An update on house arrest

 

Dear Jim

 

Well, nothing is getting better if you want to know. I’m thinking of buying an ankle tracking bracelet to get the full impact of being trapped. In fact, a lot of things are changing in our house as the confinement continues.

 

Turns out our kitchen is now  too small to have two people do breakfast at the same time.

I have been informed that I’m to get up first, go downstairs, empty the dishwasher, feed the cat, make my breakfast, clean up after I’m finished and then leave. I can go to any other room in the house, as long as I stay out of the kitchen for the rest of the morning.

 

Today I was asked for the first time ever to help change the sheets on the bed. This is a skill that I never acquired naturally and have never seen it as a line item on a resume. It is very tricky to do and I have declared  “one and done”. Too hard to get everything even and lumps smoothed out.

 I think I may  have nipped this in the bud with my sloppy performance and a lot of shouting.

 

So, we continue from one meal to the next and try to keep desserts to 3 times per day.

I have a smart scale and this morning there was a message “new user?”

It is hard to burn calories when you are prone most of your waking hours. My fitness app says that I burned 211 calories yesterday. Not per hour…for the whole day.

Input on the other hand clearly topped 5000 calories.

 I am on a collision course for a lot of new wardrobe decisions very soon.

 

We have four programs going simultaneously on Netflix and/or Prime ( I forget what is on which) and I can hardly wait for them to be over so we can start some new ones. It has turned in to a marathon, but I am confused as to why. Pressure is on every day to log in enough hours to clear the backlog, so we don’t get behind the new releases.

 

We can’t watch the  news anymore because every segment on the Vaccination progress shows somebody getting a needle, over and over and over while they discuss the story. I have seen more vaccinations on TV than we have done in the whole province of Quebec.

 I get it. Someone sticks a big, long scary needle in your arm..its called a vaccination.

I think by  now I could give them myself and am considering volunteering.

 

Sally has been quite ill the past week and she couldn’t even shovel the sidewalk. That didn’t make me very happy. She had a tough time running those large garbage pails up to the end of our 300 ft driveway as well. I would have helped but my nose runs when it is cold. Hope she improves quickly.

 

We both went for COVID tests and were clear which is a good thing for her. I would have hated putting her in the furnace room for two weeks to isolate.

 

At any rate the way things are going we are going to be needing  DNA test results to confirm the identity of our grandchildren in California if we can ever go there.

 

I saw these two quotes yesterday that I will share with you.

Life is like a helicopter….. I don’t know how to operate a helicopter.

And finally, my wife says I never buy her flowers. Honestly, I never knew she sold flowers.

 

I will keep you posted.

 

Bill Meder

billmeder@blogspot.com

 

Regards,

Bill 

(514) 992-2916

Dear Jim: The Covid beat goes on

Dear Jim:

 

You probably wonder why I haven’t written for some time and I have been reminded that this is not acceptable. Frankly, there is little to write about as there is no life as we knew it to comment on.

Well not technically true.

Our Government has said that we cannot make appointments for COVID  vaccination, but they will contact us to schedule our shots when they are ready. This is Great, what could go wrong with this plan? Simple and straight forward.

As a result, I now carry my cell phone 7/24 including during showers so that I don’t miss that call. They are now saying everyone will be vaccinated by Sept 30, but they don’t have any doses until March. I shouldn’t say doses plural as we will only get one shot. This will keep us on our toes long after the Vaccination program is over and promises to keep more of the older folks off the street until they die of natural causes.

As you know I don’t envy anyone except those that have their own airplane and people who have already been vaccinated in Florida. So, if you know anyone with a plane who has had their two shots let me know so I can take them off my friends and acquaintances

list.

So how do we pass the time during the various level of lockdown?

 

I am reading books every day. Don’t ask me the titles for recommendations as I don’t remember any of them. The name of the Author may come to me if I concentrate on it.

 As for the plot, all I know is that someone gets killed near the beginning and they find out who did it by the end. My apple book library is now being stored in the Cloud as my IPAD is full.

 

As for watching TV we have made a point of not watching anything before 5 pm. We also only watch series that have at least 10 episodes with people having a horrible experience. We don’t mind the violence and sex scenes as they are all the same and we are used to them now. The couple comes in the door to the home,  ripping each other’s clothes off as they stumble through the lobby and knock over a vase or table. Then, half dressed,  the guy carry’s the girl with her legs wrapped around his waist  through the house/apartment into the bedroom or a kitchen workstation. Still half-dressed ( the girl never takes off her bra..must be a Screen Actors Guild regulation),  the screen goes to black and then we see them wake  up in the morning with various degrees of guilt and wonder how they can stand not brushing their teeth before engaging in Tete- a -Tete conversations.

Sally yells at the SOB who is cheating on his wife and I try ,to no avail,  to remind her that they can’t hear her. We are in a rhythm and since every day is the same, I can’t tell when the weekend arrives or even what day of the week it is most of the time.

 

A big event for us here in Quebec every day is the curfew  from 8 pm to 5 am.  This has had a huge impact on me because I have never been outside from 8pm to 5 am and now wonder what I am missing that everyone had to be told they couldn’t do. One of my friends phoned me at 8.15pm to make sure I  was honoring the curfew. Woke me out of a dead sleep.

 

During the day before all the stores were closed Sally went out every day for a few hours of shopping. Our house is now filled with all manner of useless crap  that we won’t even be able to donate to NOVA charity services as there is no one who could have any use for them. All closets are full, and I mean full. I have been moved out and put into a small enclosure in another part of the house.

The amazing thing is that Sally has now become a whiz on e-commerce, and we have a personal relationship with the Amazon delivery driver. The junk continues to flow.

 

BTW I have not bought anything for 10 months and my Visa is in danger of being cancelled as it looks to be dormant.

 

I go out every day and just drive around to nowhere in particular. I’m not concentrating much and recently I have gone through 3 red lights and tried to turn up a one-way street going the wrong way. I am in a trance going through the stop signs so I can’t give you any numbers. I do go to the grocery store and pick up one item every trip so that I have a reason to go out. Peanut butter on Monday, jam on Tuesday, milk on Wednesday…you get the picture.

 

As a project, I am trying to get Sally’s cat to like me. I seem to be invisible and if it doesn’t go anywhere soon, I may leave her outside overnight by mistake to show her who is boss.

 

Finally, I am liking the doctor appts by phone now. Mind you the calls have been very brief. I say “this” isn’t working properly and the doctor  answers, “that’s normal for your age, things will continue to  stop working and in fact the number of “things” will accelerate from here”  Well, ok then, good to know. Saving myself a lot of time and parking fees and I have no treatments to deal with as most everything is broken for good.

 

You always ask me if I’m exaggerating or if this is true. Believe me, you can’t make this stuff up!

 

I will let you know as soon as we are released back in to the wild. In the meantime, stay safe…

 

Regards,

Bill Meder

(514) 992-2916

wmeder@gmail.com