the wolves in the walls

The cases in Hawaii are only doubling every 6 days or so, which is better than a lot of places. Nobody I know has gotten sick, but the circle is tightening; friends of friends are dying. My cousin's step brother died yesterday. The wolves can be heard in the distance now. 

I bought a novelty pack of anime cat face masks for $2 as a joke back in February, when the robotics team was still planning to travel to Taiwan. Yesterday I opened one up and went to Walmart for Easter stuff. It was early, and the maze of fencing set up in front of the doors like a Disneyland ride to space customers was still empty. The fabric and craft sections were completely cleaned out (I'm looking forward to seeing all the face masks made out of damask upholstery fabric), the paper aisles were still empty, and the baking goods were all gone, but there was enough stuff in the rest of the store to make Easter happen. I threw all my clothes in the washer on the way to the outdoor shower to decontaminate, and grabbed clean clothes off the laundry line. Having half the house outside is handy in a pandemic.

Inside, there is baking and cleaning and making-of-stuff. Gavin made sword mounts for his room. Zenny has been mangling little dishes out of air-dry clay, Leif has been drawing comics, the kitten has been chewing up my sewing, and I knitted a cardigan nobody will wear because it's suddenly 80 degrees again. Been painting on wood circles that I coated with a few layers of linseed oil, and I love the feel of it. Even though it looks like I was painting a dead child. 

Felt the first stirrings of cabin fever yesterday. This might have something to do with the neighbor's rooster pacification methods; he plays the radio loudly all day next to his chicken coops so they don't crow, and this week he's switched the station from oldies to 90s R&B. I am going to have to get an air rifle just to take out his stereo from the roof like a sniper.

Antidote: