State of Emergency Post 6

There are two types of Canadians; those who hoard and those who do the best they can with what they have right now.

At the end of the pandemic, those who hoarded will be surrounded by empty toilet paper rolls, while those who did the best they could with what they have will be surrounded by communities who love and admire them, not just for what they did, but more so for being the people they are.

Betty told me that this morning over tea, and it seems like some good advice to pass along to all of those people who are struggling to get by this week. For a teapot, Betty is really, really wise.

This morning I could feel myself getting more than a little angry at the selfish people who are hanging out in crowds and failing to consider the elderly, the sick and the healthcare workers who are most vulnerable at this time.

I asked Betty how she can stay so calm during all the stress and she gave me this little tip she learned from her friend Kerry.

She said Kerry is really good at managing her emotions. Any time Kerry feels herself about to boil over, she stops everything immediately. She simply shuts off, cools down and refuses to burn someone else by spreading anger, negativity and frustration.

Kerry the kettle joined Betty and me for our afternoon tea break. She is a great coach and demonstrated very effectively how to simply shut off if you’re about to boil over. It’s amazing the things you can learn from your small appliances during a difficult time.

I practised Kerry’s technique of simply shutting down before passing my frustration on to others. Boy was her advice timely!

Carmelle issued her amendments to the roommate agreement this afternoon. I asked Carmelle how she managed to type up the agreement, and she explained that she had been taking online keyboarding lessons from one of the home-school moms.

I’ve fallen asleep the past few nights watching Barney Miller episodes on YouTube, so my computer was left open. While I was sleeping, she was studying. “Night school” classes she called them. Apparently she is learning French too and is excelling in that class as you might expect.

When I saw how thick the agreement, was I was about to boil over. Carmelle used almost my whole supply of printer paper. It will only be a few days before I need to start writing on other materials. This made me really angry, but I remembered Kerry’s advice and cooled off by shutting down.

I’m not exactly sure what the agreement says. I didn’t even bother to read it. I just decided to “Accept and Agree” like I do too frequently with those online agreements. I know this is a dangerous digital practice. In this case though, my motivation for accepting Carmelle’s terms was motivated by genuine love. I could not imagine anything I wouldn’t do for my cats.

I hope that all of you have someone you are willing accept unconditionally, someone who is inspiring you to go the extra mile at this time. If you do, consider yourself very blessed to have that creature in your life and try not to let your frustrations boil over on them.

By the way, in the photo you can see my new friend Kerry the Kettle.

The photos of Carmelle show her when she first presented the agreement to me. (Her confident expression shows she knew I’d accept it.) The other one shows her demonstrating finger stretching exercises the home-school mom taught in the keyboarding tutorial. I hope that all of you who find yourself bored or with extra time on your hands are considering the extra skills you can learn at this time.

State of Emergency Post 5

• I’m losing track of time. I keep getting an error message from my computer saying “your clock is behind.” For fun I reset it to a random time and date. That might have been a mistake. March 17, 2020 was my first day working from home. Can someone please let me know how many months I’ve been locked inside with my cats? Are we still in 2020? I might have messed up the universe by resetting the date. Life is starting to feel like an H.G. Wells novel. It occurred to me recently one of the home-schooled kids might have been bright enough to build a time machine. Maybe we are experiencing the effects. Things are really different now. People are sitting down for dinner together, stores are closing on Sundays, and today families were gathered in their living rooms listening to the radio. It’s starting to feel like the 1930s or 40s. Somehow this is comforting. This morning the local radio station, 106.5 Moose FM, broadcast Mass from Barry’s Bay. This gives me some reassurance that today is Sunday; I’m just not sure about the month and year. If you want to tune in, next week, you can do so online or through the Radio Player Canada app. It will air 11:00 Eastern time. I feel it’s necessary to give you folks reading across Canada some reassurance that Barry’s Bay Ontario is a real place. It’s about 23 minutes from Palmer Rapids where I live with Betty and the cats. Combermere is midway between Barry’s Bay and Palmer Rapids. Combermere is the where Madonna House is located. If you’re feeling a little stressed these days, you might want to get the free e-book that Madonna House is offering until April 12. I'll leave a link to it and to the radio station in the comments. My Facebook profile says Combermere because Palmer is so small that Facebook doesn’t even recognize it as a location. I can assure you though it really does exist, and this is truly the way life is here right now. Canadians are strange. Many believe that Dog River exists, but some are questioning if Palmer Rapids is a real place. Maybe checking out the links will help give you proof. Today feels very relaxing, like a Sunday should be. I just had cinnamon toast and tea with Betty. By the way she says to say hello. If you’re running out of jam, a bit of cinnamon and sugar on toast is a delightful treat. I’m glad today feels so relaxing. Yesterday was VERY stressful. The tension between Carmelle and I hit a new level. Many of you have been getting those Covid19 messages from companies explaining how their policies and procedures have changed due to the pandemic. Yesterday Carmelle issued her own Covid19 update. It states there will be changes to roommate agreement. Prior to the pandemic, I had been trying to sharpen my negotiating skills by watching Chris Voss videos. When Carmelle issued her statement, I felt it was a good opportunity to practice the negotiating tips Chris Voss suggested. Apparently they don’t work on cats. The photos show Carmelle at various points during the talks. They say communication is 97% about body language. As you can see the negations did NOT go well. I’m going to try to stay calm today and hope that all of you do too. It’s best to take things one day at a time. I'll give you an update tomorrow on the revisions to the roommate agreement. Please pray it goes well. These are difficult times and we all have to pray for each other.

  Edit

MARCH 21

State of Emergency Post 4

I feel so inadequate. Several days into the state of emergency many Canadians are still in denial of the seriousness of the situation. Meanwhile the home schooling moms are making us all look bad.

They were the only ones prepared for this pandemic. Within the first hour of the state of emergency being declared their kids were all live streaming concerts from their living rooms. They all look like the Von Trapp Family Singers.

Not only have all of their kids memorized the entire sound track from The Sound of Music their kids are singing along with the Italians. They know all of the Italian opera arias.

Why wouldn't they? These kids all speak six languages.

An hour later home school families were teaching the nation. These moms were sharing online educational resources for panicked parents, all of which they just happened to have on hand.

Meanwhile I was still trying to figure out how to upload a photo to Facebook from my phone.

I figured it out now thanks to a tutorial posted by a home school mom. In searching for it I discovered several of these moms are giving science lectures aimed at developing a vaccine for Covid19. Their prospects look promising.

Several of them have set up labs in their kitchens where prior to the pandemic they used to make soap and homemade bread.

Is there nothing these women can't do?

Their biggest problem is consoling their kids who are upset about not being able to get to church this week.

I'm posting this video for all of the regular moms out there whose kids are fighting more because of the stress. I don't even have kids but the only two creatures I'm responsible for are still fighting. I have some idea of what you're going through.

I know some home school mom is going to send me a link to online spelling and punctuation classes after posting this. Just bear in mind I'm typing this on my phone in my shed where the light is not very good.

This video shows my cats Carmelle and Tubby Washington. Pay careful attention to the two dots under the blanket. Those are Tubby' s eyes.

Whether you're a wonder woman home schooling mom or a regular old mom just trying to keep your kids from killing each other, keep the faith. Your kids need you now more than ever. This too shall pass.

State of Emergency Post 3

I look like hell. My hands have been washed every 8 to 12 minutes for the last three weeks but this morning I realized I had completely forgotten about the rest of my body. It has been days since my hair was washed.

Do you remember what Tom Hanks looked like in Castaway? Remember the movie where his only companion is a volley ball called Wilson? My hair looks like Tom Hanks’ did, maybe a little worse.

The good news is I’m not yet talking to a volley ball. It will be a long time before that happens. I won’t need to talk to a volleyball because now I have Betty.

Betty is my tea pot. Brown Betty is a welcome relief from conversations with Carmelle, who by the way is doing fine. As you can see from the photo she is out of isolation and hanging around the kitchen with me and Betty.

I snuck back in the house this afternoon from the shed and worked part of the day from the kitchen table. It was snowing here in Ontario today and I was freezing in the shed. Every time Carmelle brought up the roommate agreement I gave her a treat and changed the subject. For today at least that strategy has worked.

The picture also shows one of my many geraniums. The folks in various gardening groups have been most gracious sharing these stories of my survival, and I hope that all of their plants are doing well.

While these posts may be a little off topic for some groups, you are indeed helping a fellow gardener and her cats by sharing them. Hopefully you are also helping people who need a little humour in their lives these days. Laughter is the best medicine.

Maybe even someone who isn’t taking the virus serious will start to do so by considering how many lives are being affected, and not just human lives, but the lives of cats too.

By the way, Carmelle says thanks for all of the praise that you cat lovers have been lavishing on her. She also asked me to share a message from her. She dictated it and I wrote it out for you. It’s in the second photo.

But let’s get back to Betty. She came over for tea today and we had a great time. Well she didn’t really come over for tea. I made a pot of Earl Grey and that’s when the hallucinations started happening. It was just so nice to have someone other than a cat to talk to. I’m normally a coffee drinker, but since I’m rationing my coffee supply, Betty will be a bigger part of my life than normal. I'm glad I'm getting to know her better.

When this whole thing is over, Betty and I are going to celebrate. On the first available Saturday night, we’re inviting Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, and Johnny Walker for a party in the shed. I really miss talking to men. Sure Betty and the cats are great but they’re all female.

For many years I was a yacht broker in Vancouver, back then, wealthy men used to send me photos of their yachts. Now quarantined women send me photos of their cats. I’ve made some bad choices in life and now I’m reaping the consequences.

While I appreciate all of the support the cat ladies have been giving. I just really had no idea there were so many of you. Thank you for all of the many photos of your own cats. Thank you also for staying indoors.

If any of you happen to know men with boats please let them know I’d love to see photo of a yacht. I’d even settle for photo of an old fish boat. Frankly a canoe or even a kayak would do. I just need proof that men and their boats still exist. My biggest fear is that the world population now consists only of cat ladies and the felines who control them..Please just one boat photo, beg you!