Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, phone-free Sunday!

Two Sundays ago, I tried something new: putting my phone in the desk drawer all day, with all notifications shut off except if a person calls twice within 15 minutes. Then I tried it last Sunday too. I had moderate success, only beginning to cave toward the end of the day to check my phone. So now I am going to do it again tomorrow to end the month on a lovely note and try to make it a tradition.

I should explain…or maybe I shouldn’t, but I will anyway…that for me a phone-free day does not mean a “media-free” day in terms of other devices or being unplugged. For example, tomorrow I plan on reading or continuing to listen to the Sherlock Holmes short stories to which I’ve been reading/listening on my Kindle. I might watch some movies or TV shows on one of the streaming services we have on our TV. I might listen to music on my laptop. I might mow the rest of the lawn that I didn’t finish earlier today with our electric mower (I’m kidding, we have a gasoline-powered mower, but I was trying to go with the unplugged theme).

My phone-free day definitely does mean a media-free day, no quotes, though in terms of news. For some reason, I’ve never been tempted to check news on any of the streaming channels on our TV or on my Kindle or on our electric mower that I don’t have. I only am tempted to look on my phone.

Also I might do all of those things mentioned above. I might do none of them. I don’t know yet. I just know that I won’t be on my phone so don’t call or text me, please. I’ll be “indisposed.”

60 days and counting…

On the day that I am posting this, Saturday, May 16, 2020, it is the 62nd day I have been mostly staying at home after the library where I work closed on March 15. Initially, it was closed through March 29, then “until further notice” after the governor of our state issued a stay-at-home order later in March.

Last Saturday, as planned, I finished listening to the end of a 1981 NPR Radio adaptation of A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Then on Sunday, I read A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr, a short novel that a friend recommended to me the previous week. Out of the two, I enjoyed the second more than the first, which in hindsight is because a post-apocalyptic radio drama during a global pandemic is not what the doctor ordered.

That said, I did enjoy listening to the radio drama, which was very well done, the last two weekends. So I think later today, after posting this, I’ll continue to listen to The Complete Sherlock Holmes: The Heirloom Collection, as narrated by Simon Vance, that I got as part of an Audible trial.

I’m not much for audiobooks, but several years ago, I first encountered Vance, thanks to Jennifer of the then book blog, The Literate Housewife, now on Instagram. I even got four audiobooks of him narrating James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, perhaps winning them? through a contest Jennifer was having (to be honest, I don’t remember). I also have two others narrated by him: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, which I never have read, but want to…and maybe listen to…some day.

As for the rest of the week:

Tuesday: I had good sessions with my therapist and registered dietitian, with whom I already had started via video and phone before mid-March.
Wednesday: Kim and I went for a walk to Barbour Rock at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, which is near where we live.
Thursday: Kim and I had a “Zoom” with two of her sisters and their husbands to discuss the final season of Game of Thrones, which one of Kim’s sisters and her husband just finished watching. Bonus: Zoom gave us extra time so we were able to talk for an hour and half.
Thursday: We bought the final season of Schitt’s Creek on streaming so we don’t have to wait until October when it comes out on Netflix.

We plan on finishing up Schitt’s Creek on Monday, which will be apropos for me in light of what I am about to tell you. It was one of the first shows I began binge-watching (reruns up until this final season) when I entered what has been mostly self-isolation and now will be the show with which I end my own version of quarantine…

…because on Tuesday, I return to work at the library as we are slowly reopening in phases with the first one being the acceptance of checked out materials from the public, starting on Wednesday and running through Friday. I should note that my wife, a 911 dispatcher, has not stopped working at any point.

At the library, we also will be preparing for limited services, but not until we make sure we are following the guidelines for the “Framework for Reopening Public Libraries” as was released by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, which is under the Pennsylvania Department of Education, only yesterday. The Framework, in short, provide guidelines to help ensure the community’s health and safety. If you really want to know more about the plan in our state for reopening libraries (and other businesses as well), I encourage you to check this link. I will add here, though, that I might not be able to answer your questions about the framework or our library’s own plans for reopening as I haven’t been back to work yet and I’m not sure how it is all going to “work.”

During the Zoom, one of my brother-in-laws, who also is returning to work next week, asked me if I was nervous about my own foray back into the work environment. I told him I was a little, but also excited, which is true. But I honestly can say that I just want our library to reopen limited services, such as curbside pickup, to start because I know it will benefit our community, both old and young (and yes, those in between too).

…bring May flowers?

This week was a busy one for me. From top left to bottom are highlights from my past week:

Sunday: I took most of the day to listen to most of a 1981 NPR Radio adaptation of A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. which I’ll probably finish later today after my wife goes to work.
Monday: She and I started watching a Swiss series, Der Bestatter (The Undertaker) on MHz that we’re trying for 30 days. We’ve also been watching two German shows, Professor T. (a remake of a Belgian TV show of the same name) and Der Tatortreiniger (Crime Scene Cleaner). All three so far are excellent.
Tuesday: I mowed our lawn for the first time this year and just in time as on…
Wednesday: It rained, but I still got out for a walk.
Thursday: I took a carload of recycling to our local recycling station that opened Monday; we got a new mattress, our first in 15 years (we are going to get a platform for it in the near future); and we got a delivery from Misfits Market early in the day that one of our cats, Alexandra, was very interested in.
Friday: I got out for a walk earlier in the day before it started raining…and snowing.

Not pictured, I also:

Watched The Darjeeling Limited with my wife, one of the few Wes Anderson movies we haven’t seen, on Tuesday night. It was good, but still not our favorite by Anderson, which is Moonrise Kingdom.
Purchased a ebook copy of Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver on Wednesday after it became available after being on hold from Free Library of Philadelphia for three months earlier in the day. I decided I might as well just buy a copy and read it when I want to read it and not feel pressured because other people are on hold.
Purchased a ebook copy of A Month in the Country by J.L Carr, a short novel that a friend recommended last week. He said he read it all in one sitting and I think I might try just that tomorrow.

30 46 Days In The Hole

I’m forgoing my “normal” Pushing Forward Back post this month, where I look back on the past month, 30 days, and ahead to the next month. Instead, I thought I’d look back on my/our last 46 days under quarantine through photos.

The above photos were from the last couple of weeks of March. Roughly from top to bottom, they are:

The start of my staying at home from work when I learned that the library where I work would be closed until March 30, at that point. It now is “until further notice.”
A stack of books I thought I might have time or focus to read, but haven’t…yet and now I’m making my way slowly through the Sherlock Holmes short stories. I’m remembering that I read the novels previously, so I’m skipping them.
Schitt’s Creek is one of the TV shows my wife and I have been watching during the last 40-plus days. We haven’t seen the final season yet, but will see it when it comes to Netflix in mid-May.
I’ve been walking almost every day since the library has been closed. Not even rain has stopped me.
My sister was talking to our mother via Facebook Messenger and put some “makeup” on her.
I’ve participated in a few readathons over the last 46 days. The Social Distancing 24in48 Readathon was one of the first.

The above photos were from the first couple of weeks of April. Again, roughly, from top to bottom, they are:

A sign I saw on one of my walks before Easter.
A bottle of wine from our first order of wine from Three Brothers Wineries & Estates on Seneca Lake in upstate New York.
A box of fruit and vegetables from Misfits Market in New Jersey.
My Eucharist meal on Easter.
My wife Kim celebrating her 50th birthday with a pineapple upside down cake. I celebrated my 50th last year and we went to Seneca Lake. We had planned to go again for hers, but since that didn’t happen, hence the wine.
My dad and mom play the board game Aggravation with my sister and her family (they were in between houses at the time, one they were selling, another they were buying, and had to stay with my parents). Thanks to my sister Lisa for the photos of my mom in the collage above and my dad and mom here in this one.

The above photos are from the last couple of weeks here in April. From roughly top to bottom, they are:

One day it was nice enough to walk, then the next, snowstorm.
I participated but not very well in Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon on April 25.
While on a walk, I saw the chalk art and had to snap a photo.
I had wings from a local restaurant, The Wellsboro House.
My wife and I got together for a Zoom Happy Hour with her side of the family.

I’ll leave you with the song where I got the title from: