Oh, What Do You Do in the Quarantine, When All the World is Closed?

Sometime during the Covid-19 quarantine, I saw this t-shirt and just had to have it.  This is exactly what I expected I would do during a quarantine.  What could be better for an introvert like me than an excuse to stay at home and read books???  And I tried.  I really did.  And I certainly had the time.  There was a period of about 8 weeks when I barely left the house.  Simply sitting outside for awhile during the day was a big deal, it seemed. 

Our church has a song our children sing that goes, "Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green? Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by? [Chorus] Is that what you do? So do I!"  (I can't find a vocal version, but here is a piano version for your listening pleasure.). Throughout this quarantine, this song has been running through my head, with the words changed rather slightly.  My version goes like this, "Oh, What Do You Do in the Quarantine, When All the World is Closed?  Do you cover your face, and stare into space, and wish you could socialize?  Is that what you do?  So do I."  Sorry.  Sometimes I just have to get these things out of my head.

I am an avid reader.  I read all the time.  During the first 10 weeks of 2020, I read 22 books.  (I keep track of my reading on Instagram.). During the quarantine, you would have thought I would have read at least a book a day.  Certainly several each week.  But no.

Since the quarantine started, I have only "read" 4 books, and 3 of those were audio books.  All but one were long-time favorites.  I must have started a dozen or more books, read the first chapter, or maybe two, and put it aside.  It seemed that nothing could hold my interest, which is very unusual.  A response to the world situation?  Probably.  I've heard that others are having this issue too, which makes me feel somewhat better.

I didn't binge on Netflix either.  I watched all the Harry Potter movies early on.  They were on my list for Spring Break before there was a quarantine.  I watched The Fellowship of the Ring (but not  the others in the series,) the Patty Duke version of The Miracle Worker (I really have no idea why,) and the Disney version of A Wrinkle in Time.  It was this movie that got me listening to audio books at least.  I hated it.  I was so mad that they had changed the story so much from the book, that I just had to see if I remembered the story correctly.  I did. 

I had planned to teach A Wrinkle in Time this quarter, but of course that didn't happen.  I hadn't seen the Disney version of the movie before.  When I teach a book that has a movie, I like to have students discuss what was different.  Some differences are caused simply by time - every page in the book is a minute on the screen, they say, and most audiences today aren't going to sit through a 4-6 hour movie.  Those days are gone.  But Disney's A Wrinkle in Time is an example of filmmakers who changed some very important things about the story.  For example, the characterizations of the witches are all different than L'Engel wrote them.  The writers made some startling changes for this all-star cast.  And, they left out my favorite part of the book - the part with Aunt Beast.  This is the focal point of the story because it's where Megan realizes she has to go back and get Charles.  But they changed all that, and it just didn't work for me.  It might have been an interesting discussion with the kids though, so I probably would have shown the movie anyway.  Still, I was disappointed.

But I think I'm mentally focused enough to read  now.  I've got a backlog of good books that I intend to read this summer.  Stay tuned.

What I actually did during the quarantine, of course, was work from home and sew, which have already been documented here.  How did you spend the time during the quarantine? 

The Great Purge of 2020

It hardly seems possible, but we've lived in our house 30 years last October.  Kids grew up, and we put the old stuff in storage. Kids left and we put what they couldn't take with them in storage.  Furniture we didn't need?  Put it in storage.  Clothing we couldn't wear any more?  Storage.  Household stuff the kids might want someday?  You guessed it.  Storage.  We emptied - and refilled - the garage several times over the years, then branched out into storage units.  We. Have. Too. Much. Stuff.

So last week, the husband and I were discussing the situation and he agreed that it was time to do something about it.  Of course, I've been casually talking about it for months years, and maybe the inevitability - and expense - of it has finally made some impression.  I was more than pleasantly surprised at his easy acquiescence to the plan.  Grateful too, of course.  So Saturday morning, I actually started in the bedroom and purged some things, just to get off to a good start.  Then we grabbed breakfast and headed over to our storage units.  Yes, we have 2!  Yikes.  We worked like crazy.  No photos, sorry.  I hate to admit that I didn't even think about it. 

I'm no Marie Kondo - who could, or would want to, live with only 30 books? - but I felt pretty ruthless about getting the stuff out of there.  We filled the bed of the pickup 4 times and took 4 loads of stuff to the thrift store to donate.  We filled the bed twice more with trash.  We only quit when Doug came back after the 4th load and said that they stopped taking donations at 4:00.  I had at least 2 more loads ready to go!  It was so depressing to have to put all. that. stuff. back in the storage to wait until next week.  But, on the upside, that storage unit is now organized enough that I know what we're keeping and what we're donating.  Each child's stuff is waiting for them to go through it and do their own decision-making. 

The other storage unit isn't so overwhelming.  It contains a shocking amount of Christmas decorations - which obviously need to be culled and purged - and I know we will keep almost all the rest, but it will fit in the other unit, and shouldn't take more than a day to do.  So, from 2 units to one is a good start I think.  I'm hoping to get this part completed by the end of the month.  Yay for monthly savings!

Naturally, we both came home exhausted and sore.  We have definitely found muscles we had forgotten about.  

Then, after zoom church today, we worked on the house a bit.  My SIL needs a quiet place to work from home while he is here, so we rearranged a bit so he had a quiet work space with a decent internet connection.  Our internet is good, but is kind of spotty on the other side of the house, so internet was definitely a priority, and was a huge factor in the space we chose.

One of the things I always do Memorial Day weekend is bring home the bin of toys for the grands to play with during the month they are visiting.  Yesterday, while we were sorting and purging, we found 3 more large tubs of books and toys.  That is the mess you see in the photo above.  I sorted the toys from 4 large tubs to a large tub, a medium tub and a bookshelf. 

I threw out will donate tons of magazines and books (even quilting ones!, although I really can't see myself making a lot of those 90's style quilts - ever! and the hairstyles, fashion, and countrified designs made me laugh) to make room for the kids' books.  After 10 or 11 weeks of quarantine - their schools closed more than a week before ours did - one of the things grandma is going to make sure of is that we  reading every day while they are here, so finding the books was a thrill.  We will do the library (it's on their wish list) if we can, but we're still at 25% occupancy, so it's a bit uncertain. 

Of course there is more to do tomorrow, but I feel pretty good about what we've accomplished so far.