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.)

Pandemic diary/update: February was Month #35 (going on #36 -- coming up to THREE YEARS) of living with the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the rising new XBB.1.5/"Kraken" variant, there's no sense that things right now are much worse... on the other hand, I have no confidence they're a whole lot better either. It's really hard to tell, in the absence of robust reporting. :(  

Anecdotally, I'm still hearing about friends and relatives who have recently had covid -- some for the first time, and some of them quite ill, despite being fully vaccinated. "You do NOT want to get this," my parents' neighbour, who was sick the entire time we were there at Christmas, told my mother. Earlier this month, Mom was chatting to a friend who worked in the local care home/assisted living facility -- who told her there were currently 16 residents there who had covid (!), including a friend that Mom had been wanting to visit for a while.  :(  And the shelves of the drugstore where we usually shop still have gaping holes where pain & cold remedies should be (especially the children's formulas).  

On the personal pandemic front: We remain covid-free (and hope to stay that way!) -- although dh has had a nasty, lingering cold?/sinus?/allergy? issues for the past TWO MONTHS (occasional rapid tests to date have been negative), and I just came down with yet another cold (my third in six months).  :(  We are still staying (relatively) close to home, for the most part, and still mask in public places (albeit we usually don't in smaller/family settings). 

On top of dh's solo trips to the supermarket for groceries (about once a week), and for occasional takeout lunches & dinners, we: 

• Saw LGN 6 times this month: twice (Feb. 3rd & 20th) at home, and 4 times (Feb. 11th, 15th & 16th & 27th) at BIL & SIL's house. (Not bad, considering he has not been at his grandparents' house regularly since before Christmas!)  
• On the 16th, we also went with BIL, SIL & LGN to a toddler storytime session at the local library, which was an.... INTERESTING! experience, lol.  
• And on the 20th, Older Nephew & his wife treated us (and BIL & SIL) to breakfast at a local restaurant, which I wrote about here.  (Further details below under "Eating.") 
• Went shopping on Feb. 7th shopping for Valentine's Day stuff at Carters/Oshkosh, the bookstore and the drugstore.  
• Stopped at the supermarket on Feb. 16th for some takeout lunch and a few other things. 
• Picked up some prescriptions and a few other things at the drugstore on Feb. 21st. 
• Went for haircuts in our old community on the morning of Feb. 24th (with a quick side trip to the cemetery), and then takeout dinner at BIL & SIL's that night, along with BIL & dh's cousin, his wife and daughter. 

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Also right now:  

Reading: I finished 4 books in February (all reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads, & tagged "2023 books").  

• "Wintering" by Katherine May. (My review.)
• "Still Life" by Louise Penny (the first Inspector Gamache mystery). (My review.) 
• "No Filter" by Paulina Porizkova. (My review.) 
• "Lessons in Chemistry" by Bonnie Garmus. (My review.) 

This brings me to 10 books read to date in 2023,  22% of my 2023 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. :)  I am currently (for the moment, anyway...!) 3 books ahead of schedule to meet my goal. 

Current read(s): 

• "Oscar Wars" by Michael Schulman. (Oscar Night is March 12th! -- and you all know I love me some Oscars!  lol  Hoping to finish this by then!  :)  )  
• "Living the Life Unexpected" by Jody Day.  Yes, I'm reading it again!!  lol (for the 5th time, I think!).  In 2022, I took part in a year-plus-long, chapter-by-chapter monthly group read & discussion within the private online Gateway Women (now called Lighthouse Women) community. A new group read just started this month, and I've decided to take part again. :)  If & when I/we complete the full 12 chapters, I'll count it as a(nother) re-read. (We covered Chapter 1 and focused on telling our stories at our first Zoom session, mid-month, which was attended by 40 (!!) LW members!) (My most recent review -- with links to previous reviews -- here.) 
• "The Empty World" by D.E. Stevenson, together with my D.E. Stevenson group. We just started our discussion on Jan. 29th. I will count this as a re-read once we're finished, in late April. (My original review here.)  
• "Anne of the Island" by L.M. Montgomery, with my LMM Readathon Facebook group.  I will count this as a re-read when we're finished at the end of May. (My original review here.) 
• "The Menopause Manifesto" by Dr. Jen Gunter. (I will re-start this one... someday...!) 

Coming up: Most of my book groups have their next reads plotted out for a few months in advance -- and listing them here helps me keep track of what I should be reading next. ;)  

• For my Gateway/Lighthouse Women NoMo Book Club: 
• The March book was supposed to be "Three Eleven" by Margaret Grant (a GW/LW group member!) -- but too many people were having trouble sourcing a copy -- so we've switched to a book I suggested, "Killers of a Certain Age" by Deanna Raybourn, which I read in December & reviewed here. Not sure I will do a complete re-read?  but I am looking forward to the discussion (on March 18th)!  

• For the Notes from Three Pines Readalong:  
• "A Fatal Grace" by Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache #2) -- online discussion begins March 22nd.   

A few recently purchased titles (mostly in digital format, mostly discounted ($5 or less) or purchased with points): 

• "Friends, Lovers and the Big, Terrible Thing" by Matthew Perry. 
• "Madly, Deeply" by Alan Rickman. 
• "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett. 
• "American Midnight" by Adam Hochschild

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Watching: 

• We watched 3 & 1/4 of the 4 episodes of "My Life as a Rolling Stone" on the Documentary Channel early in the month.  Each of the four core band members is the subject of a one-hour episode. They showed Mick Jagger & Keith Richards back to back one day, and then Ronnie Wood & Charlie Watts on another. They were all very good. Unfortunately, we had to go out and missed most of Keith's episode, but I watched it later on CBC Gem on my laptop. You would expect his to be the most interesting -- and it was great  :)  -- but the Ronnie & Charlie episodes were surprisingly good (and, in Charlie's case, poignant). 
• I've never been an especially ardent Stones fan, but I do love their music, which I've listened to all my life, and I appreciate them more & more, the older I get. (I have clearer memories of seeing the Stones on Ed Sullivan when I was a pre-schooler than I do of the Beatles.)  And of course, who doesn't love Keith?? -- if only for his inexplicable longevity in the face of hard living, lol. (My review of Keith's memoir, here -- there's an ALI angle to it, too!! -- who knew, right??)  
• I know most critics bow to their albums from the late 1960s as their best, but I will admit to holding a soft spot in my heart (and my CD collection) for "Some Girls," "Tattoo You" and "Emotional Rescue,"  all part of the late 1970s/early 1980s soundtrack of my youth. 
• Not watching:  The Super Bowl (zzzzzzz......).  ;) (lol) (I did see the halftime show with Rihanna, as I wrote here.) 
• Still not watching (despite my best intentions): "Magpie Murders" (PVRd from PBS after reading the book), or anything after the first two seasons of "The Crown"...! 

Listening:  I'm way behind on my podcast listening, but recently caught up on the most recent episodes of The Full Stop. 

I'm still enjoying the daily Heardle challenge(s), including the decades versions -- although (as you'll see from the stats, I do MUCH better on the 60s & 70s versions than the others...!). Current stats as of Feb. 28th:  

• Heardle (original/all decades): 27.3% correct (57/209, 17 on the first guess), down from last month. 
• Heardle 60s:  78.9% (131/166, 68 on first guess), down from last month. 
• Heardle 70s:  68.8% (119/173, 76 on the first guess), up from last month. 
• Heardle 80s:  23.8% (5/21, 2 on the first guess), WAY down this month. (My previous stats seem to be missing??) 
• Heardle 90s: 34.1% (56/164, 18 on the first guess), down this month.  

Eating/Drinking:  As I wrote here (and as mentioned above), we ate out in a restaurant for only the second time in three years/since early December on Feb. 20th (Family Day), at the invitation of Older Nephew & his wife, who picked up the cheque. It was a breakfast & lunch-only place. I had a ham & cheese omelette with home fries (yum!), rye toast and tea. The food was good, and it was served hot! 

Takeout dinners this month included our favourite wood-oven pizzas; Chinese food (with BIL, SIL, Older Nephew, his wife and LGN, at BIL & SIL's house); Portuguese chicken with potatos, rice and vegetables (with BIL, SIL, and dh & BIL's cousin, his wife and daughter at BIL's house);  and teriyaki rice bowls from the local supermarket takeout counter. 

Buying (besides books, lol):  I took advantage of a sale and my birthday bonus to do some online shopping and stock up on some Clinique products.  I also bought a couple of pairs of pretty new earrings and a heart necklace, all in pave crystal, from my favourite sterling silver jewelry maker, just in time for Valentine's Day. :) 

I found & scooped up a big bottle of regular-strength Motrin (ibuprofen), which I haven't seen on the shelves of our local drugstore in eons. I did find & buy a bottle of regular-strength Advil instead a while back, when I ran out of Motrin -- same thing, really, but I've used Motrin for years (don't ask me how I got using it instead of Advil?) -- although I'm not using anywhere near as much as I used to since I went into menopause. It was very effective in dealing with my menstrual cramps!  

Wearing: I had to pull my heavy old waiting-for-the-commuter-train/Christmas visits-to-Manitoba winter coat out of the closet for a drive up to Older Nephew's house earlier in the month (where the temperature was a balmy -24C and, with windchill, felt like -34C!).  I bought a lighter-weight down jacket a few years ago, which is fine most of the time around here (especially when we're just running in & out of stores, etc.), so the older one hasn't had as much wear since then, outside of Christmastime trips to Manitoba... but I'm glad I still have it for those bitter cold snaps! 

Noticing:  It's (finally!) gradually staying lighter, longer, in the late afternoon! There was a news story on Friday marking the last day the sun will set earlier than 6 p.m. locally for more than eight months  Progress?? 

Appreciating:  Retirement, especially when the weather is very cold, or very snowy/icy, as it was several times this month! -- no freezing on the commuter train station platform or wading through snow drifts!   

Enjoying:  Reading more books lately (and some really good ones, too)!  

Wondering: What Little Great-Niece's middle name is??  (Nobody has mentioned it yet.)(Does she even have one? -- not all Italians do -- dh doesn't -- although that has been changing with the younger generation.)  I suppose I could text Younger Nephew and ask him, but I figure that could be something to talk about when we (eventually!) see them in person. 

Wanting: My spare bedroom/office closet to reorganize itself (it's a bit of a jumbled mess at the moment...!). 

Prioritizing:  Getting over the cold I have, fast, so that I can go meet my new Little Great-Niece!  :)  

Procrastinating:  We took down our Christmas tree on Jan. 9th -- but the boxes of Christmas tree decorations, as well as our empty suitcases from our holiday trip west, didn't get taken to our storage locker in the parking garage until Feb. 15th! (erk!!) 

Hoping:  To get rid of the colds/allergies that have plagued us both recently, SOON!  (Not to mention the zits on/around my nose... WHY am I STILL getting zits, in my 60s??!)  

Trying: To get to bed a little earlier at night and do some reading before turning out the lights. 

Loving:  Spending time with Little Great-Nephew this month (always a day-brightener), even though he's not regularly at his grandparents' house these days. 

Feeling:  Somewhat annoyed by the posts on social media I'm seeing from friends in the southern U.S. and in Europe proclaiming the advent of spring (not around here!! although some days have certainly been milder, or colder, or stormier, than others...!).  Relieved that February is over (for a short month, it sure can be a LONG month...!).  Also relieved that our new Little Great-Niece (finally!) arrived safely, providing a happy ending to my least-favourite month!  :)