Oh it's really happening!

Today I saw snow drops.

Spring is really coming!

Two young folks arrived late last night next door. My neighbour warned me that her boyfriend and his sister were driving in from BC, so I shouldn't worry about the strange car parked in her driveway with two people sleeping in it. Sure enough 'the strange car' was there this morning, with two people sleeping inside. They have to self-isolate and my neighbour has booked an Airbnb place for them starting tonight, but they can't come indoors until then. It was a bit cold last night but pretty warm today so they are lucky.

The neighbour bought a couple of big bags of groceries for them to take to the Airbnb, and she left a box of beer out on her doorstep for them. I gather they both had jobs out west that have now evaporated, so they've returned home. Welcome back. I spoke with them briefly around noon, they told me that it took five days to drive back, the last 34 hours was non-stop. Wow. They got stopped at the border between Quebec and New Brunswick and were told not to stop, so they didn't. I wonder how they managed to get gas.

I took Hapi for a walk through the local university campus this morning, lots of walking paths and no people, a nice off-leash park.

While walking with Hapi yesterday a friend Facetimed me, that was a surprise. She's been sick longer than me, about a month. Same symptoms, I probably have whatever she has. But she says she's starting to feel better now, so that's good, something to look forward to.

Two weeks down, two to go…

The Robins have arrived

The robins are back!

My neighbour is doing grocery shopping for me so we were talking on the phone and she told me that there is a whole flock of robins hanging out in her backyard. I took a peek out the window and saw a few of them.

The goldfinch males are turning colour, from their drab wintertime grey to their summer gold. Not quite there yet but coming along.

Yesterday I took Hapi out on the dikes because all the woodland trails are closed and I saw an eagle collecting sea grass. It had a big hank of grass in its clutches and I watched it zigzag across the sky to see where it was going. It disappeared in the direction of the Reservoir, so maybe it is one of our Reservoir eagles.

The neighbourhood crows are being unusually noisy, I suspect they are gearing up for courting and nesting season.

The other day the weather forecast said we would get a few centimeters of snow followed by a lot of rain, instead we got over 20 cm of heavy wet snow and no rain. I read today on The Weather Network that because air flights are drastically reduced, so is the accuracy of weather reports because they depend in part on data gathered by airplanes flying at the same altitude as the Jet Stream.

My snow plough guy came and ploughed out my driveway for the first time this year. Last year he only ploughed twice, both times in March. As a result I still owed him for last year so when he came to plough this time I paid him for last year as well. I usually pay in cash but these days cash is risky. Fortunately the cash I had on hand has not seen the light of day (let alone been handled) in several weeks so I think it was safe. I washed my hands, put the cash in an envelope, and when he came I washed my hands again before I picked up the envelope to give to him. I handed it to him through his passenger side window, so we were two arms-length distance from each other.

It's snowing again today but so far not sticking to the pavement so I don't think I'll need it to be ploughed.

And I am still sick, neither better nor worse.

Reservoir dogs

I have been sick now for over 10 days. Pretty sure it's not covid-19 but no way to know for sure as the only people being tested are recent arrivals from away or their contacts who display the typical symptoms, and I don't fall into either of those categories. Which is fine, I am practicing social distancing and washing my hands and all that, and a couple of neighbours have offered to do grocery shopping for me. I don't feel like I am mortally ill, just not very well.

One of the most bothersome things is the level of anxiety. The other night I started obsessing about symptoms, and whether or not I have the virus. I kept looking stuff up on the internet and at one point I looked up anxiety. Bingo! At least half of what I am experiencing could easily be attributed to anxiety. How do you separate out what is real illness and what is the physical effects of anxiety?

So now I am in effect social isolating. There are certain people who raise my level of anxiety so I am not calling or responding to calls from them. Not that I dislike them, I just can't handle how those conversations affect me right now. I think we all have to forgive friends and family for being less than perfect, but in trying times we also have to protect ourselves.

All parks are closed, including the Reservoir. So no walking the dog there. I miss all the other dogs, as does Hapi. Today we met one of her buddies out for a walk and the two dogs wanted to walk together. Ironically both dogs are large and both owners are small; it was a bit of a tug-of-war to separate them. The other dog whined at the injustice of it all and Hapi dug in her feet and refused to move. If I am not careful she can slip out of her collar because I can't tighten it up enough without choking her. She knows that.

Photo notes: someone hung a bunch of teeny weeny bird houses in the woods at the Reservoir. These pics are from before the park was closed and also before our latest big snow storm.

Explanation

I started blogging in 2008 under my own name, which has since changed. This blog reflects the name change. If you want to see older posts, go to MzOdell's Page.

The poem in my "About Me" description is from a longer poem by A.A. Milne called "Explained". I love almost all of A.A. Milne's poems and this one has special significance since it is about a little girl with the same name as me. The accompanying picture is also from the same source.

So there it is, all Explained!