The Corona Diaries 3: Life On the Inside

Late August 2020

While the Internet has more than its share of garbage, there are some wonderful bits too. One thing I do every morning during the week to prepare for work is to watch the morning farm rush hour from Caenhill Countryside Centre. It's a farm in the UK that posts a daily video on Twitter of the barn door being opened and animals of all sorts rushing out for breakfast as if they've been cooped up on Noah's ark for a few weeks. You'll see ducks, geese, chickens, emus, sheep – everyone.

The thing that makes it especially fun is that the guy who opens the door is like a radio announcer. He's like a rustic Bob Uecker giving a play-by-play of the animal exodus, calling them by their names, and wishing them a good morning. Plus, he reads out comments from people and wishes viewers a happy birthday, anniversary or whatever day needs commemoration. And he has this great avuncular voice. I laughed aloud when he greeted a trio of ducks named Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.

So, for a chuckle, check out a daily farm rush hour. such as this one.

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In addition to the Frau and I having to acclimate ourselves to working from home, I think the cats have also had to get used to having humans around all day. Since this involves getting more treats, they've adapted very well, methinks.

A few hundred years ago most people would rise with the dawn. And so do I these days. The cats take the sun peeking above the horizon as their cue to come into our bedroom and provide some motivation for the humans to serve breakfast. After all, they've been on mouse patrol all night long and have developed an appetite. The eldest cat, Marilyn, a.k.a. - Grabby, usually squats down on my Frau while Piper will either make herself comfortable atop a pile of clothes on the floor next to the bed or, more likely, jump on it and plop next to (and often times on) my face while purring very loudly.

Thusly begins the morning routine in the time of Covid.

I open the windows to let in some fresh air. Coffee is then brewed and the cats finally get fed. The main course of tuna and shrimp is followed by dry kibble and the first treats of the new day. For my part, I down some java and try to get in some reading before a shower and logging in to work.

If I don't shut the bathroom door all the way, Grabby usually come in to see what's going on. And of course to get a drink of water from the faucet despite the Frau having recently bought the cats a shiny new water bubbler.

I refill my cup and head upstairs to work while Grabby, who is 12 or 13, wanders off to sleep. This could be our bed which now has a vacant half, the couch, or perhaps the ottoman in the picture window with a scenic view of a birdfeeder and the chickadees that frequent it. It isn't long before I am joined by Piper who lets out a yelp-meow as she scurries up the stairs before letting loose a fanfare of meows to announce her presence to me as she ambles to my desk.

Piper hangs out with me for an hour or so before falling into a post-prandial haze and wandering downstairs to sleep. In the spring she'd nap underneath the bathroom sink as a duct runs underneath it so that spot was always warm. Nowadays she ensconces herself in a closet.

Piper is such a sweetheart. Well, so is Grabby but she is entering her dotage and sleeps much more than Piper who spends a fair amount of her time during the week lying across my mousing arm as I try to work. Sometimes she curls on my lap during online meetings and I feel like Blofeld when I have the camera on.

She has this meow she lets out while pacing near the food dishes that means "Feed me you stupid human!" but it has just the right pitch to fool my ears into thinking she's in deep distress calling for help so I immediately come to the rescue and end up giving her extra treats before taking her into my arms and hugging her. This, of course, stains her fur with human scent which must be licked off without delay. And she has this routine in the morning that makes me smile. As she and Grabby eagerly watch the human making their breakfast, Piper will walk in front of Grabby. The way of the cat is to sniff and lick butts but, when Grabby obliges, Piper gets all offended and meows in annoyance.

"Well, don't put your butt in Grabby's face if you don't want her to lick it," I chide.

Piper has Inflammatory Bowel Disease which is being treated with a steroid cream in her ear. She does not like this and I get the gimlet eye after rubbing it into one of her earflaps. But it's better than her being in pain and yelping before pooping on the living room floor.

While I cannot exactly lay down a comprehensive phenological log of the lives of our cats, I have certainly gotten to know the cats' daytime habits and patterns better now that I am not officebound.

I wander downstairs every hour or two to stretch my legs, determine if the cats need treats, and say hello to my darling Frau.

One of the things that my commute allowed was some time to dedicate to reading. My ride was 40-45 minutes there and a little more on the way home so I was able to get in some quality reading time during the week. That routine was disturbed when I began telecommuting and my reading time became irregular. I missed cozying up to a good book and so I decided at one point to do some reading on a more routine basis. Since I had been dedicating at least a little time most days to going out for a walk and observing natures in all its resplendent glory, I decided to tackle Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

I'd read a chapter or two of it in high school but never the whole nine yards. With enough people baking their own bread to cause yeast shortages, it seemed like the right time to read Thoreau's tome on, amongst other things, self-reliance. My high school English teachers would be proud! I didn't realize how much of it was influenced by anti-slavery motivations, especially the first chapter, "Economy". His exhortations to simplify, to deliberate on one's life, and to let nature impress her ways upon you really resonated with me.

I have since also read A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. It is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for ages and finally got around to doing so only recently. I think it convinced a former roommate of mine to enter the forestry trade. Leopold was an ecologist and environmentalist who taught here at the University of Wisconsin. Madison has an elementary school and conservation park named after him. He bought a disused farm up in Sauk County and the book details his natural observations during his time there. My copy also includes other essays which extol his land and conservation ethics. The man even has a bench named after him. Here's one that a friend and I built:

I will take a moment to admonish you to not attempt to build one while drinking. One of my fingers made a narrow escape from the circular saw!

Leopold's land ethic exhorted us to go out into the natural world and experience it. Just as getting to know another person brings them into our circle of sympathies, Leopold thought that being in nature would increase our ethical commitment to living in harmony with it, would push us towards being stewards of the land instead of exercising dominion over it.

I suppose I am obligated now to read some John Muir now.

In this same vein, I recently purchased a copy of Walden West by August Derleth. He lived in Sauk City, just northwest of Madison, and about 20ish miles from Baraboo where Leopold setup camp. My understanding is that the book is part Winesburg, Ohio and part A Sand County Almanac - there are observations of the wild mixed with those of people.

But that'll have to wait a bit as there are a few books ahead of it in my to-read pile.

One thing I have not been doing much of lately is going on walks. Instead I have been taking bicycle rides…

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Bonus cat photo! Here's Grabby catching the evening sun. I like to think that this shot too could have been in The Conformist.