pameladean

Everybody seems to be checking in, and I am finding profound satisfaction in those posts, so it seems only right to do one myself.

We are all fine here so far. I don't think food will be a problem, and in any case grocery stores are still restocking and delivering. I would like a few more containers of disinfectant wipes and some more hand sanitizer, but we are a long way from having a shortage. We're stocked up on cat food and have automatic delivery of litter, so I hope that will work out. Also plenty of cat treats on hand; very important, that. We are a bit low on catnip, but I expect there has not been much of a run on that and it can be had online.

David and Lydy did a cooking marathon during Lydy's time off work and filled the house with delectable smells. I made split pea soup, but the vegetarian half of the household has just been eating it with the accompanying cornbread. I think when I next make soup I should freeze at least half of it, assuming we've used enough of the frozen vegetables so that there is room to do so.

I had heard that Asian groceries were being avoided by people whom I can't describe in bad enough terms, so I did an Instacart order from United Noodles. I have a Napa cabbage now! Good thing, too, since Cub was out of regular ones, on account of its being St. Patrick's Day, I assume. United Noodles was out of celery and also of most rice and rice noodles. I got some udon and somen noodles, though, and what I think is oddly-packaged miso; they were out of the usual tub stuff. But just for amusement's sake, they offered me a substitute for the rice noodles, which I did not investigate carefully enough. Instacart shoppers are fast and the Instacart site is slow, so looking too deeply into offered substitutes, though very wise, is sometimes troublesome. What I got was two bags of frozen pork, fungus, and Napa cabbage dumplings. I have given them to David and Lydy. We have a fair amount of instant rice noodle soup, so in a pinch I can raid that for rice noodles.

I am trying very hard to work on my book. It's possible to write new stuff, and there is still some of that to write, but so far the higher organizational functions the are required to bring earlier parts of the book into line with the new material and with one another have not been willing to come out of their cave and play. Maybe soon.

I'm doing a lot of backed-up laundry, getting plenty of sleep, and watching things with Raphael I didn't really plan to be watching: the movies Black Panther and Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. The degree to which I am not a comics fan nor a superhero fan can hardly be overstated. I enjoyed both movies very much.

The snow is slowly receding, but it's too early to do any gardening or even much basic yard work. In any case, I need to tidy and organize my personal spaces so I don't leave a mess behind if the worst happens.

The cats have picked up on their humans' stress, I think, and are rocketing around getting in the way, occasionally having spats, and poking into corners they usually don't bother with. All deliveries are investigated exhaustively and both upstairs cats continue to try to go downstairs. Saffron escaped downstairs when I was taking out some trash and recycling, and instead of her usual routine, which is to encounter a downstairs cat, hiss ferociously, and bolt back up the stairs so I can let her in to the safe place again, she leapt clean over both trash bags for the sole purpose of smacking Nuit in the face and then had to be bodily carted back upstairs. Oh, and before that she tried to get outside, briefly collaborating with her arch-enemey Ninja, Nuit's brother. Neither of them got out; but it didn't do my blood pressure any good.

I've been playing with Saf with the feather toy, and if she can be persuaded that it's intersting, that absorbs and placates her for a while. But I'm being addressed vehemently about something that is very much disapproved of, only I can't figure out what it is.

I think I heard a robin singing this evening in the twilight. I should fill up the bird feeder.

I appreciate all of you more than I can say and cherish your writings in these foggy and alarming times. Stay safe and prosper.

Pamela