@b-ross-ashley I saw where Toronto is to be under lockdown.  Truly, I hope it helps lessen the virus's spread greatly!  Y'all take care. 

Love all this Christmas talk--and photos, too!  

::A-hem:: Dr Fauci has no jurisdiction. Everybody North of the Lakes knows that the Canadian border in the Arctic extends right to the North Pole ... Santa even has a Canadian postal code. H0H 0H0.

Sounds to me like Mr. & Mrs. Claus are two very smart Christmas cookies. 

Belinda, what a tree!  I read in the news just today that Dr. Fauci says Santa is practically immune from Covid, so you must be relieved! 

https://people.com/human-interest/santa-claus-has-innate-immunity-from-covid-19-fauci-reveals/

I'm in your corner, Strumelia! We put our tree up last weekend... we need all the cheer we can get this year! And.... we're the Clauses, so it's never too early to put up a tree at the North Pole!

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Very nice, Lisa.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

That is lovely!

Here is how my 'cozy lights' over the kitchen table came out- we had our first dinner under a mini canopy of stars! 

Well there's much similarity to the 'cozy' traditions found in colder winter Scandinavian/Northern countries. They know how to really enjoy the comforts that can be had during the dark winter, such as candles, hot cocoa, wooly socks and knit sweaters, warm food and hearty soups, lap throws, saunas, snowshoeing, baking, etc. They are experts in warding off the winter doldrums!

We all have just a few short months of winter to get through before Spring and perhaps an end to this horrible time of virus suffering and social quarantining.

Good for you, Strumelia. Yes folks are decorating earlier this year. I think this is one thing that reminds us of normal, and it is something that is not limited by our sense of responsibility toward  others nor by governmental restriction.

The odd thing to me is the local media here seem to find it so surprising and out of character. If one thinks about it for just a moment it is not at all surprising. Indeed it is to be welcomed.

Hugs.

Sounds as if you may be less lonely than my lady and I in our little apartment in midtown Toronto, surrounded by people ... but as of Sunday midnight going back into lockdown. We have our holiday lights up already, keeping our living room window ablaze with twinkles.

Doesn't it look as though we may have some working vaccines after two or three more months? That is unbelievable and surely something to look forward to!
Just knowing that helps us face the next few dark cold dreary months.
Yes, our holiday season is going to be a bit different this year and maybe it will be hard to stay uplifted. Nowadays it's totally dark at 4pm.

I noticed the other night one of my neighbors... a lady who lives alone, had put up a whole bunch of twinkling colored Xmas lights in her window and on her front porch. It's still a week before Thanksgiving(!), but it struck me as so pretty and cozy. It inspired me to put up a few strands of twinkling lights myself!

I decided i would string some lights over our humble kitchen table nook where my husband and I eat all our meals. I have it in place now, and i can't wait til tonight to see how festive it looks when the sun goes down!  Maybe i'll post a picture here.
I did a little online looking and discovered that apparently there's a whole trend going on right now of people putting up holiday decorations early in order to feel cheerful and comforted despite the ongoing pandemic and the cold weather and short days setting in.
We won't be having a tree this year, and no family coming. But our little kitchen nook will be cheery for sure! 

Dusty, Great news about your wife's job from home!  There was a time when people begged to be allowed to do their office jobs (mostly computer work) from home and bosses said  No way!  Looks like a way has been found for many after all.  It's just too bad that it took a deadly pandemic to have that happen.

Dusty, things are getting like that all over this Fall. Most of the US is confronted by rising infection rates, and here in Canada we are too.

Good for your lady, that reduces the personal risk.

Keep smiling. keep playing.. we will get through this all together or not at all.

The good news: my wife started that new job this week, so now we're all working or going to school from home. Our tight little COVID circle is intact again.

The bad news: our county is moving backwards into a more restrictive set of COVID protocols (California has a 4-tiered, color-coded system).   It seems everyone gets serious about being careful and the infection rates go down, allowing us to move into a less restrictive tier.  Everyone celebrates and decides we're out of the woods, and then they get careless again, putting us back into a more restrictive tier.  

Dusty it makes me very happy to hear this wonderful news about your wife's new job.  Yaaaaaaay!! 

That is great news!  We've been tucked away working from home since March...with Waldo the Parrot and Sonja the Cockatiel.  It is unclear if--or when--we will return to outside office lives.  Fine with me...

A little bit of good news for us.  My wife is getting a new job that will allow her to work entirely from home.  Her current job only lets her work from home two days a week, and since I work from home and our daughter is doing high school virtually, my wife's job was the only exception to our otherwise tight, COVID-free lives.  She requested on numerous occasions to work from home, citing the number of people in the building who had been infected and complaining that too many co-workers were not following proper protocols, but they only gave her two days.  So she's leaving.  And getting a promotion, too.  Probably the happiest member of our family will be the dog, who will soon have the whole pack home every day, the way he thinks it ought to be.

Wow, this reminds me of how I felt upon my first post-COVID dental visit.  They had installed special air cleaners, implemented a number of precautions (including taking my temp and testing my O2) and put quite rigorous/extensive between-patient cleaning into place--and a lot more.  My longtime hygienist was clad in all manner of PPE.  On the one hand, I felt grateful they were taking so much care to protect me--and their staff.  On the other hand, I was heartbroken to see Niki decked out like something out of a sci-fi movie--just do do her job safely.  We had to do a socially distant air-hug instead of our usual post-cleaning hug.  She had to stay in the room to be sprayed down with a special fog, couldn't even walk/chat with me on the way to the front desk as usual.  

I feel the same about your story.  On the one hand, I am touched they put so much care into making the wedding safe for all. On the other hand, it breaks my heart that all this is necessary.

On yet another hand...I'm with Strumelia.  The Vegas mansion would not have been my cup of tea! :)  I'm not a big/loud crowd kind of person...

Dusty, I'd say the bride and groom put a lot of thought and consideration into their adapted wedding.  They did a great job and at least for me it would have been more fun than a mansion Las Vegas wedding.  Bingo and paint ballon art and individual food bags!     It does indeed sound memorable.  :D

Strange days indeed. I attended a COVID wedding yesterday. My brother-in-law got married to his long-time girlfriend.  The wedding was originally planned for Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas, and he had rented a huge mansion there where the wedding party and their close family and friends were going to stay.  Needless to say, those plans were canceled.

Instead, there was a short, social distancing ceremony with about 20 people involved at a park, and then we we went back to their backyard for a party of sorts. Everyone sat in family pods, so my wife, daughter and I had our own table.  There was no buffet or anything like that.  They had the event catered, with individual bags of food for each attendee.  Even the drinks were individualized.  My wife indicated on the questionnaire that I liked whiskey, so on our table was a whole bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey, just for me. (Don't worry, we took the bottle home after I barely made a dent in it.)   Also on each table was a bottle of hand sanitizer and a container of Lysol wipes.  I was expecting face masks displaying a picture of the newlyweds, but they didn't go that far.

There was no dancing or anything, but we played bingo and a few other contact-less games, including something where we each threw a balloon filled with paint at big canvas.  They are planning to put that paint-splattered, Jackson Pollock-like canvas in their living room.  Kind of a cool idea, though we left before seeing the final product.

In the end, it was nice but also strange. I'm sure we will remember the experience, which I guess is all you can ask of a wedding.

@don-grundy, there were a few small fires about 75 miles away, but they were easily put out.  Since I live in the Central Valley rather than the hills, the fires usually affect us less as a direct threat than by clouding our air with smoke.  I actually have a bunch of masks in the garage for when the air gets really bad.  Unfortunately, those are different masks than we need to halt the spread of viruses.  Perhaps I'll have to double up on the masks soon. Yikes!

@ken-longfield, the rolling blackouts have indeed affected a lot of people.  Luckily, our house is on the same little portion of the grid as a police station (and maybe a fire station, too), so we're exempt from those purposeful blackouts.

But folks along the coast, where it never gets above 80 are really suffering since their homes don't have adequate A/C.

I just read an article that questioned the rolling blackouts since although power usage was as high as expected, the state still had plenty of electricity in reserve.  The conclusion was that over the last several years since the last major heat wave, so many people have added solar panels to their homes that the drain on the grid is significantly less than it used to be. A sign of progress, I suppose.

I hope the rolling black outs don't cause your AC to go out or do you have a back up generator. Our son and his family live way south of you in Van Nuys and they've been having this heat as well. Stay cool inside and play dulcimer.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Well in the middle of this pandemic here on the west coast we're also dealing with a massive heat wave. The worst in about 75 years, I just heard. It will be over 100 for most of the day, even staying in the 90s well into the evening. I'm so grateful that we installed a new HVAC unit in May; I feel bad for all those folks with no air conditioning. At least the county lifted the water rationing restrictions so I can water the lawn more often than twice a week. But I don't think I'll be doing much work outside the next several days. 

Welcome back, @B-Ross-Ashley.  You might find that this time of quarantine is an opportunity to hunker down and play more music.  We have also found that the initial shortage of toilet paper and some basic food items is over and other than disinfectant wipes and sprays, nearly everything can be found in the markets again.  I guess I didn't need that 96-roll box of industrial toilet paper that I ordered when I panicked seeing the empty store shelves back in March and April!

Hey, @b-ross-ashley Ross-- good to see you again!  It's nice to hear you are going to pick up the dulcimer again.  I have found playing mountain dulcimer to be a balm to my spirit.  Take care.  

Hi, all, it has been a while since I poked my head in here ... Sandie and I are still alive, and living in the middle of the 4th largest city north of Mexico. I have not played much at all in the last while. Our community chorus scrubbed its season in March and we have only done the occasional online singing since. The COVID-19 pandemic has not hit us anywhere near as bad as it has our neighbours across the Lakes, but it has hit our elders in Long Term Care really hard, plus the personal care workers who look after them.
But I am back, and hope to pick up the dulcimer again! Glad to see the rest of you too.

Sandie and I mask up when venturing out, and I get out a lot more than she does. She is asthmatic. Masks are now required in indoors public spaces like malls, stores, etc. Bars and restaurants are now open only for outside service, patios etc. Pro sports are still on hold, and the federal government have decided not to allow our baseball team to play their home games here ... keeping cross-border travel to the essential minimum. Hockey may resume, with all games played in two Canadian cities, Edmonton and Toronto, no cross-border travel involved. I am wondering whether the same will happen with the Canadian Football League.

There were some shortages for a while, particularly TP and bakers' yeast! Since I use a bread machine that got to be a hassle for a while but it is coming back now. The Province is opening up gradually, much more slowly than some of your states are (I hope that is not too political, LOL).

Travel is difficult. I have an annual conference later this summer that is going to be online instead of in person because it is just not going to be possible to get to Ottawa safely. So it goes.

Stay safe, all!

Hats off to you Belinda, for becoming avid hikers with your husband!

I find it interesting how different people get creative in figuring out ways to get their exercise safely during the pandemic. We each gravitate towards types of exercise that suit both our current situation, our comfort level, and our individual personalities.

Sounds like a nice first outing, Don.  If you are outdoors and maintain social distancing, you are pretty safe.  My daughter and I went kayaing in a nearby lake last week. It was only a day trip, but it was so nice to get out and away from everything.  Neither the ducks nor the trout know anything about the COVID, and we forgot about it as well for a few hours.

Sounds like fun, Don

So sorry for the negative part of the change. It is a tough time. Just lots of care, hand washing and more hand washing and masks when around people.

Dusty, that's sounds very stressful for your family. I hope you manage to navigate this situation safely, it stinks that you have little control over it.

I suggest that you guys order several metal 'door openers' to keep with your keychains/purses/cars. They're a 'thing' now, Brian and I have them for when we have to go to stores or indoor places.  Creates less germ contamination when opening office doors, flushing toilets, pushing elevator buttons, pressing payment keypads, etc. They work for most but not all situations and are handy to have:

door openers

Well my wife moved to a new job this past week. During the interviews they said that she might have to do some of her training in person.  Now they've decided she will have to do all of her training in person and might not be able to work from home for a year.  This despite the governor's announcent that all state workers are supposed to work from home for the foreseeable future.  Very frustrating.  Even though she wears masks and sanitizes her desk every morning, she still has to use the elevator and the bathroom there.  Aargh!  Our house had been its own little quarantine bubble. Now that bubble is burst.

Yes, time is very weird.  We've been working from home since early March.  Seems like we've been doing it forever...yet it seems like we just started.  I read somewhere the reason for this is the sameness, we're not having events in our lives so much that make marks on time.  Can't plan anything, really, so it feels like a permanent hold pattern.  Super strange.

Here in NY i believe masks are required inside any food markets.  The big supermarket told me they had to hire a guard at the front door to make sure all customers were wearing masks when entering. (I'm glad about that!)  Keep in mind that NY was very hard hit by the virus except in the outlying rural areas.

Still rare to find toilet paper, paper towels and tissues here in my area... and thankfully they have limits per customer.

I found a great market for fresh meat and produce that I like to go to now.  But since I'm pretty stocked up, I only need to get random supplies once every 10 days or so, and i freeze some bread and meat when i have a little space.

There is absolutely NO rubbing alcohol, Chlorox wipes, or hand sanitizer to be found here in the stores yet. Not even hydrogen perozide! Even jugs of laundry bleach are sparse on the shelf.
Luckily I still have enough disinfecting supplies that I bought several months ago.   Since i don't venture out very often, thankfully I'm not going through it as rapidly as I feared.  By the time I run out of disinfecting/safety items hopefully it will all be available again.   :)

I have tons of lettuce in my garden right now at its peak.  There are several friends of ours who come by and pick up a big bag that I set out for them. Sometimes they stop to chat for a while- we put our lawn chairs out on the lawn 12 feet far apart so we can sit and visit when they come by.  Fun!  In a couple more weeks my mature lettuce will bolt need to be pulled out and reseeded. Lettuce struggles a bit with the Summer heat though, so it's at its best for me in the Spring and Fall. 
Now with the temps rising, the string beans are loving it.  I have two types growing- both are very slim and French, so they don't get fat and tough like the Blue Lake types i used to grow.  I have Tenderette green which are truly tender and I've grown for several years, and also Velour- which is similar slender but dark velvet purple. It looks gorgeous raw, but does turn dark green when cooked.

I'm finding the passage of time has become deceptive during the covid times.  We've been staying isolated at home for 3 1/2 months now. In some ways it feels like an eternity ...but in other ways it seems to have passed in a flash.  Weird.  Other people must be experiencing similar things?

Only in the last couple of weeks has toilet paper shown up regularly on supermarket shelves. But only in small packages of 4-8 rolls.   And perhaps about a month ago eggs and meat became once again a regular find.  It was certainly nerve wracking to walk through a supermarket and see so many empty ailes.  Still hard to find Lysol or Chlorox wipes or rubbing alcohol, but hand sanitizers are available again.

The governor has lifted most restrictions here and left it up to county officials to determine what activities will be permitted. In the county where the music shop is where I teach, group gatherings are still forbidden, but private lessons are now allowed.  I was relieved, though, to hear that none of my students feel comfortable returning to in-person lessons yet.  The lesson room we use is tiny and does not have great ventilation.  If we could meet outdoors, or in a larger space we would all feel more comfortable. One of my students has decided she actually prefers Zoom lessons, saying that not having to worry about gathering her stuff and drive to the music shop enables her to concentrate more just on the music.  Interesting.

Our TP shortage was over by the end of March.  In my area (Lexington, KY), people are pretty good about wearing masks in public.  My husband (who does all the shopping) says MOST of the people in the grocery stores--and Wal-Mart and Lowes--are wearing masks, which is not required, but is strongly recommended.  

FABULOUS write up Strumelia.    just loved all of it.   thank you for putting a possitive spin on this while time in American History, for that matter, world history.   Getting back to just the smallest of trivials....the vanilla bottle leaking and all gone when you went to get it.   aloha, irene

Putting aside for a moment the deadly seriousness of how covid-19 has terribly effected us all in one way or another, some folks more directly and severely than others...losing jobs, loved ones, lives.

I think this horrible crisis has also caused us to deeply appreciate some of the little things we used to take for granted. Like even just being able to go to the store to pick up eggs or toilet paper. Not to waste things.

If I look at one small positive thing my home isolation period has done for me, I'd have to say it has made me both a better gardener and a better cook.  In both those areas of my life i've become more resourceful in finding ways to use and get the most out of what i have, in order to get results.

I wound up growing seedlings in paper milk cartons cut in half, and in empty egg cartons, with a plain 60W garage shop light hanging overhead and Saran wrap spread over to germinate, using dirt simply dug from the yard. Didn't buy any 'starter trays', peat pots, fertilizer, or bags of potting soil. I only ordered seed, which came in the mail. I was surprised to find that much of my remaining old 2019 seeds which sat in the shed for a year still germinated by about 60%. Two months later, we're now getting lots of salads from the garden, and I've been able to give fresh bags of lettuce to some older friends as well.

I learned about food substitutions to use in a pinch when i didn't have a certain ingredient. I've gotten better at throwing together meals from odds and ends pantry items. Some items are scarce to get, so I adjust meal plans around when/if I get them. 
I've developed more patience and willingness to tackle more 'from scratch' baking recipes that I previously would have dismissed as being too much work. I've also settled into the routine of making home made yogurt that we now eat all the time.

Vanilla.  In our house, our bottle of pure vanilla extract has taken on Goddess status.  When the quarantine started, early on I got flour, sugar, baking powder, etc, and figured I was ok for baking treats for a while.  I knew I had recently bought a bottle of vanilla which was in the back of the spice cupboard. Well, two weeks later when I went to bake cookies, I found that vanilla bottle had been knocked over months before and had slowly leaked until it was... empty.   So sad!
    To my dismay I found all my local stores were by that time all OUT of most baking supplies like flour, yeast, brown sugar, and... vanilla !  So I ordered a very overpriced but pure Madagasgar 8oz bottle online. The shipping date was three weeks away. Finally a month after ordering,  the vanilla arrived in the mail (i had enjoyed envisioning our treasure bottle slowly sailing on a pirate ship, bobbing over the ocean waves from distant islands to us). The aroma when i opened that bottle was otherworldly divine.  I never appreciated vanilla so much as now, and I treat that bottle like the crown jewels when I reach for it. 

BTW here where I am I went to the regular supermarket a few days ago, and in the huge entire toilet paper/paper towels aisle, there was just ONE lonely little 4pack of toilet paper. And big signs saying TP/papertowels/tissue "LIMIT ONE package per customer". I left that package for someone else who was maybe more in need than I.  Is anyone else still finding TP and paper towels completely out of stock in stores still, after like three months now?  I find it a little bizarre that tp supply still has not caught up with demand, after all this time.

Dusty

I have a GT-1 Boss sound processor, it's design for guitars but works well with a dulcimer. Dan Evans did a Demo of 'The Water is Wide' several years ago & I just loved the idea of creating a certain sound for a song.  He was kind to give me some pointers on getting started.

I have one dulcimer set up to use with the GT-1. My other dulcimers, I don't use anything with them. The group I am with, has been sending out a  song 'challenge' during  the quarantine - twice a week with new songs to practice - There was one in a Minor key & no matter how I tried to play it, I just didn't like the tone. So, I created a musical tone on the GT-1   - "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent"  I think you could have fun with a GT-1 and come up with some interesting sounds.

Strumelia,

Thank you, besides playing out on the back patio in the evening's for the neighbors - I did try to give the boxes a new look for anyone who happen to walk around the pond. With so many of us staying @ home, many more neighbors had time to come out.

Music isn't on lockdown and it has brighten many people's spirit, I am so glad I have the dulcimer to bring me peace & joy.

Marg, I'm so impressed by the beautiful painting you did on that utility box.

Marg, how did you get that organ sound?  That's pretty cool.

And that heron looks fantastic.  I wish you were beautifying my neighborhood.

I was posting dulcimer music to FB & sending out to family & friends, 1 song a week as a hug. The first one 'Abide with me' with an organ sound I created for the first Sunday churches were closed.   

I am also painting some of the the rusty utility electric boxes around the pond behind my home. this is the first one I did & I just finished my 8th

Heron 1.pdf  •  496KB

Interestingly, over the past 2 weeks I've had three people whom I had never met contact me to take online dulcimer lessons.  None of them are within 2 hours of me, and one is in another state.  Perhaps people are becoming more comfortable with distance technology or perhaps people are just deciding that they might as well learn an instrument while sheltering at home.  I don't know the reasons, but it's nice to be able to share music at this time.

@Cindy-Stammich, we've been buying groceries for my mother-in-law, too.  She tells us what she needs and we leave it outside her door.  Once or twice, just to get out of the house, she has driven over to our place for the pickup, and yes, it is so hard not to hug her, but she is so vulnerable that I would never forgive myself if she got sick because we were careless in our contact with her.  I want her to be around when we get a vaccine, or enough tests for everyone, or however this ends.

Thank you Lisa!  I know my mom would disagree with me, but when I say the blessing is all mine....

i truly feel that way!

Cindy that's great that you are able to support and help your mother this way.

My uncle was 95 when he passed away this past December, and all the way until his last year or two, he and my aunt took a one or two mile walk every day.  A great way to stay active for older folks especially!  They always called it their 'hike' even after it had slowed way down as they got older.   :)

I have been working from home (a real challenge - and I don't even have kids under foot).  Early Tuesday mornings I do our grocery shopping as well as my mom's.  I deliver her groceries (only to the front porch).  Then we walk.  It's amazing that we haven't missed a walk in all the weeks we have been doing this!  She is 87 and still walks a mile every day!  The hardest part is leaving without a hug!

When the weather's been nice, I've taken my 1.8 mile walk around the neighborhood, brisk, with walking sticks for upper body movement (otherwise, I use the elliptical downstairs).  While there have been other people walking around, it's not been a mob, and everyone's been good about stepping aside or even crossing to the other side of the street to make space.  However.  We have some neighbors across a creek/crevasse from us who were having a big loud party over the weekend with a bunch of people.  Somehow I doubt they were social distancing, from the sound of it.  And yesterday, I took the afternoon off from work to sit on the deck (was my birthday, after all), and I could hear a bunch of screaming kids (sounded like they were mixing together, not from a single family) out playing, then creeping down into the crevasse, which was either actual or very close to trespass onto our property.  Some people...

Dusty, the jam with your friends sounds like a lot of fun and that's not something we're allowed to do, yet.  ALL of our parks, playgrounds, state and national parks, arboretums, natural historic sites, etc. are closed.  When you see people out of their houses, they tend to be in their own yard (no other people allowed) or walking down the street/sidewalk.  The one big "park" they haven't closed is the city's cemetery--that's always been a go-to spot for walking, bird-watching, and nature observing in general.  It's a couple hundred years old, so there's lots of history to enjoy there, too.  For the most part, the majority of people are following the restrictions as best they can.  I'm really hoping that we'll be able to open up more businesses in the next 2-4 weeks, so more people in certain jobs can get back to work.

Dusty I guess if/when we get those old fashioned in-person things back again, we'll appreciate and savor them so much more. FWIW, I think your 10 foot distance with masks was smart behavior.

On another note, I tried a different chocolate chip cookie recipe out today, since my last attempt came out disappointingly mediocre, and were a bit of work.  Strangely, this new recipe was way easier to make (no chilling of dough) and the results were incredibly good:
https://www.thewholesomedish.com/the-best-easy-chocolate-chip-cookies/
I should mention that I changed a couple things: -->unfortunately I had no vanilla (it's coming in two weeks) so i left that out. -->I first browned the butter as opposed to simply melting it (giving it a subtle caramel flavor), ...and -->I reduced the choc chips to 1.5 cups instead of two cups, since I wanted to conserve our precious chocolate and i don't care for cookies that are practically solid chips anyway.  Oh, and --> I used Ghiardelli Dark chocolate chips, which is an amazing chip. 

Man, these cookies are out of this world good!  (or as my mother used to say "OTW!"...lol)  You can taste the caramel-y browned butter flavor.  It yielded a generous 38 cookies of 3" diameter.  I'm glad i reduced the chips, because they came out perfect with plentiful melty chips.
Brian said this was called "stress baking".  Ok, whatever.    He also said they were the best cookies ever.  He almost went ballistic when he saw the price of chocolate chips nowadays- we had to order them on Amaz, since baking supplies are a little scarce right now. But now he has 'seen the light' for having the ingredients for cookies. My stress baking alleviated some stress for both of us.

It's crazy that parents would let their kids run around with other kids, as though there were no social consquences to those kinds of interactions.  Some people just don't get it.  I've been going for a short (and slow) 3-mile jog with my daughter most days.  We jog to a large park and in the park do indeed see other people out and about.  But for the most part people are respectful about keeping their distances.  When other joggers approach from different directions they both move off to the side to ensure sufficient distance between them.

On Sunday my neighbors invited me to play music with them in their front yard.  I brought my own chair and my own water. We sat about 10 feet apart and even wore masks.   We did talk about the fact that since we were far enough apart the masks weren't necessary, but we wanted to model behavior for our kids.  It was fun, and my first real (in-person) interactions with non family members, although it was hard to hear the vocals underneath the masks.  We did a few John Prine songs for obvious reasons, an old Ray Price tune to which Ian & Sylvia Tyson added some French lyrics, and one of my favorite Iris DeMent tunes, "Sweet is the Melody."  It was fun, but also sad.  Barbeque season is starting and we won't be able to have those neighborhood parties with people grilling food, kids running around, people grabbing ice-cold beer out of coolers, a handful of musicians keeping the melodies floating around, horseshoes, water balloons, and watermelon seed spitting contests.  Now I'm getting nostalgic for the innocent pre-virus days.  It's hard to hug people when you meet in Zoom. In fact, that last sentiment is a line in the DeMent tune I just mentioned: "An arm's just an arm 'til it's wrapped 'round a shoulder."

Finding places to exercise outside.
My husband and I used to drive to our county fairgrounds to do fitness walks for the first few weeks of covid isolation.  It's open to the public and much like a pleasant park when the fair is not on, with asphalt paths everywhere.  It was a great place to walk and not get close to people! In pre-virus times we used to sit and eat ice cream cones there.

Unfortunately, it's now become crowded, with everyone in town now having 'discovered' it for exercise and for getting out of the house and socializing. Very hard to stay far from others. No matter what time or day we go there, the paths and even the grassy areas are sprinkled everywhere with little kids on bikes, dog walkers, moms with strollers, joggers, roller bladers, and walkers. People tend to just whiz right by you at close range. It amazes us to also see groups of moms with babies, standing like 4 feet from each other yakking away, no masks, while their kids are all randomly running around them and playing together, touching. These are not just one family. Yikes, I want to stay well away from them!  The fairgrounds became too stressful for us to walk there.

Anyway, we tried walking on a lovely country dirt road yesterday just out of town, but again people were jogging, biking, dog walking, and even standing around in the middle of the road talking and socializing. Meandering all over the road so it was hard to avoid them when you pass by.  :(

So we are going for fitness walks now at the high school.  We look over the situation when we get there and choose one of four large outdoor loops we could walk without bumping into groups of people:  looping around the softball field (in the grass), around the circumference of the football field, around the huge parking lot, or going around the running track. Making several loops around any of these gives us our 2 mile goal.  I wear my pedometer so I can keep track of our distance no matter where we walk.  So far so good, there's always at least one of these four choices that has nobody there at all.  :)

Funny how we have to plan such elaborate strategies now just to go for a walk and feel safe.  But we have various choices... I really feel for people in the cities who have few choices. How do they manage to exercise safely now that all the gyms are closed?

There's a lot to be said for those generic lovely blank cards, Dusty. This sounds terrible, but the last time i bought a sympathy card, I bought like four of them so I could avoid the ordeal of picking one out the next few times someone I know passes away.
As we get older, more people we know pass away and this was true in general, long before Covid19 times.  Having some pretty cards with blank inside just makes sense.  I have some with Japanese paintings of birds and branches.

Jan, I'm glad your test came back negative. At least there's that.  It really seems like your friend is in a tough spot.  As for cards, I honestly find it so time-consuming to pick out a pre-written card that's right (male cousin, mother-in-law, step-grandson, ARGH!, then Valentine's Day, Birthday, Get Well, Condolances,  ARGH!) that I just have a collection of cards with pretty phogrphas (close-ups of flowers, a peacock's feathers, autumn leaves reflecting on a lake, etc) and nothing written inside.  I prefer those to the pre-printed ones that try to idenitfiy the event and the relationship of the recipient.

Jan that's very sad about your friend. I assume you've been phoning or writing/emailing to her? Very dismal, but it's good she has someone like you who touches base with her.

Our banks and pharmacies are closed, but you can use their drive-throughs. You can make an appt or order if you need something or service in particular, but you can't just walk in anymore. Maybe I can make a potato stamp card to send to my friends if I need to!  And then eat the potato of course, because no wasting.   ;)

I am glad your covid test came back negative Jan!

After not leaving the house in the past 6 weeks, except for medical issues that couldn't wait, my "errands list" had really grown!  My husband, Craig, does the runs to the grocery store and hardware store; most everything else is handled online. Today, with the sun shining and temps in the mid-50's, it was so great to take an hour, drive through streets with flowers and trees in bloom, take take of business at the bank and pharmacy, use curbside pick-ups at a store and a restaurant. 

I went inside at the pharmacy and was glad to see there were only 3 people inside, so it was easy to practice social distancing.  I was there to select a birthday card for someone I love very much who is very sick at home, totally dependent on the goodness of the few people she knows who have any extra funds to help her and her child survive this.  This is someone who has fallen through the cracks of our society, been wrapped in miles of red tape, and left to fend for herself. She and her daughter have both tested negative for COVID-19, but are ill with other conditions.  The mother, herself, is on-hold for 3 operations that are greatly needed, but cannot be done at this time.  She's battling cancer--and not for the first time.  She's had severe back injuries from both car accidents and other bodily trauma. She's working on her third appeal to be declared disabled; so far, she's gotten nowhere with that.  No food stamps.  No unemployment payments.  No government help with rent or bills.  The list of rejections goes on and on.  And she's one of the nicest persons I know. 

So how do you find a birthday card for that?  Nothing sexy or off-color--or just plain wacky or stupid.  Nothing for a "wonderful daughter" or niece or sister.  No point in wishing her a day full of friends, family, food, and fun.  She's not going to have a "fun day"...if she keeps down some food and gets some sleep it will be a "good day".  There are no wonderful bright days in her immediate future; survival is about the best she can hope for; she has a deep faith that is helping her with that. 

I was finally able to find a very pretty card that did not refer to any relational connection.  A card that expressed love, asked God to bless her, and said how pleased I was with the person she had grown up to be--words that I echoed in my own handwriting along with the hearts, X's and O's I placed near the bottom where I signed my name. There will be no visitors, nothing special to mark her birthday on Sunday--unless my card gets there by Saturday!  I have not been well enough to travel the 100 miles to her home, although I finally tested negative for COVID-19 this week, as well!

So this is my reality.  And hers.  And although neither of us is actively ill with the coronavirus, it has impacted our lives.  I am grateful to not be needed on the front lines with healthcare providers, funeral directors, ambulance drivers, truckers, grocery store employees and all the many others who are working so hard to keep us healthy and alive.  But my heart aches for a mother celebrating her 42nd birthday so close to death, knowing she can't provide for herself or her child, and wondering what these next few years will bring, if she manages to survive these present crises.

Feeling so grateful to the two little stores in my town that are offering contact-free curbside pickup of groceries.  Feeling sooo grateful to have been able to go pick up some fresh milk, apples, eggs, and produce today without having had to navigate a crowded supermarket.

One of the 1/2 gallons of milk i got today is earmarked for me to make it into yogurt tomorrow. I've enjoyed learning that new skill and I love the resulting yogurt I've made so far. It really helps my digestion when i eat a little yogurt every day. My fave is to chop some apple into a 1/2 cup of yogurt, and throw on a handful of granola and nuts, maybe a couple of chopped dates or raisins... and then drizzle honey on it before eating. To me that's a Heavenly meal. 

Yesterday I made some chocolate chip cookies from scratch, which I haven't done in years.  I lacked the vanilla, used the last of my brown sugar, and had to ration the choc chips down to three per cookie   but they came out well enough and taste good- satisfying our sweet cravings.  We figured out that if we each eat only three cookies per day, they'll last us three whole days. Oh boy!

I had a funny thought today, inspired by how giddy i was when I got home with fresh apples and such.  I'm imagining a Christmas 2020 where it'll be like a throwback to the 1880s again- with little children being thrilled to find an orange or tangerine in their Christmas stockings.    Not bloody likely, but the thought made me laugh.

Here in my little corner of the UK the sun is shining, the birds are somehow louder and more melodic and the Red Kites wheel about in the skies. There are no planes above and little traffic passing. The air, even in this rural area, is noticeably sweeter. This is how it used to be, back in the days before fossil fuels when, of course, they had plagues and pandemics! It’s hard not to get dragged down by the daily death toll and threats of economic disaster, but there is also a wealth of selfless heroism and much kindness between people. I hope we don’t forget that, once this has passed. I felt guilty that I was not contributing more ( waiting to be called back in), but having cleaned, decorated and gardened myself half to death, I finally picked up my dulcimer and guitar again. What a blessing! My teenage son, unable to go to school, has no such qualms, playing guitar for hours each day. Man, can he play! <snip> Stay safe everyone, this nightmare will pass.

Funny song, Lois!

Amidst all the horrific news of increasing infections and increasing mortality, it is indeed heartwarming everyday to see people looking out for one another, a testament to the caring nature of the human spirit.

I braved the grocery store today for the first time in a couple of weeks and was so glad to see the shelves filled with eggs, meat, and bread.  Those three items had been hard to get for about a month, so maybe the panicked buying (that was causing me to panic) has subsided. 

Strumelia, I've found that living in my small town it is the same.   I'm so grateful to live here.  Someone heard we were out of firewood and brought over a big bunch and we're more then warmed by it.  and Lois, what a crack up of a song.   THANKS.   aloha, irene

I like that in my small town, people seem to be checking on each other more.  I'm 65, but I've phoned my next door neighbor a couple of times now- she's a widow who's 80. I've been in touch via text with my neighbors across the street (two public school teachers now teaching online). Then just this morning the owner of one of the cafes in town (around aged 50) emailed me asking if my husband and I are ok. It warmed my heart. 

I've  been testing my very beginning skills of arranging with Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" when this parody I call 50 Ways to Beat Corona came my way.  It's by Marge Bailey as the Sweet Adelines are sharing humor.

Stay away from the pack, Jack
Don't visit your Gran, Stan
Wipe down the toys, Roy
To keep virus free.

Don't hop on the bus, Gus
Don't listen to Don, Ron
Don't hoard the TP, Lee
Just stay virus free

Sneeze in your sleeve, Steve
Don't touch your face, Grace
Keep back to 6 feet, Pete
Heed CDC

Use the Purell, Mel
Keep wipes in your purse, Nurse
Take care of your flock, Doc
You need PPE

This isn't Spring Break, Jake
Stay home if you're sick, Dick
As COID leaps, Peep
Just Follow the rules, Flo
And stay virus free.

A bit more about my own efforts is that the version I'm working with is clearly for guitar. SMN lets me figure out melody & chords.
It's still clunky, definitely gives me a project (in addition to the MobileSheets one mentioned elsewhere.)

@Lois-Sprengnether-Keel, feel free to contact me directly for questions about the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering. We are on the verge of officially announcing the virtual version, and when that happens I'll update the event listing here .  The original plan for the virtual event was to do all the same workshops.  We're working on revising things (and reducing the price) for on online gathering, so check back with me later on and I should have more definitive information.

I think the hammered dulcimer workshop was only on Sunday and everything on Saturday is for the mountain dulcimer. 

@dusty-turtle

Looking forward to seeing the update on the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering!  I just went to the online description of workshops & am impressed!  That's what really grabs me in a program. 

BTW I saw some things about hammered dulcimer, now I don't care to get hammered, but have at least one friend who would probably be interested.  Could the descriptions make it clearer which are for us Mad Dulcimer players vs. THEM!?!?

You're right about it letting people join who could never make it in person.

It's too bad so many dulcimer festivals and concerts are getting canceled.  We are going to try to do the Berkeley Dulcimer Gathering entirely online.  Let's see how that goes. That bad part is that we won't be able to all gather together.  The good part is that people from around the world could join. Maybe it will be a new way to get together that we'll want to continue even when sheltering in place is no longer necessary.

The Berea Traditional Dulcimore Gathering has just been cancelled due to the COVID-19 bug.....now I feel like I'm all dressed (or, should it be dulcimore'd) up with no place to go!

But... super short bangs are so ... French!