#MicroblogMondays: Women & men and social media

Mel had a recent post about quitting social media (based on an article she'd read in the Guardian, featuring people who did just that) -- and she later messaged me to tell me I HAD to unpack what I'd said in my comment in a post of my own.  So here it is :)  -- you can read my original comment on Mel's post, but I've expanded on it a bit more here. 

I joined Facebook in 2009, Instagram after I got my first smartphone in 2016 and Twitter sometime after that.  I helped sign up dh for Facebook & Instagram at the same time -- he found Twitter on his own. I'm on a couple of other social apps (but not others) -- but those are the main ones I use.   

I have not quit any of my social media accounts -- although I have tried to become more judicious about how I use them. I very rarely unfriend people, but (as I mentioned here) I’ve been much more liberal with the “unfollow” & “snooze” buttons in recent months. ;)  I feel less and less obligated to like/react and/or comment on every post, or to get through all the new posts in my feed every day. 

The crux of what Mel found interesting was what I said about the different ways dh & I approach social media. He deactivates & reactivates (& then deactivates and reactivates again...) his Facebook and Twitter accounts at whim. He friends & unfriends people en masse, in swoops of activity.  He unfollowed everyone on Instagram (including his own cousins and aunts) with the exception of me, his brother, SIL, our two nephews & their wives. It takes him two minutes (if that) to scroll through his Instagram feed, most days.  He rarely, if ever, posts anything himself. 

He drives me nuts sometimes. ;)   

I would feel SO GUILTY cutting off cousins (mine &/or his -- even if I don’t see eye to eye with some of them…), because, family… He says he’s an outcast among most of them anyway, so he doesn’t care. 

In part, I suppose it's a function of our different personalities. He doesn't have the attachment to things or places or even to most people, outside his immediate family and a few of his cousins, that I do. 

But I also think it’s just another way that women worry incessantly about appearances and what other people think, and how we feel guilty about things men don’t give two seconds thought to. It's another classic example of how we’re expected to be/assume the role of the family caretakers and maintain the family connections -- while the men just go on their merry way (in part because they know we'll take care of things and keep them informed of anything important that's happening with the relatives or other people in our social circle). 

If you're married/partnered, do the two of you have different approaches to social media? 

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

"Katherine's Marriage" by D.E. Stevenson

"Katherine's Marriage" is the next D.E. Stevenson book  my DES fan group will be tackling -- a sequel to "Katherine Wentworth," which we read & discussed last year (reviews here and here)  

"Katherine's Marriage" picks up almost immediately where the last book left off:  newlyweds Katherine & Alec are on their honeymoon, camping (!) in the Scottish highlands, while Katherine's twins Den & Daisy stay with the reliable Aunt Liz and stepson Simon returns to school. While there, they strike up a friendship with the local laird, MacAslan, and his daughter Phil.  

But honeymoons can't last forever, and so it's back to Edinburgh to face Alec's domineering sister, Zilla... and then Simon is summoned to his grandfather's estate, Limbourne... 

Not a whole lot happens in "Katherine's Marriage."  (Well, it does and it doesn't.) (And while the title is "Katherine's Marriage," much of the story is told from Alec's perspective.)  It's more of a "slice of life" story than anything really dramatic and/or plot-driven. There's a lot of rehashing of Katherine's story from the first novel, and the ending, as some Goodreads reviewers complain, is rather abrupt, leaving us wanting more. 

Still, it was nice to spend some time with Katherine and her family again, and watch a little more of their story unfold. As usual, there are some lovely descriptive passages and vividly drawn characters to enjoy. 

Not Stevenson's greatest work, but far from her worst, either (that I have yet read, anyway).  3 stars on Goodreads.

I'll count this book as a re-read after we finish our group reading & discussion in a few weeks' time. 

This was Book #13 read to date in 2021 (and Book #1 finished in March), bringing me to 36% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 7 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books." 

Odds & ends

• I saw a Twitter post (& replies) this week where the (American) writer's elderly parents had been fully vaccinated, and she got to see and hug them "real hard" for the first time in a year. 
• I started sobbing. 
• It's been a long year.  
• I miss my mom & dad. :(   And I likely won't be seeing/hugging them until Christmastime, if I'm lucky. 
• (Yes, I'm 60 years old. But I'm still their kid, and I still miss them.) 
• The region where I live started booking COVID vaccination appointments for residents 80+ as of 8 a.m. on March 1st, a full two weeks earlier than announced by the province. There are currently just THREE vaccination sites serving a population of 1.2 million residents -- so appointments are limited (and were quickly booked). And they're being booked online only -- no phone calls (yet), no walk-ins. What a mess... 
• This article quotes an official saying:  

Residents 80 years of age and older who are not able or comfortable booking an online appointment are encouraged to seek out a support person (caregiver, family member or friend) who can assist in booking this appointment on their behalf...  “We would have to lean on family and friends who can access technology to assist in the booking of these appointments."  

Ummm... What about seniors who don't have friends/family around them who are willing and able to do these sorts of things for them?  Being childless (not to mention aging...!), I know I am hyper-aware of these things, but it really does seem to be a common blind spot in public policy (and not just in Canada)...  and with an aging population, and rising childlessness (not to mention parents whose children have died, moved far away, become estranged or otherwise unable to assist), there's going to be a lot more seniors needing a lot more help, very soon...  

• I mentioned in a recent post that the CBC was starting to show "Call the Midwife" on weekday afternoons in the timeslot previously held by "Downton Abbey."  Dh & I watched the first episode (episode one, season one) on Monday afternoon... and, as I reported in the comments: 

Okay, we watched the first episode of "Call the Midwife" -- beautifully filmed, great performances & period details. BUT. Rookie midwife handles traumatic birth in which both mother & baby die... almost! (of course...!)(although no doubt not all episodes end that happily...) I said to dh, "I'll watch to the end because I want to see what happens, but I'm not sure I can take this five days a week...!" Just a little too close to home for comfort...

Anyone else ever see it?

(We haven't watched another episode since then.)  

• So... I (*cough*) joined another online book club.  This makes four of them -- my L.M. Montgomery Readathon Facebook group,  my D.E. Stevenson group, the Gateway Women/NoMo book club (on the GW private community), and now this one. (Five, if you include my "real-life" library book club, which is on hiatus, because, COVID-19.  Actually, the library is now offering Zoom book clubs, but I haven't felt compelled to sign up just yet.)  
• A friend asked on Facebook if anyone was interested, and since she & I are pretty simpatico on a number of things, including books, I said yes. (She's also a fellow childless loss mom and former blogger.) Our first pick will be "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett, which is one I've had in my TBR pile for a while now anyway -- and we'll have a Zoom meetup to discuss it (and presumably chat about other things too) in early April.  
• I'm feeling just a wee bit guilty, because another friend asked the same thing on Facebook a few months ago and I told her I was in too many book clubs already. (Insert red-faced emoji here...) 
• (How many book clubs can one book lover handle?  I guess I'm about to find out, lol...  The LMM & DES groups do chapter-by-chapter reads of one book over a couple of months, versus a new book every month, so it's not like I have to read four different books for four different groups every month.) 
• At any rate, this should provide another boost to my Goodreads Challenge numbers...! 
• Dh is up to 30 books so far this year -- basically a book every 2 days. (He doesn't do much social media, though...!) 

• LOTS of great things to read, listen and look forward to in the childless community right now! Here are just a few I've found in the last few days:  
• Two men, Andy & Nick, shared a conversation about childlessness on "The Listening Project," a BBC broadcast/podcast. They're the first item featured during the program's initial 10 minutes. 
• I've already plugged this event before, but it's worth repeating!  The Childless Collective Summit is coming, March 18-21 -- and (last I heard) more than 900 (!!) people have already registered!!  As someone who has been consciously childless (and hanging out in various childless forums online) for almost a full 20 years now, this is absolutely MINDBLOWING. Registration is FREE, although there are also paid options that provide more/longer access to videos & other goodies. Check it out! 
• I listened to Katy of Chasing Creation, the conference organizer, speaking about her experiences with faith, infertility and childlessness with Dr. Maria Rothenburger on episode #91 (Dec. 24, 2020) of "Miracles Happen." 
• A group of younger childless women who are mostly active on Instagram -- including Katy, Brigid of The Fruitless Figtree, counsellor Tanya Hubbard and (another) Katy of The Pleasure Anarchist -- had an interesting Zoom conversation, now available on this video, about various aspects of  living childfree after infertility -- the differences between childless vs childfree, how to bridge the gap between childless people and those still trying to conceive, pity versus compassion, and the tyranny of "never give up" messaging.  
• Pamela Tsigdinos of Silent Sorority had a great conversation with Kallie Fell of the Centre for Bioethics and Culture Network on Venus Rising (episode #29, March 3, 2021). 
• Jody Day of Gateway Women recently delivered a lecture (via Zoom) on childlessness & grief to a group studying various aspects of grief at the University of York in the U.K. earlier today. A video will be available shortly.   (ETA:  Here's the link!) 
• Jody also had a great conversation with Ben Eisner on "Knitted Heart" (episode #19, February 15, 2021).
• Jody will be hosting another conversation -- the third to date -- with a fabulous group of "Childless Elderwomen" on Saturday, March 20th. Details, registration and videos of the past two gatherings here.  

Little did we know...!

Mel had a post today about how the coronavirus crept into her life and into the pages of her journal last year. 

I have a post in the works that I'm intending to publish on or around March 12th, marking one year of pandemic life -- but it's interesting to look back on the days leading up that point too.  I don't keep a journal, but I have my datebook, my blog posts and some Facebook Memories to prod my memory.  Here are a few things I've found that show how the oncoming pandemic began creeping its way into our consciousness and then into our lives in a very big way... 

• Saturday, Jan. 25th, dh & I attended a curator's lecture at the opening of a major exhibit celebrating the centenary of Canada's Group of Seven (artists) at a gallery near where we live, where I have a membership. We arrived just before the lecture began and by the time it was over, it was almost closing time, so we didn't actually get to tour the exhibit that day. I figured we'd return in a few weeks' time, once the initial crowds died down. The best laid plans...! The gallery shut down in mid-March, along with almost everything else, and didn't reopen until later that summer (with capacity restrictions, mask requirements and timed ticketing in place, among other measures). It's been closed again since mid-December and is reopening tomorrow. We still haven't been back.  
• Jan. 29th, a post popped up in my Facebook memories from the same day, 2020. It was an article from the New York Times, about the importance of handwashing in avoiding the coronavirus. (The reporter had covered SARS in China in 2003.)  I reshared it with the comment, "I think this must be my first post from last year about COVID-19... We had NO idea what was about to hit us, did we??!" 
• Feb. 1st, BIL called us to come over:  a couple of dh's cousins had come over to see Little Great-Nephew (then just 11 weeks old), bearing gifts. I'm glad we went; we don't see them very often these days, and we haven't seen them since then (even though some live nearby). 
• The first mention of COVID-19 (albeit not by that name) in this blog came on Feb. 2. In my monthly "Right now" post under "Trying," I wrote, "Trying: To remember to wash my hands more frequently, especially after we've been out & about, in view of the corona virus outbreak (as well as the regular cold & flu season)."   
• Feb. 9th last year, I posted on Facebook, "Just started watching the Four Continents figure skating competition on NBC (from Seoul, South Korea)... Kind of freaky to see almost the entire audience wearing masks!!"  I reshared it with the comment, "Little did we know...!!"   
• Feb. 11th, I noted in my datebook that "Hamilton" began its run at a downtown theatre. I had snagged tickets for May 9th earlier in the fall, after a tense morning online...! (Performances were cancelled after mid-March; I still have my tickets, hoping to get first dibs on any new tickets if/when the production returns...!)  
• Friday, Feb. 21st, I had an appointment at a downtown hospital for a mammogram. I remember, even then, thinking about the morning rush hour crowds on the subway and germs... and I remember thinking that oh well, I would be getting on at the very last stop at the end of the line and it likely wouldn't be too crowded until further towards downtown.  
• So I was kind of surprised to see more than the usual number of people on the platform, getting onto the train with me... and more and more people piling on at every stop. It got very crowded, very quickly -- much more so than I had anticipated. People were chatting to each other in excited voices. Then I noticed some of them were carrying flags, signs and banners. And then it clicked:  the provincial teachers' union had called a one-day strike that day, and (naturally), they were gathering en masse to protest at the legislature building -- a block away from the hospital I was going to! So much for avoiding germs...!  
• Even so, I went to the Eaton Centre mall for a while after my appointment. (I did leave a little earlier than I had planned, trying to avoid running into the protesters again on their return trip home...!) That's the last time I was in downtown Toronto... 
• Monday, Feb. 24th was my library book club meeting. We were discussing the actor Bryan Cranston's memoir, "A Life in Parts" (reviewed here).  That was the last time we met to date. :(  
• Friday morning, Feb. 28th, we drove to our old community for haircuts at a salon at the mall (where we'd been customers for the past 15+ years) with our regular stylist (of the past three years, since our previous longtime stylist became ill and then died).  
• We didn't know it at the time but a few days later, the owner announced she'd be closing the salon as of April 1st (not realizing that the closing date would come a whole lot sooner, because of COVID.) We wouldn't get another cut until June 26th, 17 weeks later (!) -- same stylist, at a different salon in the area. 
• In my March 1st "Right now" blog post, under "Trying" I wrote: "Trying: To remember to wash my hands more frequently, especially after we've been out & about, in view of the corona virus outbreak (as well as the regular cold & flu season). (I gave this same answer last month, but unfortunately it's more relevant now than ever...!)" 
• One year ago today, on March 3rd, in a post titled "Corona (not the beer),"  I mused about my past experiences living through emergency situations & health crises, including SARS (2003) and the H1N1 virus (2009), and the steps we were already taking to stock up on supplies, etc.  By that point, Purell and face masks were nowhere to be found, but I mention stocking up on Staples, buying more Lysol wipes and spray cleaner, Tylenol and cold pills, and essential oils remedies (!). 
• Saturday, March 7th, is what I think of as "The Last Normal Saturday Night."  We planned to try a new Italian restaurant with BIL, SIL, Older Nephew, his wife & Little Great-Nephew, and then head across the city (in two cars) to see stepMIL & her family. Of course we didn't have a reservation, and the restaurant was booked solid. We tried another Italian restaurant which was also packed with at least an hour's wait for a table. (Observing the mobs of people going in & out and hanging outside on the sidewalk, I remember remarking wryly to dh, "Pandemic? What pandemic? These people don't seem to be too worried...")  We wound up at another restaurant nearby.  Little Great-Nephew sat on his mom's lap and observed her meal with great interest, lol. That's the last time I was in a restaurant.  
• After that, we had a nice visit with stepMIL & family. Traditionally, Italians greet each other & depart with embraces & kisses on both cheeks -- but this time, stepSIL said, "Ummm, are we gonna do this...?"  We agreed it probably wasn't a good idea!  That's the last time we saw all of them. 
• Monday morning, March 9th, I had a voice mail message from a high school friend from out of town, who was going to be meeting up with her sister for a few days in Toronto (kind of a halfway point between where they both lived). She wanted to know if I wanted to come downtown to join them for lunch on Wednesday or Thursday. I knew her sister too, and normally I would have loved the opportunity to see them both and catch up, but it was already a busy week, I was starting to feel like I might be coming down with a cold (or...??), and I had the distinct feeling that another trip downtown and back on the subway might not be a wise idea at this point... I sent her a message declining the invitation. 
• In the "it never rains but it pours" category, ANOTHER old friend from Manitoba messaged me later that same day to let me know her husband had surprised her with a birthday trip to Toronto to see Les McKeown and the Bay City Rollers (a band we'd both been wild about in our teen years, lol) on Wednesday night (March 11th). She had an extra ticket, and would I like to come too??  All the same reasoning applied (plus, a crowded concert hall filled with screaming, singing middle-aged women??) -- plus I'd already turned down one invitation for that day;  I didn't think I could accept another. I turned her down too. 
• As it turned out, Wednesday, March 11th was also the day the World Health Organization declared a pandemic... 
• By this point, the pandemic was definitely front and centre in my consciousness:  the blog post I published that day was titled "Odds & ends: The coronavirus edition." I noted that my beloved world figure skating championships (being held in Montreal -- I had toyed with the idea of going...) had already been cancelled, and that Pearl Jam had cancelled its concert tour, including a date in Toronto on March 18th. 

I'll save the rest of my "one year later" remembrances and reflections for my upcoming post...

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.)

February was Full Month #11 (going on #12!) of life in the age of COVID-19 (sigh...). 

The lockdown/stay-at-home order we'd been under since before Christmas (Dec. 14th, where I live),  initially slated to end on Feb. 9th, finally ended on Feb. 22nd. (For now, anyway...!) It remains in place in the city of Toronto proper, as well as Peel Region (Mississauga, Brampton, etc.), until at least March 9th.  Other parts of the province ended their lockdown on Feb. 16th... just as the new and more contagious virus strains began emerging, of course...!  (In fact, two regions that recently came out of lockdown then just had their restrictions re-imposed! -- including one region just north of where we live.) Schools reopened after Family Day, and I've read that case rates have quadrupled since then. But sure, go ahead, reopen everything...!  (SOOOOOOO TIRED of all the back & forthing & tinkering with the rules...!)  

Meanwhile, vaccinations have been painfully slow to start rolling out (both in Canada as a whole and here in Ontario). To date, less than 2% of the population of Ontario has received both shots.  Most of those people are health care workers and residents/staff of long-term care homes. We only just heard last week that mass vaccinations will begin rolling out in mid/late March for people aged 80 & over. Those of us 60-65 (i.e., me & dh) will likely have to wait until summer for our turns. Ugh....!  :(  

Our last haircuts were Dec. 4th = almost 13 weeks ago.  (We went 17 weeks without, last spring/summer.)  As I mentioned in this post, salons have now reopened, and we're trying to decide whether to wait for our stylist to return to work (which may be a while), go to another stylist there in the meantime, or find a new salon/stylist closer to home.  Sigh...

On top of dh's usual (once or twice weekly) trips to the supermarket for groceries and for takeout dinners on Saturday nights, we ventured out together to BestBuy to pick up my new computer (after my previous one died an unexpected death...!) and into the city to the dentist (twice!!) so that I could have a crown replaced and a cavity forming beneath the old one repaired. (Ugh.)  These were my first outings since my birthday... which was Jan. 12th, a full MONTH earlier!!  (eeekkk...) 

And we went to see Little Great-Nephew (oh yeah, and BIL & SIL too, lol) for a half-hour, masked, this past Saturday night, while his parents went out for dinner. They live just 10 minutes away, but it was the first time we'd seen them in two months (since New Year's Eve/Dec. 31st). We hadn't seen the dog since Older Nephew's birthday in mid-December. :(  

I did manage to dig up a Valentine's card this month for dh from my card stash -- but totally forgot about getting Valentines delivered/sent off to Little Great-Nephew and the Little Princesses, which is something I would usually do. :(   Little Great-Nephew, at least, won't remember -- but I will.  :(  I will try to make it up to all of them at Easter!  

Otherwise, we've continued to stay close to home. (If not because of COVID-19, then because of some fairly frigid weather this month -- it wasn't as cold as it was out west, where my family is, but still cold enough! lol)  

*** *** ***

Reading: I read 7 (!) books in February (reviewed on this blog, as well as Goodreads, & tagged "2021 books"):

• "The Child Catchers" by Kathryn Joyce. 
• "The Blue Castle" by L.M. Montgomery (a re-read with my L.M. Montgomery Readathon group on Facebook;  read & reviewed on my own last August).  
• "Belgravia" by Julian Fellowes. (CBC is showing the TV adaptation.) 
• "Unimaginable: Life After Baby Loss" by Brooke D. Taylor ( = By the Brooke) 
• "The Young Clementina" by D.E. Stevenson. (a re-read with my DES online group;  read & reviewed on my own here). 
• "Sourdough" by Robin Sloan (the February pick for the Gateway Women book club). 
• "Chronicles of Avonlea" by L.M. Montgomery (a short story collection, and our LMM Readathon Facebook group's next selection, beginning March 1st. I will count this book again as a re-read once we're done). 

This brings me to 12 books read so far in 2021 -- 33% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 7 books ahead of schedule. :)

I set dh up on Goodreads at Christmastime, and by mid-February, he'd already blown past his 2021 Reading Challenge goal of 24 books... to date, he's read 28 (!).  He says he doesn't really care about the challenge;  he just wants to track what he's read.

Current read(s): 

• "Katherine's Marriage" by D.E. Stevenson (my DES group's next selection, a sequel to "Katherine Wentworth," reviewed here and here)

Coming up next: 

• "Eudora Honeysett is Quite Well, Thank You" by Annie Lyons (the Gateway Women book club pick for March). 

A few recently purchased titles (these were all in digital format, mostly on deep discount or with accumulated points):   

• "She I Dare Not Name" by Donna Ward 
• "Moonflower Murders" by Anthony Horowitz 
• "She Come By It Natural" by Sarah Smarsh 
• "Biased" by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
• "Lady in Waiting" by Anne Glenconner
• "Pelosi" by Molly Ball 

Watching:  The final episode of "Downton Abbey" aired on CBC on Friday afternoon -- again. (This was our second time watching the entire series, more or less from start to finish, since last fall -- it doesn't take long to watch six seasons when each season is generally just 8 episodes (plus "Christmas specials"), and it's on five days/episodes a week, lol.).  

Today, they are starting to show "Call the Midwife" in that timeslot, which I have not seen before. SIL loves it, has watched all the seasons on Netflix, and tells me I should watch. I'm not entirely sure I want to get into this one, given my history with pregnancy...!  (Have you seen it? What did you think?) 

I've been PVR-ing "Belgravia" on Sunday nights on CBC (and have yet to watch an episode), as it's on at the same time as "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy" on CNN -- followed by "Lincoln: Divided We Stand" (both of which interest dh more than "Belgravia" ...hence the PVR, lol  ;)  -- although I want to watch them too!). The Italy show focuses on food in different regions of Italy. Drool inducing! 

Listening:  No new podcasts or music finds this month. 

(Un)Following:  I don't do this often (maybe not often enough??)  but I unfollowed (versus unfriended)  a couple of friends on Facebook recently.  One is someone I've snoozed a couple of times in the past (and mentioned here). Another is someone I like very much IRL -- but he posts a dozen or more times a day about U.K. politics. I tend to scroll right by those posts -- they don't bother me in the way that posts about U.S. or Canadian politics do, because I have no real knowledge of the players or issues -- but they clutter up my feed nevertheless. And another doesn't post as often as these two but nevertheless has been posting some rather offensive (to me) political stuff lately. My feed feels much lighter and less fraught now as a result...! (and is much faster to get through, lol)  I check in on these unfollowed friends a couple of times a week to make sure I don't miss anything important -- which rarely happens. It's easier to just scroll through all the junk posts all at once, infrequently, than to have to do it every time I look at my feed...!

Eating/Drinking:  Earlier this month (on the weekend of the Super Bowl), we tried a different Italian restaurant near us & ordered takeout orechiette (sp?) pasta with rapini and sausage.  It was good... but we both agreed we like the pasta from our usual Italian restaurant better ;)  (and we ordered from them this month too!). We had our favourite wood-oven thin crust pizzas for our Valentine's Day dinner on the Saturday night of the long weekend. We also had our favourite chicken fingers & fries.  

The last time we were out, I noticed that the nearby/within walking distance Starbucks -- which only opened about two years ago (NOT the one connected to the mega-bookstore) -- has closed -- part of a major wave of closures across Canada in recent months, including many in the underground PATH network downtown that I frequented when I was working (which apparently is a ghost town right now...!). 

The little hole-in-the-wall cafe a brief walk away from our condo building -- which I wrote about here, and where dh & I enjoyed lunch a few times, pre-COVID -- has also closed. A new Greek cafe, offering souvlaki, has opened in its place, but it will probably be a while yet before we try it. 

Buying (besides books, lol):  It was a rather expensive month, thanks to two new (& unexpected) purchases/expenses:  

• A new laptop (after my previous one -- only 2.5 years "old"! -- died suddenly).  
• A new filling and replacement crown from the dentist. :p  

Wearing: The usual (i.e., yoga pants, long-sleeved T-shirts, socks and slippers).  Also occasionally a headband, to keep my COVID hair out of my eyes (when tons of mousse fails, lol).  

Trying:  To make a point of reading a book for at least a few minutes, at least once a day. This worked pretty well this past month, as you can tell from my reading totals above! (Reading in bed before I turn out the lights is a highly effective strategy...!) 

(Still) waiting: To get the COVID-19 vaccine...  And all signs indicate we will be waiting for a while yet...!  (See my rant above, in the opening of this post...!)  The current estimated time frame for dh & me to get the vaccine, as per this calculator is currently mid-June to late August (which is actually an improvement on a previous estimate of late September 2021 to early April 2022)(!!!).  The Toronto Star has added vaccination stats to its home page COVID-19 dashboard, and to date, less than 2% of Ontarians have been fully vaccinated (i.e., received two doses of the vaccine).  The federal government is still committed to having everyone vaccinated by the end of September. I guess we'll see if they pull it off...!   

Wanting:  Spring and vaccines to hurry up and get here, SOON!! 

Loving:  Whatever sunshine we manage to get at this time of year... it makes all the difference!!  

Feeling: Fat, frumpy and grumpy.  :p  (lol)  (Did I mention I desperately need/want a haircut??)  

#MicroblogMondays: Annoying things & small pleasures

Annoying things: 

• A return to colder temperatures (including strong winds/windchill factor) after a relatively milder period. I guess March has decided to come in like a lion (vs a lamb, as the old saying goes...).  
• The painfully slow rollout of COVID vaccines here.  :(  
• My shaggy COVID hair.  :p  
• Not having any other ideas for a #MicroblogMondays post this week.  :(  ;)  

Small pleasures: 

• February is over!! 
• A brief, masked visit with Little Great Nephew (and, oh yeah, BIL & SIL too, lol) on Saturday night -- our first in two months (since New Year's Eve). 
• I've read 12 books over the past two months, which is pretty good for me these days... 
• Spaghetti rapini agli e olio from our favourite local Italian restaurant on Saturday (with wine!), easy crockpot chicken & dumplings yesterday -- and leftovers of both for dinners this week. :)  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

"Chronicles of Avonlea" by L.M. Montgomery

Having read & thoroughly discussed "Rilla of Ingleside," "Jane of Lantern Hill" and "The Blue Castle" together as a pleasant diversion over this past pandemic year, my L.M. Montgomery Readathon Facebook group will be tackling "Chronicles of Avonlea" as our next read.   

"Chronicles," originally published in 1912, is Montgomery's fifth published book and her third Anne/Avonlea-related book, following "Anne of Green Gables" and "Anne of Avonlea," sequentially. It's 183 pages long (in the edition I read, anyway) and includes 12 short stories, all set in or around the mythical Prince Edward Island community of Avonlea. While some consider it part of the "Anne of Green Gables" series, Anne Shirley appears only briefly or is merely mentioned in passing in some of the stories. (Under pressure from her publishers to come up with more Anne stories, Montgomery produced this collection by editing some of her previously published short stories to include references to Anne and Avonlea.)  Some of the stories in this book and its sequel volume, "Further Chronicles of Avonlea," were used as source material for the "Road to Avonlea" TV series in the 1990s (which was primarily based on "The Story Girl" and "The Golden Road").  

I'd always thought I'd read just about all of Montgomery's works, with the exception of "A Tangled Web," which I tried to read as a pre-teen and gave up on, and "The Watchman," a collection of her poetry, which I was not able to find as a kid.  I've always preferred novels to short stories, though, and if I'd read this collection before as a pre-teen, I had absolutely no memory of any of the stories in it. (I suspect the same would be true for "Further Chronicles of Avonlea," which was published in 1920.)  

Generally, I prefer complete books to short stories (although I have enjoyed some non-fiction essay collections). That said, short stories and essay collections have their merits, and I've come to appreciate them more as an adult, I think.  They can be great to dip in & out of when time is an issue and attention spans are short, and in this case, it was fun to read a Montgomery book that was as good as new to me.  At the same time, though, there were a lot of themes/plotlines here that were pretty familiar/predictable to anyone who is familiar with other Montgomery works.  Many of the stories here are ultra-sentimental, populated with "old maids," cantankerous bachelors and orphans -- but they also display Montgomery's usual gifts for vivid characterization and beautiful descriptions. 

I can't say I have any favourites among the 12 stories in this volume, although "The Quarantine at Abraham Alexander's"  was both humorous and timely in its theme (and I suspect is one reason why the organizers chose this book to read while we're living under COVID-19 restrictions...!).  I will add a caveat that many of these stories are definitely of their time, and contain themes/elements that those of us who have been through infertility or childlessness might find uncomfortable or even offensive. "Pa Sloane's Purchase" (involving an orphan baby), while meant to be humorous, definitely gave me pause! 

We are only just beginning our discussion of this book (and you are welcome to join us, at the link above!) -- and when we're done, I'll be counting & re-reviewing this book again as a re-read, as I have previously. 

I initially decided on a Goodreads rating of 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4, but after some reflection while writing this review, I decided to round down to 3 stars on Goodreads. 

This was Book #12 read to date in 2021 (and Book #7 finished in February), bringing me to 33% of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 7 books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books."