Monday Musings… on a Tuesday
To be fair, I wrote this on Monday night, so I’m sticking by my title.
I’ve been away from this space for awhile. I stayed away intentionally because I had no idea what to say.
Things are hard right now, for so many. People are struggling from the shutdown and the pandemic. They’re losing their business, their homes, their livelihoods. And even during these struggles, in North Carolina our numbers continue to rise. We’ve hit record hospitalizations and record percentage of positive tests so many times over the past week I’ve lost count. Even as we continue to reopen.
Sigh.
The world seems to be finally ready to acknowledge the pain and suffering of Black people and other POC. I’ve stepped back from making any online statements or thoughts of my own. As a white person, I consider my role to be to #dothework to understand my own white privilege and the systemic problems that keep change from happening, as well as to #amplifymelanatedvoices. That’s what I’ve been focusing on.
So I didn’t know what to say, and with things being so heavy, it didn’t feel right to jump on here and complain about the foundation still not being done (spoiler alert: it’s still not done). But life moves on and I’m trying to incorporate so much more of this into my daily life, even though it’s hard.
Currently:
Reading - White Fragility by Robin Diangelo and So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo #dothework
Watching - Mrs. America on Hulu, about the Equal Rights Amendment. Cate Blanchett is amazing as Phyllis Schlafly, leader of the movement against the ERA. Sarah Paulson (as another anti-ERAer) and Uzo Aduba (as Shirley Chisholm) and Rose Byrne (as Gloria Steinem) are equally incredible.
Loving - this blog post from Sherry & John of Young House Love that features over 200 highly recommended Black-owned businesses to support, many of which ship their products nationwide. I may or may not be very impatiently waiting for these cookies to come back in stock. I mean, look at them.
What’s going on -
Foundation work continues, but it does appear to be nearing the end. And we are past the “house leveling” phase, so there shouldn’t be any more unexpected cracks. That means we can go ahead and move forward on all the other work that needs to be done. Which means we should start working. Like…. now.
A recommended painter came by today to look at the house to give us a quote to paint the entire house, interior and exterior. Based on his comments (and his facial expressions) I’m terrified to get the actual number. Theoretically we could do the interior painting. I’m even more terrified that we might have to.
The cracks on the side of the pantry, all filled in.
More cracks fixed on the back of the house.
Some good news -
A few weeks ago, Chris’ Dad, Austin, was diagnosed with Covid-19. He was hospitalized about a week later at the VA Hospital in Denver. To say it was a stressful time is an understatement. But I am thrilled to say that he is getting better and we hope he’s out of the hospital soon.
The foundation work apparently included doing the brick masonry work of filling and repairing the cracks in the house’s exterior, as well as rebuilding the sinking front steps. This means we don’t need to hire a separate brick mason, which is great news. Maybe we can put that money towards the painter’s quote…
We went ahead and donated Chris’ car to the Vehicles for Veterans program. We’re down to 1 car for the rest of our time in Durham!
When you spend this much time at home, things get weird. Especially when Rigsbee is involved.
Thanks for sticking with us during our break. We missed you and look forward to sharing our progress with you. Once we actually start making some progress. And if the painter’s quote is as bad as I’m afraid of, I’m not above having a masks-on painting party.