A Parlour for a Plague

I was very sad this evening. I took a long walk, and saw a strange sight. Tomorrow is trash collection, and all along Woodbine, the north-south thoroughfare, there were huge piles of trash of an uncommon kind. There were chairs, desks, sofas, easy chairs, file cabinets. Then I realized what it meant. These piles were from small businesses who are closing, and will move out before the first of the month. So much will change forever.

That makes me very sad as well.

Whaddaya gonna do? The world has changed, dramatically, forever.

I'm trying to find the bright side to all this. I don't think there is one.

So how do you cope with pesky squirrels if you're not on the 8th floor, but at ground level?

Answer: it ain't easy.

https://youtu.be/hFZFjoX2cGg

Squirrels are as persistent as flies, only cuter. I made friends with the park squirrels by bribing them with peanuts. My dog pretty much keeps them out of the yard.

I know this sound naive, and I think I said this before...

I was kinda hoping for a lot of people it would help them recalibrate as to what is really important to them, rather than what they are told is important.

Less money, but less hair trigger desires immediately fulfilled.

Maybe life should be altered dramatically.

Back in the olden days, I would be working at home, and my cat Mikey would bother me in a variety of ways. I bought an hour long video of squirrels and birds in a park. No music, just natural sounds. It worked. Mikey was transfixed the first time I played it for him, and the second. The third time, he launched himself head first into the tv. He almost knocked over the TV and almost knocked himself out.

So much for squirrels and birds.

You want me to schlep to Persia??!! Hell, if I could do that, I'd go to the park instead. Thanks for putting me back in touch with that poem. I haven't thought about it in years.

I’m being cruised like a shark by Sebastian who is convinced that I have something other than his hated special anti auto immune disease food somewhere and am simply holding out on him.

I’m starting to feel as though he’s my albatross.

Did you get the photo I emailed you Boida?

No, no photo. No nothing.

Same around here! A lot of restaurant equipment for sale. So many of the smaller mom and pop restaurants will not be reopening.

Yeah, and that makes me sad. I don't think The Rib House will re-open, but he hasn't put up a notice.

You prolly already know this, sistah. But wot the hell, it's good enough to know again.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver

Lovely

That is very sad.

Many of our locals kept offering takeaway or moved to takeaway.

Including the local pub, which also began offering local milk, eggs, and bread in its drive through bottle shop.

We are now able to dine in in small numbers. Our only active case in this state is an overseas visitor let in for compassionate reasons....hopefully they haven’t left a trail of infection. They presumably went straight to isolation except for the already dying relative they were allowed to visit.

jcboy!

Merci beaucoup. I needed that.

De rien, mon ami. Truth to tell, I had you in mind when I posted it.