KEEPING BUSY DURING THE SHUTDOWN

I’ve never been much of a journal-er. Whatever I see, hear or otherwise experience is absorbed, then comes out transformed is some unusual way later on. But these are strange times, and the historians of the future may want to know how we all spent our days during our enforced time at home. Or, at least, we all may just want to compare notes on how not to go stir-crazy with only our mates, family members and technology to distract us.

Me and a friend in the dojo (studio).

So, what have I been doing to avoid cabin fever? Well, fortunately I have almost 44 acres to wander around in, and the weather has (mostly) been nice. I’ve been walking and gardening and practicing my taiji and qigong outside whenever I can. It helps, believe me.

I had to put my weekly qigong classes on hold for the time being since my town of Marshall is under a stay-at-home order. So I uploaded a video of some immune-building exercises to a website called Vimeo, then posted the clip on my Snowbird Taiji and Qigong Facebook page. You can see that video clip here. 

I tried to hold class on Facebook Live, but that was a total technical fail! The Evil FB Gnomes have complicated the procedure lately and, of course, lots of folks are now trying to use the platform for everything at the same time, too. I plan to do more Vimeo videos for my students if you’re interested. I’ll be posting on the Snowbird Taiji and Qigong page.

I’ve been working hard on my screen review podcast, My Moviehouse My Rules. Recent episodes have reviewed classic and new TV medical dramas and classic post-apocalyptic films that show us it could always be worse! Episodes run from ten to fifteen minutes—you can catch up on two or three while you’re walking or working out.

Of course, I’ve had lots of time to work on my latest WIP, too. That would be Book Five in the Interstellar Rescue Series, tentatively titled King of Pain. I’m a dreadfully slow writer, but progress is progress, so I’m grateful.

My family—husband, two daughters and their husbands—had a virtual Happy Hour on Facebook Messenger Live Chat last weekend. We had such a blast we stayed online for almost two hours! Some friends I used to meet for cards every week and I are going to try another platform (House Party) to play games together when we can all get set up. I saw an interview with the governor of California recently in which he said he preferred the term “physical distancing” over “social distancing,” because we really don’t have to be socially isolated from each other. We just have to stay physically separate. Makes sense to me.

Flash in a rare quiet moment.

The biggest news from our secluded house, however, is that we’ve added another furry family member. Flash is a 10-and- ½ -week-old kitten, so named because she moves as a little streak of constant activity. The plan was to keep her in my office for a few days so our older kitty Shadow would have time to get used to her. Well, that lasted less than 24 hours. Flash would not be contained, and, as it turned out, Shadow was pretty mellow about her. There were a few hisses when Flash attacked Shadow’s tail, but that had little to no effect on Flash, so Shadow stopped. They are taking naps together now, and Shadow is grooming the new baby. Next targets for Flash’s charm offensive: the dogs, who are insanely curious about what this thing might be!

So, what are you all up to during your time at home? Is it situation normal, or has the order to stay home disrupted your extroverted routine? Share!

Cheers, Donna