QP#8 Quarantine, Day 8

This morning after breakfast we sit down to play a family game, but neither Jack, nor Wizard is interested. There’s some ball playing for a while, and then Jack wanders in and sees me setting up for a game of “Song Birds” with Brown Owl. I ask him whether he wants to play and he says no (of course), but the game pieces are so alluring that when I request that he turn over the purple berries, he begins to be interested in spite of himself. We end up playing a round together, and I bumble through the numbers, utterly failing to try and ease Jack into it, because understanding the strategy and trying to do things that will ensure I lose and he wins entangles my thinking entirely. Anyway, it’s a beautiful game and we enjoy it together, which is the point, of course. I play with Brown Owl later, and she wins one, and I win one. I hope she wasn’t “going easy on me”. 

Wizard just wants to launch his bey blades. We all take turns doing this with him. He is quite happy to win every time, and he’s very knowledgeable about what’s going to happen. I love launching the beys and watching them spin. It’s therapeutic. 

Yoga is lovely today. Brown Owl tells me the presenter makes $7000 per day from the ads on her videos. I ponder this whilst stretching and balancing. The only similar thing I can conceive of creating for an online audience would be reading stories to children. It’s something I love doing, but on the other hand I don’t want to encourage children to relate to the screen and would prefer to read to them in person. 

Ah… books, picture books. I miss them! 

Work lurks in the back of my mind. I am disappointed not to have been hired for the museum job I applied for in November, but it was a long shot. I don’t have enough head space and time to look for work here in the hotel, and it’s one of the things I’m hanging out to do. I haven’t had any paid work for 15 months. Hang on, I tell myself. Just keep breathing. The time will arrive! 

Just into our workout with Joe today, Wizard brings me my phone. It’s the Rosy Daddy, intent on educating me about puppy farms. I get the impression he knows he’s told me all this before, and that repetition will make it more likely that I’ll take the information on board and act upon it. So here’s my take: 

 - I am horrified by puppy farms and dog fighting scams. I do not want any part of these. 

 - In the last year, Wiz and I have researched dogs over and over and over again. We have a pretty good idea of what kinds of breeds we like the sound of. 

 - I do not support eugenics and feel awkward about trying to breed for particular characteristics. I look down at my own body and wonder what characteristics of mine, I’d want to have bred for. 

 - I’m never going to be involved with the Showing community. I want a dog to be a family pet.

 - Incidental puppies are much harder to come by in this day and age where dogs must be licensed and their unsupervised neighbourhood nosing around is restricted. 

 - I believe in hybrid vigour, and I love poodle crosses. I loved my Bennie. 

 - No offense to those who love them, but I do not want a staffy, kelpie, collie or cattle dog. 

 - I would prefer to get a puppy and socialize and train it, rather than take on a dog that has previously suffered maltreatment. 

 - Buying a puppy from a breeder is almost certainly going to give us the most satisfactory outcome. We will probably buy a puppy that is not show standard, but has the other positive characteristics of that breed and its parents. 

Thanks, Rosy Daddy – this has been helpful. Of course, I’ve only written my point of view – there are three other people in the equation…. 

It’s my turn to chat with the Kitty Cats 3, and I get to listen to lovely soft chook noises. I see a sparrow outside our window today. We chat about lots of things. I realise that I do have plenty to say. It’s just easy to fall into the habit of keeping it all in. We agree to help nurture our children’s freedom flights across the neighbourhood to one another’s homes and parks. This was one of the resolutions I’d made for our return to Oz; Wizard and Jack popping in and out of their friends’ homes and the local park. 

Neither boy partakes in our daily workouts. Their screen addictions are severe. By the end of the evening, whilst Brown Owl cleans up after dinner (they ate heartily at least…), I take them into the other room and insist they choose something from Go Noodle to do some physical movement. Boy do they need it! Both are listless and loopy, grumpy and bored. 

After a lot of pork chop behaviour and cross words from me, Jack finds a 5-minute workout with Joe. I get my heart rate up again, and Jack begins to smile. Wiz mucks around a bit, but finally settles on a couple of routines deemed too childish by Jack, but I see Jack grinning up on the bed, taking part. One is a Simon Says, one is a “freeze” dance. We repeat that one. It sends us whizzing off to the bathroom to brush our teeth before our final viewing and story-time. 

Wizard wants to sleep in his cubby again. He climbs onto the bed to read with me, though. We finish the book about the Greek Gods with Jason, Theseus and Helen. Such awful teaching stories. Such horrible behaviour from Gods and Demi-Gods. It says a lot about being human. I have enjoyed the Percy Jackson novels and movies this year, and I look forward to getting home to re-read some of my favourite feminist renditions of some of these characters. 

If Wizard plays musical beds again tonight, I’m going to veto the cubby house for night-time. We had musical beds all last year in Red Deer. Almost certainly one of the factors in my long-term exhaustion. 

I wonder what tomorrow will bring. We are on the countdown now.