Tag: ennui

Nothing much happened today. The hours just seemed to drag on, especially compared to all the wild partying of the days before. To demonstrate how dull the day was, one of our most exciting moments came when Kathleen asked Siri, “what was that movie where the man went back in time and fell in love with a beautiful British woman with long hair?” Siri told her the movie was Slap Her, She’s French.

I think Siri is cracking from the pressure of cowering in place too. This movie seems to have abso­lutely nothing to do with time travel, or anything else Kathleen said. Variety called the movie a “relent­less­ly low­brow outing which plays like ‘Clueless Does South Fork’ with a side order of garlic”. That’s all I can tell you about it–it seems too uninteresting for me even to find out enough to recommend or pan it.

I realized today that sometime in the last couple of weeks I had stopped wearing my watch, no doubt because time doesn’t really matter any more, does it? Does time even exist any more? But I tracked down my watch and put it back on, not because I need to know what time it is, but because I need to know how many steps I’ve taken. My earlier resolve to work out on that elliptical monstrosity in our exercise room has proven, uh, irresolute, so I need to figure out a new plan to keep my body moving.

We did manage a walk or two up the street with Archie today. Saw some friends and neighbors on the way so got to chat a bit, although the “what have you been up to lately?” conversations had a kind of surreal sameness to them.

The weather was so nice that we decided it was time to get out, really get out, and we started plan­ning what would be our first sub­stan­tial emer­gence from our panic house in a couple of weeks: maybe to­morrow we’d take a jaunt over to near­by Jeffer­son Patter­son Park, to walk some of the trails there. To play it safe, we first called over to figure out the best time to go. We needed the hours it was open, but more importantly, we needed to know when all the stir-crazy parents would bring their high-energy children over to play there. Don’t get me wrong, I love kids, but they’ve got those symbiotic side deals going with cold and flu germs, that have been closing schools since time began. My hats off to all of you navigating this new landscape with kids underfoot!

Planning our escape from the house for the joy of getting into the open air made me think of a children’s book I enjoyed: The City of Ember by Jeanne DePrau (2003). It’s about a small town that lives deep underground. It has done so for so long the inhabitants don’t know any other way, but a heroic boy and girl follow clues to discover the town’s history and dangerous fate! It won the 2006 Mark Twain award, and I think it’d be good reading for a 10-year-old or a family, or really anyone of any age stuck bored in the house longing to get back out into the outside world.

We made peanut butter and jelly cookies for dessert tonight, that was nice. Well, here’s hoping that tomorrow proves more exiting!

Thanks,
Dorn
3/26/2020