pameladean (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pameladean) wrote2020-03-20 05:50 pm
pameladean) wrote2020-03-20 05:50 pm
Entry tags:
And another thing!
Among the pleasures I listed as temporarily suspended are things like having tea with my excellent ex Elise, having lunch with my sharer of theatrical interests Cindy, and a number of "we should really get coffee sometime" meetings that haven't happened yet but that I was sure would. My long-running tea group scheduled our next meeting for May, now located in another century in subjective time.
I've lost track of how many entities have emailed me to say they were stalwartly staying open and then (quite reasonably) reversed course and closed after all. My yearly diabetes appointment, originally scheduled for the 26th, has been moved to the end of April. My dentist's office is open for emergencies but not for routine visits. I have a hygiene appointment on April 22nd, but right now both that and the new doctor's appointment might as well be in 2030. Our bank has closed its offices, leaving ATMs and drive-throughs going for the nonce. Bachman's stayed open somewhat defiantly and then suddenly decided they wouldn't.
When I logged into the Instacart website, Cub division, earlier today, it said that the next available delivery slot was next Tuesday. I put together an order and closed it out to secure the delivery slot, but when I actually got to the point where you choose your delivery time, it offered me Today, Within 2 Hours. I took it. I wonder if I will get one more package of toilet paper or any pasta or rice. I think I might get the whole-wheat spaghetti, which seems unpopular. We'll see. The toothpaste both Raphael and I use was on sale, so maybe we can get a couple of extra tubes of that.
At least this means the menu planning for next week is done, though it has a lot of "some kind of veg" and similar temporizing spots in it.
I've talked to my mother on the phone. She is maintaining a cheerful demeanor, and had her "completely unconcerned" cat in her lap. My brother, who lives with her, emailed me about streamlining her garden to be lower-maintenance but still pleasing, so we are brainstormng that. It's much too soon to do any gardening in Minnesota right now, but it's an engaging thought exercise.
David and I had our usual date yesterday, staying in and ordering from Pizza Luce, which has at least apparently demonstrated good practices during this crisis. We wiped down the outsides of the pizza boxes and discarded them afterwards, though I would usually store the leftover pizza in its original box. Then we watched several episodes of the Great British Bakeoff, petting such cats as stopped by.
I'm trying to read more fiction and stop scrolling through Twitter so much. I've been just starting a reread of Nevada Barr's Hunting Season for more than a week. Maybe this evening. I have an essentially infinite number of books to read, especially if I can get my brain to stop erasing the existence of e-books. I don't mean in general; I mean that anything I acquire in e-book form, even if I eagerly anticipated it, falls out of my memory instantly. Several kind friends have patiently explained how they keep track of their e-books, but my failure happens well before any system of any kind can be invoked. I think I need to make myself a note in Evernote as soon as I finish a download and set some kind of alarm to poke me. It is a weird thing for my brain to be doing, forgetting all my delicious e-books, and it well predates any breath of coronavirus.
My doctor has been reminding me periodically to fill out what she calls an End-of-Life Directive, though apparently it's a subset of a living will generally, in Minnesota, called a Health Directive. Having misplaced the one she gave me, I downloaded a new form. It requires two witnesses and a notary to be complete, but putting the information and preferences in is better than nothing. I am still pondering the details, but it's a start. I should have done this when I was thirty and updated it from time to time.
This afternoon I found myself sitting at the computer glowering at my book, suddenly feeling quite hungry, and deciding that I should have lunch, but not getting up because I would have to wash my hands first. Eventually I did get up and did wash my hands, and then ate the leftover pizza. It's definitely better to put off eating than to skip the hand-washing, but I need to be more efficient about the order in which I do things. I come in from taking out the trash or upstairs from doing laundry, immediately wash my hands, and then realize that I need to pee, so after that I have to wash them again. Then, invariably, though I might sneeze once or twice a day at most, within five minutes of these operations I'll sneeze and have to blow my nose; and there I am, back at the sink scrubbing away. There's also the bit where I take a shower and then put on some skin cream for a minor medical condition and then have to wash my hands again as per the directions on the tube. I was using a glove to apply the cream and then discarding it, but disposable gloves are in short supply, so I quit doing that; I had felt guilty about it anyway. I am grateful for the existence of so many moisturizers and for David's habit of giving me strange new ones for my birthday.
I'm sure my hand are not actually going to fall off. I'm not sure of much, but that's probably a safe bet.
And since that is the case, it's time for me to work on my book before making dinner.
Stay safe and well, all of you.
Pamela
P.S. Another thing I forget is to tag my entries; apparently being sure that I tag my Patreon posts has taken up all the brain space allocated for such functions. I did kind of tag this post.
P.P.S. The spell checker used by Dreamwidth has taken to telling me serenely "No spelling errors found," when there are totally spelling errors to BE found. Perhaps it's stressed about groceries too.
I've lost track of how many entities have emailed me to say they were stalwartly staying open and then (quite reasonably) reversed course and closed after all. My yearly diabetes appointment, originally scheduled for the 26th, has been moved to the end of April. My dentist's office is open for emergencies but not for routine visits. I have a hygiene appointment on April 22nd, but right now both that and the new doctor's appointment might as well be in 2030. Our bank has closed its offices, leaving ATMs and drive-throughs going for the nonce. Bachman's stayed open somewhat defiantly and then suddenly decided they wouldn't.
When I logged into the Instacart website, Cub division, earlier today, it said that the next available delivery slot was next Tuesday. I put together an order and closed it out to secure the delivery slot, but when I actually got to the point where you choose your delivery time, it offered me Today, Within 2 Hours. I took it. I wonder if I will get one more package of toilet paper or any pasta or rice. I think I might get the whole-wheat spaghetti, which seems unpopular. We'll see. The toothpaste both Raphael and I use was on sale, so maybe we can get a couple of extra tubes of that.
At least this means the menu planning for next week is done, though it has a lot of "some kind of veg" and similar temporizing spots in it.
I've talked to my mother on the phone. She is maintaining a cheerful demeanor, and had her "completely unconcerned" cat in her lap. My brother, who lives with her, emailed me about streamlining her garden to be lower-maintenance but still pleasing, so we are brainstormng that. It's much too soon to do any gardening in Minnesota right now, but it's an engaging thought exercise.
David and I had our usual date yesterday, staying in and ordering from Pizza Luce, which has at least apparently demonstrated good practices during this crisis. We wiped down the outsides of the pizza boxes and discarded them afterwards, though I would usually store the leftover pizza in its original box. Then we watched several episodes of the Great British Bakeoff, petting such cats as stopped by.
I'm trying to read more fiction and stop scrolling through Twitter so much. I've been just starting a reread of Nevada Barr's Hunting Season for more than a week. Maybe this evening. I have an essentially infinite number of books to read, especially if I can get my brain to stop erasing the existence of e-books. I don't mean in general; I mean that anything I acquire in e-book form, even if I eagerly anticipated it, falls out of my memory instantly. Several kind friends have patiently explained how they keep track of their e-books, but my failure happens well before any system of any kind can be invoked. I think I need to make myself a note in Evernote as soon as I finish a download and set some kind of alarm to poke me. It is a weird thing for my brain to be doing, forgetting all my delicious e-books, and it well predates any breath of coronavirus.
My doctor has been reminding me periodically to fill out what she calls an End-of-Life Directive, though apparently it's a subset of a living will generally, in Minnesota, called a Health Directive. Having misplaced the one she gave me, I downloaded a new form. It requires two witnesses and a notary to be complete, but putting the information and preferences in is better than nothing. I am still pondering the details, but it's a start. I should have done this when I was thirty and updated it from time to time.
This afternoon I found myself sitting at the computer glowering at my book, suddenly feeling quite hungry, and deciding that I should have lunch, but not getting up because I would have to wash my hands first. Eventually I did get up and did wash my hands, and then ate the leftover pizza. It's definitely better to put off eating than to skip the hand-washing, but I need to be more efficient about the order in which I do things. I come in from taking out the trash or upstairs from doing laundry, immediately wash my hands, and then realize that I need to pee, so after that I have to wash them again. Then, invariably, though I might sneeze once or twice a day at most, within five minutes of these operations I'll sneeze and have to blow my nose; and there I am, back at the sink scrubbing away. There's also the bit where I take a shower and then put on some skin cream for a minor medical condition and then have to wash my hands again as per the directions on the tube. I was using a glove to apply the cream and then discarding it, but disposable gloves are in short supply, so I quit doing that; I had felt guilty about it anyway. I am grateful for the existence of so many moisturizers and for David's habit of giving me strange new ones for my birthday.
I'm sure my hand are not actually going to fall off. I'm not sure of much, but that's probably a safe bet.
And since that is the case, it's time for me to work on my book before making dinner.
Stay safe and well, all of you.
Pamela
P.S. Another thing I forget is to tag my entries; apparently being sure that I tag my Patreon posts has taken up all the brain space allocated for such functions. I did kind of tag this post.
P.P.S. The spell checker used by Dreamwidth has taken to telling me serenely "No spelling errors found," when there are totally spelling errors to BE found. Perhaps it's stressed about groceries too.
no subject
I think that's a wonderful tradition.
*hugs*
no subject
A really lovely lavender one that the cats don't like until the scent has faded a lot; an orange lavender one that doesn't elicit nearly as much whisker-curling; a floral-scented somewhat overpowering heavy-duty cream that is great for preventing the cracking of the skin around the fingernails but is a bit much even for me as the scent doesn't diminish fast; a Dr. Bronner's peppermint lotion; an unscented cocoa butter concoction.
P.