Quarantine Diary #38 4/20/2020 I'm here....

Today is the birthday of a person in our family. Until the quarantine, we had plans to celebrate this weekend but of course those plans fell through. I don’t feel devastated, but I am sorry to miss this celebration. Smaller losses add up.  

Do you think we can change the karma around us by thinking up small good things to fill in the spaces where everyday losses happen?  I’m not talking about the loss of health, livelihoods, security, relationships.

But what about birthday parties for adults? Going to the movies on discount Tuesday? Impromptu pizza when one is out and about? Sharing a meal with friends?

What are the small things you do now to fill in a blank place with a good thing?

Talk or text a friend? Bake a half batch of something you love, for yourself? Look at Susan’s flower mandalas on Instagram? https://www.instagram.com/susanlawrence954/ 

Dance in the kitchen with the dog? Sneak around the back of the sofa to surprise the cat?  Send a good donation to a good cause?

…

Tom Palzewicz

Start getting used to his name if you don’t know it already. Tom Palzewicz (Pals-a-wits) will run as Wisconsin’s 5th District Democratic candidate for US Representative.  Len and I are supporting him.

Palzewicz has a quiet demeanor and impressive resume. https://www.tomforwi.com/

The step his campaign is currently working on is to obtain signatures from voters in the 5th district in order to get on the ballot in the fall. In ordinary times, volunteers would be out gathering signatures. These are not ordinary times.

Here are three things to know.

1. Do you live in the 5th district? https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/WI/5.

2. Here is how to sign his nomination papers. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ad8fe9dcef3723f31ea0436/t/5e9730ce2cd88f1c1c6278b4/1586966734951/Nomination+Papers-Tom+Palzewicz.pdf

3. Len and I will be hosting a Zoom Meet the Candidate Open House.  ANYONE can attend. Having a good rep in the US House of Reps helps us all so Vermont and Wyoming and Illinois – you will be welcome at our Zoom event. However, if you live in the 5th and you respond to the email invitation we will send to you, we will bring Open House snacks to you the day before! Because Len and I do NOT do parties without food.  

We don’t know the date yet. It’s in the works and we will let you know. If you want to make sure we invite you, respond in the comments. I won’t make public your potential RSVP or email address.

…

Today as we were reading to our 3-year old, several times in the middle of stories she piped up, “I’m here!” 

We read to her via Facetime. One of us reads, the other zooms the camera viewer over the pictures. Sometimes we can see her sweet face hunched over the camera watching the pictures. Lately she’s been wearing her cardboard princess crown during story-time. She loves ‘Corduroy the Bear’ and ‘The Runaway Bunny’ and ‘Alfred the Running Bear.’   

But today for no reasons we can think of, several times she responded to the stories with an intermittent, “I’m here!”

That’s all I really have this evening, too. I had a busy day inside and outside. We are making plans to support a good candidate. We are making a list of things to do to make our yard nicer and to be able to grow some vegetables. I know more about the health issues and politics of this pandemic than I did at the beginning of the day. Len and I took a walk to look at a newly delivered railroad replacement rail next to the tracks near our house. Len laughed when he asked if I wanted to check this out and I said yes.  He said I have been married longer than I know; that this was not a response he would have gotten from me 40 years ago. He’s right.

He made a new loaf of bread and now it is time to eat some of it.

I’m here.

How was your day?