Pandemic Tuesday

Oh hello. I was reading a book about garbage but it was not as uplifting as I'd hoped. So I'm checking in during Week 2 of the pandemic. How are you doing? I hope somewhat OK. Things are pretty weird right now.

I ran out of homeschooling steam towards the end of last week. By Friday my enthusiasm for taking a long break each day to teach my children stuff was a shadow of what it had been on Monday. Nonetheless, we discussed Art History for our Thursday session, reviewing a set of giant flash cards I made years ago when I had a lot more intellectual energy. Then the kids did some hands-on art while I went back to work.










On Friday we discussed cats. I wanted to title this session "Cats: Their Roots & Their Consequences," in a sly nod to the screenplay for The Seven Year Itch. But since my kids are not big Billy Wilder/George Axelrod fans I did not go this route. We talked about cat colors and fur patterns, and looked up some examples of breeds such as British Shorthairs, the Turkish Van, and the Maine Coon Cat. Then we observed some local domestic cats in their habitats and made field notes. We wrapped up by watching 20 minutes of funny cat videos on Youtube, because cats are an important Internet phenomenon. This session was even more highly rated than the cupcakes I am pleased to say.





Over the weekend it was spring-like. I charged my magical stones in the sun.




If you happen to be looking for some good post-apocalyptic reading material, I highly recommend Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.

I read it a few weeks ago before all this started (where I live anyway), and now it just seems like the perfect book for this time. Please read. Bonus points for being partially set in Toronto.

For film, it's a good time to watch Princess Mononoke, about how humanity changes nature permanently, but in the end nature will still change everything. Shin Godzilla shares themes of rebuilding after catastrophe, but this 2017 movie also has many incredible scenes of meetings and bureaucracy. I have been scared of Godzilla movies since childhood and was pleasantly surprised at how good this was--and not particularly violent. I think we'll re-watch Time Bandits next. Frozen 2 also got a screening recently and its theme of "do the next right thing" has proved useful.

I also signed up for free daily shaman classes, am drinking herbal infusions (mostly nettle but I also ordered some jasmine and raspberry leaf and oatstraw), and am trying to learn Gaelic from a combination of an app on my phone and Gaelic with Jason on youtube.

There are now 95 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in my state.