A couple of weeks ago our neighbourhood had an outage with our internet service provider; the outage went from 10:30am to after 5:00pm. It’s really amazing how many things are attached to our internet service: TV, the landline, the Peloton. The boys came home after school and were shocked – SHOCKED – that there was no internet. What is this, the nineties? It was actually a bit of a problem since most of their homework is done online, but luckily, my son had an actual paper worksheet for his chemistry homework. My husband was in the office that day, very fortunately, and came home to immediately turn on the NFL draft. I reminded him to show gratitude to the universe that the internet was back on and he could actually watch the draft, after hours of the outage, but I don’t think he absorbed that same feeling.
Of all the things to go out – power, water, etc. – the internet is by far the easiest to deal with. It’s ingrained in our lives but it really is a luxury. However, I still had a low-level sense of worry that happens anytime I have the smallest blip in one of the many incredible services in my life: what if it NEVER comes back on. How will I file my taxes?
Luckily I had a number of podcasts downloaded, so I could listen to my Little House on the Prairie recaps without any issues. Priorities, people.
If the outage had happened this past week, however, I may not have noticed much: it’s been beautiful and I’ve been so busy outside. Oh, you guys, I have had such a good week. It’s amazing what a week of sunshine and warm weather will do for me. Am I solar powered? Maybe. In any case, we had a stretch of five glorious days, and I spent the majority of them frantically working in the yard and gardens, knowing, in the back of my mind, that the beautiful weather is fleeting and colder temperatures and precipitation, possibly of the snow variety, are right around the corner.
Which is, of course, what happened, but at least I got the back perennial beds all cleaned up and the backyard raked. The weekend was chilly, there was snow on the ground when I woke up this morning, and we have more snow flurries forecasted today, but I am unbothered because at least I had last week.
My pretty new gardening gloves that I got for my birthday, on the road to being filthy.
Soon I will be relocating Salvadore to one of my garden beds. He is still MAGICALLY moving around every night. Last week I woke up to him being engrossed in my book about tree care, written by our arbourist.
I guess he’s really interested in trees! It makes sense, he’s a woodland gnome.
My mom’s birthday is this week (HI MOM) so we celebrated on the weekend and I baked this cake:
It occurred to me that at this time last year, my sister-in-law and I had been planning a celebration for my mom’s birthday/ Mother’s Day, but Covid numbers went through the roof, we went into a lockdown, and it was a very scary time. It feels strange that was only one year ago; it feels like an age. Vaccines were just starting to be available at that time, I was teaching only on zoom, and cases were reported in the news, daily. We all waited for the daily numbers, and for me, I had hope that with the vaccine rollout, we would be THROUGH the pandemic by Christmastime.
People are really amazingly strong. I think if anyone told us what we would be going through, back in 2019, none of us would have believed it or, importantly, thought we could handle it. I think if, in May 2020, I was told that there would be fully another two years PLUS of the pandemic, but things were going to get progressively weirder, I would have just shriveled up into a little ball. But we just push through, don’t we? What are we in now, the sixth wave? And there is no way to know “daily numbers” anymore, at least not here, and even home rapid tests are less than accurate for all the new changes.
My kids mentioned that one of their friend’s dad is quite sick with Covid, so his whole family is currently staying with his grandma to allow him to isolate in their home. I said “I thought they all had it at Christmas?” and immediately the boys jumped on me. “That doesn’t MATTER, Mom! You know you can get it again, right? You can have Covid more than once!” Which, true; also, that doesn’t feel great, but at this point, what can we do? Do we just shrivel up in a ball? Or do we adjust the way we are living, and try to live our best lives in the healthiest, safest way possible?
In any case, I am glad to have celebrated my mom’s birthday with her. I have seen my mom, obviously, but this was the first time in two years I saw her for her birthday, and if there’s one thing that has come out of this pandemic, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the – checks title – past 112 weeks, it’s to not take anything for granted or to think there’s always next time, there’s always next year. Live in the now, as Garth says to Wayne. And in the now, I’m reading a lot of books and doing a lot of gardening.
Pandemic Reading
Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born. When Stephany (HI STEPHANY) mentioned this book, I knew I had to read it. I’m fascinated and horrified by the history of medicine, and this history of birth, midwifery, and obstetrics is fascinating and horrifying. A few times I felt faint reading some descriptions of obstetric procedures, and frequently I found myself inadvertently Kegeling. But it’s a great read – and I’m glad I read it AFTER having babies. I really liked reading about the changes in attitudes towards birth, how they were affected by social changes, and since it was published in 2006 it ended with the attitudes I remember from my own pregnancies and births. I’m sure things have changed now too, but that ship has long left the harbour for me. Perhaps one day I’ll have daughters-in-law who might let me share their experiences, if I am very fortunate.
How To Be Fine. I am a fan of the By the Book podcast, and so I really enjoyed reading this book about the authors/ hosts and what they learned from self-help books, what they hated about self-help books, and what they wished self-help books talked about. It was published in 2020 so I would be very interested to read a book where they tackle the books they read and lived by during the pandemic. How To Be Fine In A Pandemic? That would be a fun sequel. If you like that podcast you’ll love this book.
Bright Lights, Prairie Dust. There’s a lot more to Karen Grassle than just her role as Ma Ingalls: she was a theatre actress in the 60s and has fought for women’s rights for decades. Still, it was fun to read about Little House – spoiler, Michael Landon was an asshole – and life in New York in the 60s. I didn’t love this book though; it wasn’t laid out that well and it ended abruptly. Also she struggled with alcoholism and mental illness and that is a very large part of the book – it’s a bit hard to read at times. Still, glad I read it.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and cheers to the week ahead! May the snow flurries be few. xo
Happy Birthday to your mom, Nicole; glad you got to celebrate WITH her. I was chuckling along with your post for the most part. I think I too may be solar-powered and yes, inadvertent Kegeling when things get gnarly is my instinctive response too :D. We have spotty internet a lot of the time, but I have a “hot spot” on my cell phone, so I can link up that way, if needed.
Thanks Maya! Just thinking about the book made me Kegel!
Solar powered! Yes!
I feel like I would welcome an internet outage. I am so addicted it might be a relief to be forced to disconnect. But you are so right that being connected has infiltrated our lives so deeply – maybe it would be more hassle than respite!
I giggled at “inadvertently Kegeling.” Hoping your snow melts and the sun shines for you this week!
It would have been disastrous if my husband was working from home, but as it was, it wasn’t too bad. Mind you, I’m happy it didn’t last longer!
That’s a beautiful cake. I’m glad you got some time in the garden.
Thanks Steph!
Yes, I think we’re going to make it too! Here in Florida we’ve been opened up for quite a while, but I find myself still marveling over the change from a year, or even six months ago. In-person concerts, parties, no masks… Yesterday I got a text from my daughter’s flute teacher that she had to cancel our lesson today because she has Covid- accompanied by an eye roll emoji. She said she just feels like she has a cold and will let us know when she tests negative so we can reschedule. It seems like- for most people- Covid is just an inconvenience now. i know it can still be serious for some, and after the past two years it’s a little hard to be optimistic, but I really do feel like we’re finally moving on.
Glad you got to celebrate with your mom, and that you had a week of good weather. Now that we’re well into May, I’m certainly hoping you have no more snow.!
I hope we are starting to move on – I know people are still dying from it and having complications but hopefully we are coming near the end of the pandemic. Time will tell I guess.
I laughed at the solar powered possibility. I feel similarly. So glad you were able to enjoy the weather. We had a lone 80 degree day a few weeks ago, and I hosted Curly’s basketball team. The team ate and ran around outside (this was between games that were about 25 minutes from our home). The adults hung out inside and it almost killed me. I so wanted to sit on my deck. I had to keep reminding myself THERE WILL BE OTHER NICE DAYS. The time is now – the whole week is expected to be in the 80s. I do have to spend one day driving to pick up Tank in Omaha and then drive him home. Over 12 hours in the car.
Back when the kids were doing school on zoom, I’d occasionally hear kids holler WHAT HAPPENED TO THE INTERNET? We had to get a better internet service to be able to keep everyone online at the same time. I agree, it is a luxury – but boy oh boy, when it goes down there are ripples.
I am interested in that birth book, but I do pass out easily. When I was having Lad, the doctor tried to tell me what they were going to do with the epidural. I waved at him bravely: THE LESS I KNOW THE BETTER. 😉
Zoom school was the worst, and god, aren’t you glad you aren’t doing that anymore? As for the Birth book, if you pass out easily I would not read it. I truly felt faint at times.
I also read Birth and I still think about the woman who gave herself a Caesarean section and the fact that there’s no clear consensus on when and where you should cut the umbilical cord. These things are mind boggling to me.
Oh yes, I do remember you read it! That part was NUTS. What even. How even. OMG.
Yes to being solar powered! It’s remarkable what a few days of sunlight can do for a person’s mental health.
I can’t function when the Internet goes down, but I’ve never accomplished so much around the house. I suppose I should pretend there is an internet outage at my house at least once a week. Maybe even more?
Here’s to more sunny days and happy weeks ahead! XOXO
It is truly remarkable! Sunshine is so important! xo
I was just saying the other day that if someone had told me in May 2020 that we’d be at this for another two years I think I might have broken down sobbing. Of course at that point both of my kids were online schooling, things were totally locked down, and we went nowhere and saw virtually no one. I’m not sure I could have handled two more years of that situation. As it is now, I so appreciate that vaccines etc meant Oldest got to go to his first year of college in person and Youngest has been in school in person all year. Even though things are not totally back to normal those two things made a world of difference in my family’s quality of life.
I am yearning for a stretch of decent weather here. Where I live just had the rainiest April on record and it continues to rain and be cloudy every day, which I could handle if it was the usual rainy/cloudy and in the upper 50s/low 60s, but instead it’s still in the 40s. I’m trying to tell myself this can’t last forever and someday I will actually plant some veggie starts in my garden and not have to wear head to toe warm rain gear just to watch a soccer game or walk the dog. Summer IS coming right???
I agree, I don’t think we could have kept up with the online schooling, work from home thing forever. Although my husband just recently started back at the office a few days a week, so mostly it’s the online school thing that was awful. The total lockdown would have been unsustainable for sure.
I am so sorry about all your rain! The only thing I can think is that maybe there won’t be a lot of fires this year? Who knows. Summer must be coming sometime, right?
Oh cake…it’s just such a wonderful food group, eh?
We lost power recently and it’s such a shock to the system. The internet is even harder to lose! We’re just so reliant on it for…everything.
I also think I’m solar powered. The sun is shining and though it’s still windy and I’ll still wear finger gloves for a walk outside, things are looking up! I’m so happy for spring weather that actually feels like spring not pseudo-winter.
Can’t wait to see the gnome in his natural glory outside <3
Also, are you into Little House on the Prairie? How did I not know this? I read (with a bit of choice editing for some content that has not aged well) all the books to my kids at the start of the pandemic!
Yes, I love LHOP! So good. But yes, definitely requires some major discussion about some major plot points if reading to children!
Ugh! Snow flurries! How cruel! You have a good attitude about it, though. We’ve had gorgeous weather here, too, and it has really put a spring in my step and impacted my move, so I also appear to be solar powered. We were able to be outside with our kids before/after dinner which is so good for all of us because I am so sick of playing in our basement with the kids! We all need the fresh air! Our weather is so bananas that it’s going to approach 90 this week! What in the what, right? The weekend before last, I wore mittens and a hat on my run. This past weekend I was really warm in capris and a t-shirt. Mother Nature really keeps us on our toes. I’m currently washing all of our winter wear so I can pack it away for next season. My husband joked that I am tempting the universe by doing that but I don’t care! I don’t want to see mittens or hats or snow pants for at least 6 months!! Ok, maybe 5. It would be out of character to get snow and such in October.
I debated reading that birth book, too. I remember Stephany talking about one woman GIVING HERSELF A C-SECTION, though! I had 2 and I really can not imagine being able to cut myself open! It was really quite the 2-person job to cut me open and get the baby out. I have live photos of it thanks to the nurse anesthetist (this was something I wanted – I was curious about what was happening and wanted to see pics afterwards). It is a PHYSICAL JOB to get that baby out so I don’t know how a woman did this to herself without drugs!!! (I hope I am not grossing anyone out by describing this!) I’m only 17 months removed from my last birth, though, so I think I need a bit more time to be curious enough to read a book dedicated to births. But maybe someday I will pick it up.
It’s true, she did give herself a C-section and it was the only case of both mother and baby surviving something like that. I just…don’t know how it happened. She got her older children to find someone to stitch her back up. CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE. I have no idea how.
Is it really Week 112? I’m laughing at your boys reaction to no internet. I kind of like it when ours goes down, which it has been doing more frequently of late. Of course, I’m not a kid. We’re still laying fairly low when it comes to engaging with people, getting out in the world– just going to work for Z-D and being around home improvement folks for me. I always suspected that Micheal Landon was an asshole. His stupid hair bothered me.
Hahaha “his stupid hair!” He sounded like a dick – of course, that’s just one side of the story but still. It is indeed week 112!
The nice weather makes all of the difference in the world. We had a more severe winter than usual this year and I really felt pent up. Now I can go outside anytime that I feel like it and it makes all the difference.
We’ve had a total of one internet outage since the pandemic started but it was memorable. We hotspotted our cells anytime that we needed to connect for work and went without everything else.
I’m just glad my husband wasn’t working at home that day – it was just me affected and it wasn’t a huge deal. Thank goodness for nice weather!
As the Covid numbers tick back up here, I try to ignore the lump in my throat. You are right, we are resilient, but I kind of convinced myself that I would have the WHOLE summer to enjoy a little glimpse of “normal” life and then I could take whatever the Fall and Winter brought. But it seems the summer may be a repeat of last and I’m trying not to be too brokenhearted. I may just have get work redefining what “normal” is. We have been living with this for over two years, it may be time to give in and start living with this thing. So enough of that-lovely post as always! Now I want to get that self-help book. Thanks for the recommendation!
Redefining normal – I think you’re right on with that. Things are different and we have to deal with it as it comes, I guess!
LOL! “Solar Powered” Then I am your soul solar powered sister!
I remember when they sent us to work from home for “two weeks, tops.” If we had known then this is where we’d be two plus years later, I think we all would have lost our minds.
That cake is gorgeous and looks absolutely delicious. Is it a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing?
It’s chocolate cake with vanilla icing! It was really yummy!
It’s a disaster when our internet or the power goes out. My 7 year old is autistic and doesn’t understand AT ALL – and then it’s meltdown city and is impossible to redirect. It’s just awful! I’m glad everything is back up and running again.
I love your gardening gloves. I need a new pair because mine are literally falling apart at the seams. So glad you had some time in your gardens – yay for spring!!
I hope you don’t lose power or internet very often – that sounds very difficult! Yay for spring indeed *she says as she looks at the snow back on the ground*
I can count on your to make me laugh. Always! Yes, you might be a solar powered.
YAY for getting out in the garden. At least for one week; good therapy.
I’m glad you were able to celebrate with your Mom this year. Yes, we must still enjoy our days, our friends and family, of course in the safest way possible. We must live each day.
Your books choices look interesting. I wouldn’t have guessed Michael Landon was an ass, but I think a good portion of Hollywood are assholes.
The (new) snow is melting so hoping to be back out there on the weekend!
I am feeling a little bit curled into a ball right now, even with nicer weather, but I’m trying to get out of it, and I have definitely had stretched where I’ve felt like I was thriving even given the pandemic.
I have really tried to learn that actors I like are not necessarily good people, but I am choosing to just live in denial about Michael Landon. I’ve already forgotten what you said, la la la la I can’t hear you.
Hahaha whoops sorry! Anyway, it’s only one side of the story!
One of my friends lost Internet at her home for 2 days and I was like “WHAT DO YOU EVEN DO WITH YOUR TIME?!?!” Aside from reading, just about everything I do in my free time involves the Internet. Not to mention, I can’t work without it! I’m glad it was only down for a little while, but I’m sure it still felt unsettling.
That cake looks delicious and hooray for being able to be with your mom on her birthday this year! Covid has truly made us grateful for things like that.
I’M SORRY FOR MAKING YOU READ BIRTH. Fascinating, though, isn’t it? The history of obstetrics is WILD, especially in the early, early days where doctors weren’t even looking at the woman’s hooha to deliver a baby, just going by feel underneath a sheet. Or doctors who went from patient to patient without washing their hands and got the women sick and they died and the doctors were convinced it was the women’s fault. UGHHHH.
Do not be sorry, I found it fascinating but omggggggg yes, the “childbed fever.” WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS, DOCTORS. FUCK YOU, PATRIARCHY. *breathes heavily into paper bag*
We recently had a brief power outage (a few hours) and besides the fact that I couldn’t work, I was truly stunned how much it threw me off. I mean, I can “entertain myself” (go in the backyard, go for a run/walk, read, knit… but I realized how much of my hobbies (blogging, researching, spreadsheeting *everything* involves the computer/internet.
And I couldn’t agree more with this: ” there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past 112 weeks, it’s to not take anything for granted or to think there’s always next time, there’s always next year.” I was very, very cautious for very, very long but I am so glad I took the trip to Germany earlier in April, because I realized: it’s never going to be without risk to travel and you have to live in the NOW as much as possible. So glad you got to see your mom for her birthday!!
San, the Peloton, THE PELOTON NEEDS THE INTERNET!!!
I’m so glad you got to go to Germany! You just never know what tomorrow will bring.