Less than 11 months after reading The Fuck It Diet, I finally did it: canceled my Weight Watchers subscription.  It’s over.  I’ll always think highly of WW.  When I ballooned during my mirtazapine Bad Days, it was good for me… but as I’ve already stated, I’m not going to continue spending my life losing and gaining the same silly 5 pounds anymore.  I’m not a natural 120.  I seem to be a natural 128.  Fuck it.

…the perfection of this evening on Wiseacres Farm.

Spring chores done; the garden coming up perfectly; the goaties grazing.

 

• Make a rez at Trattoria D’Elia
• Stop in at Pizzeria Verita
• Visit VPB
• Chow down at El Cortijo
• Saunter down Church St
•  . . .

All right, basically visit every restaurant & bar in creation.

• Visit Montreal & see Cirque du Soleil every year for my birthday
• Bike the Chambly Canal
• Go to Bar Harbor/Acadia every September
• Go to the Caribbean every March

Restaurants and travel.  Yummmmm…..

		1-May	2-May	3-May	4-May	5-May	6-May	7-May	8-May	9-May	10-May	11-May	12-May	13-May
Chittenden	Positive test results	419	422	423	425	425	426	431	431	431	432	432	432	432
Vermont	Positive test results*	879	886	897	902	907	908	916	919	921	927	926	927	929
	Total tests conducted	16,233	16,591	16,954	17,332	17,518	17,867	18,451	19,008	19,527	20,048	20,871	21,262	21,676
	Deaths+	50	51	52	52	52	52	53	53	53	53	53	53	53
	People being monitored	20	15	12	12	20	20	23	24	27	24	23	25	27
	People who have completed monitoring	833	838	841	841	840	841	841	842	842	845	846	849	849
	Hospitalized patients with COVID-19	11	11	10	8	8	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
	Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19	8	9	9	7	25	20	9	10	16	16	9	13	12

These numbers are spectacular.  New cases & deaths barely even nudge lately.

 

I think X and I are getting along better than ever during quarantine.  I think the basic reason is because we have to.

It used to be I’d spend a lot of the workweek here alone, trying to make things neat and tidy, annoyed at things that he left untidy or that just will never be tidy while he lives here.  I’d also be simultaneously annoyed when he wouldn’t come home till late, not caring about me; and annoyed when he DID come home before late, wrecking my solitude.

Now he’s just always there.  I don’t have to adjust between being alone and not being alone, and I can just plain give up on tidiness.  The dining room is an example.  It’s his home office now, and his computer and stuff are there on one end of the table.  No picture-perfect dining room with a vase of tulips in the center of the table for me.  So I don’t even try.  So I end up less frustrated.

Also he is less tired and more happy.  Less tired from not commuting.  Happier, I don’t know why; being less tired, for one, but also, I think he kind of thrives on uncertain crises just like this one.  He knows he can’t do anything about it, so he just whistles through the shitstorm as best he can.

 

Beatrice, best goat in the world, looking stunning.

I’m still tracking Vermont COVID-19 stats, but I’m retiring the stay-at-home spreadsheet as it no longer inspires me.

		17-Apr	18-Apr	19-Apr	20-Apr	21-Apr	22-Apr	23-Apr	24-Apr
Chittenden	Positive test results	378	384	385	385	391	393	395	396
Vermont	Positive test results*	779	803	812	816	818	823	825	827
	Total tests conducted	12116	12,566	12,726	12,981	13,111	13,462	13,852	14,310
	Deaths+	35	38	38	38	40	40	43	44
	People being monitored	29	29	25	28	25	23	21	19
	People who have completed monitoring	804	805	808	813	817	819	821	823
	Hospitalized patients with COVID-19	32	32	27	24	21	18	15	12
	Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19	24	24	26	25	20	19	29

We continue to crush it.  But the curve will not literally flatten.  Even if it’s just one or two, there always seem to be new cases.

 

 

The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger

Well this was a juicy yarn! The story of what happens to a four-way collection of friendships and marriages when a new school for “gifted” children prepares to open in a small Colorado city.

Semi-spoilers ahead!

“Semi” because you can surely see it coming. But I didn’t much mind that the big reveal was my least favorite plot hinge – secret parentage!! OMG!! Who you thought was your daddy ain’t your daddy! Because it wasn’t really the point of anything. The point was how the competition and blind ambition to have each character’s children acknowledged as “gifted” tore apart friendships and marriages.

I thought Rose’s blow-up at the book’s climax was almost cartoonish, unfortunately. Her character was something of a cipher. She never really felt like a neuroscientist to me. And I thought she was unduly mean to her husband, mainly at the end; but infidelity is another plot device, like unknown parentage, that kind of leaves me uninterested. But I shouldn’t quibble about how realistic a portray of a scientist Rose was; I’m always bitching that I want more STEM characters in novels; SO tired of protagonists who, suprirse!, are novelists… actually, more often they are thinly disguised as some other kind of artist. I’m glad Holsinger went out and did a bit of research as to what a neurological doctor’s day might be like.

I was definitely nailed to this book; thumbs up. ( )

	16-Apr
Did you stay home today?	Curbside Hatchet
What was for dinner?	Hatchet
What business or charity did you support?	Hatchet
	16-Apr
Positive test results	377
Positive test results*	768
Total tests conducted	11,507
Deaths+	35
People being monitored	30
People who have completed monitoring	803
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19	33
Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19	25

This quarantine thing is really working well for me.  I really have next to nothing to complain about.

	11-Apr	12-Apr	13-Apr	14-Apr	15-Apr
Did you stay home today?	Bernice Day	Jericho Market	Yes, 100%	X’s snow tires	Jericho Market for milk
What was for dinner?	Curbside Kitchen Table Bistro	Mexican casserole	Split pea soup	Curbside meatball hero	Turkey joe!
What business or charity did you support?	Curbside Kitchen Table Bistro	Jericho Market	Pizzeria Verita gift card	Mountain High	Pie Empire!

And Vermont in general, and Chittenden in particular, BTW, is totally SQUASHING it.

Chittenden	Positive test results	351	364	372	372	372
Vermont	Positive test results*	711	727	748	752	759
	Total tests conducted	9,258	9,841	10,365	10,585	11,081
	Deaths+	25	27	28	29	30
	People being monitored	40	39	38	35	32
	People who have completed monitoring	785	786	793	796	800
	Hospitalized patients with COVID-19	32	34	33	31	33
	Hospitalized patients under investigation for COVID-19	45	33	33	33	30