The Interesting Times

Breaking news: we're still in a pandemic. The coronavirus continues to keep restaurants in take-out-only mode and masks are such a feature of my face that I've got mask-ne. It's acne... from a mask! We get Door Dash a couple times a day and have developed a real Amazon ordering problem. The toilet paper/hand sanitizer madness has subsided and you can buy those things as needed again. There's no where to go and nothing to do, and when you walk down the street and people see you coming, they'll cross the street to keep 6 feet of clearance. Okay, that social distancing part I love and want to keep forever, but the rest is tired and annoying. Interesting, huh?

Just a couple gals getting a Covid antibody test. I was hoping Mom's sickness this Christmas was Covid so she could exist in the world. No such luck.

Bubba, Lee, and Mateo are staying with us, and Shahin, Tom, and Laila are next door. The proximity of family spread across two neighboring properties has made our bubble a little bigger than most people's, and I am so grateful for that. Mateo is about to be a big brother in a few months, but for the time being he is relishing being the center of six adults otherwise boring and alcoholic seltzer soaked worlds. 

He's really into Grossery Gang, so much so he had it as his birthday theme. He's got moldy nachos, a soda with worm straws, fries with vomit? on them, a tub of discolored popcorn, and about 100 other small, squishy rotten food items that he totes around in a box and plays with all the time. He never lets me, or any other women he ropes into playing with him, be anything but Bagel Lady.

That boy comes up with the nuttiest things. He is A LOT, never gets tired, and sometimes I find myself bickering with him like I'd bicker with my sisters because I AM MATURE. But most of the time he is being a bright spot in the middle of this boredom. Mack bought him a book of stories and one of them is about a donkey that wants to sing like grasshoppers, but since it's an old storybook, they call the donkey an ass. Mateo loves being allowed to say ass, and that's the only reason he likes that story.

In non-Mateo news, I've spent my free time planting a garden in the container boxes Scott and I built before this all started. The cabbage worms are trying to sap my will to cultivate food, but I finally caved and dusted them with Sevin and I think I may just have the upper hand now. My friend Annie started making mead from scratch. Mack and Erik, Annie's boy, built automatic weapons. Men and women respond to global crises in such different ways. 

  

Zoe, Bubba's dog, is also living here, and she has developed an understandable fascination with the chickens but a really bizarre friendship with Lemondrop. She bursts out the back door and acts like she's herding the chickens, except they're already in their coop. She runs from one side to the other, getting all up in the dusty bushes and getting filthy. Then she'll come inside and chew on herself from itching because she is not a chicken and cannot do the dust they way they do. 

Oh, the gorgeousness. Those asses. 

Mack and I have managed to do a couple of escapes, one to camp at Mammoth Pool in the Sierras and one to visit my family. Mammoth Pool was beautiful, but Mack and I had a moment when we wanted to kill each other because I insisted we take the long way home from the waterfall to the campsite and the long way ended up being 8 hours of nervous off-roading in a giant pick up truck. This is only about the 10th time I've ambitiously led us on an adventure that ended up being a scary ass drive that takes forever. 

It started out so perfectly.

Listen, Google Maps confirmed this was the way.

Worth it.

Beautiful campsite right by a little creek.

He finally forgave me after a pot of chili and the serenity of a campfire. 

The trip back home was way too fast. I had to hit Kentucky, then up to Dad's for a day, cram in some aunts, uncles, and cousins, meet the newest member of the tribe, Crew, and then get back home, all without catching or giving anyone a deadly virus. The fear of travel is real when the lovies are at the receiving end of it, but I couldn't not see them, especially with this threat looming over us and no visitors allowed in hospitals. 

2020: bringing the campfire hangout back cuz you have to be outside and social distanced!

Worth it.

Don't know how these teenagers are making it thru this mess with a smile on their faces. 

Pandemic baby! Welcome Crew! Do you know how hard it was to not be able to hold this fresh baby?

We still have no idea when this might all end. When we might be able to hug and kiss again. When we'll see smiles from strangers and celebrate birthdays again. When we can travel to the places we're drooling over again. When we can go to weddings and hold the babies. When this interesting will take a turn toward normal. But until then, we're washing our hands, being good recluses, and being grateful we're dodging the invisible bullet.