A Parlour for a Plague

Roger is a rat again!

I’ll give Dodi your regards Boida.

I can’t give people the tinfoil hat stuff! I live here!

Very sorry to hear this news Izzie. Great to see you.

Dodi, after multi intense sneering, got a kindle!

I’m getting cabin fever. Have to go get a script filled today.

I am your only rat, and don't you forget it, Captain.

Big excitement today. Sat on porch to see my boyfriend on his pushtrike on the sidewalk - with his sister, mom and dog. I miss that fellow a lot. He shouted my name a lot and blew kisses. He'll be talking properly before I can smush him up again

Two days ago, I saw a guy with a couple of kids flying a kite. Really happened and made me feel a little better

I found some unopened bags of tiny dinosaurs from the $ store that I didn't hand out at some Halloween. I snipped the bag open and did a touchless spreading of the dinosaurs where my property meets the sidewalk. my boyfriend and his sister took some home - they then told a friend doing a scavenger hunt so they came and discovered some. need to find more touchless surprises for them to find on their next trip round the neighbourhood

geez louise
thought I'd chill by reading a trashy book
then 6 people get out of a van

no no no

no gatherings of more than 5 unless it's a funeral

no - don't get any closer - keep your distance

__

this trashy novel thing isn't going well

back to The Bobbsey Twins

at least it's usually just the four of them and their dog

I felt grumpy shopping today. People way too close.

I walked there, so it was the super cheap discount place.

The checkout people had no masks, no shields, no hand sanitiser. The big chain supermarkets do.

I was shocked. I was assuming the chain was too cheap to provide these things for their staff. I asked my server and she said they were available but optional.

I wonder if they really are available. I won’t be going there again

Big news here is we’ve had good rain!

I surely hope your good rain doesn't get out of control. I believe it's happened before.

One sobering item on the news the other day regarding food production. This story is about the UK and Brexit was not mentioned, but domestic food supply is heavily dependant on foreign labour.

The picking season will be with us in a few weeks time and there's only about 10% of staff available. One farmer being interviewed said he was able to panic fly most of his staff back from Romania before the lockdown, but he was the exception.

It's not a case of just giving the jobs to unemployed British people because a certain skill set is needed, familiarity with the crop, knowledge of agricultural machinery, how to drive a tractor etc. There's a limit to how many untrained workers can be trained at one time and estimates ranged from 50%-80% of crops rotting in the fields.

****. I hope the worst doesn’t happen.

Well, we are the driest state in the driest continent on the planet....so flooding is a very rare problem!

I can’t settle on a book. I wonder if it’s my stress manifesting itself? I’m not consciously aware of any direct corona related anxiety but it’s typical of me to manifest heightened anxiety by over reacting to relatively small things, and there have been two examples of that recently that I’m aware of.

I was starting to be able to read again before this. Read properly I mean...not just high class trash.

It’s amazing how comforting the cats are. They occasionally drive me crazy, but their unconditional love and warm snuggles are amazing.

Sebastian likes to have his paws on my hand all night. Viola nestles in my right armpit and, when she wakes, trills and chirrups, gazes into my eyes and gently touches my face.

Sebastian loves all out wrestling with my hand, having his bum smacked and having to fight to get his tail back from me.

I know, thanks. My cat is loving the fact that everyone is home.

I attended this virtual happy hour with a motivational speaker that specializes in resilience. One thing she mentioned is that reading fiction is better for relieving stress than nonfiction. The aspect of it taking you away somewhere that you know is not real.

That sounds like something she just made up because she thought it sounded good.

I always take anything a motivational speaker says with a kilo of salt.

The ebay platform is acting really glitchy.

Late last night my last 2 items of a particular products sold to one person. So available stock should read zero to anyone looking.

When you sell something, it pushes it up the list, so more people see it. So many times within hours of selling an item, 1 or 2 more people buy it too.

So this morning, 3 more people tried to buy stuff I don't have any more.
I emailed them all, explaining there must be a glitch, apologizing, saying it must be part of the current situation and not enough people working at fixing glitches, will send refund immediately, etc.

One of the people who I sent this to replied to that saying, "yeah, but it says you still have this product. why can't you send it?"

Then, that person immediately tried to buy it again.

So now I have to send them 2 refunds.

They live among us.

Also, I'm trying to list more items, and the system won't accept it. Sigh.

Not sure I will need to look it up because she had a source for it.

Most of the suggestions she had typically comes from a psychologist or other source which she mentions in her talks.

Don't mind me. I'm just an uber skeptic.

My idea of dying and going to hell would be forced to be in the self help section of of a Barnes and Noble, or any Hallmark card shop.

scented candle shop, or being assigned the heavens Accordion band