- My current working theory
- Is that universe has used this pandemic
- To send those of us lucky enough to be healthy
- A giant time out
- As in
- Maybe you need to go home and think about things
- How else can we explain NYC and London streets deserted?
- Doing my part
- I have more or less retired
- Only remaining paying gig is radio work talking politics
- During which I only express the conversations
- On my street
- Lot of common sense on my street
- Back to thinking
- Since being more or less retired I have been trying to decide what to do next
- I have a begun manuscript called "How to be an older woman"
- Based on thoughts I have walking the dogs
- Also a cozy mystery based on people I have actually known while I sewed
- And things that I know actually happened
- With the only real fiction addition
- A real someone who was particularly amoral
- Who I have finally found a safe way to murder
- Overdue that one
- But really this is fooling around
- When considering more serious and worthy options for my time
- I decided that apart from my family
- And my animals
- The only thing I really, really care about
- Is sewing
- More or less since I was eight-years-old
- So as a person qualified to write about how to be an older woman
- I am just going to lean into that fact for the duration
- With everything I've got
- Why not?
- I am now keeping track of my steps
- According to the NY Times this is important
- So now I am watching my steps
- To make sure I don't go over the limit
- And walk so much I am cutting into my sewing time
- Got to be careful
- One of the things about being an older woman
- Is that no one really is all that concerned about what you are doing
- So you have a lot of room to move, self-indulgence wise
- Which is one thing we have in common with the other end of life
- When lying on the grass looking for shapes in the clouds
- And laughing with your best, best friend until you almost pee your pants
- Is a good and useful way to have spent a day
- Since I made this decision
- I have ordered a bunch of online fabric while in the bath
- And started to organize my sewing room like it is mission control
- And not just a sideline
- Or a hobby
- I am outfitting the bedroom that is most sunny
- And looks out on my street
- I don't want to miss anything
- Even though the street is already heavily supervised
- Drop your keys on the driveway and the phone rings as soon as you get in the house
- Mrs. Smith
- "I think you might have dropped something when you got out of the car"
- Who needs a security system?
- My personal favourite
- "Do you know your husband is on the roof again?"
- "At his age"
- No did not know
- And I am not surprised
- I can sew and see the boy two doors down
- Hoping to get into medical school
- Walking the dog for my 89 year-old-neighbour
- Who her husband bought for a surprise
- A golden retriever puppy
- Yes she was surprised
- Or the rounds of neighbours who take poor old blind and deaf Garth out to pee
- So his mom who is working from home
- At some kind of high level law enforcement
- Can concentrate on her work
- No real idea what she does but a lot of shredding in the the recycling
- She's also a good Italian baker
- You want an invite to her lawn chair in the summer
- Presently three rounds of women actually have a schedule to keep Garth going
- I sit and sew
- And watch the daughter of a girl who grew up on the street off to visit Yia-yia
- Yesterday I used to watch her mother walk to the bus to school
- In the opposite direction
- To outfit this sewing room
- My husband come down from on the roof
- And I had to move everything into other bedrooms so he could install new shelves and tables
- Can you explain to me why it takes two other rooms and a hall
- To hold what I had in one room
- It's like sewing is an add water situation
- Watch it and it expands
- Listen I have a question
- Part of lining up the life compass on sewing
- I have come to terms with the things I don't much want to spend time a lot of time on
- I have faced that fact that in the kitchen
- I only really really enjoy canning and pickling
- And some baking
- The day-to-day stuff I leave to my husband
- That man
- He is so precise
- He actually weighs everything
- Quarter pound hamburgers
- You guessed it
- Every single one
- That's why he likes to supervise the roof
- Me I eyeball seam allowances
- Where we converge is in the eating
- I love to eat what he cooks
- But sometimes
- OK this is my question
- What are your go tos?
- I am thinking of what does a person who would rather be sewing like to cook
- Minimum time
- Maximum taste
- This is not too much to ask
- So I am asking you