I reckon it’s time to get back to my regular blog style as my personal contribution to everyone weathering the current crisis.
As some of you may know, Nanette and I are in self-isolation at home after returning from Canada. Here’s a few short anecdotes of highlights so far
Day 1 – it’s now four hours after we arrived home. We’ve both had showers to try to wash away the effects of 30 hours of travel and Nanette is working on the second load of laundry. I hear a gasp! “There’s water coming up through the drain in the bathroom floor!” Hmm. I’ve seen this before. A few quick checks confirm that our grey water pump has died.
No problem, I’ll just dash out to Bunnings, get a replacement, do some simple plumbing, and … – ah – we’re on lockdown. I suggest we could just shower in a bucket for two weeks, then use the bucket afterwards for laundry, but, to my great surprise, this brilliant idea isn’t well received. Ok, time to man up and call for some help.
Day 3 – we’ve found that we qualify as priority customers for online grocery orders. Woohoo! We can get stuff delivered right to our door. Click, select, click, click, select again, then checkout. We’re really excited when delivery time rolls around. Look, there’s the truck! Hey, why is the driver giving us such funny looks? True, we’re speaking to him through the closed security door, but surely he’s seen people in isolation before. He drops off the packages, then gives us one last disapproving look as he leaves.
Ahhh – I see. When we did all that clicking, the only toilet paper option available was a twenty-roll pack (which a household of two really doesn’t need). We had, of course, selected one of these. There’s now a note in the delivery stating that “since the twenty-pack you ordered is out of stock, we have substituted three eight-roll packs in your order”. Oh, the shame! We’re officially TP Hoarders! How will we ever face our friends again?
Day 10 – Nanette is in clean-up mode. I’m at a bit of a loose end, so I suggest I could sort and tidy the kitchen cupboards. “No, I’m just about to do that” is the unexpected reply. “Ok, maybe I could clean out your dresser drawers for you?” “NO! I just remembered I want to do that before I start on the kitchen.” I get the hint and stay out of the way for an hour or so, then hear “you can come in now.” When I dutifully go and look, I’m smart enough to avoid commenting on how small the “throw away” bag is.
Nanette looks wistfully at the rows of necklaces neatly arranged on the bed. “I just wish there was some way to store these without them getting so tangled…” That’s my cue. “I could make you something to hang them on!” I sneak off to another room to google “necklace hangers”, only to find that a promising site called Pinterest wants me to log in before I can see anything useful. No worries, I saw an old bit of timber and some left over hooks in the shed the other day. I’ve got this!
Day eleventy-something – Nanette and I are sitting quietly in the shade, enjoying the serenity of our large back yard. It’s sunny. A few birds are chirping. Somewhere in the far distance we hear the gentle wafting tones of a mother screaming at her kids (who apparently have a different view of whether they need to do online schoolwork today). And, everywhere we look, we see butterflies.
To my great surprise, the birds seem to be completely ignoring the veritable feast that’s fluttering right past their beaks. I know the birds are hungry, because, when we threw out those unknown left-overs we discovered lurking in the bottom of the freezer, they swooped in and carried off everything – even the weird little grey bits we couldn’t quite identify.
Anyway, as I sit here pondering the unanswerable question of whether butterflies simply taste bad, I start to reflect on what I’m calling “COVID-19 Evolution”. My steps on the journey so far have included – having to (gulp) ask for help when I needed to fix something, feeling immense guilt over accidentally buying too much toilet paper, getting excited about necklace hangers and googling obscure facts about butterflies (which, by the way, can fly faster than Usain Bolt can run). So, like you, I’m wondering what’s next?
LamondG 