We’re Still Here Friday Round-Up

There are worse things than this. That is our mantra and so far it’s working even though some days are long and small.

Pets are extraordinary blessings in times like this. I say this even though last night Punchy chewed the collar off one of Howard’s dress shirts that was in the basket to go to the cleaners which we won’t be going to probably for months. Who needs a dress shirt now anyway?

Covid-19 has revealed some people’s true colors in a way normal times never would. Chief among these vividly-revealed people are Wisconsin Republicans who, almost joyfully, insisted that an election go on despite a global pandemic, knowing that most of the people affected would be Milwaukee voters. “Milwaukee voters” is a synonym for something. Guess what.

The doctor across the street works nights in the ER but we never see her. Her husband is now wearing a mask when he walks their dog.

I wring my hands an unusual amount. I say this not really knowing how much other people wring their hands. It’s not a recent thing, though, I’ve been wringing for a good while.

I love the homemade quality of the ginned-up Facebook Live classes our town is offering. My favorite are the cooking classes where the teacher’s phone rings in the background or she has to run out of the room to fetch an ingredient. Yesterday’s was No Waste Cooking. Today’s class is How to Stock Your Pantry. It feels like a pamphlet my mom might have read during WWII.

Writing can make a person less crazy. I say this, obviously, from experience.

On that topic, I am taking a free writing fiction class from the library which is somewhat kicking my ass. Learning the intricacies of fiction – story, plot, theme, the assortment of character flaws and on and on – is absorbing. I’ve been constructing a story about an ICU nurse who gets fired because she has lack of self worth (character flaw) and becomes an alcoholic and ends up living in her car in a park and ride until her car gets towed while she’s at the gas station (plot) but she has an epiphany while living with a bunch of other people under a bridge and gathers the confidence to take a job as a live-in caregiver for the gas station owner’s mother (story).

“This is a great Passover soup – you can always tell a Passover soup, it smells and tastes different than any other soup.” Said my husband about the soup I made from our left over roast chicken for our tiny little Passover Seder the other night. This is why it’s important to marry well.

It is Good Friday and I sent heartfelt greetings of goodwill to all my friends for whom this is the holiest of times. I love you and I love the hope of resurrection and new birth.