Most exciting thing that happened to me during lockdown

Yes, lockdown, or 'sheltering in place' as some say, rather euphemistically, or self-isolation as the Public Health edicts call it is difficult.

For those of us without children at home, and not working from home...well, let's just say I had a very pleasant one hour conversation earlier today with a telemarketer. What else is there to do?

I've asked my social media friends to share what the most exciting thing is that has happened to them since the pandemic struck.

For me, I can't think of many exciting moments to consider and rate.

Perhaps the most exciting thing happened yesterday when I played hide-and-go-seek with the grandchildren. I'd forgotten how dark closets are when the door is closed. Remember the tiny crack of light under the door? I can't say I actually saw that crack. I mostly just saw the ceiling, being as I was simply a face and voice on an iPhone. Diminishing this experience, however, was despite the fact I was hundreds of miles away I repeatedly got blamed for making too much noise and giving away the hiding spot.

Although that was a fun event, perhaps for an exciting event I should consider my social distancing visit with four close friends around a roaring campfire the other night. The fact that we couldn't share food or drink or photos did't stop us from sharing a few good laughs. Especially when we enacted our perspectives on tele-medicine and our annual physical exams.

But as far as the type of excitement that gets one's heart racing, the number one event since being in self isolation has to be the day I exploded the hot tub.

Now, I am ever so grateful to have my very own hot tub, outdoors. A place I can go and soak away my worries and woes. But like I hinted at before, boredom does strange things to people. It seems it caused me to believe at some point that I might have plumbing abilities.

In any event, I decided to fix that control knob that leaked. It had been leaking for months but it only leaked when the jets were on and the tiny trickle just ran back into the tub so nothing had been done about it. But for pandemic-induced reasons, I decided I should and could fix this issue.

Well about two minutes into my repair job, complete with the explosive sound effects, a frothing four foot pillar of angry water torpedoed the knob and its leaky innards a good fourteen feet into the air. Myriad plastic pieces fell back from the sky, burying themselves into the surrounding snow banks as the geyser kept rising, writhing and roaring from the hole where the control knob had once been.

Keep in mind it is -10C , I'm soaking wet, in a bathing suit and the water in the tub in dipping dangerously low. I'm jabbing at the control panel to turn off the jets but nothing is happening. The pool of water outside the tub is beginning to freeze.

Luckily, a few more jabs and I finally got the jets turned off. I stared around me. I couldn't believe my misfortune. I'd entered the tub fearful and anxious, intent on giving up my stress to the warmth of the water massage as I'd done almost every day since  Covid-19 stay-at-home orders were issued. Now, I was more anxious than ever and had apparently disabled one of my life's few remaining pleasures.

But, being me (and being cold), I didn't stand there long. My robe, which had been carefully hung on the rail was dripping wet. My slippers were wet, too, but they were my plastic sandals so I slipped them on and, mostly naked I raced around the deck, digging into the snow to retrieve washers and rings and various other pieces of plastic that looked like they may belong to a hot tub control knob.

Still fancying myself somewhat of a plumber I pieced things together as best I could and then closed the tub lid, too frightened to turn on the jets to see if my fix job worked.

As I climbed down from my hot tub, I realized with horror that the steps were covered in a smelly, brown mess. As were my sandals! Apparently in my dash about the deck to recover pieces, I'd uncovered the winter's stash of doggy do-do.

I now had to rush about (still in my bathing suit), scrubbing, cleaning, rinsing, disinfecting the steps, my shoes, the deck, itself. 

I was not a happy camper when hubby showed up. But bless his soul. In less than an hour he had my tub up and running again.

I'm am so very happy that each day, I can still slip out there and soak. The snow is now gone, the stash of doggy-do gone, and overhead the Canada geese fly, robins flirt in the nearby trees and around the pond below, my beloved red winged blackbirds trill.

Yes, the day the tub exploded was the most exciting thing that has happened to me since lockdown began.

"...Lockdown" has been brought to you by the BackTracker Series.

Canadian author, Eileen Schuh, is known for her thrilling elements of crime, sensitive treatment of social issues, and emotional exposure of the human psyche.

Schuh's most recent release in her gritty BackTracker crime series is the crime thriller, OPERATION MAXTRACKER. The previous books in this series are THE TRAZ, FATAL ERROR and FIREWALLS.

Schuh is also the proud author of two adult SciFi novellas, SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT and DISPASSIONATE LIES, the adult crime thriller, SHADOW RIDERS.

Her latest release is the grade school novel, BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE RAINBOW.

Eileen Schuh, Author 
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com
Blog: http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com

Schrödinger's Lockdown Covid--19

Disclosure

The mandated self-isolation required to prevent the unfettered spread of the novel coronavirus is proving very difficult. It is more than just the inconvenience and more than just the loss of freedom.

Yes, we are social creatures and socializing is etched into our genes--but it is more than that.

The effects of the lock-down reach deep into our psyche, disturbing our dreams and wearing on our emotions. Warping our sense of reality.

For those not familiar with the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment, the take away is that according to some interpretations of quantum theories, reality doesn't actually exist in our space time until it is observed.

Physicists are coming to realize that our entire reality, from subatomic particles on up through our world and out into the universe beyond, exists only in relation to other things. Much like 'up' is meaningless and can't exist without there being a 'down', things like electrons owe their existence to their interaction with other particles. The basic building blocks of energy and matter exist only in a state of possibility and probability until interacting with the space-time reality in which we exist. Only with that interaction, do they condense into a set time and place in our world.

I think we intrinsically know about this nature of our reality and it perhaps terrifies us to think that withdrawing from our society threatens it's very existence. Without interaction with our world, we fear it will fade away. We fear we will fade away. We fear reality will collapse into nothing, into a black hole, sucking us and all we know into non-existence.

This may not be a valid fear, but it is a primordial one, one that visits us at nighttime in dream messages, tapping into our subconscious knowledge. Beyond what we can express in words, we know reality needs our participation to exist.

As weeks of isolation turn into months of isolation, we feel ourselves fading away.

Schrödinger's Lockdown has been brought to you by SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT

"I loved it from the first word."
"And the ending I never expected"
"thoroughly rocked my socks..."
"a book that engaged all senses and emotions"

Eileen Schuh, Author 
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com

Toss the Bottle

Toss the Bottle

~ EileenSchuh.com©

Put away the pint, will ya

Before the damn stuff kills ya.

It should be pretty clear by now

There ain’t no wine or beer no how

Gonna make that pesky virus go away.

You may not wanna hear it

But there’s evil in those spirits

Put the cork in, toss the bottle

Send the devil on his way.

The fifth is a series of Mental Health blogs for Covid19

Disclosure

Brought to you by OPERATION MAXTRACKER

"Cyberspace Teeters on Collapse"

"Fourth novel in thriller series has eerie ring of reality"

"a fast-flowing follow-up to FIREWALLS"

"Schuh creates in readers a quiver of anticipation and dread"

"Schuh takes OPERATION MAXTRACKER to a new level as danger, cunning and espionage spill out of the virtual world into real life."

Eileen Schuh, Author 
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com
Blog: http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com

Putting a voice to my words

[Disclosure]


Putting a voice to my words is brought to you by Eileen Schuh, Author

The Write Way to deal with Covid19

For Therapy, for Posterity, write your life

Disclosure

I gave a little teaser on Facebook today about what I was going to blog about on my daily Covid19 Mental Health series.  I wrote a little poem about #GrandmaInLockdown.

The toys are all a-scatter
Not that it even matters
There won't be any knocks upon the door.
No visitors will visit
No kids will come to play
No one will ask for ice cream
Or beg their mom to stay...
#GrandmaInLockDown

My blog was going to be about how therapeutic writing is, about scientific studies that show the act of writing helps people deal with fears, stress and anxiety. I was going to encourage my fellow writers to use their words in public ways to help the world. To record this massively historic event so the generations to come will have a clear picture of what we went through. So we can be viewed as great adventurers, achievers, fighters. Strong.

I was going to tell those of my readers who are shy about writing, to pick up the pen anyway and keep a diary. Lock it if you want.  For now.

When we're long gone, our descendants will be interested in "the Pandemic of 2020". They'll want to read about our lives, our feelings, our fears, our governments. Our homes, our clothes, our food and technology. Our culture. They'll be intrigued with even just short accounts of firing up our i phones and logging onto Facebook, fascinated to discover how strange it felt for so many to work from home. They'll wonder at the quaint custom of 'buffets' and roll their eyes at our stories of toilet paper hoarding and maybe laugh at the government videos showing us how to wash our hands.

I was going to write all that until I wrote that poem. When I hit 'post' the life drained out of me. My spirit died. Hope, vanished. My desire to be useful left. I no longer wanted to write about writing. How could I tell people it was therapeutic to write, when it had decimated me?

I was going to tell you all that my latest novel written for middle grade children, BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE RAINBOW starts off with a mother admonishing her children to consider the turn in their lives an "adventure."

Danielle cannot believe she's embarking on an adventure. Her parents are fighting and divorcing and her mother has moved them from their city home to a rundown shack on the prairies.

Danielle  must have felt much like we do--life as she'd always known it was over. She had no electricity, no inside toilet. No running water. Her friends, her school, and her father are thousands of kilometers away. And...like us, she has no idea how or when it's all going to end. She knows, it will never be the same again.

Adventure indeed.

Well, come to think of it, now that I've written about my novel, I've cheered up a bit. I love talking about my books, reconnecting with the characters I've lived with and slept with and dreamed about for months (and some of them, years) as I worked to tell their stories.

Perhaps this idea of writing for therapy has some truth to it...

The Write Way...has been brought to you by BETWEEN THE SUN AND THE RAINBOW

Nine-year-old Danielle’s parents are getting divorced and she doesn’t think things can get any worse—but they definitely don’t seem to be getting any better, either.
Her mother takes her and her older brother, Jayson, thousands of kilometers from their Toronto home to the old family homestead on the Alberta prairie. Inside and outside of the rundown shack that is now home, everything is strange and frightening.
Her mother says they will connect with nature on the farm and begin to heal but to Danielle, it seems a very painful way to heal.
Little by little, however, she learns what a family is all about. She just might begin to find the peace and happiness she needs.

Eileen Schuh, Author 
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com

Be here Be now Be gentle with yourself

[Disclosure]

#Covid19 Small steps to Mental Health

I'm going to drop the numbering of my Mental Health steps as nobody is going to follow them in order anyways...and that is just fine.

I want us all to be gentle with ourselves. Don't feel unworthy, dejected or abnormal if you're not anywhere near following my advice. Or if you want to skip the first two steps and dive into this one. Or if you're still back on step one trying to find the words for your fears.

Forgive yourself if all you can do is watch the news, even if you know you shouldn't. Or if you refuse to watch the news, though you know you should. If you're eating too much, or too little. Sleeping too much or not at all. If you don't want to talk to anyone, or if you can't shut up. If you'd rather finish that crochet project but are instead memorized by Candy Crush. 

We will also forgive all others within our circle for behaving in ways we may wish to judge negatively.

Our bodies, our minds, our spirits know exactly what we need to be doing right now to make it safely through our troubles. Let's allow that part of us that resides beyond words and thoughts, judgments, edicts and decrees--let that part of us take control. It will do a fine job. 

There's no charted course for dealing with this global stress. We're all in different circumstances. We have arrived here on different paths. We see things differently, feel things different. Behave different. 

However, we do share much of the same reality.

Today I want us to focus on the here and now. Because no one, not the politicians, nor the health experts nor the psychiatrists, economists or historians. Not the scientists nor the media. No one can tell us much at all about what our future will be like.

But there are some things we do know. The sun will set tonight and rise tomorrow. Our winter season will flow steadily into spring and then summer (or autumn into winter, if we're south of the equator.) The breezes will blow, the birds chirp, gardens grow. Once in a while there will be a rainbow.

For most of us, the here and now is a warm place, familiar and fairly comfortable. We are fed. We have a pillow and bed. If you're reading this, you have some kind of electronic device and connection to the internet. In the here and now there is no immediate danger. At all. Bombs are not exploding around us. We have water in our taps. It's quiet outside. People are 'sheltering in place'--a warm and cozy phrase. Sheltering...

Over all, here and now is a safe place to be.

Relax into it. Own it. Make it yours.

In my novel OPERATION MAXTRACKER , the world is on the verge of collapse, not from a virus, well not a Corona-kind of virus. In this fourth novel in my BackTracker series, my characters know the world may never be the same again because criminals have hijacked cyberspace, robbed the banks, collapsed the stock market, wiped out justice and democracy. Rewrote history.

One of my favourite characters in my BackTracker series, cyber security expert, Cst. Donald Hayes aka Shrug, is trying to work with his cohorts down east, in the big city capital of the nation. Shrug is a prairie boy born and bred and doesn't fit in well with the city folk, with the politics. The rituals. He complains to his boss.

"We’re spendin’ millions on this cyberspace shit because in the plush high-rise office towers in the metropolis, they really think the world will end without it. F**k! Ask a farm boy how the world will end and he’ll tell you it’ll end when the sun don’t shine and the rain don’t fall. If the eastern cities were to wake up hungry, think anyone would care who’s inhabitin’ cyberspace?” OPERATION BACKTRACKER ~Eileen Schuh

We should all take that farmboy attitude. 

There is much that is right with our world in the here and now. Let's savor it, acknowledge and nourish it, because from the here and now will spring our future.

Here and Now... has been brought to you by OPERATION MAXTRACKER

Sergeant Kindle is counting on his top secret Operation MaxTracker team to thwart a surging attempt by criminal gangs to hijack cyberspace and take control of the world.

The tremendous power of the defensive system the team is creating and the potential for its abuse, has computer guru, Katrina Buckhold, on edge. Shrug, Head of Project Security, is supposedly keeping everyone and everything safe, but based on her past experiences with him, she's not confident he's up to that task.

Katrina's toughest battles, though, are not against those threatening cyberspace but against those who are concerned about her ability to raise her children, and Shrug's not helping with that, either.

Then unspeakable tragedy strikes, stripping all friendships to the core and laying bare the stunning truths behind the secrets, fears and mistrust.

Eileen Schuh, Author 
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com

COVID19 Second Step to Mental Health

Using our words

[disclosure]

Yesterday I blogged about the importance of assigning words to one's emotions, one's fears, how to take step one in our journey through this crisis. It's only when we are able to put words to what we're feeling that we can communicate.

Being able to share our feelings enables us to understand we are not alone, that we are normal, that we are part of what is going on around us. It allows us to connect with others, receive their support and encouragement, and offer them ours.

It also allows us to research the issues frightening us, and tentatively start planning creative solutions to deal with our anxiety and eventually move past it.

As I searched for my own words, I realized much of my anxiety was arising from the stories I heard from parents as a child. Stories about the 1918 pandemic, the 1929 stock market crash and the Dirty 30s. Once I put words to the source of my anxiety, I was able to go online and research those events.  I came to understand the similarities and differences between now and then. 

I read about what governments, health care services, and society in general learned from those past tragedies. I began realizing that governments around the world, and my own government in particular, were implementing the lessons learned long ago and my fears eased. That would not have happened if I'd not taken the time to sort through my feelings and put words to them. 

We're all fearing different things. Some are concerned about food supply, some about the illness itself. Some are focused on financial worries. Many are fearful of the future. Some wonder about civil unrest, justice... I won't mention all the worries because some of us will grab onto them and acquire an entire new set of worries.

Do take the time to study your own fears and as they change, find new words to describe them. Put those words to use by sharing them with trusted others. Ask questions of experts about the things you are fearing. Research reputable online sites. If you are worried about finances, find out what public assistance may be available to you and how to access that help. Share what you find out with others who have the same worries. 

If you're worried about contracting the illness, check your government public health websites. There is lots of information on how to stay safe.

If you're worried about others, share with them what you learn about what they must do to keep safe.

With the knowledge you gain, will come power and with that power will come the ability to cope with both your emotions and the situations from which they are arising.

It's a very easy second step on our way to coping with COVID19.

We'll move beyond words on my next blog and search out some activities that can calm us and help others.

Second Step is brought to you by THE TRAZ

"Great Strong Story--a wonderful read"

"I found that it was hard to put down (even for sleep)"

"I just had to finish it; I needed to know what was going to happen next..." 

Eileen Schuh, Author 
FIREWALLS
FATAL ERROR
Schrödinger's Cat
THE TRAZ
Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com