Still Standing

Been a long time since I posted, I know. I've just not been feeling it these last several weeks. 

Fall has turned to winter and it's cold. I don't do well in cold weather. All I want to do is lie in bed under a stack of quilts and watch Netflix and read. I'm also dealing with some health issues that are dispiriting. 

I've not been cooking, so we've been turning to take-out food more and more. Today we had Japanese food (curry for Dave and soba for me). We've been eating pho and thai, too. 

Here's a random list of things that we've been doing:

We watched the current season of Great British Bake Off. (I agreed with the winner and continue to think that Matt should be shot into the sun.)

I've been reading, though my pace has slowed. I finished Last Words by George Carlin and Shockaholic by Carrie Fisher. I'm reading Never Eat Your Heart Out by Judith Moore. I've also been working my way through the crosswords at the back of The New Yorker. That's the extent of my intellectual pursuits practically.

We had Zoom dinner with Chris and Grace. It was Chris's birthday. I made her a new adult bib (scarf style) to take to work and we also gave her a gift certificate to a pizza place. 

My brother was hospitalized in November, released to a rehabilitation facility, then released to come home. He's been home for almost two weeks now and seems to be doing better.

My mother moved out of her apartment into a roommate situation.

I started a new quilt and am finished with the 42 quilt-as-you-go blocks. I need to back them and sash the blocks together, but I lost some of my steam. The blocks were tedious to sew and now they're just stacked up on my sewing table, looking forlorn.

Gray Kitty is curled up beside me because he's avoiding Dave. He's not feeling well (which is when he seeks me out). He avoids Dave at times like this because Dave is the one who takes him to the vet.

The cranes are late this year. We usually see them in September and November, but they're on the move now in December. Climate change is going to destroy a lot of migratory bird populations. We going to have at a lot species going extinct in the coming years. Depressing as hell.

I'm still studying kanji several times a week. I've started to be able to read more Japanese, which is pretty amazing. Imagine what being literate would have meant when I lived there. Maybe, if Covid ever releases its hold on the world, I'll get to travel there again. 

I've been binging Leverage, both the new series and the old. It's simple, doesn't require too much thought to watch. The characters are likeable, unlike a lot of shows these days I feel.

My phone needs to be replaced. Dave's too. And we need to have tires put on the car. 

Dave ordered presents for his family online but other than that, we really have made no preparations for Christmas. 

It's been a year since I quit my hospital job. Someone asked me if I'd go back. Maybe. Someday. I was sitting in a hospital waiting room yesterday and the staff, nurses, doctors, etc., were wearing surgical and cloth masks. I only saw two N95s (besides my own). One resident was completely unmasked. Several others had cloth masks. I saw three unmasked patients (despite all signs saying that patients had to be masked). We're two years into this pandemic and when I see this and I think: We're never getting out of this.

All I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep.