We have two cats – one of whom, Shadow, is rather senile. He spends much of the day mewing at us for food. We may just have put food into his bowl, but he wanders across to the cupboard where we store the cat food, looking plaintively at us, and miaows. Constantly. John never wanted the cats originally, but the kids did, so we all bullied him into it. That was fifteen years ago. The kids have left home and we are left with the cats. Poor John.
For a while, for two years in fact, my very dear friend Anita cared for the cats when John’s immunity was very compromised, and he had respite from them. But now they’re back. Miaowing, continuously. John says: “Anyone want a cat??” Well, words to that effect anyway!!
I was wondering why the situation with the cats had raised its ugly head just now – but then I remembered. Oh, yes, of course, we are in isolation and our awareness of all things at home is heightened. Under normal circumstances, we’d be out and about pottering about, so we wouldn’t notice home stuff quite as much. Here’s the new normal, folks!!
That aside, we are coping very well with our isolation. John is continuing with jobs, and I am continuing with the general household chores, which, for those of you who know me well, will know that I adore….. harrumph!
Anyway, today’s job was finishing off the threshold strip into the store room. This involved raising the door a bit to accommodate the strip, i.e. taking the door off and planing the bottom to ease it by a few millimetres. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy, you might say…… until you factor in the fact that our house is very old and creaking, literally, at its hinges. There was nothing much in the door frame to screw into once the hinges had been removed, so the ol’ man’s had to use his ingenuity once again and fill in the holes and glue stuff together. He’ll be finishing that job tomorrow, then…. no rush!
Not really sure what I have done today of any note – been very busy worrying though…… mostly about John having to visit the doctor’s surgery for his three-monthly injection for prostate cancer (there was no alternative option). And then taking delivery of groceries (thank you, Malcolm), cleaning mirrors, washing, cooking, tidying, washing all incoming objects to the house, worrying, baking (made a banana cake), following social media, caring for Mum, more worrying, some meditation, more social media, a game or two of e-Scrabble, and a bit of TV.
And, two very exciting episodes, whereby 1) a parcel was delivered containing the dried fruit & nuts John had ordered weeks ago, and 2) a prescription was delivered. Yes, folks, the all-important inhaler arrived!!! Whoopee-doop!! John (and me!) may breathe again.
Highlights of the day for me have been communications from friends and family; lovely emails, comments on the blog, text messages with uplifting thoughts, and a great video from my friend, Louise. Such activity is what keeps us going, so thank you, one and all who are talking to us in one way or another.
Once more, we note the progress of the virus; a slight slackening of pace (but don’t read too much into that they say) in infection and death rates: 9,000 and 1,408 today respectively; a quarter of the hospital doctors off sick or in isolation, with 3 consultants dead; and slick preparations of conference centres to house all those who soon may need a hospital bed.
And finally, this from Ian McMillan’s Twitter page today, which I think is rather poignant. God bless.
Moon look down on me,
Protect me as I sleep,
And light a shining future,
For my grandchildren to keep.
Beautiful as always. Love this blog. Bloody cats.
Ha! Ha!