Claudia — Page 506

Day Three Hundred Five

January 12, 2021 at 10:24 am by Claudia

Not much to report, my friends.

I worked a bit of the puzzle yesterday, though it’s slow going as the edge pieces are all a solid off-white with no real distinguishing marks. But I don’t mind slow. I sit down at the table and add a few more pieces, and for a while I’ve escaped the madness.

I find that both Don and I nod off rather easily. I nodded off in my chair during the day and later, we both fell asleep while watching Rachel Maddow. I think it is a normal reaction to everything that is going on. We need rest. We need a brief respite. Even after the brief naps, I still slept my full 7 hours last night.

Some of the books I ordered arrived.

I supposed that only one of these would be classified as ‘comfort reading.’ That would be Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. I read a lot of Pilcher a few decades ago, so I can’t remember whether I read this one. I don’t think I did. Either way, she wrote beautifully and I know I’ll enjoy it. Jane Casey writes great police procedural mysteries – I have read all of the books in her Maeve Kerrigan series save two. One of them is Cruel Acts, which you see here. And then there is part three of Stephen Fry’s memoirs, More Fool Me.

I have two more arriving today; two classic ‘village life’ novels by Miss Read and D. E. Stevenson.

I don’t know about you, but I need to escape – at least for a few hours a day.

Still waiting on my dollhouse wallpaper which is taking a meandering path to my mailbox. So I can’t do anything on that project.

We decided to order our groceries this week, as COVID is spiking in New York state. We just placed that order this morning and we’ll pick it up tomorrow morning.

That’s it. Routine, everyday things like cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, reading, chatting with Don – the stuff that keeps me sane. Oh hey, I found a recipe for sugar-free cocoa/hot chocolate, which uses Monk’s Fruit sweetener, pure cocoa, and milk. I ordered the sweetener from Amazon and bought the cocoa (a mix of regular cocoa and dutch process dark cocoa) from our local supermarket. I treat myself to it once a week and it’s really good! Don likes it, too. I had some yesterday around 4 pm and it was perfect.

All part of my Must Have Comfort initiative.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Day Three Hundred Four

January 11, 2021 at 9:56 am by Claudia

Boy, motivating myself to write a post is hard. Once I start, I’m fine. I think the enormity of what happened last week gets stronger by the day and, frankly, it’s almost all I can think about. Sure, I start a jigsaw puzzle, I wash the sheets and the towels, I dust, vacuum and straighten up. But always, like a sound track running constantly in my head, are the events of January 6th.

I’m sure it’s much the same for all of you.

It’s all Don and I could talk about this morning during our second cup of coffee.

It’s very cold and gray today. We’ve been spoiled by pockets of sunshine for the past few days, but this day is just plain gloomy.

It’s hard for me to read a novel. I’ve only been reading for a short time at night in bed. I’m going to try to force myself to grab my book and get a chunk of reading in today. I’ve ordered a few books that should be arriving today and tomorrow – books with a high comfort level that I think I need now. I’ll share them with you when they arrive.

Still waiting on the wallpaper for the dollhouse bathroom. Hopefully, it will get here today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, I changed out the bed in the English Cottage. My favorite bed is too large for the room. It looks pretty there, but its larger size means that I can’t add a wardrobe or a desk and I want those items in that room. So – that bed will most likely go in the Beacon Hill, when I can get motivated to start building it.

I hope you’re all hanging in there.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Day Three Hundred Three

January 10, 2021 at 10:30 am by Claudia

Gone.

I missed those lovely lights this morning, though we keep our porch lights up for several months. I don’t like little tree lights anywhere else except on the tree, so I’m not going to be hanging them anywhere else in the house. Further explanation: I think it reminds me too much of my freshman dorm room, where we had them up all year long. That’s not a bad memory, but it’s a “young” memory. Just as mid-century modern furniture is a ‘young’ memory. Had it in our house growing up, don’t want it in here now. Hopefully, that makes sense.

Anyway it took a long time to remove the vintage ornaments and wrap them carefully. Don took the tree outside and left it in the woods for the birds and animals. I vacuumed like crazy. Then we moved the pew back. What else? I repotted a plant that’s not been doing well. After I investigated further, I realized it was very root bound, so fingers crossed that the repotting helps.

Still haven’t started my puzzle. I really do hope to do that today, in the midst of washing sheets and participating in the second zoom reunion of my high school pals at 4 pm.

Don and I are spending a lot of time discussing what happened on Wednesday and allowing ourselves to vent. We’re also giving ourselves permission to be a bit obsessed with the news. We have never been through something like this and we need to bear some sort of ‘witness’ for lack of a better word. I wake up each morning in disbelief that this attack on our democracy actually happened. But it did. And I think we’re going to find it goes much deeper and further than we initially thought.

Let’s see if Mike Pence invokes the 25th Amendment today. (After all, Trump’s insurrection nearly got Pence killed.) I read last night that he was still considering it if Trump got ‘worse.’ Really? We’re going to wait for worse than insane?

We’ll see. If not, it’s impeachment.

In the meantime, I’m going to finish this post, take a shower, throw the sheets in the wash, and find some pockets of peace.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Day Three Hundred Five

Day Three Hundred Four

Day Three Hundred Three

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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