Quarantine Diary #26 4/8/2020 Waiting for Bored

After I wrote the following, I realize I want to say what I keep saying. I’m here with just Len. No kids. Quarantine with children is someone else’s diary. 

…

I’m still waiting for ‘bored’ to kick in.

Housekeeping: I was raised (inculcated, brain washed, raised, w/e) to do house chores. Homes were supposed to be clean, neat, and tidy. Now that I am an old adult, I’m not so sure. I appreciate a calm place but I’m well aware that cleaning is generally opposite from creativity.

 Here’s a Dorothy Sayers theological argument for when your house seems a bit gritty. Sayers (friend of Tolkien and CS Lewis) says that the Bible says humans are created in the image of God. Right there in the first chapter of Genesis this is stated. So, what do we know about God at this point? Just this. God CREATED. Ergo creativity is cool, and God said diddlysquat about wiping the counters. Feel free to use this rationale anytime you need it.

 Anyways, I spend at 2-4 hours a week cleaning, clearing, laundry, yardwork, and putting stuff away. Len does as much. The driveway doesn’t snow-blow itself.

 I write 2-3 hours a day.  Others spend their mojo sewing, making things out of wood, polishing the sailboat, painting amazing things on amazing surfaces. Creativity and problem-solving and inventing what we want out of what we have. This takes times.

Walking or biking, moving and exercising takes time. The older we are, the more we need it.

Still spending a lot of time with family and friends on digital media.

Learning. Reading hard books with new-to-me knowledge in them.

Escape reading. I’m not strong enough to always live in the here and now. (The best anti-insomnia tonic, IMHO, is an evening spent in a good book.)

 People talk about being bored but I think for a lot of us, that isn’t happening.  Things are different. Activities are upside down and gone. But there is still so much occupy our minds and hands.

What about you?

…

I sent this email to my state reps. Feel free to copy all or parts of it if you want to:

The decision of Republicans in the Wisconsin State Legislature this past Monday to force Wisconsin voters to choose between their health and their right to vote – is abhorrent.

This is not democracy. This is YOUR Republican party acting to quash the democratic process in this state.

Today the NYT called this “the culmination of a decade of efforts by state Republicans to make voting harder, redraw legislative boundaries and dilute the power of voters in the state’s urban centers.”

Your party’s craven manipulation of logic and fairness is about safeguarding your Republican lock on our supreme court. “The winner will be in position to cast a deciding vote on a case before the court that seeks to purge more than 200,000 people from Wisconsin’s voter rolls…’

You, Sir, voted to REQUIRE Wisconsin citizens to choose between their own health and their right to vote.

Your support of this decision clearly indicates that POWER means more to you than the LIFE and HEALTH of citizens in this state and in your district.

Why are you even in public office? 

…

Hair today. Hair tomorrow.

Last time I talked with women friends, once of them said, “Well, soon we will all know what color our hair is…”  Since we can’t go to our hair stylists, many of us are facing a precarious and uncertain future.  

My hair is getting fluffier. I take a shower, let it dry, look in the mirror a few hours later and I have gained several inches on both sides of my head.  I’ve been trying to move my part over closer to the side of my head but it won‘t stay there.  My new favorite accessory is my Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument baseball cap.

When we were first married I cut Len’s hair. That was a looser, earthier, less precise time.

I see a future where I might be doing this again and I’m not confident how well this will go. 

They say new adventures are part of retirement.

What are you doing about your hair?

Not asking you, David.