I know, it’s been forever since I blogged and WOW, have things changed in that time. First of all, WordPress itself has changed how my template looks, so it’s going to take me a bit of practice to get back up to speed on my process for doing this. Oh wait, and there’s that little worldwide health issue, COVID-19, that has upended everything and revolutionized how we do damn near everything. I left work on Friday, March 13th (good ole’ Friday the 13th) and was advised to pick up my laptops Monday and start working from home. To say this has all been a huge learning curve for everyone, is putting it mildly. I’m glad to be able to say that the majority of those I’ve interacted with have taken both their health, and the health of others, seriously. Together we’ll get through this.

So what has this done to daily life? For me, not a lot has changed. I now have a two minute commute to work, with the detour to the kitchen to grab a coffee, rather than 10 minutes with the detour to Tim Horton’s for coffee. I’m something of a solitary person to begin with, partly by choice, so this hasn’t affected me a huge amount otherwise. Yes, I’m now working from home, but I generally pick up groceries once a week, and I’ve adjusted that to every two weeks when possible. I’m usually well stocked in most supplies, which meant I was somewhat prepared. I’m not big for going out to bars, so again, that hasn’t affected me. What it has changed for me is my daily interactions. Yes, I’m a solitary person but solitude 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for over three months is more than even I can handle. I’m use to talking with co-workers daily, in person, face-to-face, not on a computer monitor. I’m also use to jumping in the car and hitting the road for an adventure; stopping in small towns, visiting unique shops, and interacting with the locals as I discover hidden treasures just a short trip from my home.

OK, so I did great for the first while. I’ll tell you, there isn’t a damn thing in a cupboard, closet, box or bin in my home, that I don’t want to keep. I did a major clean and purge of “stuff”. You know, the things you pick up on a whim; the gifts you keep….because they were gifts; the items that follow you from place to place, through different stages of your life, but that you don’t really know why you’ve kept them. Well, they are all gone. If it no longer resonated with me, didn’t serve a purpose or feel “needed” anymore, into a box it went. My home has never been what you would call cluttered, but I was amazed how much I had, that I didn’t really need. I then moved on to the windows and removed all the screens and washed them, washed the windows, and put the clean screens back in. Oh yeah, and I went a little crazy with organizing and labeling things in my pantry. OK, so that got me to the end of April. 

Before I get too far along here, one of the things that have changed in this setup, is how to add pictures. Here’s hoping I can get that one figured out.

Anyway, after all of the cleaning and organizing, I moved on to TV. Like some people, I’d planned on watching several series on Netflix. Things people had recommended but, for whatever reason I didn’t have time for. Now was my chance and I had nothing but time on my hands. We are now in early July and I’ve done yardwork, but not a huge amount, and I am now tired of watching regular TV, binge watching multiple series on Netflix, and scanning Facebook and Twitter. I have some painting I want to do in the house, but now a heatwave has hit and well, that’ll have to wait. I have more work to do in the yard but….heatwave, and the sidewalk I’m building with repurposed patio stones is a project for the week first week I’m taking off in August. But, I’ve now realized I have only read three books since March, and I haven’t written nearly enough over this period of time. So, that is going to change. I’m still working full days, albiet from home, but it’s an easy commute so I’m going to start making time to read, or write, every day. No, this won’t mean I’ll be blogging daily. I’m sure both you and I’d get tired of that very quickly. But I am going to start writing some things I’ve promised myself I’d do for a long time now. Things to stretch my creativity as well as the stories that friends and family have encouraged me to put down on paper.

Oh, look at that! Playing with buttons and icons and I found how to switch back to the old editing format, the one I know. I can add pictures again! I guess that means I have to get my camera out and take a few! For now I just used some I had saved on my laptop. My friend made this sweatshirt and I got her permission to post it here. If you’re interested, you can pick one up at Dog Eat Dog on Mitton Street South in Sarnia, and they are available in both sweatshirt and T-shirt versions. 

Well, now that I’ve refreshed my memory on how to do this, although I can’t guarantee my editing skills are up to par, I’ll have to look through my notebook at the topics I’d planned on blogging about. I promise, it won’t be another year and a half before I post again. Yes, it’s been that long. I actually have a few people who like to read my blog, believe it or not, and I’m sure I’ll be hearing from them when they see this posted. I’ll try to keep them happy by posting on a more regular basis again.

‘Til next time!