Day 49: Kudu

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis, according to the Washington Post today.

Federal agencies and experts warn that a historic wave of mental health problems is approaching: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Hardly a surprise. Losing a job, being afraid of the potentially infected air we breathe, and of course the isolation: to some degree it’s traumatic for everyone, with lasting effect. I still wonder (as I said here a couple weeks ago) how we as social beings, deprived of most human contact for all this time, will readjust to life after the pandemic, whenever that will be. How will we learn to feel safe around other people—and in public—again? In what ways will we temporarily and even permanently change as a result of this experience? When will there be toilet paper again, and grocery shopping cease to be a source of anxiety? Even those of us who haven’t struggled with employment and financial issues have had our foundations shaken. Actually, maybe an earthquake analogy is apt. It does seem like many of the things we took for granted (the ground beneath us) have shifted. We’re still in a state of shock and we don’t know yet what it’ll look like when we rebuild.

It sure seems that people around here have been taking the restrictions less seriously in the past week. For two months my once-busy street has been quiet, but now cars are flying by. Parking, likewise, has gotten tricky again. There are increasing numbers of people on the street in the business district. This surprises me, because technically in the Bay Area we have till the end of this long month to remain largely shut down. Are you all seeing people getting more casual and bending more rules in your areas? Eleni and Marianna said that in Chico and Nevada City, respectively, a lot of people flout the requirements.

Having no idea what to write here, I asked my daughters for ideas. Eleni said I should do another installment of what I’ve done before: showing you a few of my favorite things around my house. So I looked and the only item that caught my eye was this familiar object that you all remember. I made it many years ago when I was learning cartonería.

And Molly’s idea was: Take glamour photographs of your farmer’s markets hauls. I didn’t get much yesterday, so all’s I could do was this.

I doesn’t hurt to have googly eyes on hand, since you never know when you’ll need them. Just ask Elana, who has an impressive array.

I got two letters in the mail today. One, from Small, was addressed to Virginia Baa Allison. The other was from Lulu, addressed to Ginnsie Allison, and it contained the rest of the puzzle pieces! Why, look: a kudu. I had it upside-down last time I showed it to you. I’d thought the horns were going to be legs.

Mysteriously, perhaps ominously, the envelope also contained a single white corner piece of another puzzle.

I feel like a squirrel paparazzo (paparazza?). My eye is always peeled for motion in the backyard and every time I detect it, I grab my camera and run, trying to get that perfect shot that will win me fame and fortune. After several days with no success, I finally had the chance to approach close enough to get a few pictures of this celebrity before she fled, flipping me off over her shoulder because I’d interrupted her nap.

By now you know the Scottish sports broadcaster, Andrew Cotter, who’s been all over the Internet with voiced-over videos of his dogs in action as though he were calling a game. This may be my favorite so far.