Most of you come to visit on Wednesday, followed by my Saturday morning posts. I always have something to say on Saturday, being up with the sunrise. I feel obliged to give you something on Wednesday. Something to break up the week.
I was going to give out pithy advice about being housebound. I have been mostly stuck at home for a while, save for the occasional trip to the doctors. I don’t go out for fear of having a sudden migraine attack. Now people are stuck at home for literal existential reasons. I am not going to die if I have an attack, I just don’t want to be moaning in pain while rolling around the floor of Walmart.
I have no great advice. Try to find balance. You are going to get bored. I recommend having background noise. I listen to music, others listen to television, whatever you need to feel in contact. Try to stay in contact with friends if you can. Right now that’s a hard one.
We can’t visit our friends and they can’t see us. I don’t care what anybody says, it seems worse than it first sounded. My heart is broken every time I watch Diane with her mother and them not being able to hug. Because that is what we all need and want right now, is just a hug from our mom. Some encouragement. We will get through this, one way or another.
If you are in the high-risk group, you feel extra stuck. There is no herd immunity and won’t be for a while. Thus, you may be trapped for a while. So, there’s that I guess.
I have been stuck in the house for up to two months before. Days do drift into another if you let them. I have a pretty rigid schedule. I think that is key. Have a schedule and keep it. But, and this is key, don’t kick yourself in the ass when you don’t meet your schedule, cause that will happen too.
I won’t go into details about my schedule but it’s similar to the great Ursula Le Guin,’s (although my pondering time include the local and national news with assorted verbiage, )
My times may be different, but she had a schedule. She kept to it and wrote twenty novels and a myriad of other things. I have a schedule and I keep to it. As much as I can. I guess if I could give you any advice as a mostly housebound disabled person; Find a groove. Find what works and what doesn’t. It’s all about balance.
I need office time in the afternoon and Diane in the morning. That works out pretty well for us. We had it reversed at first and it messed up my day, but I tried to clear a space for Diane in the office. She has the morning shift and I doodle around in the office in the afternoon.
That’s our balance. Give each other space (as much as you can in an 800 square foot house). Like, I said, find a balance, in life and living. That is all the advice I have.
Remain Lost 