It’s foggy and wet here, the first real rains of this season, their arrival completely coinciding with shelter-in-place. More than once, as I’ve woken to a grey, soothing, pitter-pat room, I’ve wondered if so many people staying home has affected the weather.

I wouldn’t categorize this a completely crazy thought, but enough tangential that it leaves me mildly unsettled and wondering if I’d be one of those people burning some other person as a witch because of some random and illogical connection I’d made in my head during times of stress. But eventually, I soothe myself, if only with the obvious fact that if anybody here is a witch, it’s me.

Anyway, I again found it fairly difficult to get out of bed. How much slack does one allow oneself in this topsy-turvy world? It was just so peaceful in bed with absolutely no news at all that I couldn’t resist snuggling in for a good half-hour, enjoying the lack of doom and destruction.

The bane of my existence – having to pee – ruined everything, and I had to get up.

But wonderful surprise! Upon making coffee, I saw that my sad little sourdough starter I’d begun a few days ago with bleached flour (WRONG!) and probably some chlorinated water (SO WRONG) and accidentally stirred with a metal fork (DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE DIRECTIONS AT ALL?!) was actually somewhat resembling something growing wild yeast.

via GIPHY

ALSO! I had neither stress-inducing emails nor opened the internet to anything obnoxiously horrible, and now, with a big dose of caffeine, I am feeling that generally, getting out of bed was the right move.

Here is a soothing video on making sourdough starter and the resulting bread that got me inspired. I could listen to that guy talk all day. Also, feeling empowered by using ingredients that by rights should only make kindergarten paste and instead creating some life affirming thing. I will be so, so happy to kill it once society reforms and I can pay someone else to make my goddamn bread.

Also, here is another video my kids chose to educate me on history. I was quite skeptical when it opened with a baby Abraham Lincoln being forcefully ejected from his mother’s birth canal and then making a short speech about poops, but it proved quite educational.

If you are looking for something grisly to listen to, (I am this way sometimes. I have a lot of anxiety! But don’t want to ramp it up with current events! And somehow focusing on something far away that feels like a terrible puzzle you might one day solve makes it easier? Either you know exactly what I’m talking about or I sound like a loon right now.) The podcast DOWN THE HILL about the Delphi Murders is pretty good so far.

And if you are like, Gimme the light version of that thing you’re talking about in the above paragraph, the Winchester Mystery Mansion has a free video tour up right now, which I haven’t watched in it’s entirety yet, but so far is a pretty fascinating trip. That very small door in the carriage house! LOVE.