“What quarrel, what harshness, what unbelief in each other can subsist in the presence of a great calamity, when all the artificial vesture of our life is gone, and we are all one with each other in primitive mortal needs?”- George Eliot
I haven’t written anything for at least a month. Maybe two. I can’t remember. Well, that’s not quite right. I just stopped writing in my Husbandry blog. Instead I’m writing a very cheerful story about a dystopian world. You know that “deep state” that Trumpians always talk about? It’s about to become real. The New World Order of Q is about to begin. Get ready. Buy my book.
Viruses aren’t funny. They simply are not. How can something that is not really alive, that depends entirely on a host to survive and multiply be so freakin’ nasty. Virginia and I got married on March 20, 2020. And we have been domiciled together for that entire time. Ninety eight days together. Nonstop. Twenty-four hours each day. Same house. Two thousand three hundred fifty-two straight hours. Couldn’t possibly have been a better start to our marriage. But it is not exactly like a honeymoon.
Working from home may have been a novelty for the first day or so. But long term, zooming all day is downright stressful. Sure, you can zoom in your workout clothes which may be comfy and all, but non-stop staring at people on a screen with a dozen talking heads in boxes scattered across a monitor just isn’t normal for one thing and for another it is exhausting. Look, I don’t know why sitting in an office chair staring at a screen is exhausting but it is.
Exhausted, stressed out brides require a special response and a little time and space. Sure, she can go for a walk in the neighborhood, but she still has to come back home. Virginia likes people. She is a people person. She likes conversation and dialog. She is an extrovert. Not an extreme extrovert, but she is very comfortable with other people. I, on the other hand, like people okay, I just prefer not to have to actually talk to them. Well, there are exceptions. But I’m very comfortable being just with Virginia, or just with the dogs. Not that I’m equating my experience with Virginia and our two dogs. There is really no comparison. The dogs don’t talk back.
I don’t want to brag, but Virginia and I are pandemic trend setters. I’ve been baking sour dough bread for the last four years. It took a while. Maybe it took a pandemic. But, look, everyone is making sour dough now. You can’t hardly even find flour and yeast anymore. And puzzles. We had jigsaw puzzles going on day one. And now, everyone is doing jigsaw puzzles. For an introvert, I am setting trends right and left.
The main problem with the pandemic is sports. (Well, there is the whole death and disease thing.) Or perhaps, more accurately, the lack of sports. Today I watched the 1997 Mariner game against Cleveland or something. It was a little hard to stay interested. This is totally tragic. I was never that into tennis before I fell in love with Virginia. Now I am a fan of Roger like no one else. Well, not quite. Virginia’s daughter, Elizabeth, is Roger’s greatest fan. There is no close competition. But I miss watching the French Open and other great tennis matches.
This, of course, brings me to beer. Beer is designed to be drunk while watching sports. It just is. I don’t know why. But beer and sports go together like wine and cheese. I had a beer today. While watching the Mariners. Totally sad. The pandemic is ruining my beer drinking. But on a happier note, my wine consumption has gone up. My daughter is probably wondering how that could be possible, but our glass recycling bin is a bit embarrassing. I wish they would pick up every week. Once a month is kind of like shouting to all the neighbors that we have a wine problem. Which we don’t. Period. We just enjoy wine. More wine means more enjoyment. We seem to be enjoying the hell out of this pandemic.
Virginia and I met playing bridge at the Corvallis Duplicate Bridge Club. Most of the people who play bridge at the bridge club are, shall we say, older. At 72, I am a youngster. Virginia’s a babe. Totally. But the pandemic has disrupted our weekly bridge lives. There is no worse scenario other than perhaps bingo at the Senior Center than bridge for spreading the virus. So, all in-person bridge games are over. At least until there is a dependable vaccine. But there is bridge on-line. I love it. I can play bridge with other people or I can play bridge against robots. Either way, I don’t have to engage with them. It’s perfect!
I hope you all are doing well. If you have a good pandemic story, please feel free to share it with me.
Husbandry 