Because so much of my daily routine has been shifted from in person interactions to ones on-line, I thought I would devote the next several posts to comparing the way I am experiencing the difference. I will look at grocery purchases, book purchases, church attendance, workouts, meetings with friends, meetings with family members and book clubs.

The series will start tomorrow.

The neighbor’s daughter had her 13th birthday Thursday in the middle of the virus epidemic. A big birthday with a potential big disappointment. But her mother arranged for a virtual party, and according to the reports it was a big hit.

Helium balloons were delivered to the house and placed behind the computer chair. Then the surprise Zoom party began as six of her friends signed on. They each had received a party game and treats sent ahead to each home. Then an acting teacher came on and led them in 30 minutes of improvisation.

Since the girl’s father works in Manhattan as an essential worker, she has been out of physical contact with any of her friends for six weeks now. And it is unclear when they will be able to get together again. As you may remember from your own adolescence, being quarantined with your parents is no one’s idea of a fun time!

Still I was impressed with what was possible with a little creativity and a lot of preparation. Well done to you Mom.

Early in our marriage, my husband walked over to a very tall fir tree across from our church and proceeded to climb it. I was appalled and let him know. It made no difference, and he went to the top and came down successfully. I had my eyes closed for most of the ascent and descent. Yesterday, I learned that my 10 year old grandson has also taken to climbing trees. I was equally distressed. I started to wonder about males and tree climbing. Why do they do it? How often do they fall? How often do they even think about falling? Is the possibility of falling part of the excitement?

I complained that I had never had any desire to climb any tree. I maintained that it was a foolish, dangerous thing to do. I reminded everyone in ear shot about the time my friend Norman Smith failed to fly from the top of the garden shed, thereby breaking his arm. No one seemed to care. There was no indication that my grandson would change his course in the future.

But then I ran across this photo from 1954. That is me up in a tree. I have somehow managed to stand on the swing seat, pull myself up using the rope I suppose and then holler for help. Apparently this photo was taken just before I was helped down.

I guess I need to be quiet about why anyone climbs a tree!

I thought I would introduce a little merriment into a post. I was humming an old Aretha Franklin song the other day and I realized she was asking “who’s zooming who?” If you want to hear the whole song you can https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=Gi6yGuvKv_E. I claim no responsibility for any ad that youtube plays first. I just had to click through an ad for a conspiracy newspaper!

Zoom has a long and checkered meaning, long before it was applied to that application now being used for office meetings, religious services, and book clubs. In this case it just suggests who is checking who out–you or me? In a way this also applies to the present incarnation of Zoom. How often do you find yourself checking out the books behind the speaker, the pets wandering in and out, the 80’s decor? But as Aretha points out “who’s zooming who?” I wonder what everyone in church is learning about me!

A lot of people are tired of being told to stay home. A lot of people are longing to get haircuts. A few people apparently are longing to get tattoos and go bowling. How else to explain the governor of Georgia opening beauty salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys? Georgia continues to have a rise in cases of covid-19. If you are anywhere other than the state of Georgia(or one of the doubtful citizens within Georgia) you might wonder what is going on. Grievously enough, politics is winning over science.

In some ways, this is not surprising since we have had a number of movements to discount science in the United States in recent years. Climate change is a hoax. Vaccinations cause illness. And so on. But the virus is not a hoax. It was not concocted by (take your choice) Bill Gates, the Deep State, WHO, or George Soros. It is very real, there is no cure for it, and people are dying at an astonishing rate in the United States.

I am grateful once again that I live in a part of the United States still committed to finding a way forward that honors both health and the economy. Quickly opening work places, restaurants, movie theaters, beaches and shopping malls without knowing who carries and spreads the illness will have one effect. It will kill people. And in case some governors don’t seem to grasp the obvious: the economy needs healthy people in order to thrive.

I grew up in a home surrounded by lush growth of flowers and trees. No one gardened the property as it was part of the “natural landscaping” look popular at the time. That meant there were numerous native plants, including trillium and johnny-jump-ups. There were also remnants of the time when the home, built in 1909, had employed  a gardener. Hence roses, rhododendrons, daffodils, dogwood, and snowdrop bushes bloomed every spring. Countless trees populated the two acres, so many that when a storm in 1960 took our 13 trees, there were still plenty left.

In other words, I took plants for granted and never took up gardening as a hobby. Fortunately, I married a man who has a real talent in the yard and who recognized a neglected yard when he saw one. After we married in 1988, he began to FEED the plants which then actually thrived. When we moved into our present home in 2001, he continued his practice of feeding, watering, pruning, dividing and transplanting the landscaping already present. And in the intervening 19 years, he has introduced thousands of bulbs, perennials and shrubs to our city lot.

He especially loves spring bulbs, and he fights with the squirrels who want to dig them up for meals every fall after they go in the ground. He also has added some perennials to a shady spot in the yard. Above are three plantings that recently bloomed, two from bulbs, one from a plant.

Often I carelessly overlook all his work, taking it for granted in the same way I took my childhood surroundings for granted. This spring I am housebound and rejoicing at each new bloom, grateful beyond measure for having married a man with a genuine green thumb.

It is still unseasonably cold around here, but I saw a couple of signs that the birds and plants still believe in warmer weather to come. The robins who built a nest last year under my office porch(old nest on left) have returned and built a new nest. It is positioned in a way that I can easily watch what is going on without bothering the robins. Clearly the robins are not in lockdown, but are happily going about producing more robins.

On the right our raspberry vines are starting to emerge from their winter bed. By the time summer is over (assuming it ever arrives!) the vines will fill out this whole patch by the garage and produce hundreds of berries. Perhaps they realize how difficult it has been to acquire produce around here and are getting ready to do their part.

I am having to reframe my approach to the covid-19 pandemic. One wise public health official said that the United States had been preparing its citizens for a sprint. He maintains that the more apt analogy is a marathon. Clearly marathons require stamina, perseverance and a level of commitment to stay the course. As an added challenge, we don’t know how long this course will be. And of course we didn’t choose to enter this particular marathon. But here I am and here we are, moving along an unknown path, doing the best we can. For the long haul.

This morning when doing the New York Times crossword puzzle I came across a new word. As a 72 year old retired English professor, I rarely encounter a word I haven’t seen before. So I was jubilant. (Yes. During this lockdown it isn’t taking much to make me happy.) The word is “mondegreen,” apparently coined in 1954 and defined as misinterpreting a word or phrase, especially from a song lyric.

Finally. A chance to share one of my favorite “aha” moments from my marriage. My husband and I were at a concert of Bob Dylan and Paul Simon playing together. (Well not together as it turns out. They were taking turns. Sort of.) Anyway Dylan began singing “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again.” I had never seen the title of this song, only heard it played. My husband turned excitedly to me saying “this is the only song that is about Mobile.” He was raised in Mobile, Alabama, so this made an impression on him. To my chagrin, I realized that for forty years I had been singing “I’m stuck inside a mobile with the Memphis blues again.” Sounded quite believable given Dylan’s frequently psychedelic verses.

My other mondegreen comes from a song I can’t recall. All I know is that I constantly sing “you’re my corn dog in the night.” I have to assume that the lyric is something quite different. At least I hope it is.

What lyrics have you been mishearing for years? Of course if no one has corrected you this question will make no sense!

The weather in Connecticut this year has been very strange. Winter never really hit us with any intensity and now spring seems very reluctant to move in. I think that this photo I took this morning sums up the situation perfectly. In the foreground you see the blossoms on our sour cherry tree finally beginning to appear. But, lest you get your hopes up, notice the background of the photo. That silver image is of one of our snow shovels, the yellow stripes belong to its companion, another shovel. Today hail is forecast so we shouldn’t need the shovels, but two days ago we awoke to a layer of snow.

Unlike some of the governors to our south, our governor continues to put our continued health over a short term boost in the economy. He believes, and I agree, that too hasty a lifting of regulations will lead to a rebound of the illness. It has hit this part of the country especially hard, and no one wants to see the numbers quickly soar again. So we remain hunkered down, making it feel kind of like late winter but with more daylight.

A few more signs of the potential for spring will appear in my next posts. Mind you I said “potential.” I am not confident that winter has left us for good.