300 Words: Thoughts of a pretired French Teacher

I almost feel guilty that I neither write nor post each day in this blog as I once did. That defines my personality completely. Rationally, I think of this and realize that it makes no sense. My mind, however, and the routine that it seems to crave, feels bad. I feel bad for things that most people would never pass more than a second thinking about.

The weather is gloomy and I feel odd as I have not walked the dog, he and I being victims of the weather that is questionable and could possibly get us completely soaked. Stewart would not mind, but I would. I could go out with impermeable clothing, but I don’t care to do that kind of sauna thing this morning.

Thoughts of the Pandemic and its outcomes, feelings of both wanting to completely go back to the way things were before it and other feelings wanting to retreat into the caves of our homes, are struggling for superiority. The feelings of being prudent usually win out, although we were at a Bat Mitzvah last Saturday, and well, it was a strange feeling acting as if COVID had never happened.

Thoughts also go to the change in routines in general from the Pandemic and from the fallout it caused in numerous areas of our lives also flow through my mind as the tinnitus holds court in the backround of my thought processes.

Aging is another thing that is on the mind and some of it is at the forefront because of the Pandemic and its ramifications. Otherwise, it is just that the natural transition is happening because I am seventy years old and moving forward.

Stewie and I, although gobsmacked by the cool, wet weather, will go to the mall, yes, the mall, for a walk later in the day. I am getting my miles in one way or the other. Today, I should surpass sixty miles so far this month, last month I had over ninety in total. I find that although I like the walking, it is a strange form of a love/hate relationship. I so want to stay home and yet I have to go out because I need to do so. It is my way of keeping some fitness physically and mentally, fighting the effects and after-effects of the Pandemic.

Okay, I shall sip my coffee and then go do Zoom. No shower this early, I shall wait until after our walk. Excited Stewie will be funny in the mall, he has so much trouble focusing, Border collie that he is, with all of the fun people he would like to meet.

I say, « What might have been spring » because, well, is this really spring? Fifty or forty degree weather, sometimes less, maybe one day of sixties, or maybe even tipping into the eighties for a weather tease? It is times like this that I long to be in college in southern Ohio and enjoying the warmth of the sun and that promise of a summer to come, but with an actual nice, sunny day that follows another and another. We do not get that north of Chicago.

I have been pretty religious about my drinking more water and also about walking the dog about three miles per day.Today, I did not, because it has been raining all day, but I am hoping that soon I shall. We did go to the Northbrook Court as I just found out that it is open for dogs as well as humans. Stewie was a bit taken aback by it, a bit too excited to the point of pulling the leash, but it is a keeper and next time when threatened, we are walking there.

I have been hankering to get outside and do things in the yard, but it is too darn cold. I want to start getting my citrus trees used to the outside, but it has been too cold.

The ants continue to annoy me, although most of our ant destinations have fizzled to either almost nothing or maybe one or two. One of the destinations has now found my homemade potion of water, sugar, and borax a real attraction and one that will hopefully decimate the colony. I have about twenty ants near our bookcase and they are enjoying their ‘last supper’ of borax laced sugar. I cannot wait to be done with that.

Our yard has never been so green. It looks amazing and the landscapers have been more attentive than in past years by putting peat moss on bald spots and seeding a bit. The floral display has been spectacular with the forsythia and a few daffodils still blooming. The tulips were mess up by deer or squirrels, though.

I cannot wait for spring.