Flypaper thoughts first of August version

• You are kidding
• August 1st?
• After a year of everything going too slow
• This came on too fast
• However in two weeks I will be seeing my kids in the US
• About time, about time
• We all need more hellos and fewer goodbyes
• I have spent the last month
• Sewing for everyone
• Treading water at the bottom of water slides
• Saying you can do it you can do it
• Having dinners with the table full after a long, long pause
• Remembering my recipes for crowds
• Hearing about heat waves everywhere else
• While I think I feel fall in the air here
• And writing
• Few projects there
• This year has taught more than all the meditation apps 
• In the world could
• About the present moment
• And it's gifts being all you've got
• The rest is not in our hands
• Which is a good thing
• Our hands are busy enough
• I am a meditation drop out
• Tried and tried but failed
• And it's supposed to be the answer to everything
• Let those thoughts float by like clouds
• And let them go
• But what if those thoughts are these
• When did I last take the dog out to pee
• What if I dried those herbs in the Intsapot
• When was the last time I watered the herbs
• How many buttons do I need for that shirt
• Seven or eight
• I wish I was in NYC
• I get the best buttons there
• I need some shell buttons
• The ones that look plain on the front but like pearly shells 
• On the side you can't see
• That's quality
• How many buttons would I have to buy 
• To justify a trip to NYC
• What am I saying
• Who needs to justify button buying
• However at the moment it is just one shirt
• My neighbour's son has been transferred to Moscow
• She thought he was coming home
• When my boys where little
• Her husband cut off the pickets to the fence
• That separate our yards
• He was worried either his boys or mine
• Would impale themselves 
• When they went over that fence
• As they did 8,000 times a day
• Playing games
• That involved the older boys inventing
• Elaborate challenges for the younger ones
• For admission into some club
• Where only older boys got to do the fun stuff
• But the younger guys never figured out
• Since they were too busy running around the block five times
• As instructed
• Well now they are in Calgary, Edmonton, Berkeley, Austin and Moscow
• And we have a different fence
• The grapes are out in the vine around my window
• I can hear the raccoons running across the roof at night
• Not light on their feet
• My neighbour across the street told me that he saw 4-5 of them up there one night
• My big laugh of the week
• Was some poor soul trying to sell door-to-door security systems
• Ha I already have one
• She's called Mrs. Smith
• Also across the street
• One foot in the front door and the phone rings
• You left the trunk open on the car
• You dropped a mitt on the driveway
• She does the day shift
• Barry does the night shift
• That's why he's on top of the raccoon situation
• No I don't need an app for that
• Not sure I need an app for much
• Sorry about that
• Sewing is my meditation
• And after I sew sometimes I am rewarded with a look like this
• On a face like this
• Beats clouds

Flypaper thoughts: unusual times edition

•  I think we can establish that things have been weird these days
• Like the moon is stuck in some weird phase
• You know the kind that makes the inmates jumpy
• In a full moon
• But stuck there
• How about you?
• This last few months
• My youngest son moved back here after years away
• And the day after he was finished quarantine
• He got an excellent job offer back in Texas
• So off he goes again
• Probably for the long term
• The switch that was on, has been switched back
• So I have a question
• Where is the closest good fabric store for a person in Austin Texas?
• Last few times I was there I could only find Joanns
• Although Hill County Weavers is excellent for knitting
• I need to develop more contacts there
• Daisy also developed some worrying red rashes on her belly
• Near where her cancer was removed earlier this year
• Well false alarm
• Seems the cat, who adores her
• Has been trying to nurse
• The vet thought this was very funny
• Knowing about the stuck moon I was not surprised
• Since it appears all bets are off these days
• Speaking of which
• I decided to apply to university 
• To do another undergrad
• Seems students over 65 don't pay tuition
• When I heard that I was off
• So many interests I didn't pursue
• First time out
• Getting my transcripts forwarded was hilarious
• "Can you give me the post code of your address when you lived here?"
• Canada didn't yet use postcodes when I was that age
• "OK then what was your student email address?"
• Listen kiddo I graduated before they invented the internet
• Big pause
• I am thinking
• Spanish, because of being really positive about that Texas thing
• Animal behaviour
• Clearly there is a lot to learn about there
• Creative writing
• Well there is this blog
• Comparative religions
• Substantial knowledge gaps there
• Women and Aging
• Surely I have the pre-reqs for that?
• And I am sewing and sewing
• With family all over the place now
• I am setting up Pinterest boards
• They post ideas and I post fabrics
• When you have taste like mine
• It makes more sense to sew by demand
• Than by surprise
• I have seen a few surprised looks in my time
• My niece nailed it
• "Just make it in a colour you would never wear"
• Good taste is not always CHEERFUL
• Hence the Pinterest boards
• Currently working on mother and daughter outfits for my DIL and granddaughter in California
• That was by request
• If the vaccination schedule goes as planned
• I will be free to go to Berkeley to see those guys
• For three weeks 
• Mid August to early September
• So so excited about that
• Revising my wardrobe to be more packable
• We are also planning a month in Florida in November
• And Texas state parks in February
• I need to link up with sewing people
• One of my decisions in the year and a half I have spent 
• In the striped chair, the comfortable one, with Daisy
• Is to be as social as I can
• Got to appreciate your people
• My neighbourhood has kept me going
• Everyone is doing the same thing
• Out in the yards
• Or walking the dogs
• Talking and talking
• I had no idea so many interesting
• Good hearted people
• Lived five blocks from me
• Confucius  was right
• In the midst of every crisis
• There is an opportunity
• Making sure I don't miss it

Flypaper thoughts Mars edition

•  First
• An apology to all those astronauts who read this blog
• But those who know me well 
• Know that the one thing I have little time for is outer space
• First
• I hate heights
• Second
• And confined spaces
• So the thought of being that many thousands and thousands of miles out there in the dark
• In something without windows...
• And besides the concept of fresh air is irrelevant
• Is past my own personal edges of where common sense is effective
• Also
• Who in their right mind
• Thinks that the world we are to take care of
• Is in such a state that
• Anyone can say
• Done! Now let's go find somewhere else to fix up
• Maybe the search for intelligent life would be worthwhile 
• Here
• On top of outerspace
• I have run out of the good interfacing
• Which is serious enough to have set me off about Mars
• I am sure you are with me on this
• Remember when fusible interfacing looked like a picnic table tablecloth?
• That some one had dotted with Lepages white glue
• And once fused these glue dots seeped through to make dark spots in the fabric
• Which now also had the malleability of the paper plates you set out on that picnic table cloth?
• Fortunately those days are gone, in most cases
• But fusible interfacing survivors can still be found
• Wandering around Joanns, Fabricville, and Spotlight
• Numb with the PTSD of it all
• However a good woven fusible 
• And a good knit fusible (let's hear it for Sewer's Dream if you can order it)
• Are a different story altogether 
• And something you miss enough to get mad at the solar system
• When you thought you had tons and you don't
• I'm thinking these days
• It's time to actively seek out the bright spots
• Closer to home
• For me it was the decision to make sure as many as I can
• Get a chance to find out sewing is fun
• So I had the kids and some friends over to sew yesterday
• Lower the presser foot
• Lower the presser foot they said to each other
• I now no longer need to wonder where I am going to store that big bag of stuffing in my new sewing room
• Everyone made pillows
• Multiple pillows
• Go forward and go backward at the beginning and end of the sewing part
• Don't worry, said the 11 year-old
• It gets easier with experience
• Yes it does
• Yes it does
• And so grounding

Flypaper thoughts: real commitment edition

• 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

Flypaper thoughts from the animal house

• My life is currently exactly as illustrated
• You don't even want to see the Christmas knitting
• I am now sewing on the dining room table
• Because the two dogs and cat need to all see where I am
• Who am I to confuse them
• The cat has taken a shine to Daisy
• Stays about three inches from her and sleeps on the dog bed circled up
• Cats sleep about half the day
• This is fine with the dogs
• Because the rest of the time is spent doing horizontal and vertical circuits around the house
• Broken up by mid air zoom by leaps over Daisy's back
• Never a dull moment
• Which reminds me
• I was just diagnosed as celiac
• Anyone have recipes for gluten free anything hit me up
• Looking for, among other things
• Bread that doesn't resemble a white envelope
• Is about that tasty
• And costs $3 a slice
• Which is more than an envelope actually
• Including postage
• I am treating myself
• Signed up for a surprise box of subscription fabric
• From Watertower Textiles
• They have great quality
• And these days it's nice to have a good surprise every month
• You need to book it
• I will show you what I've been sent 
• Maybe tomorrow
• How sneaky are cats
• Very it turns out
• Daisy likes to sit on the mat while I have my nightly bath
• And order online fabric
• She chased the cat out from our private time
• Now when she hears the bath water run
• Pepper glides in to hide behind the toilet
• And then slinks under the vanity
• So she is in position to stand up under the shower curtain and watch me
• Daisy doesn't even know she is there
• Lots of stories like that
• Maybe I should make a Christmas dress
• Even though this will be a bubble only year
• When we were little my grandmother used to give my next closest sister and I
• Matching velvet dresses
• Being Christmas they were always red
• So in every Christmas picture my sister had her mad face on
• She had red hair and hated clashing
• Speaking of which
• I have seared in my memory
• A craft project in grade two
• We were cutting out flowers from fabric and pasting them on Mother's day cards
• "Barbara" the teacher scolded me
• "You have put red and orange together. You can't do that.
• They clash."
• Boy aren't you glad they don't make teachers like that anymore
• Wonder what she would have done with an eight-year-old Kaffe Fassett
• Or any body else who was interesting or turned out interesting
• Don't you wish you could tell your younger self
• Or other younger selves right now
• Best not to bloom too early
• A full bloom takes some time to get ready
• What a terrible thing it would be to have the prime of your life
• Be a time no one but you remembered
• Like say grade six
• Better to save it for when it can do someone else some good
• Better to wait until the time that some other girl can say
• If she can do it I can too
• Better to wait until an age when you have done so much
• That the small things are given credit for the big things they really are
• Like sitting with a cocoa 
• And a small rescue dog snoozing glued to your hip
• And a small rescue cat draped around your neck
• Out of dog sight
• Like some elderly woman's mink collar
• Purring because we are all together
• And together is good as it ever gets

Flypaper thoughts: June in Nova Scotia edition

• Of the things I am grateful most for this pandemic season
• At the top of the list has to be the neighbourhood animals
• The two orange cats who run our street
• I think they have a schedule
• They take turns circling the houses
• Coming to the back doors and staring into the kitchen
• Confusing Daisy
• The white cat with three legs who doesn't move aside for anyone
• And Bailey
• The young Golden
• My dippy 89 year old neighbour bought for his wife after her twin spaniels died
• Nice thought but not if you need a walker
• So the neighbourhood is bring Bailey up
• A most walked dog anyway
• And the new puppy next door
• The cheerful conventions being held on that lawn
• Social distanced appreciation of that much joy
• Six people cheering when he pees outside
• Such a good boy
• I am also doing a lot of Greek cooking
• A lot
• Have planted the backyard with more herbs
• Going through a lot of mint, oregano, and dill
• I think plants like people move towards the light
• Need this kind of time to appreciate that
• Also appreciate my neighbour behind me
• She runs and she gardens
• All day she gardens 
• After she runs
• She raised three successful boys
• While her husband worked 30 years of double shifts
• She didn't garden, or run, until that job was done
• I look out my kitchen window and enjoy the view 
• And her enjoyment
• All her hard work gives me flowers to share
• I have to get silver polish
• I am letting the kids have tea out of my grandmother's teapot and in her teacups
• This must be what she was saving them for in her china cabinet
• Dusted and behind glass
• Now on my back deck
• I am assuming they still carry silver polish at the grocery store
• Haven't checked that since 1972
• My mother was big on polishing the silver
• When company was coming you had to either do that or clean the bathrooms
• I am old enough now to have had a father who used to say he didn't need a dishwasher because he had five
• Four daughters and a wife
• So happy to know that my kids would never believe he said things like that
• Don't remember him doing the silver either
• These weeks it seems to me to be a time that we clean out our cultural attics
• Just because you don't use something now doesn't mean it isn't being stored
• There should be a curbside pickup day for wrong assumptions
• And old crap you used to hear
• Yesterday the car stopped at the drugstore and I went in and took a box of semipermanent off the shelf
• The kids thought it was a great idea
• And after I was redder the oldest cut my hair on the deck
• She's 10 and knows what she is doing
• I was interested to hear all her opinions and views on hair cutting
• You learn a lot on the head of an American girl doll
• If you have been stressing about what to put on my eventual tombstone
• Can I suggest
• Anything for a laugh?
• I should add
• That the same father typed out my honours thesis on a tiny Royal typewriter
• With a return and ribbon
• Down in the basement late at night after work
• Undoubtedly there was no curbside pickup in his day
• Times were changing
• Even then

Flypaper thoughts another homebody edition

• My middle son texted me and noted that this has been a great time for people to rediscover hobbies
• It is actually a time that has reminded me that my whole life is already about hobbies
• What is fading for me was whatever I ever did that was not a hobby
• You could say that we have gone pretty seamlessly into stay at home mode
• I have learned a few things
• And have wondered a few things while I have been homebound
• I have been making stock
• So much easier than figuring out grocery delivery
• Actual saved vegetable peel stock like they say you should 
• Never was desperate enough to do it before
• You know it's pretty good
• Discovered my husband is quite the sewist
• He personally made over 100 masks
• I have been stalking Ravelry looking for patterns
• Just in case I am issued another lifetime or two
• To do all that knitting
• Learned to knit with my left hand to be faster
• Since I am not sure about that second lifetime issue
• Really is faster
• Tell me
• Why do all crochet patterns call for synthetic yarn?
• Yarns no knitter would use
• Same patterns would be so much nicer in natural fiber yarn
• I have been sewing from my shelves
• Of course
• When I was away my niece's boyfriend who is also my son-in-law's nephew
• Moved my sewing room to a different level of the house
• On the request of my husband who wants to renovate the basement
• They figured this out via text when I wasn't pay attention
• Note to self
• Have you ever had your entire sewing room, fabric, and supplies 
• Reorganized by an electrician?
• He put things in logical l order
• Colour coded my threads
• Neatly folded all my fabric by type
• Really disorienting
• Going to take time to get things back to where they should be 
• I had everything organized by emotion
• Things like mending 
• Out of sight of course
• The projects I would like make next in the middle of the current project
• To maximize my distraction
• Glamorous projects in full view in case I start to be a glamorous person
• Stuff stuffed in drawers when I am on a roll
• Too inspired for neatness
• Vintage patterns bought because I once sewed the originals 30 years ago
• I had things organized by hope
• Does this make sense to you?
• I have many things that I will never use 
• But I am soothed by the illusion I might
• Like that metal EAZI welt pocket gadget
• Been meaning to try that out since I was sewing vintage 
• When it was current style
• I have gone out and looked at the buds in the branches
• And appreciated the swagger of the neighbourhood cats
• And pleased dogs wondering why they are getting extra walks these days
• I am finding things in my own house and my own self
• I didn't know I had
• Or had forgotten
• But remembered who I am and where I come from

Flypaper thoughts: still homebody edition

• Life is where we left it
• Still physical distancing
• So against the grain for a Canadian personality
• Folks cross the street to avoid being too close
• I am so sorry we say
• Don't want to be rude
• I am sorry they reply
• We are sorry enough for the whole world
• Just in case
• Daisy is on the mend
• Two more weeks in her upgraded cage rest to a blocked off living room
• She is OK if she can see me
• Can you cover me?
• I ask my husband
• Just a minute to go get something
• I'll be quick
• I notice that people are getting a bit touchy
• We are all like Daisy not so good when our people aren't around
• Little things not big things
• I watch my husband sew the masks 
• And I want to tell him
• Clip your threads, clip your threads
• Almost nothing upsets me as much as people who don't clip the threads
• I once taught a woman who sewed jackets for her children who were all in the navy
• She never cut one thread
• In fact her garments were coated with random loose threads
• They can but those off themselves she said
• I used to have visions of sailors on the decks in the North Atlantic
• Trying not to fall overboard while they trimmed threads from the ends of seams with nail scissors
• My husband wants to know what kind of person 
• Puts a pellet of soap in the dishwasher without taking the plastic wrap off it
• And then wondering why the dishes aren't clean
• I know exactly what kind of person
• Someone who cuts her threads
• I miss the kids the most
• I am craving little people
• The littlest one in California Facetimes
• Dog she says and I show her the dog
• The other guys a few streets away call me on the phone
• They call to talk to me in funny voices
• To ask me to bring over my board games and leave them at the end of the driveway
• They know I have board games from when we play them here
• They know I don't play cards
• I am terrible at cards
• Just an interruption in the conversation
• What kind of grandmother can't remember how to do 
• Go fish they want to know
• This kind of grandmother I say
• The one who lets you each bake something different in the kitchen at the same time
• And cleans up
• Maybe I should use this time to learn a card game
• That would really surprise them
• How's your hair?
• I cut mine and with my sister's encouragement by text
• Am trying the Curly Girl method
• This involves using lots of conditioner and brushing your hair with your fingers
• Why are you wearing one of my T shirts on your head
• My husband wants to know
• I am doing the Curly Girl method I tell him
• Absolutely nothing surprises him
• Maybe I should consider that fact
• Not sure my technique is down though
• I look in the mirror and remember something my dad used to say
• Hair looks like a cat sucked it 
• Maybe it's the wrong kind of T shirt
• I am experimenting with low sugar baking
• Made a bunch of oatcakes they could use in the NHL
• An excellent Swedish apple pie with no crust
• A carrot cake that was mostly carrots
• The thing is we don't have much sugar
• Next thing will be war cake
• The one without sugar, butter, or eggs
• I am sure there is a diet that belongs to somewhere
• Vegan Keto?
• I am going to be sewing for the young women in my family
• I have a question for you
• How come when we had babies we went up a size
• Women used to say " well before I had kids..."
• When describing their figures
• It was assumed that your belly would settle in
• Like it was supposed to, like your own mom's did
• Why does your stomach feel like a pillow Babsie
• My grandson once asked
• Because I had babies I said
• My mom had babies he said
• She doesn't feel like that
• So why do young women give birth these days and end up by summer with a flat abdomen?
• What do they know that we didn't
• Do you think it is the oat hockey pucks?
• The pies and the cake on my counter?
• Should we be eating war cake?
• Life is full of so many mysteries
• And now I have time to solve them

Flypaper thoughts: well we are still here version

• Needless to say we are all still homebound
• On some level I am enjoying it
• There is a relief in limits
• Got to remember that when this is done
• I am working with what I can find in the house
• Turns out I can find a lot
• Turns out good thing I never kondo-ed my life
• Clutter, particularly in my sewing room
• Is what you live off of in hibernation
• These notions, this fabric, these patterns
• Are to me what nuts are to a squirrel
• Something to live off of until spring
• We are making masks
• Like crazy people
• For the nursing homes, for the food bank, and even for some of my daughter's patients
• My husband has gone into full obsessive mode
• Developing systems and timing his unit production
• Sometimes that guy is my hero
• Food comes slowly by delivery
• We are cooking what we have on hand
• Simple
• I am noticing that all the selfie shots in social media
• Are now replaced by pictures of people doing things with their households
• More pictures of kids not being rushed around
• Board games
• Cards
• Baked bread
• The dog and the cat
• Notice how much people are not missing
• Not the stuff but the people
• I try to not think about that part
• I have one family in California on the other side of a border I can't cross
• I can't get closer that a few meters to my grandchildren just a few streets away
• I have another son who is thankfully in this country for once but I can't go visit
• Will he be gone when I can?
• These are little hardships
• My big lesson from these weeks is that I already have every thing I need
• And everyone
• How much of our baggage have we laid down during this?
• How much do we not really need?
• How much do we really not need?
• How clear it is what is precious
• Like the FaceTime chats with a one-year-old
• Like the fact of living with a hero
• Like the kindness of my neighbours
• Of women on bikes dropping elastic off at my door
• Or the sight of a neighbour who carries an ancient dog outside for the fresh air
• Wrapped in blankets and immobile in a cart
• But with his nose lifted to the smells of the breeze
• How beautiful is that?

Flypaper thoughts: still in quarantine edition

• Well we still have a pandemic don't we?
• I only hope it doesn't get too bad too fast
• There will be many stories out of this
• Hardships that are invisible
• I am thinking of my friend whose marvellous husband 
• Just went into a memory care facility
• Because he has early onset
• Now she can't go and see him
• I wonder what he thinks
• My mom said to me
• We got through the war, we got through the flood (Winnipeg in the '50s)
• We can do this
• Of course we can
• My first father-in-law was in forced labour in Russia in the war
• He walked back to Hungary in the winter
• How did he do that?
• The secret he said
• Was that he made sure, even if it was with snow
• He washed every day
• Now that was a something
• We are at the end of week one of self-isolation
• Daisy has a ruptured disc in her neck
• So she is on bed rest for a month and a half at least
• She's in the dog stroller in the day and not liking it
• But that's the way it goes
• Ever tried to keep a dog from moving their neck?
• But we can do it
• Main crisis at the moment is the shortage of flour
• My husband is a stress baker
• And I am a stress eater 
• A very successful marriage
• I made a decision to dress every day like I was still going to the office
• I sorted my enormous button collection on Tuesday wearing my pearls
• I knew I had them for some reason
• I had a female boss early on who told me
• If I was going to have a decent career I needed pearls
• Never wore them
• Thought I was too young
• Too matronly for me
• But turns out they are perfect quarantine wear
• So this is what I was saving them for
• Tomorrow I think I am going to put on stockings
• Covid-19 what do you think of that?
• You will be hearing from me again

Flypaper thoughts: quarantine version

• Home now after an odd trip home
• Double time
• In the house for two weeks now
• All good except Daisy
• She has a very bad foot/shoulder
• Trying to do telemedicine with the vet
• If all else fails will have to leave her in the yard 
• And have someone take her in
• Strange times
• My DIL in Berkeley has a a cough
• They aren't tested but she's been told to behave as if she has the virus
• Two front line health care workers here
• And a son and his girlfriend now separated by a border
• Hard when they sail out of your own safe harbour
• Not entirely patient with those who are noncompliant
• We need to get this done
• However
• My neighbour left muffins at the end of the driveway
• My son put his hand to the front window
• My husband is cheerfully stress baking
• I discovered a pattern piece I lost
• I am getting that sock knitted
• I folded the laundry as soon as it came out of the dryer
• I am making sure I wear jewelry and my lipstick every day
• I am using up all those Christmas bath bombs
• And eating peppermint patties
• I had a group chat with four seven-year-olds
• I made a lesson plan for my virtual home schooling
• Bees, capitals of the provinces, and creative writing
• I am modifying my old 4th year writing syllabus
• Work with what you have
• I think later in the week we should do cover letters 
• And how to address an envelope
• 6,8 and10, seems to me to be about time
• I have an idea for fractions with coloured water and measuring cups
• It occurred to me that I am living the life of a '50s housewife without a car in the Canadian winter
• Pretty close to being that person anyway
• Unpacking so I can get sewing
• Need to see those stitches form in a line
• Just want my dog to get better
• Happy with our leaders here
• That matters
• Someone smart I worked with said to me once
• Never stand too close to insanity
• It is contagious
• So true, so true
• I think I will sew small things tomorrow
• Important to sew in different proportions to events
• I am thinking of you
• One day this will be past