The days go by, the weeks go by

I don't want to alter my weekly blogging schedule -- I look forward to the chance to write a post each week -- but I'll be darned if I can think of anything to write about these days. This past week I had exactly one thing on my calendar: pick up my library holds on Wednesday at 2 pm. That was a thrill. I drove to the main library, put four returns in the slot, and picked up my four holds (three movies and a book). This coming week there are two things on the calendar: a medical appointment on Tuesday and another library pickup on Thursday. Whoop-de-do.

Of course, every week there are things I don't put on the calendar, but look forward to nonetheless:

• changing the sugar water in the hummingbird feeder (twice a week)
• trash pickup (and either recycling or compost) (Friday)
• milk delivery (Friday)
• takeout/delivery for dinner (usually Saturday)
• and of course blogging (usually Sunday, sometimes midweek too)

And then there are the weekly things that I don't especially look forward to:

• the kids' laundry
• my laundry
• grocery shopping
• paying bills (but I'm glad I have the money to pay them)
• allowances (but two other people in the house very much look forward to this)

There are many daily things I look forward to:

• breakfast
• reading the morning paper
• the Daily Solitaire Challenge
• the mail 
• the PBS NewsHour
• talking to Rocket Boy in the evening
• reading to the kids at bedtime
• reading to myself before my bedtime
• (a walk should be on the list, but my right foot hurts too much -- that's what my dr appt is about next week)

And there are daily things I don't look forward to:

• dishes, dishes, dishes
• cleaning the cat's litter box
• cleaning anything, everything, whatever
• making dinner (which I really should go do, like right now)

Unpredictably, but quite often, a package arrives -- sometimes with the mail, sometimes separately. Aided and abetted by a friend who gave me a large Amazon gift card for my birthday, I have been buying things for (almost) the sole purpose of having packages arrive every few days. These have included

• Barbie doll clothes
• tiny little hangers for Barbie doll clothes
• Barbie dolls to wear the clothes
• and of course books

I have also been buying necessary things -- but are they really necessary, or do I just like having packages arrive?

• two dresses and a top for me from Kohl's
• flip flops for the boys from Crocs
• shorts and pajamas for the boys from Carter's

I also make little shopping trips around town, as needed (in addition to the weekly grocery store run). For some reason there were a lot of those trips this week:

• Target for new undies for someone who shall remain nameless (it wasn't me)
• Trader Joe's for high-calorie snack food that we really didn't need (and some food to help me make dinner)
• the Bookworm for some used books, just because
• PetCo for cat food and litter

I don't mean to complain about the boredom. Every single day, multiple times every single day, I say thank you for being able to stay at home -- for HAVING a home -- and not being sick and not having any other problems. The coronavirus death toll as of this afternoon is 146,747, up more than 6000 from a week ago, so we'll probably hit 150,000 by Friday, at least that's my best guess. What a horrid thing to guess about. I can hardly bear to read or listen to the news about what it's like elsewhere in the world. Like Yemen, where 97 medical professionals have died of the virus even though supposedly only 469 people total have died. It's obviously a lot more than that, but they probably have almost no testing and I know their healthcare system has been destroyed by the civil war. And then there are the countries in Africa that have lost their crops to locusts.

I read an article about how we may look back at this situation next year and beyond and think, ah, the good old days, when the Bookworm was still in business, and there was plenty of food at the grocery store, and the economy hadn't completely fallen apart. Maybe the kids who graduated from high school and college this year had it the best instead of what seemed like the worst, since they got almost a full in-person education. My sister and niece have been talking about how awful school will be this fall for kids in kindergarten and first grade, who are supposed to be learning to read. How can you learn to read on a Zoom call?

The Boulder Valley School District is currently planning to go back to in-person learning part-time. My kids will go to school either Tuesday and Wednesday OR Thursday and Friday, and do distance learning the other three days. Weirdly, the current plan has them taking only two classes at a time, in four week blocks, over the course of a 16-week semester. So, for example, maybe in October they'll do nothing but Math and PE. Very odd. But I'm not fussing -- I'm really not -- I'm just waiting to hear how it will all work out. One of my goals these days is not to fuss much. Since almost everyone in the world has it worse than me right now, I figure one thing I can do is not fuss (except about Trump, and people who refuse to wear masks, but that's just doing my civic duty).

I guess that's it for this week's blog. I'll probably have a reading post in a few days, something for me to look forward to.