Right now

Right now... (an occasional (mostly monthly) meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current"). (Explanation of how this started & my inspirations in my first "Right now" post, here. Also my first "The Current" post, here.)

October was Full Month #7 (going on 8) of life in the age of COVID-19  (with each day getting darker and colder than the last...). On top of dh's usual weekly forays to the supermarket for groceries and for takeout dinners on Saturday nights, we ventured once to the supermarket together (to buy stuff for our Thanksgiving feast), once to the hair salon for trims, and three times to the bookstore. On the medical front, I ventured out for a pelvic ultrasound (which confirmed the presence of fibroids), a subsequent visit to the gynecologist (which resulted in an appointment for my upcoming hysteroscopy/d&c on Nov. 27th), and to our family doctor's office for flu shots. And we saw Little Great Nephew twice (both within the past week) -- once earlier in the week to visit, with just his mom & his grandpa (BIL) at home, and on Halloween (yesterday) to deliver a goodie bag to him. ;)  Otherwise, we've continued to stay close to home.

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Reading: I read 2 books in October (reviewed on this blog & tagged “2020 books”):

• "Rage" by Bob Woodward
• "Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata (October's Gateway Women book club pick) 

So far this year, I've read 37 books, bringing me to 123% of my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 30 books. I have completed & now exceeded my challenge goal for the year by 7 books, and am (for the moment, anyway...!) 13 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  

Current read(s):   

• "Do You Feel Like I Do?"  by Peter Frampton (just started!)
• "Hoax" by Brian Stelter (haven't touched this one all month, as I plowed through "Rage"...!) 
• "Amberwell" by D.E. Stevenson (read on my own this summer, now reading along & discussing with my DES online group -- almost finished!)
• "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery (read & reviewed on my own in August, now reading along & discussing with my L.M. Montgomery Readathon group on Facebook over the next few weeks/months) 

Book club reads starting in November (still to be read): 

• "The Midnight Library" by Matt Haig (for the Gateway Women book club) 
• "The Young Clementina" by D.E. Stevenson (for my DES online group, later this month) 

A few recently purchased titles (in both digital and paper formats):   

• "Can't Even" by Anne Helen Petersen 
• "If I Knew Then" by Jann Arden 
• "Group" by Christie Tate 
• "One Day" by Gene Weingarten

Watching:  Besides "Jann" (which I mentioned last month -- and which was recently sold to Hulu in the U.S.) and "Downton Abbey" (mentioned here), "Battle of the Blades" recently returned for season 6!!  The launch was delayed by a couple of weeks because someone on the production staff tested positive for COVID. :(  There is no live audience or guest judges this year. But the contestants are more diverse than ever -- a great mix of both male and female hockey players and figure skaters, paired up to raise money for their favourite charities. (Is that Canadian, or what?)  (It's still early in the competition, and I don't have a favourite team... yet!) 

On a related note:  the Grand Prix figure skating circuit kicked off a few weekends ago with Skate America in Las Vegas. Because of COVID-19 and travel restrictions, almost all the competitors were American -- so it was essentially like watching a less polished version of the U.S. national championships -- without a live  audience, to boot (cardboard cutouts & canned applause) -- but hey, it was skating. I watched!  Skate Canada, scheduled for the Halloween long weekend, was cancelled, and so was the Internationaux de France in Grenoble in November. The final, which was to be in Beijing in December, has been "postponed." Guess we'll see what happens...! 

Listening: The classic rock station we listen to has been playing a lot of Van Halen ever since the untimely death of Eddie Van Halen earlier in October. :(  

Following:  @gocleanco, which I follow on Instagram, has a new Facebook group. It already has more than 68,000 followers (the Instagram account -- which I started following this past spring, around the 30,000 mark -- now has 1.3 MILLION!!).  Unfortunately, they almost immediately had to turn off posting for a while, because the onslaught of posts (and repeat questions) was impossible to keep up with! 

Eating/Drinking:  Our (Canadian) Thanksgiving dinner this month wasn't quite Mom's fabulous turkey, stuffing and gravy, but we still managed to produce a dinner that was somewhat special for the two of us :) and it will also provide us with a practice run/template to follow for Christmas.  

Takeout dinners this month have included pasta with rapini (which dh loves), wood oven pizzas (twice), chicken fingers & fries, and chicken madeira rigatoni. Yum! 

Buying (besides books, lol):  Not much!  

Wearing: Long yoga pants, long-sleeved T-shirts (and sometimes a cardigan too), socks and sometimes slippers, around the house... it's turned quite chilly the last little while! 

Trying:  Not to dwell too much on my gynecological/health issues (and not entirely succeeding), as I wait for my hysteroscopy and d&c on Nov. 27th... or on the fact that I won't be going home for Christmas this year, for the first time in my life... :(  

Thinking about: My high school girlfriend, who lost her 29-year-old daughter after a tragic car accident, one year ago today. :(  

Wanting:  A little more sunshine would be nice, especially since we just moved the clocks back an hour last night, plunging us into darkness an hour earlier (probably by around 5:30 p.m. tonight). :(   We've had a lot of very dark, dreary, grey days lately...! 

Loving: The beautiful fall colours (now past their peak). 

Feeling: Apprehensive -- about the skyrocketing COVID-19 case numbers (locally, provincially, nationally & globally), about the U.S. election this week, and about the onset of winter generally. :(