Part 1
Day three of a Covid positive existence. Therefore a day of quiet. Ed again fed the hens, so I skipped the morning barn walk. Peeking out at the farmette lands, I have to say, I do not think I am missing much. Cold, brittle, no snow.
I did have company for breakfast: Dance, our oldest cat, the matriarch, the most attached to me of the whole lot.
You get to see her in all her breakfast poses.
Everyone has their weak sides and she has two: she can't really hold much food down (we dont know why), so you have to be very measured in what you give her, or else be ready with a mop (or carpet cleaner). Secondly, she does her business outside, but she doesn't really like going outside now. Too cold and our most feral cat, Pancake, hangs out close to the door and Dance is just a little terrified of Pancake. So quite a bit of time is spent on coaxing her to go out twice a day.
Those are her disabilities. Her virtues are much more numerous.
People claim they're either sweet on dogs or on cats, but not both. I went along with this for years, seeing myself as a dog person. And I do like well trained, quiet dogs. (So not a total dog person, right? By comparison -- I like all my grandkids, even the louder ones who are still learning!) The cats were imposed on me, on us by circumstances. Winter in Wisconsin pushed them to dare come inside. And two have stayed in the farmhouse (actually three, but the third has disappeared into thin air -- not uncommon for ferals).
Perhaps you are not a "cat person?" But maybe you've never been isolated at home with Covid in the dead of winter without much life around you.
I think Dance has caught some of this virus (pets can be vulnerable to it), because she is not eating right now. Mostly she sleeps on the warm vent. But at breakfast time, she always, always joins us at the table (more like on the table)..
And though it puzzles her why the guy who rubs foreheads with her isn't around, she does like me an awful lot. So we sit together and I say sweet nothings to her and she purrs and smiles.
Part 2
Predictably, with more time in my pocket, I think about travel. I have quite the unusual trips in mind for 2025. It's not about the destinations -- those remain predictable. But my travel will be less solo than in the past. Some family, occasionally friends. I am joyfully optimistic (as I plunked down money this morning on a summer airfare, because I could hit a good bargain now, when no one is thinking about that season yet).
More interesting perhaps was my reading of the travel article that is published in January each year in the NYTimes. (I gifted it for you so it's free when you click.) 52 places we should consider visiting in the year ahead.
I love this piece!
There was a time in my life when all their recommendations sounded bells of excitement in me. This year I counted only a dozen that seriously tempted me (this is all very theoretical of course, as I likely will go to none, or at best one, unless we invade Greenland and then I'm sure to book a trip as a triumphant colonizer of that island... sigh...). Nonetheless, even if I never travel to any, I love floating in the possibilities out there. I wont go, but I could go, and wouldn't it be wonderful, to revisit Bulgaria (Bulgaria, under so called Communist rule, was the very first foreign country I ever traveled to), or to take a bike ride along the coast of Sicily, or visit the Flows in Scotland by train... When you are housebound with Covid, all of it sounds downright magical.
Of course, the article brought the usual comment: "the NYT ruins these places! Dont go there now -- it will be flooded with people." The author replied:
I anticipated this comment. This past October I went to one of the places on the 2024 list. Over the course of two days I saw only a small handful of foreign tourists. Many of the local people I spoke with asked me how I learned about the place. I mentioned the New York Times 52 places to visit in 2024 article. They had never heard of it. It’s easy to over-state the influence of the New York Times.
Indeed.
Most people cannot afford to travel frequently (unless they really make it a life's goal to do just that when they retire) and when they do travel, they want to see the big ticket items and I don't blame them. The Pew Research Center posted a study last year that indicates that 50% of Americans have traveled to only 1 foreign country in their lives and 23% have never traveled outside the U.S. at all, which makes us a non-traveling-much-internationally bunch. That same study shows that Swedes travel the most: 0% have never been to another country; the Dutch, Germans and British people are close behind. Of course, the US is 20 times the size of Sweden and probably a million times the size of the Netherlands, but still, I think interest in foreign travel here runs on the low side. Not having adequate vacation time in the US surely contributes to that: only 75% of Americans have paid vacation time, and that time isn't exactly grand: on the average, 18 days after 18 years of work. Those lucky Swedes get, on the average, 30 days of paid vacation from the get-go, and they are mandated to have 4 weeks of consecutive vacation time during the summer months.
Speaking of travel, Ed did "travel" to the farmhouse this afternoon again. I had him groom Dance who loves being combed and has missed him here. Three hour visit! And he stayed awake this time!
We both still have light fevers (his obviously longer lasting than mine), but I think we are on the upswing. Ed, who calls this the worst type of cold he remembers ever having, tells me that he read articles about people experiencing Covid before the vaccination roll out. Grim stuff. And here we are, just sniffling, me contributing to the Kleenex profit margins but nothing more than that, feeling so so grateful for the work of scientists on our behalf. So grateful!
with love...
