Random Thoughts From A Pandemic
Does everybody’s weekly budget look like this?
Gas: $0. Movies & dinners out: $0. Groceries: $62,176.23.
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Personal Life
Distraction Attraction
I’m a big proponent of distraction as a mental health preservation/anti-frustration technique.
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Cat People, People Cat
Hello, again my lovely self-groomers! We three remain housebound where naps are taken and nothing else is taken very seriously, except physical distancing from others. I was made for this. When I don’t have to worry about someone blocking my access to the food bowl, or grabbing my tail, I’m in heaven.
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Finding Our Calm
More than a dozen years ago, when I was at 680 News in Toronto, we had several meetings about what the company – Rogers – would do in the case of a pandemic. SARS came, sickened thousands and killed nearly 800 before it was stopped. Our plans to work from home, and perhaps put 680’s Vancouver counterpart on air, were never put to use.
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My Inner Squiggle – I Mean Struggle
Some time ago, I announced on Twitter that I was giving up the fight over the apostrophe. I felt defeated. Some smart people – and a lot of dumb ones – still don’t know (or don’t care) when it’s supposed to be used. I decided I’d never win the fight so I waved a white hanky in surrender.
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Valentine’s Thoughts on Love
Something unexpected happened just before Christmas. When I think about it now, I can hardly believe it. I forgot our wedding anniversary.
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Brandt’s Rant 1/31/20
I haven’t let out a good rant in a while. Buckle up, kids, here we go.
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Country Miscalculation
A salesman for one of the big cable conglomerates came to our door. We don’t live in the typical door-to-door type of neighbourhood, so this was unusual. It certainly is unusual, he said – your area finally has in-home high-speed Internet available!
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Sloan Ranger Stories
This is Mike Sloan’s final resting place near Peterborough. It’s one of the perils of pre-planning – Mike died on Monday, very much in 2020. Mike had one persona before the rest of the country got to know him via his cancer fight. He developed another one, a better, more effective and loving one, afterward.
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My Latest Tattoo
That title might not be accurate. I don’t really know when I got this particular tattoo – my fourth. But Lisa, you may ask, how can you not know? It turns out there’s a lot I don’t know about it, and perhaps you don’t either.
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Year-End Gratitude
My past year-end posts have tended to be about achieving goals and accomplishments. This year, it’s about just being grateful.
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There’s No Cat in Christmas
The most wonderful time of the year? I beg to differ. If it was so wonderful, I would be invited to participate in it.
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It Never Rains in California
If you’re old enough, you might recognize today’s title as a song lyric from the 1972 soft rock hit, It Never Rains in Southern California. Albert Hammond wrote and sang it. And if you know the song, it goes on to say: It pours, man, it pours.
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A Heart for a Foot
Today, I’m going to tell you the story of what happened to a friend of mine. He was recently in the hospital for a serious heart issue, including a build-up of fluid around his lungs. Let’s call him C.
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Green Acres Part II
So here we are, on a 2/3 acre parcel of land, surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland. We haven’t heard a siren. When someone drives down our road, it’s an event. We’ve seen deer and I’m sure we’ll see other critters in time. Our nearest neighbour isn’t near at all, so we have this place wired (and wireless) for monitoring and security.
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Green Acres
Truth be told, these acres are brown right now. The feed corn that surrounds us is almost ready for harvest. The soybean fields a little further away came down this week. It was fun to watch the combines come in and get to work.
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Parting (with my money) Is Such Sweet Sorrow
Shopping! Am I right? Between ethics and prices and convenience and everything else that goes into it, it’s a complicated experience. Remember when the Sears catalogue would arrive? You’d dog-ear the pages showing what you wanted and that was it. No comparison shopping. No worries about free shipping. Done and done. Santa, please bring me the inflatable Barbie chair.
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A Room With A View
From my new writing space, all I see is corn, hay, more corn, trees, and more trees. There is a neighbour a km or so away, but I can’t quite make out their house. This is the road less traveled but there is a streetlight across from our home. It’s a little bit of civilization in a pretty remote area.
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