Shelter-in-Place Day 33

I realize now that even though initially it was called a "shelter-in-place" order, "stay-at-home" is more commonly the phrase used. But at 33 days in, I don't think I'll change my post titles.

We interrupt our usual rambling to present instead a series of images. Yesterday I ran around to all the flowering plants in the front and back yard to take pictures. This is the result, neither cropped nor filtered:

 

 

 

  

  

  

Shelter-in-Place Day 32

To whom am I writing these posts, if no one is reading them? Perhaps to my future self, and that's all. Or to my children, should they stumble across this blog, which I occasionally think needs to be downloaded, post by post, and backed up. You know, for when the internet fails us.

These days, we are probably all more aware than usual that nothing is a "given."

Did people on the fringes of the Great Depression realize what was happening when it was happening, realize the impact? Or was it only the investors who took their own lives, or the farmers ruined by the coincidental Dust Bowl or people in the heart of who it understood the immensity of it?

I do not have young children. Nor do my young adult children yet have children. We still have three incomes in this house. I think this puts me in a special bubble that prevents true panic or existential dread from seeping in. Really, it's those factors (plus our current health, and the good weather) that enable me to keep my equanimity. As much as I'd like to give credit to Tara Brach's wonderful Radical Acceptance audiobook and Oprah & Deepak's 21 day meditation practice and my actually getting dressed, exercising, and writing every day.

I only start to panic when I think how fortunate I am, and whether that means my turn is coming and a horrible downfall is inevitable. Except, why not enjoy the calm before the storm, and then recognize the storm as part of the process too? That is Brach talking, I'm sure. Along with the three ounces of Two-Buck Chuck I've had so far tonight.

Shelter-in-Place Day 31

Good news first: my nephew's surgery went well and he is in recovery. They did not need to remove any organs except his appendix, fortunately. The doctor was surprised that there wasn't more infection. I am going to (not coincidentally) take this opportunity to thank those friends who did everything from pray to "remote healing" for him. Not only could that not have hurt, I personally think it helped. (Sorry, my atheist or sceptic friends. But there it is.)

I braved Costco just as it opened this morning; it wasn't too bad, really - just a little surreal, as it was last time, with everyone wearing their masks out front. The new normal.

I also worked out, planted yet more seedlings in the yard, and submitted poems before dark this time.  There are now seven places in our front and back yard where I have planted broccoli seedlings. As a sort of experiment to see what works. 

Also, I have been actually making dinner for my family. Meat and rice, usually. And meanwhile, I fix myself whatever vegetarian thing. And sometimes, S. makes her keto meal. So it's not as though we all sit down at the table together to a five-course meal and pheasant under glass. But meat is, sometimes, back on the menu these days for D. Steak (defrosted, having lived in our freezer for a period of time I shall not disclose) and fresh Costco ribs, tonight. 

 

Shelter-in-Place Day 30

Today I am distracted by concern about my nephew, who is facing an appendectomy with complications due to infections. I want to just stop everything and pray and send good thoughts his way and envision everything going well. But I don't seem capable of doing so for long, so I seem to just pop in and out of that mode while I do everything else today. It's like a tape playing at low volume in the background. May he be well...may his body respond to the antibiotics...may his condition improve...may the surgery go smoothly....

And again, I realize that this is just a taste of what millions of people all over the world are going through, have been going through, with loved ones who have been more directly affected by SARS-CoV-2. I feel huge respect and gratitude for the people who are working the front lines - all those medical workers, first responders, grocery store clerks, and other essential workers. May they be well...Yes. The tape is looping.

Shelter-in-Place Day 29

I was in the driveway today speaking to a friend on the phone - because that's the only place that has reliable cell reception at our house - and she wondered out loud how many days we'd been at this, and I was able to give her an accurate answer because of this blog. We both thought that it felt more like six weeks than four.

On a different note, I think it's worth recording that so far, friends or family members have told me that they believe one or more of the following:

• that the virus was released from a biological weapons lab by accident
• that the virus was released from a biological weapons lab on purpose
• that organized crime was behind it & their intent is to make more room on earth (think Ebenezer Scrooge's "decrease the surplus population) 
• that the media is making this into a much bigger deal than it is
• that more people died from the flu in 2018 & 2019 than covid19 will kill
• that the hospitals are blaming covid19 for all deaths to get more funding
• that the damage to the economy is the real danger here
• that fear of death from covid19 ups one's chances of dying from the it
• that this is a way for the uber-wealthy to control California real estate 

Those are the ones that come to mind as most striking. These postulations have told me more about the belief systems of the people providing them than they have about the pandemic. Perhaps some facts will come to light at a later time which will change what we think is happening right now. My feeling is that whatever did or did not cause this, for whatever innocent or nefarious purpose, it's here. I do not believe that it is fictional, or that it is not serious, or that it is the least of our worries. I do believe that the world, and how most of us operate in it, will never be the same. 

Shelter-in-Place Day 28

Honestly, if I didn't have the previous post titles as a reference, I would not be able to keep track of how long this stay-at-home order has lasted. The days do blur a bit, although events like zoom sessions with poets help tack dates into place.

Today felt like a real break from (non) routine because I took the car to the dealership for a recall issue and tune-up, and spent nearly three hours killing time not at home. I waited - first alone at an outside table at a nearby sandwich shop, where I finished reading the excellent Weather by Jenny Offill, and then in a corner near the empty salesroom at the dealership, where they had a cluster of chairs and no one in them but me. I listened to the Commonplace podcast with Gabrielle Calvocoressi and knitted, thankful that my earbuds mostly drowned out the sales pitches being made over the phone in a cubicle ten feet away, which were often followed by self-congratulatory re-plays of the previous transactions between salesmen. Before that, I had taken S. to work before dawn, worked out to an excellent FB routine a fellow beekeeper leads, and taken D. to work. After that, I washed the dog, weeded, gardened, picked D. up from work, and tended to my writing duties.

The other day, I cleaned out the little storage shed that had held the huge pump system for our 450-gallon living room fish take. Now it houses my beekeeping equipment. I also tore out and re-spackled part of the the outside wall below our shower where the paint was pulling up from moisture. And I have put some of the vegetable seedlings into containers outside. Fingers crossed they continue to grow so we'll have broccoli and snow peas and arugula.

Shelter-in-Place Day 27

I had my first pandemic dream early this morning; it was vivid and more involved (as my dreams usually are), but the part that had to do with the pandemic was this: I was shopping at a mall somewhere in some dream-version of southern Marin, and the mall was packed with people, busily jostling one another - none of whom was wearing a mask. I was shocked. I told a couple of people that in Sonoma County, just the next county north in other words, everyone was wearing masks when out shopping.  I was then mercilessly teased for overreacting and buying into the "hype" and "story." "Covid19 is not even real," they told me. "It's a scam." "It's not!" I insisted. More mocking ensued, including people reaching out to touch me and even blow their breath on me just to get a reaction. Not fun.

Then today, from the county and reiterated by the city:

Order of the Health Officer: Facial Coverings

All persons shall wear facial coverings before they enter any indoor facility besides their residence, any enclosed open space, or while outdoors when the person is unable to maintain a six-foot distance from another person at all times. This Order shall become effective at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, April 17, 2020.

I wonder about my dog walks. I don't usually wear facial covering because I can maintain at least a six-foot distance from other people. But then again, I don't want to stress anyone. I have a friend with serious respiratory issues who was angry about other people not wearing PPE in public, especially because they may be asymptomatic and represent a danger to her health, even if she's very well protected. What strange times. And is this still only the beginning stages of a totally different world? We will certainly never be quite the same. Hokkaido reports a second wave of coronavirus infections. There are warnings that the meat supply in the U.S. is dangerously low. WHO declares the virus 10 times more deadly than "the 2009 flu." And the White House is talking about wanting to re-open the country.

Shetler-in-Place Day 26 Easter

It's flying chocolate bell day, Zombie Jesus day, the day our Lord and Savior rose from the dead. It's the day your grandmother gives you a stuffed rabbit.

Really, though, it's a day when there are millions of people worrying about, and being separated from, other millions of people whom they love. It's sobering. Which is probably why I opened this entry with silliness. I often resort to flippancy in the face of dire circumstances. It's a coping mechanism that I'm sure many people in my life, especially those more seriously-minded, find irritating. This is not to say that I am not capable of being serious.

There certainly was a time when I loved this holiday because it represented hope and the resurrection of Jesus, which I considered symbolic of the resurrection of all of the things that return in the Spring. Now, because I am (as I say) "between religions," I no longer blast Keith Green's "He is Risen!" in the house on Easter.

Instead, this morning, while S. and N. and A. dyed eggs - including 2 raw "surprise" eggs - we sang along to the mix I'd created for our New England trip in 2018, which never did get air time and contains everything from "We are the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" from Veggie Tales to Lorde and Fall Out Boy to songs from Wicked.  Then we had Welsh cakes into which I had forgotten to add sugar. They were still eaten, but it really wasn't the same. Obviously, singing while baking has its downfalls.

But again. What a first-world-non-covid19 problem. It. Doesn't. Matter.

What does matter is that we're not out of the woods yet. I send out love to the people suffering right now, which includes my half-sister, recovering from open heart surgery, and my nephew, suffering appendicitis. I do tonglen. I try to keep myself and my family healthy - and, actually, omitting the sugar from the Welsh cakes probably helped in that regard. I exercise. I'm growing vegetables and am grateful for every egg the hens give us, and take solace from my hives, and actually enjoy hearing from friends and family. Today was the first day I realized that I do, indeed, miss seeing the people I used to see on a regular basis. I'm still relishing and taking advantage of time at home. But it will be good, at some point, to spend time in person (not just zoom) with others outside of my family again.

Shelter-in-Place Day 25

It is very late. Four of us have just finished a two hour game of Cards Against Humanity. There was much laughter, as one might expect.

It's not such a bad thing if your kids and their significant others are willing to let you play such a silly, irreverent, and potentially offensive game with them. It might have helped that there was a little alcohol and sugar involved. Maybe it's an Easter morning warm up. Although they drank more than I did, and may be more blurry in the morning than I'll be. Just as well, because I'll be the one making breakfast and, probably, hiding the small bit of "essential" candy I bought at Safeway.

D. and I are about to treat ourselves to an almost-midnight showing of MST3000. We'll see how long into it I last, but I just feel loathe to put the day to bed.

Tomorrow, I can recap what else I did today. For now, a little more hilarity before midnight....

Shelter-in-Place Day 24

It was an unusual day, today - remarkably without form. I slept in extremely late. In fact, I cannot remember having slept that late - after noon! any time in the last several years. And because it's  Good Friday. I fasted until sundown. But in spite of thinking this would be some kind of focus for me, I spent far less time meditating or praying or thinking good thoughts for the world than I thought I would. And the empty stomach may have contributed to a sense of spaciness I felt.

However, I did little things: walked the dog, watered plants, did laundry. I also figured out how to play old super 8 and camcorder tapes and VHS tapes so S. and I could spend a few hours with N. and A. watching old home movies, primarily of the kids as kids. It was not what I'd planned to do with the day, exactly, but it was worth it.

I also ventured to Safeway for the first time in weeks to get Easter candy and bacon - essentials, right? It was sobering to see how compulsively the cashier scoured her workstation between each customer and how she kept everyone in line, separated fully and behind the plastic barrier. I think she was especially neurotic about it all, but it could just be that I haven't been out since the face mask recommendations really went into effect. I wore the N95 I have from the fires and used wipes and washed my hands the second I got home. Still, I'm glad I won't need to do shopping again until a week from now (when I can afford another Costco trip, and when we'll be out of almost all our essentials).

The weather is changing and I expect to get more gardening done tomorrow - especially if I don't sleep half the day away!

Shelter-in-Place Day 23

I may have spoiled my ability to update this blog sans stress.

I can usually ease any pressure I might feel by remembering that these little entries are virtually reader-less. But today I told my poetry friends that I have been writing, and now I must at least assume that they may, indeed, glance at it if I actually send them the link.

So in case my future self has done so, I'd like to say "hello" to those friends who have visited.

Hello.

And I also have to say that one of my favorite verb tenses is the future perfect. I will have written this. You may have read it. We would have [conditional] both read it by the time you reach here.

Here.

There's an idea, at any rate. How many of us live focusing only on the future perfect, rather than the existing within the muddle that is the present progressive? As in "I am trying to live a more perfect present so that I will not have had regrets about the past in the future."

Moira, sleeping (she had slept for an hour or so by the time I took this. She will sleep more tomorrow, until she will have slept most of the week away):

Darcy, sleeping (see above regarding weekly quantity of sleep):

Shelter-in-Place Day 22

Here's what the Johns Hopkins map of America looks like right now:

Over 1,500,000 cases. 314 dead in California.

And yet, the irises are about to bloom, and my vegetable starts are sprouting. The pair of crows to whom I feed walnuts, who had been absent for a day or two, are back. The three people who live here are still working and/or being paid. N. and A., while not working, are at least dividing time between here and Sebastopol, and are not flying back to New Jersey, as they had previously planned. It's a new hot spot, and I'm grateful that they're here, and safe.

Broadway is closed until June.
Bernie Sanders has dropped out of the Presidential race.

I continue to send poems out to journals at a rate of one per day this month. It's a little like playing the lottery or planning a trip, where the anticipation of the results is at least half the fun.

Shelter-in-Place Day 21

We're coming up on a month of social distancing.

It's so strange how even days that feel long are zipping by and turning into weeks. I am also surprisingly not getting as much "accomplished" as I thought I would in terms of going through old papers, photos, ephemera, etc.

However, I am researching and submitting to literary journals every day, and am writing - even something as simple as this counts, I tell myself - daily. I am walking. I am cleaning, tending the garden and keeping up on housework, etc.

After my "I haven't napped yet during this pandemic" statement, I did nap for about an hour today. But I also walked for over an hour and later submitted to not one but two journals.

The weather is better, and looks to improve even more by end of week. Pollen going into both hives. So even though I can see now that the large hive is battling deformed wing virus - but their varroa mite load still seems low, based on the monitor board - they must have brood. This is beekeeper talk that basically translates into background free-floating fretting mixed (as always) with faith that things will work out with the bees as it should. This colony continues to demonstrate a genetic predisposition for hygienic behavior that will serve it well right now. So there's that. 

Shelter-in-Place Day 20

This is what the animals do mid-morning. Also late morning, early afternoon, evening, and whenever it suits them. I don't think I've taken a single nap during this shelter-in-place. But I live vicariously.

And Mr. Dary, mid-yawn. Because napping wore him out, apparently.

Most of today was spent composing poems, and tonight a zoom critique group. In between, a dog walk and in the evening, a short but very intense lightning storm with hail. The chickens like to eat the hail. 

Tomorrow, the National Guard will arrive to help at the Food Bank in Santa Rosa, and the County Health Officer anticipates cases of the coronavirus to reach an apex in June. Tonight, the Library Commission met regarding pay and closure. I'll have to check the recording tomorrow, because the timing conflicted with my poetry group. Whenever we do return to work, things will be very different.

Shelter-in-Place Day 19

Today, I fasted until dinner - something I've never done before but tried as a re-set after two days of almost criminal overeating. I also, once the rain stopped, went on a four-mile walk, gardened, and finally emptied the box I've hauled around for 30+ years that contains ephemera from a 3-month Eurail/Youth Hostel trip which I've been meaning to put in a scrapbook "some day."

I did not complete that project. But I did run across some interesting items, and perhaps by this time tomorrow, I'll be able to provide photographic evidence of what this odd hoarding has accomplished.

I've kept up with my daily poetry writing/blogging/submitting for April. There was a typo and a missing page break I caught after submitting pieces, so it tells me to slow down and double-check. But it feels good to know that I now have a total of 25 poems pending responses from 6 places.

California and Sonoma County now recommend masks for people who are out in public. There are many people, friends included, making their own. I have a couple of older N-95 masks that I will use when I eventually go shopping for food again, unless I use a bandana or the like instead in order to avoid criticism because N-95 masks should go to medical professionals for their PPE. However, the ones I have are old. However, who would know that?

It's amazing how quickly what would have been something out of a dystopian novel becomes "normal."

Sonoma County's caseload is now at 111.

D. told me people are finding creative ways to cope with being home-bound. Lots of music, lots of baking. And apparently, one man counted how many smiley faces he could draw with a standard ballpoint pen before it ran out of ink (29,249).

Is putting 1989 museum tickets and travel brochures in a scrapbook just as worthless a use of time?

Shelter-in-Place Day 18

It rained today, and I spent most of the day at the computer, reading poetry, listening to poetry podcasts, watching poets interview one another, knitting, and feeding the fire in our wood burning stove.

I also spent some time trying to watch the presidential corona virus briefing. But it kept stalling out, so I only heard snippets. Enough to know that the next two weeks will be rough, especially for some hot spots. And that the POTUS is capable of contradicting himself, even about vitally important matters, within the space of a single sentence. And that the U.S. has been accused of diverting shipments of medical supplies. 

As I wrote this, I wonder whether a day will come when the world will be in such dire straits that international cooperation in coordinating relief efforts will override the base human impulse for preservation of self and tribe. In other words, what would it take for us to work together as a social animal that is able to put the species and its survival as a whole ahead of individual needs? I wonder what E.O. Wilson has to say about SARS-CoV-2. 

As of right now, the Johns Hopkins worldwide numbers are 1.2 million confirmed cases, 64,753 deaths and 246,886 recovered.  For California, the numbers are 13,723 confirmed cases and 317 deaths. That figure comes from the efforts of the New York Times to track cases at a state and county-wide level. When you see that fewer than 21 out of 100,000 people in Sonoma County are affected, and .2 out of 100,000 people in Sonoma County have died from this disease, it would be tempting to think of it as "just another flu" about which officials are making a huge fuss. But in New York, the deaths at this point number 22 out of every 100,000 people, and they're having to create more makeshift morgues. That's the way this would go everywhere - or worse - if we weren't sheltering in place.

I'm hoping to avoid any trips to the stores or anywhere, apart from driving S. to work and picking her up, for the next couple of weeks. 

Shelter-in-Place Day 17

I spent a good part of today trying to clean up the dumping ground that was the area just outside our back window, along the house in the back yard. We'd gone through the rice straw bale we use as bedding for the chickens, as well as the pressed wood logs we use for the fireplace when we don't have enough of the hard oak cut. So a trip to Rivertown for both things was my essential outing for the day (as well as a walk with the dog).

I also managed to check both bee hives, briefly, and replace a splitting super for the Mountain colony, which appears to be doing beautifully. The Shakespeare hive is still huge and still busy, but I'm concerned by the large number of bees they're pulling out each morning, dead, and by the even larger number of bees I see walking on the ground near the hive. I can't see that they have deformed wings or mites, so maybe pesticide, or something else? Some do seem to fly after walking around quite a bit. The colony has always had a strong hygienic habits, so I suppose it could be something else going on with the newest bees. Just not sure.

After the hive inspections, determined to find a better way to store the rice straw bale than up against the house for mice to tunnel under, I thought of setting it up on top of something. A simple enough idea, but to make it work and clean up all the unnecessary clutter took hours, for some reason. I moved make-shift nesting boxes created with old dresser drawers, but now abandoned by the hens. I moved buckets of sand and BBQ briquettes and wood that still needs to be split and dilapidated seed starting trays, and it only now occurs to me as I write this that only the nesting boxes were my idea. The rest was, as it were, imposed on me by the erstwhile projects of other family members. If that sounded bitter, it was only a tiny bit so. There are moments, especially during this shelter-in-place, when I feel as though I do nothing but clean up after everyone else. Which is ridiculous to admit because meanwhile, people are dying and losing their jobs, and my family members do help me, sometimes, and oh, yeah, again: people are dying.

The number of diagnosed cases world-wide, or at least admitted (because who knows how many really died in China), has exceeded one million. And Dr. Anthony Fauci has had to have increased personal security because of death threats from conspiracy theorists. I think Fauci (head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) knows his stuff and has helped save countless lives with his ability to stand firm and tell the truth while the person next to him at the podium vacillates between one ego-driven declaration and another. [Insert deep breath here, to avoid expressing my real - heated - opinion of said person.]

The day ended with D. and I watching an episode of MST3000 together, although I fell asleep before it finished, having had too much red wine and too much sugar during a zoom celebration of a friend's birthday. Is seeing the faces of my girlfriends on a screen instead of around a table in person the new normal? Some think so.

Shelter-in-Place Day 16

I'm copying text that I'd put in my poetry blog here. The post was entitled "Well, That Was Quick":

As if to reward me for focusing on my work, [insert name of divine being, fate, luck, synchronicity, etc.] has provided me with a less-than-24 hour turnaround for acceptance of a poem I sent out last night. I am so very grateful, especially because the journal is beautiful and I'm honored to be part of it. More to come on that later. 

In other, less ego-centric news, there was a zoom Litquake reading tonight that would have been in Grace Cathedral had circumstances allowed it. The event was hosted by Rebecca Foust, and featured I got to see and hear Kazim Ali, Tongo Eisen-Martin, and Jane Hirshfield. I felt like I'd gone on a three-stage journey by the time the reading had finished, and that the scenery and local food and language differed, but they all carried me along my way, and I was grateful to have traveled. 

Otherwise, today was spent running errands and working on bee equipment and trying to find the next place to submit poems. It's a sign of the times that when I went to Beekind for lemon grass oil and Bee Quick, they were allowing only one customer in the store at a time, masked, and that they had hand-sanitizer to use before you entered, and you weren't to touch anything but what you bought. At Costco, there was a forty minute wait to get into the store. But the shelves were well-stocked in terms of what I needed, with the exception of eggs, toilet paper and flour. I bought equipment from John at Buzz Off Honey as well. There, the shopping experience was as it normally is.

I am finding that writing poems every day, submitting poems every day, doing Whole Life Challenge and managing two blogs is keeping me busy - especially if I put off much of it until the end of the day. Tomorrow, if the weather is good, I'll add a hive inspection to that list.

Shelter-in-Place Day 15

It is April, and therefore National Poetry Month. Here's a random photo of late February daffodils to liven up this post.

Today also marks the 30 year anniversary of my husband asking me to marry him. Yes, April Fool's Day. If this has been a long-running prank, I admire his ability to stretch out a joke.

Today a neighbor and I walked to a friend's house to sit socially distant from one another in her garden and catch up. This is after I had a zoom session with poetry friends. So many interpersonal interactions in one day!

Also, I gardened (weeded) and read and wrote. I'm focusing more on poetry this month: trying to write a poem a day and submit to a publication every day. We shall see how that plays out...

Shelter-in-Place Day 14

Today I took another long walk, trying to enjoy the natural world as I know a lot of people are now. I also did a little bit more yard work, and a little bit more housework. It's the birthday of my birth father, my husband's sister, and a friend from the library. But the big news that marks the day is that the county has decided to extend the shelter-in-place order for another four weeks, until May 3rd.

No. C19-05
Extending The Shelter In Place Order No. C19-03 Beyond April 7, 2020 To May 3, 2020.
DATE OF ORDER: MARCH 31, 2020
Read Health Order Appendix – Social Distancing Protocol »Frequently Asked Questions »Detailed Summary of Changes – New Shelter Order issued on March 31, 2020 (PDF) »Please read this Order carefully.  Violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both.  (California Health and Safety Code § 120275, et seq.; Cal. Penal Code §§ 69, 148(a)(1).)UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE SECTIONS 101040, 101085, AND 120175, THE HEALTH OFFICER OF THE COUNTY OF SONOMA (“HEALTH OFFICER”) ORDERS:
1. This Order shall become effective at 12:01 a.m. on April 1, 2020 and will continue to be in effect until 11:59 p.m. on May 3, 2020, or until it is extended, rescinded, superseded, or amended in writing by the Health Officer or the State Health Officer.

etc.

It spells out the details of essential businesses, and I hope it cuts down on the number of bored people shopping for flowers to plant. The hardware store where S. works is considered essential, but under item 13, which defines "essential," there are caveats about cosmetic versus safety purposes:

1. Hardware stores;

1. Plumbers, electricians, exterminators, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the habitability, sanitation, and operation of residences and Essential Businesses, but not for cosmetic or other purposes;

1. Arborists, landscapers, gardeners, and similar service professionals, but only to the limited extent necessary to maintain the habitability, sanitation, operation of businesses or residences, or the safety of residents, employees, or the public (such as fire safety or tree trimming to prevent a dangerous condition), and not for cosmetic or other purposes (such as upkeep)

This means another month at home. I hope to use it well. 

 

Shelter-in-Place Day 13

Another swarm today. This makes three in nine days, and this time I'm not sure whether it was the larger "Shakespeare" Hive (so named because I received it 4/23/18), or the smaller "Mountain" Hive, given to me as a split from Nick on Sonoma Mountain. I'm going to try to link a video to this blog. It's as the swarm just started to find the queen in the oak tree. I'm standing in the middle of it all. Another three hours to carefully box up. Again, no stings.

Here's what it looked like once they landed:

On the coronavirus front, I'm going to let the Johns Hopkins map tell it all this time:

Shelter-in-Place Day 12

Sunday.

Just as I despaired about any one else helping with projects around the house, D. improved upon his live rat trap for the plague that visits our back yard at night to snag chicken feed, which seems to be a target no matter how well we try to cover it.  We'll see how it goes. I hate to kill anything, even these troublesome rats. D. counted 11 in our backyard the other night! But if we lived in the country, it might be even more of a necessity than it is now to deal with the intrusions from nature. So I tell myself I should get used to it. In the meantime, I know that if it were just up to me, I'd be driving each captured rodent into the hills and letting it go to live out its days. Or be eaten by a raptor.

So much for this being any kind of pandemic blog. How self-centered.

New York is in a very bad state, with the National Guard preparing beds in advance of what is still coming.

I donated toward a non-profit that is getting masks sent to the US by the thousands. It's legit, because a friend knows the woman doing it personally and has already seen masks come in to the hospital where her husband works as a result. It feels like such a small contribution. But it's something besides just staying home, in my own house and in my own head.

Shelter-in-Place Day 11

I've found myself slightly irritable now and then during the last couple of days. But I can recognize it's happening, feel it, and not act on it. It passes quickly, and usually I can identify what's going on.

It could be that I'm getting a little stir-crazy. But more often, it's a sense that I'm accomplishing things on our long around-the-house to-do-list while those around me (especially D.) literally play video games for hours. Or at any rate, sit in front of a screen for hours. I do too, honestly, but almost always at the end of the day, after I've done "all the things" or at least enough of them to feel I've been productive.

It's true that some of that screen staring might be programming or research. It's true that by the time I'm zoning out in front of the computer or Netflix, other people are just starting to get into gear and get things done. But if I were to express my real feelings about the hours of what I consider wasted days (and we only have a limited number of them!), it would be ugly. And not worth the fallout. Writing about it here is as close as I'll get, most likely. Until I can find a kind way to speak my truth "quietly and clearly" as the Desiderata would have it.

Come to think of it, when I just now went to make sure I was quoting that text correctly, I realized that it represents almost entirely the guidelines by which I have tried to lead my life. Whether or not it has been conscious, I've applied the whole thing to how I try to move in the world, what my beliefs and values are. I remember memorizing it as a child, mostly, when it hung on a shellacked piece of wood in my nana's mobile home. I have carried it with me all this time. It has shaped what I think.

So there. A self-discovery for the day.

Shelter-in-Place Day 10

I might as well document the look of the painted living room wall. Take it from me, it's much better than it was before, when it was full of clutter and an ugly splotchy dark green. The peregrine painting is from my birth dad. Moira is drinking water at the edge of the scene.

What does it say that we have a Burne-Jones print and a RoboCop diarama in the same cabinet? 

That D. and I live here. That's what it means. 

The days are indeed starting to blur. But tomorrow is a weekend, so D. will be home. The rain is coming. I've done some weeding and watched the smaller hive do a dry run of a swarm. I tried to identify the emotions I was feeling while I waited to see if they were really going to leave, and while I prayed they wouldn't head east, into the yard of the neighbors I don't know, whose house sports a thin blue line flag, like this one:

I think the primary emotion was resignation, with some kind of stoic support underneath it. The same emotions that I feel about the shelter-in-place - although in that case they're under a whole lot of guilt-tinged happiness about being home and relief that I have a federal and state-mandated excuse not to socialize. 

Shelter-in-Place Day 9

I admit that the days do blur a bit as I try to keep track of them.

Today, just as I was about to drive D. to work, the Shakespeare hive swarmed again. I was able to watch it swarm. I'd jinxed myself Saturday when I said that was the easiest swarm ever to put in a nuc.

Here's today:

The good news about this one? It landed in the back yard next to the smaller "Mountain" colony. The bad news, it wasn't just *on* the umbrella, or even just *under* the umbrella. It took nearly 3 hours of patient coaxing and careful disassembling to find that the queen was hiding in the very bottom of the pole, on the inside! Phew! This one goes to the next name on the "needs bees" list. I'd known it was going to swarm because when I'd gone into the hive Sunday, I'd heard piping so I closed it right back up. I'd added space but couldn't get into it further to find queen cells.

Shelter-in-Place Day 8

Today was remarkable because I received a quick and not automated rejection email from a literary journal. If I were taking part in the 100 rejections a year community in one of my FB groups, that would be one to add to the list.

I spent the day painting the living room. I guess these projects always take longer than you think they will. It feels frivolous while so many things are happening that are so much more important - a nephew with a burst appendix, a half-sister in ICU with heart problems - but not, as far as we know right now, coronavirus. But I can't seem to not take advantage of the shelter-in-place order to complete things that have needed doing for a long time. In spite of the heartache so many are feeling, I am so happy at home.

Shelter-in-Place Day 7

Well, the rain came today. And so I set about starting the project of painting the wall in our living room that had been a dark green, and was spotty at best, especially where the 450 gallon fish tank had lived.

It took until 9pm, with a few taxi-driving breaks, to get the primer up. Tomorrow, I hope to put on the "flaxseed" that is already on the adjoining entranceway wall. Because the corner from one room into the other is rounded, it would be awkward to transition to another color. I just hope the flaxseed isn't too dark. Of course, anything would be dark compared to the arctic primer I spent hours putting on.

In truth, most of the time is spent cleaning and taping. I'm not the neatest painter, although I'm better than I used to be - so paint really saves me, every time.

I saw part of the White House televised conference today. President Trump hoping to get the economy rolling by Easter. Because it seems like that would be a "beautiful day" for that to happen. Somebody better inform the still-spreading novel coronavirus about his plans.

Shelter-in-Place Day 6

Today, I conquered a fair bit of dread and anxiety and tried a zoom conference for the first time. I had no choice, because it meant seeing and hearing my poetry friends from the MFA program, and I wasn't going to miss that. It turns out that there is almost nothing to it, and it went well, and I am so grateful that I could spend that time with them. I wrote each one afterward to send my gratitude, support and love.

I normally don't even like to call people on my cell.  It's another behavior that this pandemic is changing.

Later, I attended a virtual poetry reading via zoom, with 40 other people. While covid19 is a tragedy for many, it must be an unbelievable boon for the makers of zoom and other videoconferencing software.

I made the mistake of making fresh bread just as my resistance to sugar and flour was at a low point, and didn't so much fall of the wagon as hurl myself there. At least I saw the binge coming, watched it happen, and can say, yep, that's what that was. Tomorrow is another day. But what I learned from this is that almost certainly if I've done something difficult during the day, or if it's been a long stressful day and I've reached the end of it, my habit is to self-medicate with sugar and alcohol or both. I need to find another form of recompense. Some ideas: knitting, a cup of tea, stretching, a walk around the block, or all three. But not at the same time.

Britain is under very firm shelter-in-place orders. I watched Prime Minister Boris Johnson's address to the people of Britain, and he seemed to be taking things very seriously. I understand that he may be cut of a similar cloth to the blustering buffoon we have in office, but at that moment, I appreciated his gravitas, and wished he was our leader.

They've closed all Sonoma County Parks because people were essentially flocking to them and congregating too much for safety's sake. But the rain is coming, so D. and I wouldn't have been going to Schollenberger anyway. I'm glad I checked the Shakespeare hive when I did, and gardened while I could.

an effort to track down how rats are getting into the attic, and to see whether they were nesting there, I crawled around for a while. I found that a few of the girls' shelter projects had been raided for nests, and had to throw them out. S., burned out by working so many hours and helping customers with zeroconcept of "essential shopping," said she didn't care if I got rid of all of those early childhood projects. 

In the interest of space - and in the face of lack of interest - I did toss these beauties, but not before taking pictures, which are of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, a sailboat (2nd or 3rd grade?), the signature of Elizabeth 1 on Mary, Queen of Scot's death warrant - from R/N's People to People project, and a yarn design.

                     

                                                       

Shelter-in-Place Day 5

Another day of working in the yard because I thought the rain would be coming soon. The skies have stayed clear for now, and the yard is looking better.

I tried to get into the large hive to check for queen cells, but I didn't get far before I found myself performing surgery to extract new comb built sideways outside the follower boards - honey, and even some drone brood. I also heard piping. So I just added another box and frames, pressed the new comb on wired frames (note to self: get large rubber bands for this task!), and closed it all back up. It's now six medium supers tall. I'll have to wait until the shelter-in-place order is lifted and I can get help to clean it up more. But also, if there's a new queen, I don't dare mess with it at all for a while.

I'm hearing more and more that we should only be making essential trips, and I admit to feeling guilty for buying paint yesterday, but it's a done deal now.

Tomorrow, I'll try my first zoom conference. I find myself intimidated by, not the technology, but the social interaction. Shyness, or something else? I think it's just a manifestation of anxiety, so I'm accepting it and moving on.

Johns Hopkins reports over 330,000 cases and over 14,000 deaths (30 in California) - but nearly 100,000 recovered, which is the number I try to focus on.

This morning I sent poems to an online journal known for a quick response time. I will send out more tomorrow. Writing and submitting always takes longer than you think it will, but I have the amazing luxury of time right now. I am grateful for that unexpected gift from the pandemic.

Shelter-in-Place Day 4

For me, anyway, today was as good a day one could hope for during a pandemic. I read poetry and wrote poetry, looked into options for submitting poetry, gardened (i.e., pulled weeds) and then just as I was starting to inspect my larger hive, which I knew was likely to swarm soon, it swarmed.

This time I was able to spot the bees congregating in my neighbor's back yard. I went next door, and sure enough, he was already aware of what was happening. Together, we watched them settle in the same tree where a swarm had settled last year. Such a cool neighbor to be open to the process.

Here's what it looked like about five minutes after the queen landed on the tree:

It turns out that the next person who answered her phone on the the Sonoma County Beekeepers Association (South Cluster) Needs Bees list (yes, there is such a thing) is the same person who got last year's swarm from the same location. Unfortunately, that swarm didn't overwinter. Perhaps this one will.

While I'd waited for her to come, I inspected, and expanded, the smaller hive and gardened more. In between all these activities, I paused now and then to read and eat. I also drank lots of water and listened a little to an audiobook by Tara Brach. So it could be argued that it has been a healthy and productive day. I am feeling so strangely content while the nation and the world grapple with SARS-CoV-2. Selfish behavior? Coping mechanism? Or just living in the moment, appreciating what I can? Maybe a little of all three.

Here's a video of the bees starting to go into their swarm box, exposing their Nasonov's glands by sticking their bottoms in the air and then fanning. This gland produces a pheromone to tell the others to come home, where the queen is. Notice the bees marching right into the nuc from the tree. This was the easiest swarm I've ever captured. I got the queen in the box with the first scoop of bees.

Shelter-in-Place Day 3

The cats demonstrate social distancing.

Already, the days are starting to blur a little. I am glad I have some routine - to bed around 10 or 11, up by 7 or 8.  I take S. to work and I pick her up, and in between I do a few other things. Today, most of the day was spent weeding, which was very satisfying.

There's still plenty to do, but tomorrow, which I have to keep reminding myself is Saturday, I'll do a full hive inspect of both hives. The weather should be just warm enough. Today, it was just too cool to check, but in the afternoon, the larger of the two colonies seemed to swarm. I took video and pictures of it, but didn't see where they went if they did swarm.. I walked for about 45 minutes around the neighborhood but never found them. Maybe they were practicing? Maybe they have not yet been discovered or have been killed or were reported and no one in SCBA on the swarm crew got back to me to see if it might have been my hive. It's hard to care about them and have zero control - although I did put out my nuc and a swarm trap. I also hope the oak tree continues to attract anyone who decides to swarm.

I'm doing the Whole Life Challenge because I need to accountability to help learn to focus on self-care. And because it's a pop-up and free. (Thank you, WLC folks!)

Listening to Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance, too. It's helping keep me from falling deeply into my usual self-indulgence/self-criticism cycle.

NYC and Illinois are now also shelter-in-place. Health care officials are trying desperately to raise enough alarms for people to respond in a way that will mitigate the situation, but our leadership is not ideal in terms of inspiring positive responses.

While I am keeping tabs on the situation through various news sources, I'm also grateful for how the natural world carries on regardless. 

Here's a shot of the front of the swarming (?) hive. After things died down, I could see that many workers were fascinated by a few spots near the front where I think a queen had been, but I never saw her.

Shelter-in-Place Day 2

Today Governor Gavin Newsom called for all Californians to shelter in place - stay home and avoid going out as much as possible. This is from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

The governor earlier in the day asked the president to deploy a U.S. Navy medical ship to help expand the state’s medical capacity and warned that if drastic measures are not taken, more than half of California’s residents could contract the new coronavirus.

(!)

The number of deaths recorded world-wide has exceeded 10,000 and Italy reports more deaths than China reported. There are those who question the numbers from China.

Today I left the house three times: to take S. to work, to get rat traps and copper tape to keep slugs from the new vegetable garden, and then to pick up S. from work.  I spent as much time as I could gardening and writing. Both beehives are doing well and I was serenaded by buzzing while I worked.

N. has gone to stay with A. at his father's for a while. His father is high-risk, so there may be little back-and-forthing. But we know where to reach her if we need to.

It's dark now, and in the backyard, D's live trap just caught not one but two rats. I hate killing anything when there is so much death around right now anyway, but I'm also more determined than ever to protect plants that we need to make food from the plague of rats that invades our back yard every night. We see four or five scatter every time we turn on the light on the chicken coop between 7pm and 9pm.

I'm not at the point of buying guns or ammo, nor do I think I would ever be - although I have heard that sales have sky-rocketed. I feel a very long way away from that sense of survivalism or martial law - but it's no longer so far outside the realm of possibility. Planting veggies is my version of feeling self-sufficient.

Yesterday I learned that a friend had to euthanize her dog. Much more significantly, today I heard of the death of a previous coworker. I can't quite process that bit of news yet. I knew him well and he seemed too young to die, even though I heard he'd been ill lately, and I hadn't seen him since I left my last job. I'm feeling so sad for his former wife and his three kids, who must be between 20 and 25 now. Too young to lose a father, especially in the middle of all of this. 

Shelter-in-Place end of Day 1

I found myself almost not writing this post, and it's only the second day in a row that I'd intended to log this forced social distancing we're all experiencing. Not much of a streak if you can't go more than one day in a row.

Mornings are better for writing, I've found. I managed to spend some time at it before noon, and even mid-day. Primarily finishing some notes on poems from my critique group. I assiduously worked on that rather than working on a clunky poem or two I'm trying to write. I also took a break in the early afternoon to go on a dog walk with a friend. We were fairly compliant - air hugs, stayed a few feet apart, bumped elbows to say good-bye. Later, I worked on the garden until the rain drove me in. Then I made dinner for the family and lost myself to episodes of The Office on Netflix. How many of us are binge watching things as an escape between news stories?

The recorded numbers from Johns Hopkins right now:
218,814 confirmed cases
8,810 deaths
84,113 recovered

In California, I watched the deaths jump from 4 to 6 to 8 to 16 over the last few days. The figures will get worse, maybe even much worse, before they get better. But for now, stores still have lots of groceries (although, inexplicably, no potatoes and not much iodized salt). People are fairly mellow, the streets are quiet, and I think about the unexpected blessings that can come from difficulties.

A poem has been making the rounds, delivered into my inbox through Larry Robinson of Rumi's Caravan fame. It also apparently showed up on the Nextdoor app. It's by the poet and minister Lynn Ungar, and it is a message of hope and encouragement posted on her website 3/11/20.


Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.

And here's a picture from today's walk. I think it's Ranunculus calfornicus, the California buttercup. Not the best shot, but they were a pretty burst of color at our feet.

Shelter in Place Minus 4 Hours

As I open up a new page to write my first blog post for the first time in a very long time, I am thinking, "Begin as you mean to go on."

We received word a few hours ago that the county is to shelter-in-place until April 7th, the seventh bay area county to do so since the novel coronavirus (which research told me yesterday is named SARS-CoV-2) started to really dig in enough for even the POTUS to pay attention.

With the opportunity to spend three weeks at home, not working, not traveling, I am both extremely grateful and hopeful that I will use the time well, and at the same time I'm cognizant of the difficult circumstances that have brought us to this point - circumstances that for some have been, or will be, fatal.

I know I am not the only person walking around the county, the country, even the world, with R.E.M.'s "The End of the World as We Know It" running through my head like a constant low-volume soundtrack. This is a defining point in history. It is not the first viral threat to humanity, and it will certainly not be the last. But I can't remember the word "pandemic" being used before in my lifetime like this. We are united in our concern. As a world. We watch the numbers rise and fall, and we fight to keep the charts from spiking in the U.S. as they have elsewhere, like Italy, where no amount of accordion playing from one balcony to another can offset the grim reality of too many bodies stacking up to be buried.

It's very, very easy to feel as though we are stepping into the backstory of a novel of dystopian fiction. And at any rate, I am compelled to write. What else to do with the time I'll have? (Although a list has already been forming in my mind: go through paperwork, inventory the house, plant the vegetable garden, weed belongings inside and unwanted plants outside, hike, submit writing, lift weights, watch that yoga video, play games with the family...) But top of the list? When I think of beginning as I mean to go on? Write. And then write some more.

This is pre-day-one of the shelter-in-place. What strange times we live in.

Photo courtesy of the CDC:

Our Marriage Distilled

This morning, D., picked up a book I'd checked out entitled Spontaneous Human Combustion (I'd been weeding the 001.9s). He gave me a look.

D.: "Really?"

Me: *defensive* "Yes. It's a scientific study."

D.:   *longer look, raised eyebrows*

Me: "What? Don't you believe in spontaneous human combustion?"

D.:  "No."

Me: "Well, do you believe in anything you can't explain?"

D.:   "Yes." pause "I believe in you."

Bees and a Bat

The day began with a bat, loose in the library. Not something we could post on our Facebook page, of course, as there may be some patrons who would find it disturbing, this confluence of nature and their safe space.

But the bat (we called it "Stellaluna," of course) was foolish enough to land on the floor in the office of the supervising children's librarian. She has children librarian's skills, and more importantly, a butterfly net with which to catch the creature. She let it go in the courtyard, moving it to near a tree when it didn't take off immediately. It may have been stunned, or sick, or just overwhelmed by its adventure and the amount of daylight around it. By afternoon, when some colleagues checked on it, it appeared to be gone, although they did not brave a thorough search of the ivy in the courtyard, because there are worse things than bats to be found there.

In the afternoon, I had messages from Christine, friend and seasoned beekeeper extraordinaire, that my hive had swarmed into my next-door neighbor's yard. She and John (another experienced beeker and swarm-catcher) caught the swarm, which was a little cranky in the cold damp weather, and are giving it to another Sonoma County beekeeper who is currently hiveless. I wish I'd been home to help! I knew it was coming because of the piping from last inspection. I shall post photos and maybe even videos soon.

Change versus novelty

I'd like to think I'm okay with change. I don't mind trying new things (by which I mean Thai food, not sky-diving). I don't mind changing jobs. I believe I'd be happy to move to a new house, if/when that happens. I understand that nothing is permanent.

But I have to say that I have lost some tolerance for society's constant push for novelty. It's even possible that I never had that tolerance to begin with, or perhaps simply that I don't feel that I have the energy to be responsible for the decisions that go behind innovation.

Actually, I think I can tighten the focus and say this more clearly. I don't seem to be able to get excited about making decisions that may disappoint other people. My skin has grown thin in that area. I second-guess myself and I don't want to be responsible. For much of anything that is designed to delight people. Or maybe I just don't have a lot of surplus creative energy. Or general energy. Today. I used to be in charge of a lot of stuff. I mostly hated it, but it helped to know where I stood in the chain of command. And I think seniority helped. I had the certainty that history can give you. I'm feeling less invested these days in anything to do with work. Even though I love my job.

This could be low blood sugar or the cold I'm fighting off speaking. But even in writing this, I realize that I'm stymied by the needs that drive a capital society. It's just as well I don't work in retail. My clock is slower than that. I don't think about the next thing and then the next thing. I'd like to sit and be still in the present a bit longer, if possible. Give me a job to do. Don't ask for my opinion about what to do. Or, at least, not tonight.

A Safe and Tame Poem-a-Day

In honor of the afore-mentioned and omni-April'd National Poetry Month, the Santa Rosa Central Branch of the Sonoma County Library will post a new poem every day for the next 28 days on their Facebook page.

To err on the side of no-copyright-infringement, the poems have been, thus far, culled from those in public domain. This means primarily white men, all dead poets, and a lot of rhyme and elevated language. We are avoiding anything that is overtly religious or edgy. The results have the potential of being bland. Although sometimes I like me some Edna St. Vincent Millay, I'd rather have Sara Teasdale.

I love that while I wrote the above, I paused to look up "Sara Teasdale vs Edna St. Vincent Millay," and was led to Cynthia Haven's blog, and this entry. What's wonderful about Haven's notes, to me at least, is that she quotes Richard Wilbur, another one of my favorite poets, and one whom I would think could provide me with several inoffensive but well-written poems for our FB entries.

But I hadn't remembered Elinor Wylie, whom I think is better than Teasdale, based on this:

Poor Earth
It is not heaven: bitter seed
Leavens its entrails with despair
It is a star where dragons breed:
Devils have a footing there.
The sky has bent it out of shape;
The sun has strapped it to his wheel;
Its course is crooked to escape
Traps and gins of stone and steel.
It balances on air, and spins
Snared by strong transparent space;
I forgive it all its sins;
I kiss the scars upon its face.

 Sara Teasdale:  1884-1933
 Elinor Wylie:   1885-1928
 Edna St. Vincent Millay:  1892-1950

Not National Tattoo Day

 

Let's say it's July 17th, which is National Tattoo Day. It is not, by any calendar, really July 17th. But the power of the written word is that it can engage the imagination in a little stroll down What If Lane.

If I had a tattoo, or multiple tattoos, as my daughters do (does anyone ever stick to just a single tattoo?), and if it were July 17th, I could conceivably have conversations with people about the subject as though it were something remarkable.

And yet, on July 18th, I would still have tattoos. And it would be National Sour Candy Day. Ignoring for a moment the significant overlap that exists in a tattoos/sour candy Venn diagram entitled "What My Daughters Like," the reality is that the hubbub over tattoos would wane.

My point? It is National Poetry Month. But in March, I was a poet interested in poetry, and willing to travel to Portland to hang out with 14,999 other writers at AWP for five days to back the statement. In May, I will still be a poet.

April serves to prod me to blog and make statements about poetry. But the various self-help books and audiobooks I've been reading also prompt me to put my actions where my aspirations are. Instead of putting things off or whining about life not meeting my - often subconscious - expectations, I am acting. A little or a lot, depending on the day. But, as self-helpy as this sounds, it's true: only by stopping the behavior that that is keeping me from achieving goals, and by taking the steps that will get me ever closer to what I want, will I find myself with, if not the actual goals themselves, then at least with the self-respect that comes from working toward them honestly and doggedly. End of self-helpy spiel.