Thursday, October 1, 2020

So done with September

 Admit it. September was one discouraging month. I even made a deal with the calendar. If today was October, I would clean the big bathroom. It was and I did.

I am numbed. Life was not always measured out in teaspoons. Finding spontaneity in four walls is not possible, even for the cat. Even his dead run of sixty feet has the same obstacles to avoid. He has regressed to treating me as if he's my dog. 

The children around me are back in school. I read in the paper of schools all around closing their doors, but the two private academies have full parking lots. I used to remember to avoid the road they both occupy, from one cross road to another, when the School Zone lights would be blinking. 


I don't remember that, now. I amused myself with pictures on my way through the four way stop. 

My letter to the people was published in the last issue of YCN. Be sure your vote is counted. If you don't vote, you don't count. Stark, and true.

Life within four walls--groan. After I watch the cat bound, end to end, until he just flops, little remains. Sometimes I cook, even two or three days in a row. I made cauliflower soup the other day. So good, especially with some Swiss cheese and bacon crumbles. Two or three days are stashed in the freezer. Well labelled.

Another keeper is the bruschetta spaghetti. As a not Italian, I've deduced the meaning of "bruschetta" in front of spaghetti. I take it to mean "raw", as in spaghetti from scratch. The noodles wind up coated in red sauce, and are red, and not from a separate pan, or from a can of sauce.

Other people in my world are alive and well. Just not "in". Laura is rooming with Kamaria and sharing her life. It includes bicycling and veganism. Nothing with eyes, I think. Kamaria sent a picture labelled "Back from a six mile bike ride and Laura went up the apple tree!".


Speaking of trees, and other women in my family, Beth has sent pictures from time to time of the progress of the pergola in her back yard. The pergola has been a plan of hers for some time, and life fitted together this year to get it done.

First, the old pear tree in her back yard gasped its last pear last year. The tree was there when she moved in, and that was while her G'ma Lytle was here to admire her house and her accomplishment. Past that, let's just say her children were raised on pear sauce.

Several years ago she and the children laid a patio under the tree, and entertaining moved there. A few more years of shade from the tree, and then it was gone.

Over the course of this summer I received snaps. This is dated August 30th:


A couple of weeks later:


Progress. More stepladders called into service. And Saturday my phone went nutz with a flurry of pergola pictures.


I will save the close ups of the overhead screening and struts and uprights for a really slow day. Here we have Beth's husband, Bill, her college roommate, John (also the primary builder), and the pergola.

And the author of the event? Since the men aren't available to make a picture, wait a bit. Beth's chair is the red chair.


37 comments:

  1. It's nice to know how Beth and Laura are doing. I am a parent who would not have sent my children back to school if they were still that age. They are too precious.

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  2. Hari OM
    that's a fine pergola! Sounds like you are experiencing a tad of cabin fever, Joanne. You need a tree to climb... metaphorically speaking, of course! YAM xx

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  3. Joanne, I also cook a bit more these days... made a wonderful broccoli/cauliflower casserole this week with lots of garlic and parmesan cheese. Thinking with this cooler weather that it might almost be red beans and rice time!

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  4. Sounds as if you're pacing about like a captain on the quarter deck, only with no one to shout orders at! I don't count the cat, she'll just ignore orders or talk back.

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  5. Love the pergola. Sadly all of the fruit trees I grew up with (and on) are gone. There were times when visitors to the home were not allowed to leave without a bucket of whatever was in season.
    I know bruschetta as toasted bread, drizzled with olive oil and garlic and often topped with tomato and onion.

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  6. I would love to have any kind of fruit tree, and that Pergola is beautiful. We only have one area that would be adequate for a Pergola, but it would sure be nice to have.

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  7. I love that pergola. I would plant something that would climb it, like honeysuckle or climbing roses or wisteria!

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  8. Every month seems the same to me anymore other than the weather changes. It's this year that needs to be gone. A part of me fears that this pandemic won't be much better in the early months of 2021. Just please let the politics be better!

    I love the Pergola! They will enjoy that.

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  9. That’s a very nice sitting area - is there a fridge nearby in the garage or do they have to trudge all the way to the house for a refill:)
    I can’t remember how far away Beth lives from you...might be time to get out of your four walls and visit hers......and sit in the shade together

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  10. I like that bruschetta spaghetti too and have made it several times since you posted the link to the recipe. I just made it last week again, actually. Once more I thank you for that recipe!

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  11. I wanted a pergol in the front of the house for a climbing plant which was going wild. I showed Danilo what i wanted...something like that in the photographs on your blog...and ended up with a metal edifice which would probably support the Empire State Building. Still, the plant thinks it is wonderful and will soon cover it.

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  12. life here is almost back to normal, for me anyway, whose old normal wasn't that different from covid normal being basically anti-social as I am. my yoga class started up months ago in the indoor/outdoor space with plenty of space though the other place I went once a week has not being indoor in a relatively small space. still have my two acres to maintain now that the miserable summer weather has broken and several building projects that kept me busy here. estate sales have started back up and so we're doing that again albeit with masks. we went to one today and judging by the prices they didn't really want to sell any of that stuff.

    October is going to be worse than September, the grueling countdown to Nov. 3 with Trump continuing to spiral out of control knowing he's losing and scared shitless. be prepared for him to declare a national emergency or get involved in a war in a last ditch effort to stay out of jail. I'm not worried about a militia uprising as I think as soon as people start shooting back at them they will scurry home. it's disheartening though to see republicans still supporting him and voter suppression or at the very least, staying silent in the face of his bad behavior. my governor today just closed all the satellite election offices leaving only one per county where you can drop off a mail in ballot. fucker.

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    1. I am most sick to my stomach at all the repression by politicians who are running scared, knowing they never have been kind or compassionate and knowing this time it really, really could come back to bite them. So lessening the chances to cast a legal vote may stop them from having to know how mean they are. I am so torn between early voting and voting in my regular old town hall voting place. I think it will be the latter, because that's how we do it here.

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  13. I watched the debate earlier this week and didn’t sleep much. Voting is so important.

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  14. Your cat actually runs around?!
    I've been told that that happens.
    Actually, ours will run up the stairs at bedtime to beat us to the top. That is all.

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  15. Cauliflower soup sounds perfect, especially with swiss cheese. I would love a pergola, especially is grapes grew over it. -Jenn

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  16. You're right about voting. there's one guy who wants to discourage people from voting.

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  17. That is a cool looking pergola! I saw on the news today that all the counties here in Arizona finally reached the benchmarks for hybrid learning in the classroom. We'll see how many actually make it back to in person learning. Step granddaughter is eager to get back to in person learning; at 15 years old her mom let her make the decision. So we'll see how it goes. Love the picture of Laura in the tree! Seems like she is getting in lots of exercise!

    betty

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  18. I am also glad to see Sept go. It felt like a long month. I'd like something like that pergola on my front porch.

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  19. Nothing with eyes, a fitting alternative description of vegan food. Your description of bruschetta and mine are poles apart....
    Alphie

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  20. Though I seem to be stuck here, I have far too many people annoying me. Lately I have been hiding in my back yard. No one except Kevin has ever been brave enough to find me in the back yard. Even HeWho leaves me alone in my back yard! I would welcome a visit from Kevin, if only he could!

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  21. I am sick at heart too, and trying to be hopeful--sometimes it works, and sometimes I fail. The depths to which some politicians and presidents would sink, truly appalling. I would love that cauliflower soup! I did not know that was called a pergola. I've seen them around.

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  22. My grandparents had a pergola which my grandfather built. He hung a swing from it for me when I was little. I will look for a photo of it.

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  23. That's a fine looking pergola :)
    I wish I had an apple tree to climb into.

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  24. Is that Laura in the tree? I could never climb a tree even when I was much younger. The pergola is looking very nice.

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  25. The pergola is beautiful. I love the architecture of them and always wanted one.

    It is so nice to see a picture of Laura. I hope she is doing well.

    The loneliness and boredom of Covid time is so hard. Some days are really bad and other days are not so bad.

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  26. I am a bit disappointed she didn't give a thumbs-up with the hand not holding the apple. Oh well, I suppose she had to hang on with it.

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  27. Climbing trees after a six mile bike ride - you don't want to mess with her! Maybe I need to start eating more apples! Can you believe the price of apples this year?

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  28. Are they going to train vines up and around the pergola?

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  29. Lovely daily update Joanne, you write so well even when you are frustrated from the isolation.

    We shipped Grandgirl back to Ontario where cases have gone through the roof again, second wave, who knows, the bars and clubs seem to be the hotbeds.

    And today, who knows, your Occupant and Spouse may have it, or it could be a ploy as many are conjecturing.

    XO
    WWW

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  30. You should be pleased about the Prez and wife. G and I cheered when we heard. Very child like of us.
    You sound good. Toby as a dog?

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  31. The longer this goes on, the more discouraging it is.

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