Making the Best of It

   Since being bound to the Bayou for the entire pandemic (by doctor's orders), I have found that I need to make my own entertainment or at least seek it out wherever it may be hiding.  For two years now, I have rarely left the place and few people have visited (again, doctor's orders).  Then for the past year, things even took a tighter turn.  The still unexplained episode that threw me in the emergency room confined me to a smaller area yet.  It was then that I crowned myself as "Queen of the Small Gardens".  My search for enjoyment seemed to be harder but I was not going to let some virus or some malady totally blow my outlook.  I turned more to the flora and fauna that was to be found literally in my "own backyard".  Needing to "do", I planted every available space with whatever seeds I had on hand.  Oh, man!  What a mishmash of gardens grew!  Vegetables were mixed in with flowers, vines climbed on anything that was within reach and gardening tools became my best friends. 

  This morning while out surveying the gardens for possible frost damage, I was elated to find that the peas were actually flourishing.  Tiny pods were dangling amongst the leaves and showing great promise of filling out with tasty peas!  In my excitement, I started thinking of how these (basically) little seed pods were like the plants jewels.  People wear jewelry...plants wear flowers and seed pods.  Nice!

  In a few weeks, the garden should start producing delightful goodies for our table.  Cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, mustard greens, swiss chard and, yes, green peas!  Maybe being quarantined is not such a bad thing, after all.  Maybe...just maybe...I needed this to reflect upon the better things in life instead of all the trappings of a commercial world that is shoved down our throats.  Life is good, folks, life is good.

Stuck at Midnight

   For the past two years, I have been sort of in a "self-isolation" due to the pandemic.  At the cardiologist's "strong" advice, I quarantined myself to the Little Bayou House, Small Gardens and the area surrounding the Bayou.  I keep telling myself it is for my own good.  I do not go anywhere that is not absolutely necessary (aka appointments with that same cardiologist).  And, to top it off, the place, itself, has been off-limits to any visitors...those vaccinated and those not.  (People still cannot get it through their heads that the vaccine does not keep them from spreading the virus.  For that matter, it does not keep them from getting it, either.)  What is surprising is just how quickly others forget you when you have been removed from society.  No calls, letters or even merry waves from anyone.  As long as you are able to do for others, everything is fine and dandy but, when that comes to a halt, the "caring" does, too.

  All of this came to light in my dull brain when I was setting the dozens of antique clocks due to the time change.  In the midst of all of the keywind clocks there sits one battery operated thing.  It does not work.  It is stuck at 12 o'clock.  The chimes do not work, the hands do not move...only that pendulum keeps swinging along at its steady pace.  I only keep the clock as a project piece as I intend to alter it come this winter when chores are not as abundant.  While setting the others, I noticed the hands of this one.  STUCK.  Stuck at midnight...the darkest hour.  Yep, that is just about the story of my life, at the moment....stuck at midnight when no one else is around....the darkest hour....when no one cares.  What do I do?  I carry on just like that pendulum.  I keep plodding along unnoticed (no chimes) with no purpose (no hands).  I am just a broken clock.  Life goes on....or, in my case, goes by.  Others go about their merry way and I am stuck at midnight.  Sad part is....had only everyone heeded the advice to quarantine themselves for two weeks at the very beginning, this would have never exploded into the situation of the past two years.  Try two years, folks.  Try two years.  And over and over again, I tell myself..."It is for my own good."  Yet, I struggle.  My current state is not pretty....not pretty, at all.