Remember when Corona was a Cigar or a Beer

by Patricia Frischer

A few private musings this March 2020.

Part 1

·  I latch on to any good news to balance the bad news. How wonderful that we have a factory in Carlsbad ramping up to make COVID 19 test. How crappy that we have to take the test.

·        I am considering canned hearts of palm to be a fresh vegetable.

·        After canceling 6 meetings the last 2 weeks of March, I felt more stress free than I had in ages. 

·        We are quarantined by decree of the governor. I love my home so it is like being given sick days without being sick, a little like snow days from my youth.


·        When you go on a three week vacation, the first week is all wide eyed, taking in all the new sights and sounds. The second week is really the relaxing week. You read a whole book in one day. You aren’t impatient with the 2 ½ minutes it takes to use your electric toothbrush. You write shorter sentences as you take the time to put in a period and then a capitol letter instead of just a comma. As I remember the third week is a frantic mind set into what you have to do at work when you get home. I am in the second week and it appears I may linger here longer than a vacation. 

·         I find myself counting squares of toilet paper. Do I really need five? 3 is enough. If you use nasturtium leaves as loo paper should they be fresh or dried? Now I am really glad we got the extra dry feature on our bidet.

·        Although I love all the new online resources, I think the beauty of online stuff is that you don’t have to be there a specific time. I don’t want my calendar filled up again with online meetings, video dates, webinars just when I got it so nice and clear. I like the breathing room for out of the box thinking. 

·        The first week at home, I slept late and sometimes didn’t dress. But now I find I am getting up at the regular time and wearing good clothes. Why be a slouch around the house. It makes me feel better and even though it is just for myself, maybe my husband appreciates it. 


·        Now that everything has slowed down, what about slow food instead of fast food. Is now the time to try those 3 page recipes….as long as you can get the ingredients.  And now we have Slow Looking which is suggested by the Tate in England. Slow down and look longer at one art work you own. 

Gold Standard for Hand Washing: Pinnacles by Patricia Frischer

Part 2

• I have never looked at so many links to jokes and virus reports and even a site to build your own virtual museum. I usually never check Instagram or Facebook. They have always been a one way street out for me. But now I am directed there often as a way to exchange information. Text messages and even WhatsApp and Skype are now checked daily. We have had a couple of virtual cocktail parties on zoom with close friends here that we are used to seeing regularly. It was actually a hoot. My 8 month-old grandniece is on the edge of walking and there is a constant stream of video from her proud parents.
  
  Here is a few picks of interesting sites I have found: 
  #subwayhands  is as describes by Hannah La Follette Ryan on Instagram: I have had a long fascination with hands and you can see a lot of them on my website especially the new Not Your Mother's Fingerbowls which is growing with a series of Gold Standard of Hand Washing. 
  
  A poignant series called Leaving and Waving by Deanna Dikeman. I now know personally someone that had COVID-19. He is a dear friend who lives on his own in London. He has made it through but this makes it even more real for me. We will all be in this position eventually
• Many years ago during a brainstorming for the future dinner party, I suggested a band aid that took all your vital signs each day. You then deposited into a device that sent it to your doctor. Now we have fitbit watches and the info can go by Bluetooth anywhere automatically. So it was great to hear about this thermometer that crunches data all over America and can pin point virus hot spot symptoms at the beginning stages. After this crisis, maybe information about heart rate and temperature can be gathered world-wide so that we are all safer, individually and as a community.
  
  
• A scary thought: what happens when all new programming of movies and TV episodes has aired?  Will we have 6 months of repeats? A comforting thought: at this stage I can watch a silly movie from last year again and barely remember any of it.
  
  
• This is a time to slow down and take a few breathes. I wake up in the morning and am whim driven. That might mean maybe reading a book the whole day. If my attention span is short then a break for the puzzle of cupcakes set up on the dining room table, create a new cracker recipe or do a de-stressing meditation with Insite Timer.
  
  
• Everything is being delivered to us and goes straight to a sanitation station we have set up outside in our courtyard. I guess I will now have to bedazzle some sort of cover for the mask we are now instructed to wear.
  
  
• I finally got over my initial block…you wait for time to do your art and then all of the sudden you have it and it looks like a black pit. But then the light shines and I am working on 5 new sculptures now and so happy to move forward again. Have you made any art lately? 

Part 3

Image by Dale Lazone

• Some of the best one liners:

Boarder police have just seized 2 tons of toilet paper hidden in cocaine.

I'm trying to make protein shakes, but they keep coming out as margaritas.

Your grandparents were called to war.  You’re being called to sit on the couch.  You can do this!
Homeschooling is going well. 2 students suspended for fighting and 1 teacher fired for drinking on the job.

My body has absorbed so much soap and disinfectant lately that when I pee it cleans the toilet.

• With everything proceeding at a molasses pace, I have noticed more what I am eating and how it affects my body. With less exercise we are not eating at night and my indigestion has gone away. No more pills for heartburn. And as I experimented with almond flour, my body seems happier so maybe gluten free is a way to stay healthier for me.
   
• I find myself thinking about a bucket list of things I want to do before I die but I think this has been influenced by the isolation. I never even thought of a bucket list before and some of these are things I have done before but want to do again. I want to ride on a Ferris wheel. I want to go to a restaurant and have dessert first. OK, there are only 2 things on the list, but I just started.
  

• My husband chooses what we are ordering for online delivery and I think that is why I am losing some weight, no impulse buying. I made matzoh today to celebrate Passover...no leavening as this was the bread the Jew made as they were escaping Egypt. So it is bread on the run...or for isolation. It will go perfectly with our ham on Easter Sunday!!!  And yes, I now have 10 pounds of sliced ham in the freezer and ham soup for eternity.

• I am enjoying isolation so much I realized I might be a “closet” agoraphobe. I am starting to worry that I won’t want to go out when and if this isolation decree is over. Having food delivered, no doctors appointments, no rushing to return overdue books, no make up (except for Zoom meetings), no traffic, really no schedule, maybe this is what retirement is all about instead of the way I was doing it. 

• Carlsbad survey of concerns included this information:

Top programs/services the city could provide

•           50% Fitness classes

•           39% Musical performances

•           36% Learn to paint, draw, other art making

Top ways the community would like to stay connected

•           56% An online exchange where people could ask and offer help with things like grocery shopping

•           51% Sharing good news stories
*          28% Pen pal program for seniors