The cure for anything is salt water

I don't really know what's compelling me to write this, other than a need to document what life feels like right now, in hopes that I can look back on it and realize what a weird twilight zone the first part of 2020 was. 

What I did this week:

-Endured a massive windstorm that brought one of our trees down within a mere metre of a nasty new neighbour's new roof. To add to the lucky streak, we were on the winning side of the latest game of Hydro roulette, where half the village was without power for 24 hours. We were in the good half, this time.

-Had to look at my watch to see what day of the week it was. Not just once either.

-Made a dreaded trip to the vet. Soleil's eye has been running and it looked like another corneal ulcer. With a corneal ulcer, red in the white of the eye is good because it means the ulcer is developing the blood supply it requires to heal. However red can be bad if it's not an ulcer but rather an infection such as conjunctivitis. The vet has a policy now of taking the dog from you in the parking lot and you wait in the car. I did not want to put Soleil through that, but needs must, and off we went. It wasn't as bad as I had feared, and the vet even bundled up in his winter coat and came out into the pelting snow to tell us what he'd diagnosed and how to deal with it (yes, it was an ulcer). 

-Woke up to a fresh coating of snow on the ground on 3 separate mornings. Winter is reminding us it's not done with us yet.

-Got back on my favourite, most scenic and most challenging running route, a road so technical that it's not safe to run on in winter. Now I am breathing the scent of the lake and the pines all the way along as I toil up and down massive hills. It's like the most beautiful roller coaster ride you could ever wish for.

-Ordered far, far too many books. 

-Translated ''In this difficult time'' for the six hundred and nineteenth time. I swear to Christ, if I see that expression again I am going to go postal. One client used it five separate times in a 1 and a half page letter.

-Baked challah for the first time. OK, I made it into cinnamon buns rather than braiding it into a loaf, but it was way easier and worked out way better than I had expected.

-Pared down my friends list on social media. If you're going to turn into the social distancing police and them crow about your skirmishes online, I have no time for you. If you are going to compare the number of coronavirus deaths to the number of deaths by abortion, I have no time for you.

-Cried. Broke down sobbing. Most of it was about work. I work from home, and I should really be grateful that my workload has not diminished or stopped, but has in fact grown since this pandemic began. The problem is, now everybody is working from home, and many of them are working evenings and weekends as it suits them, and they find that I am there for them evenings and weekends, and suddenly there is no downtime at all. And what do people do when all they really have is their laptop? They write things. Policy documents and press releases and communiqués and look-what-we-can-sell-you-to-help-you-get-through-this-difficult-time marketing documents. And those all need translation, often as an afterthought, ergo often on a rush basis. I am working all day, well into the evening and all weekend. I should tell people to back up the truck, but as a sole proprietor in a service industry, you risk sending your clients somewhere else, permanently. Rock, meet hard place. I think the tears were just a general need to cleanse and vent all of the stress and worry and frustration. How does the saying go....

The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.

(Karen Blixen)
 

What I did not do this week

-Go to Boston. The marathon would have happened tomorrow, April 20. The tears were about that as well. Making my own salt water for the sea that I'll be missing.