny snoozing on the couch.
We are temporarily visiting Mom because of furnace issues. Harry seems to have found the whole thing exhausting. He explores a little and then sprawls on the floor wherever he is. Deirdre is uncharacteristically hiding although I have her out squished between me and the back of the couch. This too shall pass, one way or another.
Oh and of course, even though they both went in their carriers without issues, there was a LOT of singing in the car.
Today, while other stuff was going on (major furnace stuff) I did some tidying and got some stuff done. If I could do that much every day it would be productive. After a few days of below freezing temps, it was 30F and above and felt positively balmy. Which is good when your furnace isn’t doing much. Several times today, I took a break by just sitting on the steps. I was plenty warm enough (thank you Merino) and the sun was bright. Alas there was no seed for the birdies. That had been on my to-do list today but…
When it was all done for the day, I put together a little food and a glass of wine and sat down to watch All Creatures Great and Small. The focus right now seems to be on character development – what in the past made these people who they are today. It was a bit heavy on the feels but it was good to end the day with.
Tomorrow is Monday already and it was a good thing I had gotten a few days ahead of the World Peace Poetry Postcards list because today there was no writing. Maybe I’ll figure out something after this. I had my first card and it wasn’t anything I could play off so I guess it may be time to look through my stash.
While I was watching All Creatures, I was in the room where briefly I did work from home. I found a few odd receipts from holiday presents and other scraps and put them into the trash. Then I found this, and when I opened it up, it was from my training to do that online sales support stuff, notes of changes along the way, the normal retail management stuff and then on to “My Last Working Day at Apple”. Probably about two-thirds of the notebook is used. There were a few pages of fountain pen testing and writing and one not-so-bad ink sketch of a sleeping cat. I mean, one of my co-workers.
Then I got ready to get into bed and was soon joined by Harry. They both seemed to have forgiven me for throwing them into carriers and putting them in the car for a little while today, when I didn’t really know what was going to happen. Mainly I was worried about them getting out somehow, or getting into somewhere where I couldn’t find them. But now they’re both curled up alongside me and we’ll be all right until morning.
One of the best things to come out of the pandemic was the embracing of things like Zoom, YouTube, Facebook live etc for communicating. We got to be live with people far away and spread out and sometimes who we might never had had the chance to spend time with. Some community grew up around that. Places like museums and bookshops that embraced online gatherings kept the interest of their followers and gathered new ones. During the early months of covid I had a daily and weekly schedule of these which really helped a lot.
https://www.facebook.com/BillyCollinsPoetry/videos
Baumgarten Fine Art Restoration
I learned a lot from very knowledgeable folks who generously shared with an unseen audience. I appreciated folks who showed what they did or what they were interested in via video or audio online. I can’t really explain so easily while watching people cook in tiny Japanese or Chinese restaurant kitchens is soothing but I went with it. I learned quite a bit about art conservation and how to restore mostly metal objects. I sat daily with a former poet laureate (and a few hundred other homebound souls) and sipped adult beverages like we were in a salon sharing witty conversation and ignoring the world for a half hour. I received close up guided tours of objects I might never visit or be able to view that closely.
Some of that has mellowed as people have ventured back into the world but I’m still taking advantage of things which come around and this week that included this:
An Anniversary Edition of Braided Creek by Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison, published by Copper Canyon.
It’s been interesting to see the use of technology evolve over these past few years, and to see people grow more comfortable using it and understanding how it can be used and best used. Thanks all!
We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.
