It is 8 pm. I was just out back with Ruby the Wonder Spaniel and sensed that something was wrong. It took a moment for me to realize: it is sooooo quiet. There are no planes overhead. People are in their houses. There are no cars on the road in our little neighborhood. I can’t hear any road noise from busy Ray Road. Even the coyotes and owls must be on quarantine, since I’ve not heard them for days.
It’s nice to have peace and quiet, because OMG, the sounds of all the children home during the day is very annoying. I’m a preschool teacher; you KNOW I love children! But the constant screaming from two doors down is enough to work my last nerve. They are just playing in the backyard, and I’m thinking the parents are inside wearing noise cancelling head phones?? The fact that our neighbors have six children under the age of 10 should certainly have been included in the disclosure section of our home sale contract! Eve asked me, “Did we yell all day when we were little?” NOOOOOOO!!!
I’ve mostly been inside anyway, glued to the news about the Corona virus. I listen to NPR a lot of the day, then I watch interviews with health officials on my phone. I saw a very informative interview with Dr. Fauci on the Trevor Noah show today which made me feel more calm about this huge global disaster.
We are using this time to do little things around the house. Cliff built us a lovely raised vegetable bed in the side yard. I went to Lowe’s a few days ago and bought tomato plants, a banana pepper plant, some basil and oregano. I ordered seed packets of mesclun lettuce mix, snap peas, and carrots which will arrive soon. We have bunnies in the neighborhood, but I can’t see a way they could get into our backyard. Just in case, we will finish it off with a chicken wire enclosure. Cliff worked so hard on it, and I will very much enjoy tending a small garden. I am about a month late on planting seeds, but our side yard is cool and our spring has been unseasonably mild!
We are fully stocked (except for pasta) and will be fine without going to the store for many weeks. When the stores started having TP shortages, I ordered an 80-roll package on Amazon. No, it is not the plush Charmin our tushes are used to, but I’m so happy to not have to worry about that. If you need some, let me know. I’m seriously using up a roll a day with allergy snot. I don’t take an allergy pill because a) I’ve never found one that works and b) they all make me drowsy and cranky. I won’t do it. My springtime allergies started when I was a teenager. I sneezed and was so boogery one year that a boyfriend actually broke up with me over it. I remember him saying something like, “I just can’t take this anymore!” Geez.
One of my favorite things to do is cook, so with Eve and her boyfriend often here at dinnertime, most evenings you will find me happily singing along with the radio and playing in the kitchen. Tonight was a delicious Gnocchi-cheese bake, and I baked an apple pie. Apples were almost free at the grocery last week since people aren’t shopping like they used to and I presume the store has a surplus. After six months in our new house, I’m finally able to locate things easily in our kitchen. There is a mysterious onion smell in one cupboard, and I can’t get rid of it no matter what I do! I call that area of the kitchen “The Ghost of Onions Past” and oh well, there are certainly worse smells in our house.
The three cats certainly produce a lot of smells, and constant vacuuming is a must to control the litter on the tile. I love my cats; it’s kitten season and I’m planning to sneak in another one (shhhhh, don’t tell Cliff!). The other day I was vacuuming up litter on the upstairs landing outside of Eve’s room when I had a great idea. “Eve! I just invented something! Picture a car-wash style litter box: The cats enter the litter box on one end, they do their business, then exit through the OTHER side, where their feet activate a small vacuum that sucks the litter off their feet, and TADA!” Eve says, “Mom, the cats would be so afraid that they’d never want to go in!” I’m still trying to work out that last detail. Maybe a treat dispenser at the end?? I may be onto something.
If you need a break from the news, there are hundreds of tiny concerts being played on the interwebs. Jimmy Kimmel is doing a “Bathroom Concert series” where I watched Dave Matthews sing An American Tune on the can from his house. If you want the full interview, here it is. Gave me a big smile! Dan Smith from Bastille has been singing every few days from his living room in London. I’m still hiking every day. It’s not as much fun when we are social distancing, my friends six feet in front of me. There is a lot of “What did you say???” No hugs and they don’t come into our house, but it’s the best part of my day.
And if you need toilet paper, I would be happy to share—just let me know.
Cheers,
Mary