Like many, I’m in quarantine. Call in social distancing, lock-down, shelter-in-place. It’s still good old quarantine to me.

Wrestler #2 called three weeks ago to make sure I’m staying home. I told him I went to church, took CoCo to the doctor and to the occupational therapy.

“You must stay home,” he warned. “You’re a microbiologist. You know better.”

“I’m playing my flute, no one is even near me. Your sister needs to go. I’m obeying social distance.

I admit, I felt a bit like Rebecca, which might have prompted me to write last Wednesday’s post.

I didn’t like being bossed around by my son. I didn’t like defending myself. Still, he had a point.

So now I’m home. Tuesday I went out for Senior Shopping day at the local grocery store, took CoCo to her doctor appointment and dropped off the N-95 masks my employer gave me for the last pandemic. That was half the day. I felt irritated when I got home. I’ve got things to do.

Group Texting:

My siblings send out a stream of texts everyday. I have 8 sibling. We distracted Mom from her meditation and her quilting, so she muted us all. “I’m busy thinking up things to do,” she told me. “I don’t have time for this nonsense.” I think that was a joke.

My kids and adult grandkids have a text group called Adult Resistance. The students share their assignments and study habits. We share website, memes, and photos of the kids. One grandchild sent me a snap of a cake she wants me to make for her birthday in April. Think positive Miss K.

Start Streaming

Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu is wonderful. I loved the novel by Celeste Ng. I’m having a blast watching the story unfold for Love-One and CoCo. I wonder what genre Celeste considers her novel. I still can’t figure out if this is a book about women; about teens; about mother-daughter relationships; about male-female relationships. I L-O-V-E love it.

Cats the movie. Yeah. It’s a bad movie. I love T.S. Elliot’s book of poems, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. I loved the stage version. The actors, dancer, vocalists are all great in the movie. It’s the sets. All those cats sneaking into houses and romping all over beds and counters and tables and food gave me the creeps. And I love cats. I have two of my own. This morning Loved-One said, “I never did get the story. Should I go back to it?” No, don’t go back. I got him the Kindle version of the poems from Amazon.

Hey Siri:

“What’s a jellicle cat?” Siri knows. T.S. Elliot’s niece couldn’t say, ‘dear little cat.’ At the end of Cats, if you listen closely, you’ll hear Deuteronomy say, “You’re a jellicle cat now,” and she whispers, “dear little cat.”

“Why does New York need 30,000 respirators?” Siri takes me to several articles. The state has 3,000 ICU units and may need up to 40,000 soon. They may need 140,000 hospital beds within weeks if the number of sickened continues to rise at the rate it is.

And then there’s CoCo’s relationship with Siri:

“Hey Siri,” she yells at her phone.
“Uh-huh,” Siri replies in a friendly tone.
“How do you spell brother.”
Siri dutifully spells anything CoCo asks her too, sometimes explaining that there’s more than one way.

Siri sets an alarm for CoCo. She tells her what time it is. She turns the flashlight on and back off. She tells her the Senior Hours at the local grocery store. She may even remind CoCo to send out birthday cards.

Keep calm and carry on

Most of my day is quite the same. I’m writing. I’m reading. I’m meditating; doing a little yard work; cooking and sewing. The only thing different is I’m trying out some new recipes and I’m sewing masks. My sister-in-law has a fever and sore throat, so my prayers are directed toward her. It’ll take days before she has test results.

What’s changed for you? Are you getting cabin-fever? Are you learning new things?

I hope you are safe. I hope you are secure in body, mind, and spirit. Together we can get through this.

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