I find myself unable to stop watching the news, which is dumb as there’s nothing in it but sadness, and other than giving five dollars each time I buy booze, I’m not able to do a lot to help the people in Ukraine.  But then we watched the desperate people in Afghanistan and Syria before them too, and went geez, that sucks.  We’re in a fortunate, yet helpless, part of the world.

And other than planning for Nuclear Winter, life goes on pretty much as normal.  I went to visit mom who became sick while I was there, likely due to high blood pressure and congestive heart failure, both of which she doesn’t think she has.  She said, “do you think I have that sickness, you know, that thing everyone has?”  And I said, “Covid?” And she said “yes, that.”

I said I didn’t think she had it, as there were no symptoms of it.  Then she asked if I thought she was dying, and I said, “given you just ate a bowl of custard, then a muffin and drank a coffee, I think you’re far from dying.”  She was then indignant, saying she knew of “lots” of people who ate just before they died.

The cantankerousness was a sign she was on the mend, and so I drove home knowing Luke’s right next door, at her beck and call.  It’s so much better with them in their own home as it turns out mom’s like one of those animals you read about in the SPCA, you know the ones for adoption where it says “would do best in a home with no other animals.”

Being on the Hall Road Facebook page has helped me realize what a pariah I am.  Not only do I feed nuts to the magpies and Steller’s jays, I have two outdoor cats.  Apparently the larger birds like to murder and eat smaller songbirds, which of course the cats like to do as well, so it turns out I’m responsible for songbird deaths.  Because the cats would shred my house, keeping them in is a no-go however I’ve resolved to stop feeding the big birds, so there.

Jan’s off to Thailand in less than two weeks and she always takes tons of chocolates with her.  I’ve ordered some on-line and bought a good assortment at Winners and Homesense, so she now has over $200 worth of chocolate for the family and friends. Luke said due to my largesse with the chocolates when we visited in 2012 my picture’s on the wall of one of the small restaurants in the little village.

With this strange cloud of imminent doom hanging over all of our heads, thanks to Putin, I find either I’m in a state of paralysis, numbly watching news clip after news clip on You Tube, or else tuning it all out entirely and sweeping for a couple of hours outside until my body calls it quits. 

I also made a photo book of the Hawaii trip for Marie, and had the Crones over last week which necessitated a lot of fancy-pants meal prep, and today I bought a shirt that I’m going to alter in the sleeves to make it all adorable and bespoke.  So far, I’ve managed to stay away from the incessant colouring I do when the stress levels get too high.

But of course stress is relative, and when I see moms holding babies and leading a tired toddler by the hand I think oh shut the hell up about your so-called stress!  Honestly.