The Corona Chronicles entry #10

Day #33

The days seem to blur together. Sean and I often can't figure out what day of the week it is. He gets excited over Saturday because he doesn't have to work. I don't seem to get excited over the weekends anymore. I'm kind of in a rut.

The puppy is getting me up every morning at 6:20 on the dot which is not helping. You could set a clock to this. I don't know if there is something beeping in the laundry room each morning that wakes him up. How could he possibly awake at exactly 6:20 each morning? I'm not an early riser especially right now. There is no school to wake the kids up for, no work to get going on early, even Sean sleeps in a bit. So I get up with the pup, let him out and lay on the couch in the dark house with the hopes of all three dogs going back to sleep for at least an hour. What actually ends up happening is two of them viciously play with each other just inches from my head while bounding around roughly on my comatose body. I lay there with my arms and hands covering my head to protect it. They are so crazy and have so much energy. It's a bit much.

With all this time home I had great plans! I have several big outdoor projects along with a few indoor ones as well. Some are getting done and some are put on hold until nicer, more reliable weather rolls in. But most days I feel like this sums up my life:

I can't really relate to the tequila but everything else is spot on. I'm either flying high in a great mood or laying low walking around the house getting nothing done. I've found it's important for my mood if I get outside and go for a walk. Spring is hit or miss on good weather and we've been having a cold snap lately so the walks are few and far between.

I am so very grateful that I am able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. I was listening to NPR in the car the other day on the way to the feed store and they were interviewing a man that lives in Paris. He said they aren't allowed to leave their apartments without written permission. He was lucky to have a patio on his apartment but that many don't even have that luxury. They literally can't leave their apartment to even go outside. I feel so bad for these people. The outdoors are my escape. Go work in the dirt, grow something. Go for a bike ride or a run. Or even just sitting outside with my family. I am very grateful.

Pandemic Pup

Our little Cooper is blending in well with our crazy household. He's so different from the other dogs. The Boston Terriers are very high strung and Cooper is pretty much the complete opposite. He's very chill. Almost too chill. He has no interest in potty training. He urinates all over the place. We rolled up the rugs and gated off the rest of the house so we's only confined to the wood floors, but it's pretty bad. Puddles everywhere! He's only 3.5 months old so I'm hopeful he'll get the drift one of these days.

It's a good thing he's cute! He's got this strange habit of only sleeping upside down. We think he's part otter. I've taken to photographing him when he's upside down. Strange little critter.

The Corona Chronicles entry #9

Day #25

Did you know there is a term for stress shopping? Me either. It's oniochalsia.

oniochalasia. Noun. (uncountable) 

The purchasing of objects as a form of mental relaxation.

For the past three weeks I've been stress shopping. Maybe I should call it comfort shopping. It's been relaxing and has taken my mind off of the current situation. No, I haven't been buying expensive things, nothing that's going to break the bank. I've been indulging in adding to my Funko Pop collection. 

I've been collectiong Harry Potter Funko Pops for about a year and a half now. My plan was to only collect my favorite ones but then decided I needed the whole collection. There are currently 108 of them (and they keep releasing more each year). Before this whole pandemic started I had about 50. 

The place to find these things is on eBay. The majority of them have been vaulted (meaning they don't make them anymore) so finding them used is the only way to buy them. I found many people were selling off their collections in the past few weeks, which only seems logical in our countries  current financial situation. And they have been going through very inexpensively.....like $5 each plus shipping.

So I've been stress buying quite a few of the remaining funko pops I didn't have. They have been slowly and steadily trickling in, one here two there. I pick them up and pile them in our entrance way so they have their own little quarantine time (and then wash my hands).

That one in the bag? It's from New York City..it's not being touched for days!

This picture was taken about a week ago. There are many many more piled up now. Is this an illness? I'm going with no. But it did get me through the first two weeks of this craziness. It kept me from watching the news (and the train wreck WH briefings) and helped me to look forward to something when there wasn't a lot to look forward to. I'm done buying for now. I feel like things are starting to settle down, schedules are being put into place and there seems to be a light at the end of this very long tunnel (even though this week is one of the deadliest in our country from this virus).  

The Corona Chronicles entry #8

Day #23

Some days I feel very unprepared for all of this. The stores have been out of disinfecting supplies for the past month. Same with hand sanitizers, although I've never been a fan of that stuff. Even just disinfecting wipes are few and far between. I've been lucky enough to grab up two containers of Lysol wipes that I try not to over use. But when i have to leave the house I like to have something I can wipe my hands with that I know will kill the virus. So I came up with alcohol wipes. I always have containers of baby wipes lying all over the house. I use them for odd jobs and to wipe off the clay from my hands when I'm sculpting. I have several containers of rubbing alcohol so I just dump half a cup of alcohol into the package of baby wipes. I use them to wipe down the gas pump, door handle, gear shift knob and my hands when I get back in the car. Seems to work well.

I went and picked up my grocery order today. They were unable to fulfill about 10 items, several of which were essential things we needed (like almond milk). So I called up my mom who has been sewing face masks and asked if I could have one, she said yes (because she's awesome) and left enough for my family on their car windshield. They fit great! She did a wonderful job sewing them. Thanks Mom! I wore it into the grocery store to pick up the few items they couldn't fulfill (they were out of almond milk but had several soy milks).

I was happy to see at least half of the fellow shoppers were also wearing their masks, many of which looked homemade. It's just a strange feeling now when I have to leave the house. It's like the look in people's eyes is just *different*. I try and smile more (not that you can see if under my mask now) and show gratitude to all the grocery workers and checkers. What a strange world we are living in right now.

The Corona Chronicles entry #7

Day #20

I completely forgot about Easter being next weekend. It really crept up on me this year. Greta is pretty sad because it's one of her favorite holidays. Here I am without anything to fill their baskets, fill plastic Easter eggs or even dye eggs. I was pretty proud of myself for buying enough groceries to keep me out of the stores for at least 3 weeks.....so much for that idea. But then I remembered the option where they bring your groceries out to your car so I hopped on their site, filled my cart with candy, eggs, dye and a few other goodies and checked out. The earliest slot to pick it up is next Tuesday which is perfectly fine. I'm thrilled this is still an option.

I needed to run to the pharmacy yesterday and while I was out I had to fuel up the car. Boy was this shocking to see!  It might be worth it to drive each car in and fill it up.....but I probably won't.

I finally got back to work this week. This whole thing has made me completely unmotivated to sculpt. It could also be having the kids home. I'm very unmotivated in the summer as well, kids take away from my focus when they are home. But with them back doing school at home I was able to hide away in the bedroom and get three dogs sculpted, painted and photographed.  Perhaps we are all starting to figure out this whole sheltering at home thing.

The kids just finished their first week back at school (at home). They each use Google Classroom and do studies for each subject. I thought Greta would need more help from me than she actually did, so that was a nice surprise. Wesley already used Google Classroom all year so this wasn't much of a transition for him. So far so good!

The Corona Chronicles entry #6

Day #18

So the homesteader in me has exploded with the sweeping of the Coronavirus across our country. It has made me want to grow everything! I want more fruit trees, I want a huge garden, I NEED more baby chicks! Apparently I'm not alone. There are no baby chicks to be found (which is fine, I don't really NEED baby chicks). Apparently the US has been panic buying baby chickens like they did toilet paper. This happens often during stock market downturns and presidential election years......so add a pandemic in there and BOOM, you have the perfect storm.

One of my facebook friends went in to buy chicks when the feed store opened and they said the store sold 600 chicks in an hour. Woah! 

I hope, for the baby chicks sake, that these people buying them have done their research and know how to take care of them. Do they know the difference between a straight run chick or a pullet? What happens in 4 months when that chick starts to crow and they find out all their chicks are roosters? I might just wait this out and look on craigslist in 4 months for all the unwanted chickens. Let someone else raise them....that is, after all, the hardest part of chickens.

I spent the weekend tilling up a new plot for a big garden. I haven't done a big garden (30 foot by 30 foot) in several years. But this year I'm super excited! Maybe it's the stay-at-home order or maybe it's just me trying to stay busy but I think it's going to be epic. Luckily I had already bought seeds a few weeks ago because several seed companies have had to stop selling because of low stock. See, everyone has the same idea! I think we should all be doing this anyways, less dependence on the grocery stores is a good thing.

I'm grateful for the Tower Garden that was purchased two years ago. It's been a constant source of fresh lettuce, kale and basil. Those three things seem to grow the best and easiest for me. I just yanked all the old lettuce plants that had gone to seed and fed them to the tortoises. I started new lettuce seedlings and hope to be eating fresh salad in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to making some basil pesto for lunch today with the lone basil plant in the tower.

Take care all!