23 APRIL, 2020 - VIRUS BOREDOM AND EPIPHANYS

    King Elder ducks, sorta' like a mix-together of our Puffin and Harlequin    bingwallpapers.com/© Pal Hermansen/Minden Pictures

Captain Ray sez' ... A very nervous, first time passenger says to the skipper, “Do boats like this sink very often?”  “Not too often,” replied the skipper...   “Usually only once.”
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We are in Oregon day 44 of this Virus, with 78 deaths and 2,100 verified cases (almost all centered in Portland).

an'ya has not been off the dock since 11 April, and I have been off only twice to pickup stores  (not shop, just have the van loaded)... but, being as reclusive and stay-alone as we are normally, this supposed "new" routine is our "normal".

However, it "has" had impact and it has had results...  So...fea has gained a huge (built a week before COVID Day One) pantry, been through an extra severe Spring clean-out/sort, and once all the scrubbing and sorting was done (twice), and all the "projects" were caught up... was when the COVID stay-at-home became vivid and real.

Now, we were forced (forced I tell you) to confront those always easy to put off things in life... we all have them, the family photo or scrapbook project, the "Files" cabinate, our computer cleanse/backup, the recipe or address files, and the terrifying extras of... "time to write, or think, or plan, and do some introspective stuff"... 

Normal life for most normal people never offers many opportunities to "write, think or plan" ... it is the old vacation problem... you take two weeks and the spouse, and head for Mazatlan, you do not clear your head, get to a good mental place, or relax and "find yourself" until day 8-9 of the vacation, you just get into deep thought about lives plan and where you fit in when it is time to "GO" and get back on the hamster wheel of life.

Those 4 days of vacation-stolen deep "self-time" once a year are not very life-changing, or impactful to the hamster wheels inertia, but... being off work at home for "three" plus weeks on a Virus break can be life-changing ... (did I mention "scary ?") when you "find" your inner self and realize where you are on the roadmap. (Vs. where you thought you were).

No more availability of "excuses" (a goodwill trip, garage sale-ing, mall walking, lunch out with friends, cocktails and dinner, or house parties, and camping trips, cinema or evening classes)... nope, now it is introspect... unavoidably the time to look at yourself ... this could be ugly !!

"We" have used this time stuck aboard So...fea to eradicate paper... and complete our transition to fully digital, by converting some 200 pounds of paper files, photos, and work into digital, and filling up the dumpster and building YouTube presentations, (sound up and on),
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLJhfxHOMY0&t=1s  and more coming, as we empty out ink-on-paper.... even more is going over to an'ya's 300 web pages at tankaanya.com  she is simply too prolific for ink-on-paper... when done, I will have to reballast So...fea for the paper loss.

These are great times for writing and realigning, and I personally have recalled many stories and people from my past to create new pages with, like Ruzita the Hungarian(Gypsy ?) woman I was so afraid of as a 10 year-old, her tarot cards and many tales like "the rule of fours"... maybe tomorrow we will visit her.