Stay at Home Stories

There isn’t much to write about these days. Tuesday is trash pick up day so I get a reminder to get the trash to the curb. I still get a reminder for my allergy shots on Wednesday but the clinic has been closed for several weeks. And my allergies are trying to run amok again.

Basically, the day consists of a bunch of the same activities while Rocco tries to wear me down to take him for his walk. He knows we are home and he knows we are going to do it. So he becomes a giant pain in the you know what every time I stand up or move around.

Which is odd because his hearing isn’t what it used to be but I swear he’s got some kind of telepathic tie to me because I get up to do something and HE’S RIGHT THERE getting all jumpy and excited thinking it is walk time. The only peace we get is after coming back because he’s old and he needs a nap after his walk. But as the sun sets later and later in the day, he starts acting up again after dinner figuring he’s due for a second walk.

I shouldn’t complain. It takes so little to make him happy and there’s something to be sad for making a creature happy.

I’ve tried to vary my workouts so they won’t get too boring and so I’ll keep doing them. Yesterday, I did upper body and legs. Today it was legs and core. I’ve downloaded some app that has a list of other exercises to try so we’ll see how that goes.

I do one thing that I was doing in physical therapy which is a balance exercise – standing on one leg on a thick foam mat. Since the surface isn’t exactly stable, it kind of forces you work a bit. I’ve found that I can kind of combine that with dancing because it works best when I get my full dance posture. Getting my head weight back over the heel of the leg on the mat and keeping my head as high as possible make the balance thing a little easier.

Still watching the studio’s group classes and playing along when I can. Its the closest thing to dancing I’ve got for now. I know learning from videos works for some but it really doesn’t do it for me.

We are starting to see leaves and the flowering trees are doing their thing. I’m waiting for the opportunity to plant some flowers just to add more color and to do something that feels like normal. But April is still a bit dicey around here – we’ve got frost advisories for tonight so that will have to wait.

Had to buy some more bird food yesterday. Feeding the birds makes me happy and I like having them around the house. The store is open but only for pickup so I ordered online and they sent me an email when it was ready. It was kind of like dropping kids off at school – the cars lined up outside the door, you popped your trunk and they loaded the seed and off you went.

You were supposed to show ID but they know me very well there so I didn’t have to. I know I’m an introvert but I still enjoy those little interactions with other humans. It takes time but once you get to be a ‘regular’ at a place, it is kind of nice to just wander the store and talk a little bit about birds. Kind of hard to do that through the open hatch when they are wearing masks.

I do still see mostly positive trends in the virus data I look at. There are places that seemed to miss the first wave that are now seeing cases skyrocket. But the places that were hit hardest in the first wave are seeing a drop in new cases. It is slow but it is there.

The same is true of the US although but results certainly vary from state to state.

I did read a very balanced article on models and outbreaks like this. There is one variable in the model that has a big influence on how much spread is predicted. Trouble is that you can’t easily estimate this without a lot of data – which means testing a whole bunch of people including those who are healthy. But I guess we will see what happens.

That’s all I’ve got. The days all just seem to run together without anything really happening.