Beltane Greetings to the pagan pals! Labor Day/May Day greetings to the socialist/communist buddies and family! I’m boycotting whatever I’m supposed to boycott, which is easy, since I don’t really buy stuff now.
This is what a maypole looks like when you’re finished with the dance. I miss our old church maypole. Photo by @comeilmare via Twenty20.
Ooh, yesterday did not start off at all well. I had a great deal of trouble keeping my cool in a meeting at work. I have a lot of issues with people who “mansplain” and treat me like I’m stupid, and talk right over me. I’m really glad I had witnesses so it won’t be made out that I pitched a hysterical woman fit or something.
Then I broke one of the crystals for my new chandelier. And my foot has not stopped hurting. Oh woe is me, but WAIT. There’s LIGHTING over at the Pope Residence!
This topic did not come from me; rather it came from a very enjoyable email newsletter I read every day, which you might also like. It’s called The Well-Tended Life, and it’s by Kerri Wilt, a motivational speaker-type person.
I don’t wanna!
Kerri talks about how much the current times have been weighing everyone down, herself included. I know my friends and family are weighed down.
For example, my Cameron Breakfast Club friends, who now meet on Zoom, spent a lot of time today trying to figure out some way to see each other in person without it making any of us uncomfortable. We all have slightly different levels of comfort with social distancing and staying safe, it became clear. After talking about what the library will do, what restaurants may do, and where germs lurk in public spaces, the best we could come up with is sitting around a fire circle on private land, with our chairs at least 10 feet apart. I guess some yelling might be involved?
I truly want this thing. And it can be social-distancing compatible, right?
Now, this came from a pretty darned positive bunch of intelligent women who are lucky enough to be able to shelter in place and stay safe that way. I can only imagine the frustrations of people who don’t have the options to isolate (large families, cramped houses, people who work in essential places like groceries and drug stores, health-care workers)…the negativity seems pretty justified.
These ARE hard times and we DO all have a variety of responses and a variety of feelings about the best way forward. It is simply a complicated issue from a an practically unimaginable number of totally legitimate perspectives.
Gratuitous cute dog picture to help you feel better.
Nonetheless, I firmly believe that it can help us deal with our own stress and frustration by some positive reframing. Rather than rephrase, I’d like to share what Kerri Wilt said in her email (here’s a link to the whole message).
Some Ideas To Combat the Negative Narrative Virus:
-Challenge yourself to begin ALL conversations with a positive statement. Chat first about the good things that are happening all around you.
-Try to curb your use of words like: crazy, hate, sucks, and ridiculous. Having trouble breaking the habit? Then take it a step further and create a “corona curse” jar that collects a dollar from anyone who uses these negative words.
-Consider even renaming this time we are in, by calling it a time of high adventure, excitement, exploration, reflection, or reinvention. Or begin referring to it instead as an awesome opportunity for community, for family, for fresh starts, and even for fun.
-And for goodness sakes…SMILE when you come in contact with people. Your face may be the only positive thing they see all day, so make it count!
Hmm, maybe you can’t tell people are smiling while wearing masks, after all.
And on that last one, you CAN tell people are smiling when they are wearing masks, so don’t let that stop you!
My favorite idea is to call this a time for reinvention. It certainly IS that. Finding creative solutions to meet our needs, like the Breakfast Club friends did today, is one kind of reinvention. Our newfound drive to tell people we love how we feel NOW, as my friend Nancy did with me on the phone earlier today, that’s another “awesome opportunity” we can all engage in. My letters I’ve been writing to random friends and family (slowly but surely) are another way to build community that I wouldn’t have done otherwise.
This stationery is just waiting for me to write a note on it. Dang work meetings keep slowing me down.
Take your mind off your worries, even for a little while, and think of things and people you love. Do something for someone or make your environment a little better. This way, we absolutely WILL have some fond memories of this time, along with the other stuff, which we can’t deny or make go away through forced perkiness. I’m not recommending forced perkiness, just noticing the opportunities as well as the challenges.
What the heck? It’s a green oak-slug moth! I would not have seen it if I hadn’t been sitting in the carport at work doing a phone call.
If it weren’t for the pandemic, Vlassic wouldn’t have met his new buddy, my brother-in-law, Jim, with the RV that’s safe from mean ole Penney.
One more thing, read inspiring content, not just doom, gloom, name-calling and arguing. Here’s where to sign up for Kerri’s newsletter, by the way. And don’t forget Nataly of Happier Now! Her emails have helped me, too.
Let me know what’s been uplifting for you, what’s helped you reframe this time to be something with both positive and negative aspects, or any other news you’d like to share. Staying in touch with our virtual friends counts as community building, doesn’t it?
Just a quick hello between emails. Today is really a Monday, with issues piling in from every which way at work. I’ve only been at my desk an hour and I’m ready to go back to the ranch.
Speaking of which, while we were all taking a day off yesterday and I was making things out of dewberries, we also did a bunch of organizing.
Our neighbors at Wild Type Ranch just delivered a quarter of a cow’s worth of meat (and it was one of the fancy neighbor cows, mmm). That meant it was time to re-arrange the freezers. We dug into that with gusto.
Ground beef, sausage, and staples.
Now there are separate areas for beef, pork, chicken, veal, and venison (all from around here except chicken). We should be able to find things!
Meat and meat products. All veggies are in the freezer in the refrigerator or the garage.
Since she was already in organizational mode, Kathleen then turned to the spice rack, which now can be used much better. She put all the big things of spices, especially the “Aw Shit” series that the guys love to smother every piece of meat we eat with, in a different cabinet. All can be seen now.
The Shit series, and many, many spray cans of PAM. Lee loves it.
And THEN she went ahead and rearranged all the pantry items as well. We didn’t lose as much stuff to bugs as I thought. I hate pantry moths with a passion. They are one of the few things I can honestly say I cannot stand.
But, now we can see everything, some old stuff is gone, and we founds some things that we think my sister will be able to enjoy, so we can share some of our freezer bounty.
I am gonna label the tops of these jars.
Mostly there were a lot of dewberries. More of that is to come!
We had tons of dewberries in 2018. We froze enough to make jam, which I’ve still not done. Luckily Kathleen knows how.
Dewberries are our native berry.
Last year, there weren’t any. I guess it’s cyclical. This is another good year, though. Kathleen and I picked enough for a cobbler last week. This week I picked a lot!
Just some of my haul.
My faithful companion, Vlassic, tried to help out, but the plants were way taller than him. I saw one mouse and one small snake, which isn’t bad, considering how deep in the wild area I went.
I can’t see any berries, Mom.
So, today is dewberry day. I first made dewberry walnut bread. It didn’t rise much.
Fresh berry bread.
However, it’s quite tasty, and Lee and Chris have already finished one loaf. That’s a good sign.
They ate it!
Next, while Kathleen rearranged the pantries, I made a pound cake for Chris’s birthday cake. That used up lots of our eggs, which is good. Nice eggs from Ginger and Berta Lee!
This should be good
To go with the cake, I made a dewberry sauce. Mmm. I tasted it. It’s quite bright!
It looks better in jars.
The rest will be jelly or jam. Kathleen has the equipment. That’s for later in the week. We still have two huge bags!
What could be better than sugar and berries?The finished product, pound cake with dewberry sauce. It was good with ice cream!
Why not cram three completely different stories in one blog post? Sure, I’m a wordy person, after all. Plus, I have stuff to do and it’s a beautiful day, so here goes.
Mad!
So, we need to wear scrubs at the Hearts Homes and Hands office much of the time, and the first ones I ordered supposedly fit right, but were a bit form-fitting to me. I ordered some more, including some of the incredibly comfy scrub yoga pants in happy colors.
They arrived today. I excitedly opened the package. Hmm. This looks pretty somber. What the heck?
Pretty consistent.
In the delivery were five black scrub shirts. A couple are pretty cute and they ARE in my size (or at least the size I prefer). But, hey, I wanted DC Action Heroes, some sloths, and some paisley! And no lime green pants! Hmph.
Customer Support said to send an email with a photo of the delivery and the packing slip (which had the right stuff on it). I sure hope I see my actual order soon. According to Kathleen and Lee, they’ve messed up most of our orders. Maybe we should try another company?
Glad!
There is more I am glad about than I am mad about today. First, I asked the Alexa thing to play “the Who” and instead it is playing WHO. Well, GEEZ, no one told me they had a new album in December! And it’s so Pete Townshend in its lyrics. I am one happy person. If this is their last album, it will be a great way to go. (Still missing the half of the band who are no longer with us, of course.)
Chris is at the stage in the Pope renovation that he is putting up trim in high places. He’s also cutting lots of crazy angles.
Angles
I’d wondered how he was managing to hold the boards up while he nailed them, especially the long ones. That’s when he introduced me to his rather quiet new helper.
Hold it right there!
Meet Wilson. He holds the trim just right as Chris nails the other end down. How do I know his name?
Oh, I see.
He has a name tag. That’s very helpful, since he’s the tall and silent type. Very patient, too.
A little scruffy, isn’t he?
He looks a lot like Chris, too. I’m really glad that man has a sense of humor. It must make doing all this alone a lot easier.
Every day it’s something new. Today I’ve been trying to attend and lead meetings, dealing with irritated people, and handling email/messages, but my head seems to have inserted a fuzzy barrier between the brain and the world. I’m just all fuzzy, buzzy, or I don’t know, maybe wuzzy.
Wooden, that’s it. My head feels wooden. And her is some real wood stained to resemble the luxury vinyl. The wood and stain will be on the stairs and doors at the Pope Residence. Nice.
Are any of you going through periods like that, where you know you have to do something, but you just draw a blank? Once I get going, I’m fine. I’ve managed to get my meetings done, respond to requests, and review some content today, but each time I switch to a new topic, I space out. It took me FOUR tries to get a meeting on my calendar where it was supposed to go! Geez!
I took a walk around the block and that helped for a while. I guess I just need to walk in circles in between activities!
Here’s my new boyfriend, a slim water heater. We will finally have hot water in an office!
At least there’s some good news. Kathleen determined it’s safe to see my sister again, so I got to see her today. I guess two weeks have passed since…something, I don’t know what. I do know she’s wearing her mask and not going out so much now, so maybe we all have made it past some quarantine milestone.
Honestly, I think it takes a lot of energy (psychic and physical) just to keep on doing what needs to be done, with the underlying fear, dread, worry, or anger (depending on your viewpoint) that the shelter in place guidelines bring out.
Perhaps I need more yoga. Image by @lelia_milaya via Twenty20.
Listening to the news can be more than I can take. This morning they were playing a montage of dire headlines about the stock market and unemployment, and I just pulled to the side of the road and looked at the sunshine on trees for a few minutes. When the guy on the news keeps chirping, “Yes, it’s bad; it’s the worst it’s ever been; it’s something to tell your grandchildren about,” your motivation to head into the office and listen to the CEO tell you how great your software company is doing (because OUR clients aren’t restaurants and oil/gas businesses!) becomes less. Hmm, maybe that’s just me.
Well, darn it, I think I ranted again. I got through a WHOLE day with no rants, though. Here, look at one of our copper ceiling tiles. That’s cheerful.
On my walk, I stopped by the Pope Residence and got to see a new ceiling tile sample.
This is me saying thanks. My goodness, my complexion is good. It looks like I have no wrinkles! Thanks, SnapChat!
Well, hey there, kind readers! And you are kind. My heart is warmed by the kind comments I’ve received on yesterday’s post where I lost it about the consequences of sheltering in place. I felt like I was doing some very personal whining there, but more than one person (totally out of the blue) told me it felt like I was in their head, so I must have struck a chord with a lot of folks. Yep, we aren’t alone. Thanks to all for your supportive words and thoughts!
I’m happy to report that after I spewed forth all my negativity, two or three potentially nasty situations at my jobs turned around into positive and encouraging situations instead. I guess I made room for abundance, or something!
Pope Residence Update?
This fancy trim needed to be finished off, so now it’s ready to be painted. The floor part won’t get done until the floors are refinished.
On to the topic at hand, the work at the Pope Residence has slowed down this week for a couple of reasons. Easton is no longer helping out (he and Nicole went home), we began to run low on needed supplies, and the weather hasn’t cooperated much.
My bathroom is partially trimmed, but we’re out of boards until more get brought in and painted.
Today was supposed to be the day Chris went to pick up important things like doors, more trim material, and the all-important beautiful tin ceiling material. Oooh, ahh! But, we had another big ole rainstorm. It’s cleared up, so tomorrow may be fun!
That perky panel is for access to the air conditioning unit when it needs servicing. The hole is for air intake and will have a vent on it.
In any case, the ceilings are now pale blue in the offices we’re working on now, and a lot of the trim for those rooms is in. We have to wait to finish the trim in there until the floors are sanded and finished. We’ve got to rent the big sander to do that. More excitement to look forward to!
The blue on the ceiling looks fine, and the door trim makes the main office look more finished. Someone broke a tile on the hearth, so we have to figure out a way to deal with that!
Chris remembered to paint under the stairs yesterday, and earlier in the week finished enclosing the stairs. They also need to get sanded so we can stain them a color that goes with our flooring. I foresee a lot of sanding.
The forgotten under-stairs storage area.
Stairs ready to finish and add rails.
We’re ready for another big push, and Kathleen and I are ready to help out over the weekend. We’re gonna get it done, yes we are.
Life is rolling along here in scenically rural Milam County, Texas. And its population is getting sicker. There are only 25,000-ish people in this county, so our ten COVID-19 cases are a lot. It was NOT good news to find out yesterday that one person who got sick worked at the local Dairy Queen. We’ve gotten take-out from there during our confinement.
Our lovely Dairy Queen
Oops. This has led Kathleen to declare that we bring lunches from home from now on. No one has disagreed.
Now, an important point to make here is that we have the best Dairy Queen possible here. It’s in a modern, new building. It’s clean. They pay well above minimum wage and have employees who’ve been there many years. The staff have all been briefed on precautions to take. And the owner, Robert Mayfield, immediately closed the store so that they can disinfect it from top to bottom and be sure that it’s safe (and that the workers there have a chance to quarantine and stay safe, themselves).
An example of Judge Young’s weekly newspaper articles.
Our County Judge, Steve Young, has been doing a heroic job going on the radio, doing Facebook Live, and otherwise staying in touch with the people here, urging them to not gather in large groups, wear masks if working with the public or out in public, and to stay the heck home. We’re all really proud of the work he and our Health Department are doing.
But, it takes actual cooperation to prevent the spread of disease. No one at the hardware store, serving the public, was wearing a mask this morning. No one at the gas station where I got fuel this morning was wearing a mask or gloves other than me. I am NOT gonna touch a credit card machine with my hands! I also have a very clean credit card now.
It’s good to have your own company hand sanitizers spread everywhere you go, so you can clean your credit cards and such.
I know Cameron is not alone. There are people everywhere who believe themselves immortal or invulnerable or just don’t give a shit who are wandering around like nothing has changed. Now, I’m not referring to people who have no access to masks or gloves and have to be out so their families don’t starve; I know isolation and protection is a privilege. I’m talking about people who feel perfectly comfortable putting other people’s lives in danger by their choices. Who knows how many innocent folks with underlying conditions that predispose them to having a bad case of the virus these people will kill in the name of their personal freedom?
Happy thoughts, yeah.
I Said There Would Be Some “Ups” in This Post
Look at all those freckles.
Yes, I did. I was looking at myself on Zoom yesterday (it’s hard NOT to look at yourself) and realized I looked as bad as I felt. So, last night I re-colored my hair for the first time since early March. It’s now orange with some pink highlights. (My next hair appointment isn’t for another month, at least, so plenty of time to wash out color by then.)
I put on makeup and lipstick today, added my sparkly yellow shoes, and I donned my new Hearts Homes and Hands lab coat. I look all professional and up-beat, and I’m hoping that will spread to my mood and attitude. So far, it’s helped. If I have to take things one step at a time, at least they will be sparkly steps!
Here you can see my lab coat. It reminds me of the one I had in grad school to keep chalk off my clothes, just like my mentor, Georgia, wore.
A Little Pope News That’s In-Between
Chris is really close to getting the first two offices completely done, other than installing the barn door between them. He has been working on trim all week. There is a LOT involved in doing trim, which is sorta sad, since when it’s well done, it blends into the background.
Trim in progress.
The doorway between the two rooms will NOT blend into the background. It’s darned bright and cheerful, especially on Lee’s side!
Trim, trim, trim.
Another thing that is taking a while is that they have to make dozens and dozens of shims to go behind the metal to trim windows on the tin walls. And, well, the house isn’t all level, so many shims are needed elsewhere. Easton spent an entire day cutting shims. Now, that sounds fun. Or does it?
Without shims, this trim would stick out from the wall, because the metal has bump-outs.
The plan is to get the remaining two rooms all cleaned up and move the supplies needed to finish the rest of the downstairs over there. We can’t paint the ceilings or refinish the floors if there are wood and tools all over the place!
So…even though we remain sort of dazed and confused, my plan is to dazzle with my shiny hair, shoes, watch band…anything cheerful!
That’s how I’m getting by right now. How about you? I celebrated finishing that 40-day project by not writing anything yesterday. I was blissfully involved in a work project that takes all my concentration and passes time quickly, which was a real relief, but left no time for blogging here. Everyone needs an occasional break.
I’ll just keep fiddling while the boat goes down. At least the sunset’s pretty.
As if the days didn’t blur together badly enough these days, I’m in a holding pattern on lots of things right now. Just taking one step at a time is not only all I’m able to do, but the right thing to do right now. I’ll get back to figuring out the future plans and options later, when my head’s clearer (all my stuff is just related to various jobs and their various stresses, nothing horrible).
Randomness and Birds
It’s been nice to have Kathleen doing “stress cooking.” I like it when someone cooks to take their mind off things. She made me the best baked chicken on a bed of collard greens last night. I truly love collard greens (weird southern girl thing), and these may be the best I ever ate. I’m so grateful that she and Chris are here helping me and Lee out right now.
The spring air is making everyone sniffly here, but it’s really been nice to see what kinds of creatures are doing their regular things. My friend Donna, who is not a tech person, wrote a little blog on this topic, if you want some more nice photos. I’m really happy to see her getting out of her comfort zone.
I’m not sure what kind of moth this little guy will grow up to be, but wow, what a pretty caterpillar!
In fact, just this morning I was thrilled to see that bluebirds are nesting in the dead tree by the road again this year. There used to be woodpeckers in there, so I guess they made a nice house. The phoebes are nesting in our garage and spend most of their days screeching PHOEBE at each other and eating bugs. They are a lot of fun to watch.
The phoebes ate dozens of bugs while I was on the phone at my ranch office last evening.
The bug population is doomed around the Hermits’ Rest, or at least less awful than it could be, thanks to the handy birds. The scissortails are back at work, and there’s nothing prettier than watching a male go after a bug. The swallows are in full force, as well as those phoebes. I watch the little sparrows go after bugs every afternoon when I go feed the horses. Just think how many mosquitoes and other bugs we’d have after all this rain if we didn’t have our avian buddies!
Producing pollen this week is the prickly ash. Go tree, go!
Today I’ll head out and see what new is blooming. I’ve seen a couple of winecups, and we have our eyes on the dewberries. Yum. Back to basics. It’s good for you.
The Hermits' Rest 