It is amazing to me how a very healthy person can be slayed by the tiniest of bacteria– and how I went from hale and hearty to sleepy and weepy so fast. It helps me feel for the Covid long haulers, although what I had was not Covid, it still lingered long past its expiration date. I’m still not motivated to stack firewood on the porch and put the rest of the garden to bed. I have been gathering little piles of wood. Enough to keep warm, but I have not organized it for winter in the proper rack, with the splitting block, maul and all that– I feel like the Little Match Girl gathering up handfuls of broken shingles from next door’s construction for kindling, and carrying split spruce from the shed by the armload, rather than the wheelbarrow load. It’s not that big a deal, since it’s so warm out. Yesterday, with the rain and the storm — all the dire warnings did not come to pass– ( we did lose power for about an hour but that was all), Chip filled water jugs and I built a fire because I thought I should, but it was quickly too hot and so I opened the windows under porch roofs that the rain couldn’t blow through.
After that I putzed around for hours trying to update a social media account before I gave up. What a waste of time! The day was saved by a potential visit from a friend who was driving down from Fairbanks. I cleaned the guest room upstairs, swept the dog hair, freshened the flowers and roasted a local chicken from the Seldom Seen Farm. (I bought it at the farmer’s market.) The friend didn’t make it, but Chip and I had a special Monday night dinner. ( I haven’t been cooking much lately.) The chicken was moist, tasty and a little chewy as a healthy bird should be. A good meal can change everything for the better. Even the weather– Today we have a break between storm systems.
I swam this morning early at the pool (it’s open M-F at 6-8:30 for lap swims now, and on MWF you can basically swim from 6am-1pm except for a break around 9:30-10. The sauna is hot, too.) I also walked the dogs with my friend Beth. Our neighbor, the policeman was walking with his baby grandson in the frontpack, and warned us about a moose hide on the other end of the beach that must have washed in from a hunting camp, or been dumped. It needs to be removed before the bears find it (and dogs roll it). Ugh. A few minutes later we saw two more neighbors and their dogs coming from the moose-hide direction and before they could warn us, we said, “We know about the moose– we will be careful”– But they said the hide was just cleaned up by a friend who had permission to take it and hopes to tan it. There wasn’t even time to complain!
I should stack some wood while it is not raining, but I’m writing to you, then answering emails, making a to-do list for… tomorrow, eating some saltines with sweet tea ( the stomach still feels a bit car-sick) , then going to the radio to do the Back Country show this afternoon. I like keeping friends company with comfortable country and country-ish music, and reading all the weather reports and announcements. This evening I have a manuscript to read for a fellow Alaskan writer who would like a “blurb”. There are two more waiting for me. I always say yes. (Don’t tell anyone.) It’s perfect “work,” especially right now. Don’t you think that when you are stuck being unproductive or even a bit low, the best antidote is to do something outside your self? I mean, we never would have had such a nice dinner yesterday if I knew it was just for us.
