Plague Journal

[Angeline]

How is everyone holding up during this pandemic event that is affecting us worldwide?

As most of you know I'm in the "vulnerable" population because of my age and my chronic lung disease. So hey ho: I'm just trying to stay centered. Meditating, talking to my kiddos, lots of reading, and chocolate help.

I'm still in a rehabilitation facility. I originally came for physical and respiratory therapy, but now I just feel safer here (albeit isolated).

True I rarely post anymore. My health has been a consuming struggle for a while now, but I do miss you poets. You'll always be family to me.

So let me know how you are; what is life like now in your backyard? Write a poem, share a joke or song. Help me and us all stay connected and keep the forum alive. Germ-free to you all.

Help!

 

[butters]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHPOzQzk9Qo

!

 

[butters]

we're pretty good here, angelinadreamer glad to know you're being taken good care of

fortunately, we've got great social distance living where we do and H's ma'am's church is closed for the meanwhile...which is as well because she was keen to keep going on sundays.

we've got food and necessaries in the freezers/cupboards and family happy to get us anything we want rather than go into town. Today was our last trip (complete with rubber gloves, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitiser), and now we'll just concentrate on getting the garden fully planted. We've got strawberry plants starting to flower, potatoes planted along with some lettuce and spinach seeds, and we put in some cabbage plants today. The weather's warm and humid, the ground wet and heavy, grass is starting to grow quickly and there's the comforting hum of the occasional honey bee.

The other day we mended a hole in the barbed wire fence; this means that next door's baby cows might still trespass into our pastures but they can't come through the yard and into the veggie garden Cleaned the fall's burden of leaves out of the frog pond and we've been weeding and laying straw all around the strawbs and new plantings.

The old rooster's hanging in there, the outside cats are happy enough, and Rosie's good as gold as usual--keeping herself busy out there watching the skies for herons, hawks and buzzards and making sure no animals come near us when we're working outdoors.

It's that time of year, now, for muddy overalls, muddy hands, working on the mower to make sure it's ready to cut that bolting grass, and generally all the dirtier outdoors chores we're good.

I'm sure H is busy composing poetry as well as prose in his head as he bows it to the task... me, well, it comes when it comes.

 

[Angeline]

we're pretty good here, angelinadreamer glad to know you're being taken good care of

fortunately, we've got great social distance living where we do and H's ma'am's church is closed for the meanwhile...which is as well because she was keen to keep going on sundays.

we've got food and necessaries in the freezers/cupboards and family happy to get us anything we want rather than go into town. Today was our last trip (complete with rubber gloves, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitiser), and now we'll just concentrate on getting the garden fully planted. We've got strawberry plants starting to flower, potatoes planted along with some lettuce and spinach seeds, and we put in some cabbage plants today. The weather's warm and humid, the ground wet and heavy, grass is starting to grow quickly and there's the comforting hum of the occasional honey bee.

The other day we mended a hole in the barbed wire fence; this means that next door's baby cows might still trespass into our pastures but they can't come through the yard and into the veggie garden Cleaned the fall's burden of leaves out of the frog pond and we've been weeding and laying straw all around the strawbs and new plantings.

The old rooster's hanging in there, the outside cats are happy enough, and Rosie's good as gold as usual--keeping herself busy out there watching the skies for herons, hawks and buzzards and making sure no animals come near us when we're working outdoors.

It's that time of year, now, for muddy overalls, muddy hands, working on the mower to make sure it's ready to cut that bolting grass, and generally all the dirtier outdoors chores we're good.

I'm sure H is busy composing poetry as well as prose in his head as he bows it to the task... me, well, it comes when it comes.

Sounds like your own private Eden...or perhaps Innisfree is more appropriate.

PS. I adore Life of Brian

 

[butters]

Sounds like your own private Eden...or perhaps Innisfree is more appropriate.

PS. I adore Life of Brian

it's as close to heaven as we're likely to get here no sunken bath but i'll cope

today was 80 degrees and very muggy but there was a refreshing breeze almost all day making it not unpleasant. we got in carrot seeds, a couple of tomato plants, and cleaned out all around the levels from the top of the pond down to the grass. johnson grass *ffs*
the general top weeding was easy, though, as the soil was still quite damp. H worked more on getting rows ready for planting and he has some seed corn he's starting off indoors. gonna be stormy late overnight so we'll see what tomorrow holds regarding outside stuff. REALLY need to groom poor Rosie as she's looking a bit tatty, plus her toenails need clipping. I had to remove (again) the dead rabbit she's decided to keep as a pet on her bed on the porch... usually she eats them when she catches them, but this one is only getting eaten by gross fat maggots. dis-gust-ing *vom-emoji*

 

[butters]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6Uw2DJ9Md8

beautiful time-lapse photography of flowers/a garden coming to life in spring

 

[AmericanTrash]

Pretty sure I was exposed already and had symptoms. Couldn't be tested because our idiot in chief thought it was all a hoax.

Now I am up early trying to figure out how to work from home. The bad news is confirmed cases are over 1000 and deaths in the double digits in my city. The good news is that local government is rising to the challenge and some restaurants are giving free lunches to kids to bridge the gap.

There should be an emoji for hand sanitizing.

 

[AmericanTrash]

it's as close to heaven as we're likely to get here no sunken bath but i'll cope

today was 80 degrees and very muggy but there was a refreshing breeze almost all day making it not unpleasant. we got in carrot seeds, a couple of tomato plants, and cleaned out all around the levels from the top of the pond down to the grass. johnson grass *ffs*
the general top weeding was easy, though, as the soil was still quite damp. H worked more on getting rows ready for planting and he has some seed corn he's starting off indoors. gonna be stormy late overnight so we'll see what tomorrow holds regarding outside stuff. REALLY need to groom poor Rosie as she's looking a bit tatty, plus her toenails need clipping. I had to remove (again) the dead rabbit she's decided to keep as a pet on her bed on the porch... usually she eats them when she catches them, but this one is only getting eaten by gross fat maggots. dis-gust-ing *vom-emoji*

Damn I miss gardening. I had to give away a lot of cilantro and dill yesterday from my windowsill at work. Carrots last a really long time if you leave a bit of the dirt on when you store them. I mean you knew that already, but damn I miss having a root cellar.

 

[Piscator]

notes from above the line

Hanging in here - going for long walks with dogs, refurbishing a neglected aquarium, went out yesterday and blew a plastic wad on new fishing lures, pounding Doulingo French and even venturing into on-line bridge again. Next on agenda cleaning up fly tying desk and tying some on. The first case of corvid-19 for our county was reported this week, so it's only a matter of time but hopefully the curve will be flat.

Crazy weather here, will get up to 18 C today and a low of -8 tonight, but it is now spring. Not a lot of gardening yet but I did do some pruning and applied dormant oil/lime sulfur to the apple tree.

Not a lot of writing - the muse is still in hibernation, which may have something to do with my Lenten alcohol prohibition but more likely just general miasma.

After posting this, I'm going to start a new thread - music for the apocalypse to cheer us all up.

Take care and stay safe all

 

[AmericanTrash]

I am pretty sure I've told this joke before but . . .
Why did the naked man cross the road?


....
...
.....


Because his dick was still stuck in the chicken.

 

[AmericanTrash]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAVgJQVo2oE

 

[Angeline]

https://youtu.be/7zVE9hCecu8

(*swoon*)

 

[Piscator]

giving in, continuing the sequence on this thread and following Angie's Bruce trail


btw Ontario's Bruce Trail is a good place to self distancing

 

[butters]

it's grey and damp and chilly outside, today... H is being a hero working in the garden. i, on the other hand, have been enjoying 2 movies (The Best of Enemies, and Poms). it's alright, i'm making it up to him with home-made fried chicken strips, mashed 'taters, gravy, broccoli and slaw tonight.

 

[Tzara]

As many of you know, I live in Seattle, which has been characterized as coronavirus central and I'm someone who would likely be categorized by the CDC as "elderly, with underlying health conditions." We are not currently under a "stay at home" order, though in keeping with Seattle's laid-back ethos, it's more of a "Dude! Just chill in your house, OK?" kind of thing.

It actually hasn't changed my day-to-day life a lot to date, other than that the baseball season has been postponed. (I'm not a basketball or hockey guy.)

Perhaps the main effect on my life is that all of the normal cultural venues are shut down. The Seattle Shakespeare season is cancelled. The Seattle Repertory Theatre season has been cancelled. The Seattle Art Museum is closed (and we're likely to not get a chance to see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit that just opened, but will leave in June). Even restaurants are closed--M and I have been trying to support local restaurants by buying takeout from them.

But I have my online classes (wrestling with symbolic logic and philosophical psychology), we garden (I mowed the lawn today), and I read a lot.

Been listening to Haydn and Vaughan Williams lately.

Oh, yeah. And I have to link a Bruce song.

 

[srgreene]

I'd like to add this to the discussion. It was written by the great CS Lewis, shortly after WW II, when the prospect of a nuclear war between the US and the USSR was a fearsome prospect and is excerpted from his essay, "Living in the Age of the Atomic Bomb".. But it applies equally well to today's crisis.

"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

 

[todski28]

I'd like to add this to the discussion. It was written by the great CS Lewis, shortly after WW II, when the prospect of a nuclear war between the US and the USSR was a fearsome prospect and is excerpted from his essay, "Living in the Age of the Atomic Bomb".. But it applies equally well to today's crisis.

"In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."

This sentiment right here is easy to forget in the panic of the moment thanks for the reality check

 

[Angeline]

I'm glad to hear from you, dear poets. It sounds like you're all holding up well thus far, especially Harry and butters who I'd like to adopt me. You two seen well prepared to ride out the appocolypse.

That's how it feels to me from the odd bubble of a rehab facility: like I'm watching a tsunami get a little closer each day. I'm trying to keep my sense of humor and not psyche myself out.

My state is on lockdown. Only essential businesses are open, only essential activities (like shopping for food and other basics, or getting critical services) are permitted...and then only between 5am and 8pm.

Where I am patients may not leave their rooms unescorted and the staff are all wearing masks, gowns and gloves. I hope they have enough to last. If anyone here has the virus I don't know. I sneezed the other day and got a (furtive) alarmed glance from an aide who was bringing me food. At least the food is decent.

I am coping by losing myself in escapist reading. I just finished Dickens' Bleak House and have started rereading John Irving's Cider House Rules (it makes me feel like I'm in Maine again). I miss seeing my loved ones and the reading is a comfort.

Be well, all of you.

 

[HarryHill]

hope you all are well and writing or reading something interesting in these trying times. if it does not stop raining soon so i can get the garden going i may go crazy then you can add the moniker mad harry to my sig.

 

[Tzara]

I am coping by losing myself in escapist reading. I just finished Dickens' Bleak House and have started rereading John Irving's Cider House Rules (it makes me feel like I'm in Maine again). I miss seeing my loved ones and the reading is a comfort.

Ahem.

You do realize that for most of us, "escapist reading" means comic books and Agatha Christie. Or, given the kind of people congregating here, E.L. James.

But in any case, be well, Ms. A. Maybe listen to this, if it helps.

 

[Angeline]

Ahem.

You do realize that for most of us, "escapist reading" means comic books and Agatha Christie. Or, given the kind of people congregating here, E.L. James.

But in any case, be well, Ms. A. Maybe listen to this, if it helps.

I love long, complex novels: the more characters and subplots the better.

Thank you for the jazz. I'm listening now and it's meandering and languid and wonderful.

Stay safe and as healthy as possible, you Seattlites.

 

[butters]

silver linings:

80 here today, with an intermittent breeze which is delightful when it's blowing. H has been working in the garden and i've been scrubbing out the rust from the inside of the metal water trough... so hot, dirty, dusty work and i've been eating rust powder

H bought some cans of flex seal spray because we knew the trough had been leaking in a few places... turns out there are gazillions of micro-holes all around the walls! but, you know what? leaning over, brushing with the wire brush, hot and sweaty and breathing rust dust, it was still beautiful inside that tank: it looked like a constellation of stars all around...tiny pinpoints of brilliant white light against a dark background. so pretty! i might even get a poem out of it

 

[butters]

p.s

Angeline--consider yourself e-adopted

 

[Angeline]

p.s

Angeline--consider yourself e-adopted

Yaaaay!

After reading your previous post I thought if I hadn't already known you are a true poet, your rhapsodic description of painting Flex-Seal on the trough would convince me.

 

[Piscator]

This week our play at self-distancing and living amid a pandemic became real. Before the empty shelves and cancelled events were annoying but we had sufficient toilet paper to last a good while and there was Tiger King on Netflix. Then too the reduced traffic and cheap gas were unexpected bonuses although there was really no place to go.

But the news of the deaths at a nursing home in Ontario’s cottage country and the tweets this morning from people who were unable to be with loved ones as they died, and then faced with a ceremony less cremation or burial have brought the stark face of mortality too our doorsteps.

Meanwhile life goes on, it’s a beautiful sunny day outside and as I hung the laundry, grackles were busy building nests in the cedars and the first snowdrops and fall garlic were poking through the soil. The garden will need clearing this afternoon and life goes on while life goes on.

Be well and stay safe.