This pandemic has changed me

From March, when the lockdowns began, until July or August, I whined to Cliff about all the things we couldn't do.  I grouched and pouted.  In July we decided to go ahead and spend time with our local relatives, taking our risks; this gave me a better outlook.  We didn't make that decision lightly.  I know it could be the death of me and/or Cliff.  He has gone to most of the tractor club meetings, although nobody uses a microphone during the meeting, so he hears virtually nothing, but at least when the meeting is over he can visit with people.  He doesn't like going to church, which is where I get my interaction with others, so I strongly encouraged him to go to his club meetings, if only to see some other people.  But honestly, I've about lost interest.  He doesn't like the tractor drives that sometimes last for hours.  There are all kinds of tractors in those drives, so everyone has to go as slow as the slowest old tractor in the group.  Cliff doesn't care for poking along on gravel roads in the country, although I always sort of enjoyed that part of our agenda.  We're missing the annual weinie roast today.  They are driving from Lexington to Higginsville to tour the power plant there, then driving back for the bonfire at the orchard.  With Cliff's lack of enthusiasm, I really have no interest in going.  It's his hobby, after all.  

An amazing thing happened in August:  Suddenly, I didn't want to go anywhere and I didn't want to eat out.  In the past, if Cliff was getting in the car to go get tractor parts, I was right there with him... just to get out of the house.  Now I tell him to go ahead, I'm staying home.  This surprises me as much or more than it does anybody.

The latest way I've surprised myself is that I've stopped living on the Internet.  Suddenly Words with Friends went sour for me.  Then, with all the political unrest on Facebook, I stopped giving that particular corner of the Web my attention.  No more watching TV and  playing Words with Friends at the same time and getting very little joy from either.

Speaking of watching TV:  I mentioned yesterday the book I'm reading, "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah.  He mentioned somewhere in the book that he was a comedian, so I looked for him on Netflix.  I love good standup comedy!  Sure enough, he had five shows on Netflix; I watched one this morning and enjoyed it thoroughly.  I've loved stand-up comedy ever since I used to watch "Make Room for Daddy" in the 50's:  On the show, Danny Thomas played a comedian who worked in night clubs and was often shown doing an act in night clubs.  I would stay glued to the screen every week when that show was on, just hoping he'd do a little stand-up comedy on that episode.

Many comics seem to think the more dirty words and phrases they use, the funnier they are, so I was pleased to find out Trevor Noah isn't as bad as some of them, although he'd probably offend lots of folks.  I love Bill Burr's standup routines, but he wears out the F-word using it so much.  Yes, I still listen to his podcast and watch him on Netflix.  What can I say?  He makes me laugh.  I need to laugh!  But I digress:  I'm just happy I still have four more shows of Trevor doing standup... and I'm glad to know he has a regular show on Comedy Central, too.

On another note, now that I'm spending less time on the Internet, I think I might be losing my "writer's block" of the past several years.  In the middle of my meditating yesterday morning, eleven words, part of a line, came to me.  Of course, I sent that little line on its way like a passing cloud, as one is supposed to during meditation; but when I was finished, the words came back to me and I wrote them down.  Today I have, so far, a verse and a chorus... about me!  We'll see if it goes anywhere.  Would you like to know what the words were that came to me?  You wouldn't?  Well, here they are anyway:  "If I were to write on a blank sheet of paper..."  

Yep, that was it, but I've gotten twelve lines out of it so far.  

Moving right along:  My garden keeps giving.  I haven't really been paying attention to what's out there, knowing there can't be much.  But I bent down to check a plant today and there were three lovely eggplants ready to use, so  I made a quadruple batch of ratatouille.  We never tire of it, and it's good for us.  It's a vegetarian dish all the way, made with tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, garlic, zucchini, and eggplant; I'm fairly sure it would be ok to put in the freezer for later.  I had a setback making it, at the start:  I was peeling the zucchini when I realized it was a cucumber, not a zucchini; Cliff and I had picked them out together at the store yesterday and thought they were zucchini!  I should have known better.  Perhaps you recall I've made a new rule that we will never again make a trip to the store for one item; well, Cliff really likes ratatouille and wanted to go after zucchinis, so I let him, although I feared he wouldn't find any in the town of Lexington; but he did.  Then I saw the price he'd paid, and felt bad.  It cost five bucks for four zucchinis.  I grouched about it some, but Cliff said we'd still have a lot cheaper meal that we would if we ate out.  This isn't the season for that particular vegetable (or fruit?  OK, I googled it; it's a fruit).   But even in season I pay a pretty price for zucchini.  I always had squash bugs killing the plants before they bore me anything to eat, so I don't plant them; and I don't know where all those people are I've heard about who run desperately after strangers trying to get rid of their huge crops of zucchini.  I guess that goes to show you I really don't have close friends.  

I'm finished here.  Behave yourselves, won't you?

Love, Donna