Quarantine meme

[wickedwords]

 

1. Are you an Essential Worker? 

Nope! I retired in September, with the plan that I would do more cooking at home and take care of the housekeeping.  That plan really hasn't changed, other than I am no longer running the errands or doing grocery shopping.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine has started? 

At least a couple.  I buy 'red velvet' wine from Cupcake vineyards to cook with, and whenever I open a new bottle, I pour myself a bit. I think it's tasty.

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts? 

Just the one kid, and he's 26 so he is self-entertaining.  The 4 cats though. They are driving me crazy. They are all assholes, every last one.

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this? 

No new hobbies, but we have started seeds for a small container garden.  Mostly stuff for salads - cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, that sort of thing.  More for fun than for subsistence. We have also planned the head of garlic that sprouted, as hey!  Growing some garlic even at this weird time of year might be good.

5. How many grocery runs have you done? 

My husband does the grocery runs, as he has the better immune system.  We did 3 in March, as we were doing one a week; Now we are at one every 10-12 days.  So probably 4 grocery trips, 2 coffee runs, 1 take out run, and a trip to the auto parts store to get a replacement battery for my car. 

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on? 

No idea. The way I do budgeting, we have a general fund, a vacation-and-emergencies savings account and a property tax money market account. The money will go into the general fund and it will be spent on groceries, pet food and other necessary items. 

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine?
We planned a trip to England this year, and to spend a week on a canal narrowboat.  I am still bummed about it, and I'm not sure we will be able to do it next year either. It depends on if there's a vaccine, and if we can get our passports renewed.

8. Are you keeping your housework done? 

Yup! It's how I entertain myself.  

9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine? 

Haven't really watched movies.  I've watched ST:Discovery, Picard, Locke & Key so far with the husband, plus I watch a lot of stuff on YouTube.  I watch a lot of narrowboat and cooking channels, along with John Oliver, How to Drink, emmymadeinjapan, a Japanese simple life vlogger, and a Canadian guy -- Greg and Friends? -- who's Sunday shows are going through these old community cookbooks and making recipes from them.  Right now, he's doing ones from the great depression, and it's really interesting.

Oh, I also watch the occasional episode of Time Team.

9b. What are you reading right now?
I just finished up 'Gideon the Ninth', 'Single White Incubus', 'Vampire with Benefits', 'Come Tumbling Down', and the graphic novel 'Cry Fox'. Trying to decide if I should do another gay, light, paranormal romance from the library or one of the urban fantasy stories already on my kindle. I'm thinking one of the ones on my kindle.

9c. What video game are you playing? 
Stardew Valley. Happy times.

10. What are you streaming with? 

Netflix, PBS, CBS All Access, You Tube, Amazon Prime, Hulu

11. 9 months from now is there any chance of you having a baby?
LOL. No.

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal? 

The rollup. Misson carb balance tortillas with some sort of filling inside -- frequently leftovers of a prior meal -- folded up like a burrito and cooked in the george foreman grill.  That's the usual lunch.

13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid? 

I am an anxious person, so this is making me more anxious, not paranoid.  I don't think anyone is coming after me personally, even though I do believe that the current administration has left my state out to dry.  I have confidence in our governor and that helps me sleep at night.

14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time? 

Nope. 

15. What month do you predict this all ends?

Like many others, what does 'all end' mean in this scenario?  The current lockdown will start being phased out mid-May to mid-June. My family will keep social distancing, with masks, until there is a vaccine out next year.  We may have to go into lockdown again in the fall, as people get too enthusiastic about 'it's all over', and the infection roars back. Controlling an epidemic is a process until herd immunity is in place, and that is going to be rough for the US.

16. First thing you're gonna do when you get off quarantine? 

No idea.  It may be a haircut, it may be more take out.  My goal is simply to take a long walk where I encounter other people and don't freak out. That's really what I define as my 'end of quarantine'.

17. Where do you wish you were right now? 

On that narrowboat in England that I was planning to vacation on.

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most? 
Running errands.

19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer?

We have about 1/2 our supply of TP left, so we are good there.  A friend of ours gave us a bottle of hand sanitizer, and I feel guilty as we haven't even opened it.  We don't travel, we don't go out except for groceries and getting other supplies -- and when we come back, we wash our hands first thing through the door, then I go around and wipe down the door handles with disinfectant wipes.  I figure if we stop the germs coming inside the house, then we are golden; hand sanitizer really doesn't come into that.

20. Have you cut your own hair?
Just my sideburns. I hate it when the hair by my ears gets really long, so I took the wahl trimmer that Lar uses for his beard and whacked the hair there a bit. It will grow again over the next six weeks, and I will hopefully be able to go to a hairdresser after that. I have some hairbands that I bought for a costume that I am using to push the rest of of my hair back and keep it out of my face. I am seriously considering letting go of dyeing my hair and letting it all go grey. I'm liking the roots that are showing through, and I always said I was going to go grey after I retired. So it seems like that's a choice that I might make.

21. Do you have enough food to last a month?

Again, what is 'last a month'?  Do I have a month of our preferred foods?  Nope.

Do I have enough food that with rationing I could figure out things to keep us fed for 30 days with no new supplies?  Hell yeah.

Would I prefer it to be able to get fresh meats and veggies periodically rather than living on lentils, grains, and costco sized cereal for a month? 100%. 

 

Comments

[gattagrigia]

Re boooks: I enjoyed From the Dark We Came - a middle aged hunter, near-sighted and arthritic, meets a vampire that he didn't kill, they solve a mystery together and attraction ensues.

[wickedwords]

Couldn't get it through the library, so I added it to my goodreads 'want to read' list. Sounds interesting!

[destina]

How'd you like Gideon the Ninth? I really enjoyed that book. I was a bit surprised that I did.

[wickedwords]

Gideon had two main plot threads: a trope-y relationship one, and a really neat murder mystery. I absolutely loved the SF/Necromancy mystery and all of the world building that went into it. I did guess the murderer early, but I in no way was able to predict the reasons for it or how everything came about. That part of it completely suckered me in and left me wanting more.

The relationship stuff... well, enemies to lovers has never been my bulletproof kink, and I knew that final ending (essentially) in chapter 2. But I liked how the relationship transformed after the first six chapters, maybe because there wasn't a lot said about it. I did think there was a lot of emotional stuff that was sort of dumped out near the end to justify what happened in those first six chapters, and I would have liked it integrated a little bit more. So I waffle a lot on that part of the story.

Still and all and despite one of the characters using the phrase 'Hot Dog!' for no valid reason, I liked it and am interested in reading the sequel.