Confinement Notes 3: Everything I Do, I Do It For You

Week 5

A set of temporary traffic lights has appeared in our quiet street and it's very exciting.

Scottish Water are doing some pipe repairs; there are traffic cones everywhere.

At night, Gareth's new game is to peek behind the curtain and say, "Okay, guess what colour they are now."

"RED!"

"You're right again!"

By day, if I sit up straight on the couch, which happens now and then, I can see the lights from my spot. It's thrilling when I manage to look up the right time.

"GREEN! They're green! Quick, look!" and Gareth will lunge across to see.

Week 6

On Tuesday Gareth went on a cleaning spree. Not an unusual thing for a grown person, especially one who needs tidiness to function and must always have the remotes lined up and pointing north on the coffee table. But he was wrestling with a weird guilt for being on furlough, thus looking for a project to justify his existence. I, in turn, felt guilty for not helping, even though I'm still working. I put on my headphones to drown out his scrubbing.

When I emerged a couple of hours later the bathroom was gleaming, the carpet was vacuumed, the kitchen was perfection.

"Looks great, G!"

"Did you see the hob! It's shining!"

"It is!"

"And the floors!"

"Amazing!"

"And the cupboard doors! No fingerprints!"

"Excellent work! ... is this enough validation for your labour?"

"I think you could be more enthusiastic!"

"Ahh, you want more COMPLIMENTS! Like when you throw me a parade for stocking the fridge or cleaning the litter tray?"

"Yes! Give. Me. Compliments!"

I had forgotten about Compliments, this awesome video from 2011. We re-watched it five times and thought of simpler times. 

Why is my impressiveness written off like as it was ofcourseness...

Week 7 

I dunno about you but I feel like my mind hit the wall this week. I'm forgetting how to form proper sentences. I'm sure this article explains it but I've not got further than the headline: 

'Allostatic Load' is the Psychological Reason for Our Pandemic Brain Fog

I got so tired of looking at screens that I drafted this blog post on... paper. Have you heard about paper? It really works!

The screen fatigue did not extend to devouring Normal People across Friday night and Saturday. It was beautiful. It felt good to be immersed in another world.

This Week in Diversions

I hit Day 80 of German on Duolingo. Won't be visiting Germany anytime soon but keeping up the streak makes me feel like a person who might one day be capable of a streak in other areas of life.

So... how are you, comrades? Let's chat. Monosyllables and/or random mashing of keys are fine!