As soon as I remarked about the "walkable weather" we had, It Snowed and Got Cold!

 What did I expect?

As I may have mentioned, we are considering a "relocation". The goal is to position ourselves within a 1 day's drive of both of our kids' homes. Not too close--we don't want to scare them. Haha.

So they can move?  Therefore, our relocation needs to be somewhere that we like for its own sake.

But first, we "Death Clean".  Our local Goodwill Store is getting all the little stuff; the rest is going on Ebay. It is shocking what people will purchase on Ebay.

It will take "a minute", as people say, these days.

We have learned we are expecting our first Grandchild in May.  Blessing.

So I am working on a Nap Quilt for her. We might be some of the most elderly 1st time grandparents on the planet.

Reading: I am shoveling my way through "Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America". At first, I wondered, since we have lost the Republic, why make myself miserable by rubbing my nose in it???  But the book mainly relates the lives and qualifications of a handful of the principals of the Revolution and early Republic. Those men would be dead anyway, no matter what the state of our current situation. So it seems"elevating" to gain more insight on their experiences.

The book was published in 2010; the author is Jack Rakove, Professor at Stanford University. I wonder what he thinks of our current situation.

It's Good for Me to Take Long Walks

 I meander about the streets of the town for perhaps an hour and a half, most mornings.

Our winter is "walkable" this year: little snow and ice.  And that is a big Blessing, I should note.

We need to count our Blessings!

Road traffic is very light and foot traffic is freakishly rare. Me and a few dog walkers and one or two others.  It is like one of those stories from the 1950's where, after the A-Bomb, someone finds themselves to be the last person left on earth.  It is weird.

I don't think there is any Covid-19 out there in the cold, depopulated sunshine and fresh air. So I'm not afraid to go for a walk.  Or maybe it is simply too cold for people to come out?  (I have been known to walk in bad weather.)

Having said that, I am careful to "avoid" coming near to people, out on a walk or in the grocery store, or so on. We are eating lightly, with pretty good nutrition, no alcohol or etc., taking our few meds and trying to sleep as well as possible. I take melatonin every night so I get 5 or 6 hours of sleep.

Powerful forces seem deliberate about ruining the economies of the world; just senseless destruction: "If we can't have it, nobody will"- that kind of logic.       

The entire situation is "to be survived".

Really Bad Babysitters: #2 If you hate to see Cheaters "win"

 and thieves go unpunished and justice left undone....then this feels like a pretty rotten day.

And it is.

However, You are Not the Only One. 

About to be Left with the Really Bad Babysitters???

The Current Situation:

 A year or so ago, I was chain-reading every Alan Furst novel I could find in my local library--which has all of them.

He writes historical thrillers of the brave resistance fighters and simple citizens of Europe during the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Very readable and inspiring novels. 

I wondered how the people must have felt in those occupied authoritarian nations: soon I will learn, I guess. 

I have managed to avoid the Covid-19 virus by living my normal reclusive life: I don't miss "people" very much, if I'm being honest. Socializing now seems like "play acting". 

However, I insisted on doing my own shopping and errands:

#1 Rule of Old Lady's Game is remaining actively busy at taking care of the things I should do. Not letting others do these things, or delegating to services. (I like selecting my own produce).

I am very careful about cleanliness when doing these errands.

After all, in past years, I avoided catching SARS and MERS, other plagues we didn't start ourselves. But I understand that if a person is naturally inclined to like socializing then it is difficult to stay away from friends. So far, so good.

I go for an active, hour long walk most days; though after nearly 40-years of living in the same house in the same neighborhood, I am bored to my bones. It is flat around here, and I miss a few hills and vistas.

I was the child of a military family--an Army Brat. A move every year or two or three was hard-wired into my system----and here, I have lived for nearly 40 years.  So we shall see. There is the beginning of a plan.

Further Reading: "Pastoral" by Nevil Shute

 Nevil Shute, again

I believe I have labelled several of his titles on this blog.

This novel was called "Pastoral", written in 1944. An edition called a "wartime book". It appears I have a first edition, printed in Kingsport, TN of all places. Imagine, a small city in TN had a viable industrial plant printing books during WW2.

The story of about a skilled young (22) bomber pilot, veteran of nearly 50 long range bombing runs over major cities in Germany, later in the war.

He meets and falls in love with a beautiful young signal  officer, Gervase. His problem is, she is unawakened to the charms of men. She's 21 and was brought up to have a career for a while before (matter of factly) getting married. Plus, she is dedicated to her war work.

So, Peter Marshall, the pilot, has to wear her down, woo her with dates and fun.

Meanwhile, it's not all fun and games: he has two very frightening bombing runs with are described in exciting detail--even as we read about them, nearly 80 years on!  And there are a couple of  interesting twists in the narration.

Yep. Another from the stock pile of books I collected to get me through the current, unfolding emergency.

I can't usually sleep through the night, so I turn on the light and read a while.

Part of this is age: old people don't sleep as well. Part is worry; people say we should not worry: some even say it's a sin to worry. 

I say it's unhealthy to worry, so I try to take my mind off the evil circumstances. 

The Monastery of the Mind--a phrase used by Victor Davis Hanson...

...it fits.

Basically, we have worked about the house, (beginning the ultimate clean out of our home, for what ever move we might make) walked outside, watched You Tubes, done some careful travel by car, beginning to work on family history, targeted and necessary appointments such as dentist, doctor (and today, a haircut).

And, thank Goodness we have not needed the Doctor very much at all!

And reading.....

Who knew I had such an interesting library of used books gleaned over the many years at second-hand book stores, book exchanges, etc?   (I've been preparing for the Pandemic for all these years!)

So I have shopped my stash!

Latest is a slim paperback volume by Francis N. Stites on the life of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall-Defender of the Constitution.

Interesting--in a nutshell--the early founders and framers of our institutions had to assemble the principles of our Rule of Law from the cases they had before them: several had to do with land deals and real estate claims in the West; Marbury vs. Madison (established the importance of the contract to the individual in law) was an employment dispute.

Marshall himself was a Virginian, son of a bootstrapped farmer; he had extensive real estate in VA and in the emerging area of Kentucky. He was loyal and loving to a young wife who never recovered from the nervous breakdown she had, early in their marriage, over the successive deaths of a couple of children! She was almost completely house bound, in her room and needing quiet--but she kept having children.

This little book was published about 1980; I'm not sure it could be released in our world today. 

The Framers and Founders of the US were not naive or stupid. They saw and understood evil and criminal behavior. They had the likes of Aaron Burr to content with, after all. But I wonder if they were able to anticipate and foresee the gradual rise of Marxist Communism (50-80 years in the future)? A seemingly unstoppable progression of thuggery, staged on a world wide basis? I just don't know.