DAY 13

I don't watch the news. I never really have. I skim through the New York Times every morning online. I listen to NPR on the radio in my car. Otherwise, I figure if something is really important I will hear about it from someone, eventually. This practice, or non-practice has served me well over the years. If I could turn on the t.v. and find a news station that offered mostly uplifting news I might watch, but as far as I know there is nothing like that out on the airwaves. It's mostly depressing, doom and gloom, the sky is falling news. I don't need that in my brain. I don't think that this is denial or ignorance is bliss mentality. It is a way for me to maintain good mental health in a sometimes mentally unhealthy world. Especially now.

I did hear some good news from my husband today. I knew that a stimulus package was in the works by our government, but had not paid attention to the details. I guess that we can expect a big deposit to our bank account in the next few weeks. My husband wants to take his to the casino and try and double his money. He says this every time he gets a chunk of money. I had to remind him that the casinos are closed. In reality all he has ever taken to a casino was $20 on two separate occasions. He lost it all at blackjack in a very short time while I stretched my $20 out on the quarter slot machines until I got bored and took my last $5 and we left. You can see who is the money manager in this family.

This morning Miss Nine and I took a walk around the neighborhood. We chalk bombed the sidewalks with fun, uplifting messages. On one corner she left a piece of chalk with the message "take this and write some more."  I hope someone picked it up and had some fun. I got a few texts later in the day from folks who were pretty sure they knew who the graffiti artists were. The messages were a big hit.

Miss Nine is not the only one getting an education here at Clinton Street Academy. Today I learned about Zoom, an online meeting application. Evidently I have been way out of the loop because I discovered that people I know have been using it for years. Miss Nines teacher set up a Zoom meeting between herself and her class. They are going to have another meet up today. It is amazing to me how many ways there are to deal with this social isolation!

Jumping rope and hopscotch were the order of the day for phys ed. I'm glad that the weather is getting a little nicer. It would be so much harder to navigate this in the middle of winter. I arranged the furniture on our back deck and cleaned up the yard a little. It felt so good to be outside working, like a normal spring day. It started to sprinkle lightly while I was out working, but I didn't care. We are made of mostly water anyway.