That's Gneiss! #129 ~ Living through the mundane
Also: a gibbon ear-boxing a young tiger and a change of scenery
Hello friends,
I bet you’ve been waiting all week to see whether you bet correctly on the topic of whether our neighbors would have visitors on Easter!
Drum roll…
They did!
Are you as unsurprised as we were? Here’s the catch though - we almost missed it because the visitors drove their car into the back yard from the alley. Michael went out back in the evening and they were all sitting around the fire pit. I’m waiting for the ambulance to roll up there any day now.
It’s hard not to feel disheartened when it looks like nobody else on the street is even trying to minimize their trips out.
Whatever. I guess I have to let it go, since I have no control over the actions of any of those people. The only thing I can control is staying the hell away from all of them.
Ugh.
What a week it was.
It started out with a comical moment when I became a square on somebody else’s work-from-home quarantine bingo card.
Oops! Apparently my computer microphone was working JUST FINE and everyone on the meeting could hear Michael and me swearing about our grocery order that had been messed up. My friends tried to save me, but of course I wasn’t looking at my phone.
I spent all afternoon on the phone trying to get the issue sorted - my best guess is our shopper delivered an entire bag of groceries to somebody else.
Sigh.
It’s been hard to kick feeling blue this week. But it hasn’t been all bad!
We completed step two of the hair color change…
We’re starting to run low on coffee, so I ordered from Raven’s Brew Coffee. It’s important to support your favorite small businesses if you can. Good coffee, and art work by my favorite artist, Ray Troll! The coffee 3-packs even arrived in lovely gift bags. Let me know if you would like a postcard.
I took Friday off from work - a proper vacation day. It turned out to be a beautiful day, so I spent some time weeding in the garden. It was getting pretty wild along the north side of the house. It looked much better after I finished - hello creepy baby dolls!
I freed some pretty flowers, too.
It was quite a productive day for us. While I was busy in the garden, Michael cleaned up the trailer. We’ve decided to fix it up as a hang out space in the back yard, since camping trips are looking very unlikely this year. It will be fun to have the space for reading, doing art, drinking cocktails, and relaxing. I’m okay with not pulling the trailer into the woods to enjoy it, though I will miss the woods. I won’t miss sleeping on the bed though! Haha.
That’s not all we did on Friday! We also pulled down the weather station so I could put in new batteries and clean it up. It stopped measuring the temperature properly a week or so ago, and according to the troubleshooting the batteries were the likely culprit. Everything else is working fine. We got the station back up…
But no. It briefly worked, but is now stuck perpetually on 59 degrees. Drats. It’s probably the temperature sensor, which means I’ll have to do some more research on whether it can be replaced. Another gap in my data… darn it.
I’m really trying to keep my spirits up, but it has been hard this week. The library is starting to make plans for returning to work - no date specified, as that depends on the various orders from the state and local governments. But I’ll tell you, my anxiety skyrocketed just reading the email listing everything that is being ordered - masks, plexiglass shields, cleaning supplies, 183,000 squirts of Purell… and I don’t even work directly with the public any more.
~~NEWS FLASH!~~
The trailer is now fully ready for relaxing usage. We pulled the cushions and curtains out of the shed, and got some electricity hooked up.
Operation Change of Scenery is a success. Rowland is quite pleased.
All right then. Time to get the dog fed and out for his evening walk.
I hope you all find some happiness and peace in the next few days. I’ll see you again soon.
Cheers!
Tidbits
This song sums up perfectly how I feel this week.
@tape_measures - see how tape and caution ribbon are being used to help indicate safe distancing
infection + confusion - thoughts on the book I Am Legend and the movies it spawned (Sasha Frere-Jones)
Making: I carved a couple of stamps! Here’s one in progress…
Recently eaten: yes.
Reading: I’m finally feeling like reading again. I grabbed a book to put in the trailer, one of the advance reader copies I picked up in Nashville called Vagabonds (sci-fi translated from Chinese). I finally finished Cartooning: Philosophy and Practice by Ivan Brunetti. While I really have no intention of taking up cartooning, it was worth it to get to the end for this quote:
Admittedly, art is somewhat like spit. It does not repulse or even worry us while it is still inside of us, but once it exits our body, it becomes disgusting.
Video of the Week
Just be glad you’re not with this Mom…
Question of the Week
If you feel like answering the question, hit reply to this email. Answers will be shared in next week’s newsletter - anonymously. Don’t be shy! General public commenting is available too at the end of this post.
I’m borrowing this week’s question from The Art of Noticing (who shares great ice breakers every issue).
Have you had any unanticipated quarantine-specific cravings for comfort foods (and if so, what)? Have you rediscovered any old passions?
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Last week I asked you to send animal videos. We’ve got a nice variety of cute, funny, and weird!
Current Temperature: broken
Current Humidity: 65%
Wind (max gust): 11.4 mph
Precipitation: 0.00 in
I would love high end sushi. Thai family style dinners. Mexican food truck foods. A nice Peri Peri chicken with a foot locker of grilled brussel sprouts. Anything fried. Sorry. Everything fried. Cuban pastries and Cuban coffee. Conch Chowder and Conch Fritters. BBQ Pulled pork off a two day ground roasted suckling. My Moms Grits casserole and Pumpkin Pie. French Fries aka Freedom Fries aka Chips.