wine – Lock Down Mama

April 23, 2020

Dreams

DAY 41 since school closed.

DAY 31 of “stay at home” order.

Last night, I had another crazy “COVID-19” dream. The aliens had encompassed the Earth with their spaceships. There was only one human being on the entire planet that could understand and speak to the impending, space invaders and that person was Blondie, our four-year old daughter. Yes, Blondie could speak fluent alien and translate for all the world to know that the aliens caused the COVID-19 pandemic. She also informed us that the aliens were surprised the Earthlings didn’t have a higher death rate and will now have to physically attack the Earth for her natural resources.

At that point in the dream I realized it was a dream and told myself to wake-up. I love Blondie, but there’s no way that Peppa Pig loving, British accent speaking, American girl could understand the aliens. “Mummy, I need a plaster cast.” Good bloody hell. Ha!

Having dreams during this insane time is not unusual. Darling Dear has nightmares of loved ones being very sick. Since the pandemic started, the number of people searching on Google for answers to their crazy dreams has quadrupled. This makes me feel more “normal.” Reports suggest the dreams are caused by number of reasons: social distancing, anxiety, stress, and increase usage of alcohol and marijuana. People are sharing their dreams on social media. They range from something straight out of Hunger Games to attending a rave party.

So what kind of crazy dreams have you experienced? You can share them through Lock Down Mama’s History Project at https://lockdownmama.wordpress.com/history-project/.

Today’s summary report:
• 24 percent of Michigan’s labor force is unemployed. That is Great DEPRESSION era numbers! Scares me more than the virus does.
• Why when I drink wine, I talk more sophisticated? With a wee bit of a British accent? So posh.
• There appears to be an uptick in the numbers. Some people are screaming conspiracy theories. There’s a lot of theories out there. Just ask Professor Google.
• The plot is set. There seems to be a political battle heating up in Michigan. The Republican majority lead Legislature is looking to reduce the Democratic Governor’s Executive Order privileges. Time for some popcorn!
• Some predict a longer stay-at-home order coming while others want a more rationalized re-opening of the state. Probably will find out next week.

The below numbers are according to news source WDIV:
• Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan: 35,291
• Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Oakland County: 6,634
• Total deaths due to COVID-19 in Michigan: 2,977

Friday, March 13, 2020

DAY 1: Friday the 13th

Today marks the first day of no school for the kids. This begins what I feel is the self-quarantine stage of combating the virus. The weather is sunny to partly sunny with a 20 to 30-mph wind. Temperatures in the forties. It’s brisk but not wintry for a Michigander. Hopefully, the girls can play a little outside today. When the girls woke up, I broke the news of school being canceled for a very long time. Peanut, who loves school, started to tear up and her bottom lip started to quiver. She is our smartie-pants, who gets upset when kids at school don’t take learning as serious as she does. My perfectionist, of whom I’m trying to already get it in her mind that some things you’ll naturally be great at straight away and others you will need more practice at. The other daughter, Blondie, jumps up and down (literally) and screams, “Yahoo! I can watch Frozen 2 every day!” All that alcohol we bought is going to be needed after all.

Darling Dear’s career job centers on advertising. We were looking forward to a few nice commission checks in the near future. He sold a lot of advertising during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. That tournament went from being played with restricted audiences to completely being cancelled. Hey, I get it but it hurts us financially. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, we immediate acted. We were already paid up for the next two-weeks at Blondie’s school/daycare so I called and pulled her out of school completely. By the time Peanut’s school is back in session, we will only have to juggle Blondie for a few weeks until the sweet college student is home for the summer to watch the girls. As crazy at it sounds, her school/daycare costs as much as our mortgage payment!

Butter seems to be doing better. Fever is lower than 100 degrees this morning. He has no chest congestion or problems breathing. Sore throat feels better. Gave him take DayQuil, zinc lozenge, vitamin C and some morning tea. He is blowing out some beautiful greenish snot, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day soon. Ha!

Already tired of the news. All this blame on China. They built a hospital in like ten days! That’s impressive. You know who you need to blame for all this? Those damn monkeys. And I’m not talking about the music group. Did you watch the movie “Outbreak” from like 1995? It was monkeys who caused the deadly virus. I’ve been terrified of monkeys ever since! True story. Ever since that movie, I stay back 500 feet from the monkey display at the zoo. No joking. My nightmares always have a monkey in them. Mark my words, this virus came from a monkey. Probably those monkeys in Japan that like to stay in the hot springs all day. Just sitting there all day in the water and their own poo. It’s from a monkey!

Started a star chart for the girls. You don’t earn them, you can only lose them. If you survive the day with a star left, and you only get two per day, you get a dollar. Plus, for additional entertainment, the child must erase the star. It has been a lifesaver. The girls are amazing and playing so well together. Right now, one is a turtle and the other is the turtle’s mother. Should I be worried about this? Not yet.

Filled the bird feeders today. Going to start keeping track of the bird species we see in the backyard.

Birds seen in the backyard today: cardinals, chickadees, wrens, mallards, geese and sand hill cranes.

We are out of paper towels and aluminium foil. Concerned? Nah…
Stores are out of T.P., paper towels and tissue.
Down one bottle of red and one bottle of white. Concerned? Nah…
Total confirmed cases in Michigan: 12
Total confirmed cases in Oakland County: 6

Disclaimer: I do love my children very much!