Patience is my mantra for the Pandemic!

Patience is my mantra for the Pandemic!

My cousin, Sherri Bassner, wrote in her blog  about letting go and the challenges we all face when we are sitting at home and have limited outlets to be energized and activities to distract us.  She writes much more clearly than I about the challenges of a brain that is always on and looking at issues and subjects and generating new ideas where the major objective right now is to have the patience to make it through the summer.






I share her challenge of a brain that doesn't want to slow down and keeps throwing out ideas.  Would anyone really stop at a bakery to take cookies conveniently packaged to take home and bake so they have the best cookies hot out of their own oven?  Yes, I know you can buy cookie dough in the grocery store.  Frank and I spent the month of April and May perfecting cookie recipes including chocolate chip, oatmeal, sugar, and molasses cookies.  There must be something more valuable to come from this other than the need to re-up the Weight Watchers App and work off the pounds added by cookies, and who can forget Frank's homemade ice cream.  (Banana Pudding Ice Cream alone is enough to make the scale show fear on my behalf.)


Work comes with its own challenges as the company in California is struggling so I am in the mode of exploring new work opportunities as well.  Thankfully I have been through this before, and every day I come up with a new idea or a new job to research.  I know the key is patience to find the right thing, and also I don't think I will have to explain a gap in my resume that coincides with the pandemic.  I don't want to rush into something that won't be good for me and need to know where I should be looking.





We are lucky, Longview is home today and we have very little debt.  Our plan of record is to split our time with Savannah. So my requirement of the day is continued patience to look and hope to uncover an opportunity that either is independent and in my control or supports real remote work.







I watch all the debates on race and racism and Black Lives Matter.  It seems to me there is much dialogue among white people of what the challenges are.  There are comments about Black on Black crime. There are discussions of police brutality, which their needs to be more of and real reform.  But, it amazes me how few include  Black lives in their discussion.  Much of what we discuss are symptoms of the root cause of the problem, which is systemic racism, that dates back to, if not before, the beginning of slavery.  I spoke to my very good friend Cecilia and am working with her to edit an interview to share with you all that I think will be enlightening.

I can't help but be amused by all the people protesting wearing masks.  It is not like they are being asked to wear a scarlet letter on their brow or a Star of David on their clothes that will mark them for some kind of persecution.  Instead, they think it is their constitutional right to get sick and share that sickness with everyone else.  Has anyone seen one episode of I checked in the hospital with symptoms of the Corona Virus and want to recommend that as a pleasurable experience we should all aspire to?  Also, it may be mostly for those of us older and with compromised health, but it seems pretty regular there is someone younger struggling in the hospital as well.  The next crisis will be the health of those recovered post-pandemic with lingering effects on those recovered including heart, lungs, and digestive challenges that were present during their recovery.  If the president has his way, just in time, there won't be any guarantee of coverage for those with pre-existing conditions and or the health insurance for them will be priced so must of us cannot afford the insurance that is supposed to keep us well.

So, what have I done to stem the frustration and angst that comes with over 100 days at home and trying with all of my powers to not irritate Frank or cause more stress in the world?

My keyword is patience.  Sherri talked about letting go. I am not good at that.  I need patience, to not go bonkers or to create chaos just to keep me engaged and entertained.






I found on eBay a Wii U so for about an hour a day I play the tennis game and can pretend to pound a tennis ball at others and get some of that frustration out.






I have a dog who is determined to get three walks in each day.  So, at least for one a day, I am the walker and we get out.  Some days it is as exciting as walking around the neighborhood, but we are lucky in Longview as there are trails and I take her to different ones as I can.  She also enjoys strolling around downtown   She really insists on different walks.  If you mention the word "ride" and fail to take her to the car she will let you know during the ensuing walk her displeasure.  Between walks to entertain her and her continued challenge of wanting a variety in her diet she is a good distraction.  She also has been known to force me to take the occasional nap as well.



We also have Lucky, who is a cat with her own mind, and quite entertaining in her own right.  There were phrases I never would have understood without her.  Such as curiosity killed the cat.  She can't help it.. She is also a scaredy-cat at heart.. so her decision to jump up on the fridge to get into mischief takes a lot of energy for her, but she can't help it and gets up there and now more often.  Put a box in the middle of the room and she can't help but jump in and see what it is all about.


 On the "scaredy-cat" side of her life, she is allowed out in the back yard supervised.  She is known to chase out of the yard but if another cat gets on our fence, she will run into the house and wait for DaisyBelle to do her job and scare them out of her yard.  The truth is, but should remain a secret, the two of them are quite a pair. At night, DaisyBelle and Lucky end up sleeping quite close to one another and they keep an eye on each other at least as much as they keep an eye on us.



Each week I sign in to take some class to see what I don't know.. about LinkedIn Marketing or, what I should know about RedHat and Openshift.  Or, what it takes to Integrate Salesforce and an on-premise database.  Now you understand why the cookie bakery idea seems exciting to me!



What I really want.. more than anything.  Is to get in the car, Daisybelle and I in the back seat, Frank and Lucky in the front and be on our way somewhere.  Whether it is Savannah to get my feet wet in the ocean at Tybee.  Or, going to Natchez MS and watching the fog come over the Mississippi River.  I miss an adventure that is not to be mine I imagine at least through the summer.  I do wonder, as we think of Savannah, how we will manage that post-pandemic but that is another item my impatient mind can focus on for the months ahead.

What I do know is that the more we all stay in and wear masks as we go out.  The more we are careful about our choices each day whether it is sitting at a bar or going out to eat.  The more we are cautious the more likely we will stay healthy and help keep those around us including our parents healthy.

I also know the more people share our caution the sooner our freedom of movement will return.  I can't imagine it will ever be as free and easy as it once was, but it will return and be even safer.

So, if you don't mind, I am going to play tennis on the Wii.  Listen to Daisybelle snore after her morning walk, and keep looking online for the next adventure and try to find peace in waiting.

They say "patience is a virtue", by the way, Google says this saying comes from Piers Plowman, a narrative poem believed to have been written by William Langland between 1360 and 1387.

 It is not my virtue, I assure you,  but for not it is a necessity for the foreseeable future.