Xmas 2020 Ideas for Everyone!

I’ve been bombing around online reading people’s plans for the 2020 winter holidays. There is a lot of musing about how very different they will be this year, how different the priorities are, and about making peace with all the differences. Folks are foregoing travel to big or small family gatherings and just staying home and making feasts for the people who live there. Lots of people are planning on less shopping, less gift giving, less fuss and more activities. Reading all of it made me realize that our holidays are barely changing compared to most people’s. We always have Thanksgiving and Christmas at home because I love to cook/create the feasts and I absolutely love the leftovers. We do usually have a few guests for Christmas but Thanksgiving has been just my husband and our, now grown, children. This year we have very much hoped to include a dear friend-become-downstairs neighbor but Covid has squashed that idea. We have long tried to make the holidays more about being together and having fun and less about stuff. So I have ideas and thought I’d share.

Since you can’t visit relatives and probably need to pinch pennies:

Make a jigsaw puzzle, seasonal if possible, you might have one hidden in a closet or you could buy one. If having a physical puzzle around doesn’t work out, you can always use free puzzles online. https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=search&q=christmas%20 This one can be fun whether you live alone or with a bunch of people who can all work on it.
Bake some Christmas cookies! (or whatever treats go with your particular winter holidays) This one can be fun to do with kids if you have them. They can decorate cut cookies (like gingerbread people) or help make the cookies.
Make a gingerbread house from a kit of try baking your own gingerbread. Alternatively you can make a whole village with/without kids, by using graham crackers instead of gingerbread. We do this at my library and the kids love it.
Read holiday stories! There are loads of cozy mysteries centered around Christmas you can read while drinking cocoa or you can read children’s holiday stories aloud. (Check your local library for availability and curbside pick up)
Holiday movies! Check TV schedules, search on Hulu or Netflix, or check, again, with your local library!
We may not be able to go out carolling this year but what about carolling from our own yards? Contact a friendly neighbor and see if folks can all plan for a little outside time in their own yards and short list of songs you can all sing across the neighborhood.
Decorate like crazy! Use whatever you’ve already got or make some inexpensive and easy decorations from paper chains with whatever paper you’ve got, to pom poms with spare yarn, salt dough ornaments, or kooky ideas with recyclables. Look what these folks did with a ream of white printer paper: https://thehousethatlarsbuilt.com/2016/12/christmas-paper-office-party-decorations.html/ Search for “DIY ornaments” or holiday crafts there are a million ideas out there to inspire you.
Play some holiday music. You might have some CDs or whatever but you can also go to Youtube and search and find hours and hours of holiday music to help make your home feel a little merrier.
Create your own advent calendar/Christmas countdown. I have a little wooden house-shaped advent calendar full of drawers. Every year I find and print out holiday jokes, holiday traditions around the world, random christmas or yule facts, holiday poems, short xmas passages from books, etc. This idea is super adaptable. You could use anything from a wooden house like mine to a bunch of numbered envelopes. And you don’t have to make reading slips like I do. You could use little toys, chocolates, etc, etc.

My goofy little advent calendar all stuffed and ready for December first.

Banner credit: “christmas tree ornament” by zaimoku_woodpile is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Mostly Okay Sorta Sorta

So, I’ve been to the docs 3 times this week and I’m right now waiting for a call from them. I’ve been exhausted and not sleeping well, hurting all over, especially my joints, for some time. I’ve had a lot of blood drawn for tests this week and they actually might have found something. Something is weird with my liver. Huzzah! Yes, I am sounding positive about something that is probably bad because I’ve been struggling for years and kept being told I was fine when it is clear that I am not. So yes, I am happy there is something to freaking look at, now maybe we can get me healthy and fully functioning again. On the other hand, I need my liver, it does really important things for me and I am still using it, so hopefully whatever is going on is fixable. It would be great if I had to change my diet and eat healthier, that would cool, extra motivation. We’ll see, I guess, don’t know if doc is waiting for yesterday’s blood tests to come in before calling me.

Other than my liver, my doc put me on a muscle relaxer so my sleep has been better for 3 nights running. Fingers crossed that trend continues! Because my liver is involved I have stopped taking Tylenol for the moment, a nurse suggested it might not be helping, to see if that might give my liver a break. Poor thing, I get so many headaches and struggle with chronic pain, I take a LOT of Tylenol. Well, generics and store brands, but same thing. Lets see if I can make it through today without taking any, I haven’t in … 2 days? I should get an award. 😉

Being so tired means I am reading a lot. Finished So you Want to Talk About Race, The Simple Life, and Sherlock Holmes and the Stuff of Nightmares, so far this week. All very good and recommended books. Now I am reading Touch of the Demon, and This is my America, along with The Color of Law. I’ve got three more books in the demon series after this one, and a few books still to find and read in the Lady Sherlock series, as well as an unknown number of books in the Lovergrove Sherlock Holmes series, so I can hum along happily for a while and not worry about what I’ll be reading next. Actually, my TBR (to be read) pile is staggering. I’ve got a ton of fairy tale novels, horror novels, and nonfiction too. Sheesh.

Best coolness of the past 30 days: I discovered The Bloggess has her own bookstore and book club and I decided to try it. We read Mexican Gothic as our first book and it was creepy and wonderful. Yay! The next book is on its way here: Crossings, by Alex Landragin. I can hardly wait. I let book club books ‘jump the line’ in my TBR pile, the only books that take priority over them are library books with rapidly approaching due dates. I wonder how many library books I have ordered…

I have been cooking a bit more this week. Last week was not a great week as I was particularly tired and sore. I’m making a tomato based pasta sauce for everyone else, they can use it while I’m at work some evening. My son seemed very appreciative that I’m making this effort. He said something like ‘Homemade pasta sauce, that is supposed to make a big difference, taking it to the next level.’ He made his impressed face too. ^_^ I’m hoping to finish making it today so they can have it tonight. We’ll see, my hands hurt and I’m pretty wrung out and still need to go to work tonight.

Nothing is going on with the hippie fort. I have plans for the next improvements and would like to be spending time out there. It’s just been too hot for hanging out in all the uninsulated glory and we don’t want workers here if we can avoid it, at least till the pandemic is under better control. We haven’t had work done on the apartment yet either. So much to do and so much not getting done.

Global pandemic has meant our apartment has been empty since February. How could we rent it out when we can’t interview potential renters? Or show them the place? Well, it turns out a friend has been desperately, and quietly, wanting a change of address, so that happens September 1st. We won’t be able to hang out really, not until things settle down rampant disease-wise, but it will be good to have the place going to better use again and we’ll be able to maybe sit outside with masks and chat of an evening or something. I know it will be great, she’s such an awesome person, I can’t wait to get to know her even better. She’s a creative type too so there will be much arting going on in the near future. Dare I dream? Collaboration? ^_^ All those happy thoughts aside, I am convinced we will be going into lockdown shortly after schools resume this fall. There’s too much in person stuff happening and Covid is going to get out of control again in a hurry. I saw an add for PPE for kids for back to school and it nearly broke me. Face shields with cute stickers on them… what messed up dystopian novel are we in? Or what level of hell is this? I can’t even, I’m going to pet my kitty cat and take a shower. TTFN.

Baking, Work, & Speculation

I baked scones yesterday. With rose petals and pine nuts. I think I’m allergic to pine nuts now. I still don’t feel right. I can’t take more Benedryl because I have to go to work later. Today is going to be less than ideal. Oh well. Anyway, the scones were pretty and quite tasty. I’ll probably have to make coffee cake muffins again this morning instead. Bummer.

This morning I am baking a sour cream streusel coffee cake and it is taking FOREVER. The recipe said 35-40 minutes and it’s been an hour and counting. Oh! I just realized why! My pan is 8″x8″ not 9″x9″…. yep, that’ll do it. It smells so good I can’t believe it. We are going to demolish this thing. I predict a lot of burned mouths due to impatience.

Yesterday’s “allergy scones” (delicious if dangerous) & today’s coffee cake

Verdict is in. Husband gives the coffee cake 10/10 and I think it would be if it were 100% cooked which I don’t think it is…. I will use a 13″x9″ pan next time and bake it for probably about 20-30 minutes. I think it’s worth saving. We’ll see how it goes over with the offspring in a bit, they are all still sleeping. I’m a little bummed the middle isn’t quite cooked. Presumably I didn’t insert the toothpick far enough in? Rookie mistake and you hate to see it.

In other news, my state is going to “stage 3” of reopening today, despite the fact that it hasn’t been long enough for us to see how stages 1 & 2 are affecting infection rates yet. *sigh* We have gotten some calls at the library from patrons who are upset we haven’t opened our doors yet, one said they were going to complain to someone. My Director has said we will not open until our plexiglass shields are installed but I fear she may cave to pressure as people keep barrelling forward. I will quit if it comes to it. Gods, I hate that I have to even consider that. I am watching my friends starting to go out to eat in outdoor seating, resuming getting haircuts, even massage, and I can’t believe it. It seems so clear that the guidelines we are being given through official channels are inadequate, I don’t know how people aren’t seeing that. We wouldn’t have the infection rates we’re seeing if the virus was carried on droplets that are gone in 15 minutes, scientists are telling us it is actually airborne, meaning it can hang there in the air, floating, for far, far longer than 15 minutes. They found Covid-19 in air samples from that cruise ship 17 Days after everyone disembarked.

There are also continuing stories of people attacking store clerks etc, forcibly removing their masks, even breaking their arms. I don’t like thinking that that happens to anyone, let alone that it could happen to me, I wish everyone could just keep it on the road and behave. I like to think of the library as a peaceful place, a relatively quiet & civilized place, a place where assaults don’t happen. But they do. Libraries are for everyone, so we get all kinds, some of bigoted and violent and they absolutely, if they follow library rules while in the library, have the right to check out materials, use computers and so on. I like to think maybe those types will learn something when they visit, that they might gain a broader perspective. That is certainly my wish for them. And yet, because of those types, I am forced to assess the risks to myself in simply going to work amid this pandemic. Once the doors open how safe will I be? Only as safe as the most selfish, deluded patron allowed through the doors lets me be.

So where is the other side of this? I mean, what will the other side of this be when we get there? Do things ever really go back to normal again? Just as they were, as far as handshakes, hugging, attending events, and so on goes? The shocking swiftness of the spread of this disease makes me think we would be unwise to ever return to what we used to call “normal.” If the next disease to spring into being is as contagious as this one, has a similar, long incubation, but also has a higher death rate like some others we’ve seen, say 30%? It will be an unstoppable, global calamity. I’m not freaked out about that idea, I’m just looking at what we’ve got in Covid-19 and thinking about other related infections like MERS. We may or may not see a disease that is that “perfect storm” of highly contagious, stealthy, and deadly, but we certainly cannot rule it out. What am I hearing this morning? Bubonic plague in Mongolia? Brain eating amoebas in Florida? Is anyone keeping track of the giant murder hornets in the Northwestern U.S.?

This is why I hide my poor, tired brain away, it’s hard to hold onto any kind of metal balance if one stays adequately informed about the world. So I paint, and I bake, and I read, and, most of all, I game. I become other people, in other worlds, I stride around like a badass and conquer all my problems head on. It’s nice when problems are imaginary and can be solved with a few good die rolls. I wish I could bring about world peace & social justice with a few natural 20s in diplomacy. I wish I could conquer world hunger by creating a gathering of Druids who could travel the world creating adequate food and clean water for everyone. Crazy diseases? Meet these fine clerics of Iomedae or Desna! Boom! Solved. I wish. So, I keep hiding in my little home life, in my books and games and such.

Blogging for Sanity

I can’t believe what I am seeing in the world, in my country, in my neighborhood. We’ve got a global pandemic of a disease that is just a shocking nightmare, millions, upon millions of people out of work with no income and no health insurance, no freaking FOOD, and since the safety net’s been gutted there is almost nothing there to catch them. Food banks are screaming, crying, and begging for help to try and meet the need to keep families from starving to death in the richest country in the history of the planet… while billionaires are having to find extra help so they count all the profit they’ve made while hundreds of thousands of Americans die. Aside from not having the money for food, people can’t pay their rent/mortgage, they can’t pay their electric bills, or their car insurance, and the list goes on.

Some of these threats are more immediate than others, deadly disease and hunger/malnutrition are clearly top threats, but if you lose your home how TF are you supposed to protect yourself from the virus? We are all sick and tired of being shut up at home. I want to go out to a nice meal I didn’t cook and don’t have to clean up after, I want my kid to get their blood-work done, I want us all to see the dentist, we were supposed to go in April, I want to be able to go swimming, to have the kids come into the library for programs, etc, etc. But the virus is NOT tired, the virus is fine, it is out there feeling energetic and virulent, eager to infect everyone. It is a perfect storm of a virus:

Highly Infectious
Long Incubation
Asymptomatic Transmission
Horribly Miserable for those who get a “bad case” of it
Multiple, awful issues connected to it like multiple organ failure, severe clotting, etc.
Having “Recovered” may still mean you need a lung transplant even if you were healthy before you got it, dying of a heart attack even if you were healthy before, dying just when it looked like you were about to recover. Most of these can happen even to people with mild or NO symptoms.

But somehow a whole bunch of people have decided they are just “over” this whole virus kerfuffle and are just going to traipse back out to have their hair and nails done, get massages, eat at restaurants, go to bars, go to parties, etc, etc. I 100% get the people who are desperate to get back to work because they have bills they can’t pay or are facing hunger, they are weighing the risk of disease against eating, having shelter and water, medication, etc. They are not being stupid they are desperate. They shouldn’t be in that position. Our government should have responded to the threat of this pandemic sooner and provided clear, medicine and science-based leadership. Yes it would have been nice if China had been more honest and not downplayed the threat but if I, a geekly housewife/part-time teen librarian and mom, could hear the news coming out of China and see the videos of workers in hazmat suits spraying the streets down and know that it wasn’t adding up. If I, with my limited information, and limited resources could see the threat coming and start preparing in January, which I did, I think our government could have, and bloody well should have, seen it coming and fricking prepared.

They are giving away tax cuts to BILLIONAIRES while Americans go hungry, WTF? They should be taxing the wealthy more so they can support everyday people who need money to pay for food and rent so our country can freaking SURVIVE this crisis. They could and should be pushing through a completely socialized medical system Right Now, covering everything. They are LYING when they say it would be too expensive, the prices we, as Americans pay for health services and medicines are inflated often by orders of magnitude. That’s part of the deal of single-payer health care, the government helps set the prices of everything. That’s why ambulance rides all over Europe cost an average of $30-50 while we pay upwards of $2,000 for the exact same thing.

But instead of doing anything sane like all of that, they have decided that instead of dealing with the situation, instead of protecting the American population, they are just going to send everyone back out there and hope not too many people die. But that is a lie. How can they pretend to care how many people die while actively inflaming their extremist supporters not to wear masks? While claiming the news, and scientists, and liberals are hyping the whole thing up just hurt the President? While the President and his cronies wander around without masks on? Holding big rallies with no social distancing? It seems like they don’t care at all if it spreads, or if millions die. What do they care about? Money. Money for them, money for billionaires, more and more and more money while people are dying. And people of color are dying at a higher rate while police seem to kill them in broad daylight without consequences. And Native Americans are dying too. I have heard the infection rates on reservations are appalling. How can this be 2020 if Black Lives Matter is a controversial statement?

And yet, here we go, pushing everything to go back to normal so infection rates can rise and spike and our hospitals can be overwhelmed and we can experience a truly nightmarish situation. I am back to work now, in a closed building, with a million precautions in place. I am lucky, lucky, lucky that my boss, and the trustees, and the town are taking this virus so seriously, and yet I am still terrified because getting this virus is not an option. I cannot bring this thing home to my family, to my severely asthmatic husband, to my daughter with damage to her heart. I am still considering quitting my dream job because once the doors open at all we can say patrons have to wear masks all we want but how are we supposed to enforce it? I wish everyone would just show compassion for others and wear the damn masks. I hope that right now we are changing the world and ending the extreme racial inequity in the United States and around the world. I hope that we can fix things. I hope my country can survive this time of multiple, horrible disasters. I’m not exactly sure what the alternative looks like but I know it’s something I do not want to see.

Day 46: Boomers Don’t Seem to Get it….

Gross generalization ahead: The Boomers aren’t getting it, the seriousness of this pandemic, they aren’t. To be fair, I’m really speaking about the Boomers in my life, maybe the Boomers in your life are doing better. Let me know, I’d love to hear from a wider sample!

When I say they aren’t taking the pandemic seriously what I’m talking about is my mother, and my husband’s mother, thinking they are being so, so careful when they get together with their friends outdoors, 6 feet apart, in groups of less than 10, just to chat, or so they can all have cake for someone’s birthday. Every time I talk to my mother these days I feel like my head is going to explode. She made 3 cakes for her birthday over that weekend and a few mornings later she let it slip that she had “all her friends over” and they stayed 6 feet apart, outside, and she served them all cake and “it was lovely!” They “completely social distanced.” I explained to her than social distancing is basically for emergencies, it’s for “if you must go out” you should stay at least 6 feet apart, wear a mask and gloves, and wash your hands and never touch your face.

Those guidelines are for anyone who must go out, essential workers, people who need groceries or medicine, people who cannot NOT go to work because they live paycheck to paycheck and their businesses are still allowed to be open. My husband’s mother has done very similar things; spending time by the pool 6 feet from her friends, going out to grab “1 or 2 things” nearly Every Day, and so on. My Dad too, in California, who has a terrible lung disease that is going to kill him in a few years, still goes out and his wife still goes out, way too much, to the hardware store and such or they’d go out of their minds with nothing to do. I am so frustrated with these ridiculous people that I love and don’t want to die sooner than they need to, and Horribly, I could just scream.

My mother wants to bake for us and drop it off. She leaves the house every day and walks in her crowded town on sidewalks where no one yields to each other. She cannot understand why I don’t want to add another risk, however small or large it might be, another possible vector for this virus to get into my home. She hasn’t told my sister that 79 people in her town have tested positive and 22 have died. That’s just the confirmed cases. When people are being found dead in their home they aren’t being tested for the virus, and the cases of people being found in their homes are up 25% from last year in this area. And all I continue to hear from these people is “When can we get back to normal?” Too many of them, and I’m sure other age groups, are trying to do just that way too soon.

It’s cold here today, 37 degrees F, so I’ve got the wood stove going. I’m still trying my best to work and learn from home but it’s getting tough. Lack of sleep is impacting my metal state, memory and so on, not to mention my mood. I snapped at my husband last night in the middle of the night. Something about snoring? It was not ok, understandable? Maybe, but not ok. I need so much sleep, you guys, seriously.

Fraying Around the Edges

The stupidest thing is eating at me. I’m tearing up as I try to type this. The groceries we ordered March 22nd still haven’t arrived. On the site our order page says both “arrives by Sunday afternoon” and “arrives by Tuesday afternoon.” The order costs $140 and the note at the bottom says our credit card is temporarily authorized for $90. I have zero freaking confidence this food will arrive, ever.

This isn’t an emergency, it isn’t, it’s just I’m living with my 3 adult, and near-adult, autistic kids and my youngest has always had issues with food. Wrong textures sicken him and his range, despite MAJOR progress, is pretty narrow. My younger daughter has acid reflux and has lists of foods that help keep the acid down. The order isn’t critical, it isn’t, there’s still food everyone can eat, I just want to be able to give the kids the things that… make life seem normal, sort of. I feel like I’m failing them which is insane because everyone is doing their best. All the parents out there are agonizing over everything and at least we have food. I would have stocked the cupboards differently if I’d known my youngest hates rice and that rice causes acid. (??? I had no idea)

Gods, I’m such an ungrateful jerk. We have food, we have a roof over our heads, we aren’t sick, probably.

Rise of the Introvert?

I have a thought. Sure, I have a lot of those every day but now I’m thinking a new one based on days and days of observation and it feels like something I should maybe talk about.

This new pandemic is making it clear that there are 2 kinds of people in the world: those that hear “stay inside” and, you know, Stay Inside, and those that hear “stay inside” and do pretty much anything BUT.

I think this crazy virus is heralding the rise of the introverts.

Seriously Everyone, I have been training for this my whole life. My little family of introverts, led by my news savvy hubby, decided to isolate prior to the suggestion that we should observe social distance. We’d kept an eye on the news from China from the very first hint something might be brewing and we only grew more concerned every day. My husband suggested I stock up on a bit extra sometime in February and I said; “I’ve been doing that since January.” Every week I got a little bit more than I usually bought just in case the latest coronavirus grew legs. I mean, I didn’t go crazy or anything, and the past couple of weeks have reeeeally shown me my blind spots, but I think we’d be ok for a short time even if Instacart stops delivering. I mean, ramen is technically food, and doesn’t go bad for a long while, so we might be unhappy but we’d be alive.

ANYWAY, we’re introverts. We have books, games of various sorts, streaming videos, internet, some art supplies, items to use for crafts, our pets, and our meds. We are basically cool with chilling here for … well, let’s say I’ve only heard one estimate that gave me pause: 18 months of isolation to stop this thing from wrecking life as we know it. Now that sounds a bit long even for me, BUT, I have friends and family who are refusing to do what needs to be done. My mom thinks everything is just totally cool if there are less than 10 people there, she seems to believe she doesn’t need to stay 6 feet away from people if the group size is small enough. She and some friends brought a cake over to someone’s house so they could all celebrate a birthday together. I have friends who think anyone taking this virus seriously is a lunatic. And have you seen all the news reports of people clogging up natural attractions? and beaches? People complaining about cancelled plans, not being able to go out to clubs, or the movies, etc. I have friends who are still leaving the house for work, working with the public and claiming they haven’t been exposed to the virus. But we know that symptomless people are driving the spread of this monster!

Look at this article setting out reasons people are just not taking proper precautions: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/24/health/social-distancing-wellness-trnd/index.html

Long confinement is going to be tough, especially on extroverts, and if some are refusing to isolate at all or going nuts after a few days I’d guess the ones submitting to social distancing at all are going run out their doors the first chance they get. A while later I guess the meek will inherit the Earth. If we’re considering introverts meek, that is.