Well it's truly a different World from my last blogpost!
I feel the need to document this time at least with one post.
(from the comic book Asterix and Obelix- Asterix and the Chariot Race)
We are in the beginnings of the Covid-19 pandemic here in Taos, and we have been self-isolating at home for three weeks already. I have been homeschooling for two weeks now, slowly figuring out the new routine, which does keep changing as I get more resource material. This basically means that Kodiak has gone from about two hours total of screen time per week to 15-20 hours per week. I am trying to curb it, but most of his various lessons are online now.
Homeschooling does have huge advantages too- I am enjoying seeing how my kid learns and being a part of his enthusiastic discoveries. I have taken pleasure in teaching him proper cursive, and he is using that for journaling. He is now also learning Swedish with Rosetta Stone, which I think will be helpful for a future life in Sweden. The one-on-one learning suits him well.
Homeschooling takes up all my mornings until about 1pm. After lunch, there are those many home projects that we tackle, including building a deck portale, repairing never ending broken stuff, re organizing within the house, and mending clothes.
And then there is cooking food, based on a strict no-waste policy. As we only go food shopping once a week, all the meals need to go a bit further, and all the ingredients need to be thought of in order of spoilage. This is much like cooking in restaurants, with a skillset I still cherish. That solid decade of my early life working in restaurants is paying off now.
For my birthday, Christian set up a drawing table in my home-office space. I now have a designated area to do my so-called "small ink drawings", and other illustrative works. For those who don't know, I did go to school for editorial illustration. Clearly I veered into the more physical, intense and dirty world of metalworking, and blacksmithing. I think I use drawing as respite from all the hard core sensory stimulation of shop work.
Some older ink drawings:
a few of my newer ones:
a more recent one:(titled "it's been a hard year")
I miss metalworking! When I do get into the shop, I love it. It's not as often as I wish, but I can really appreciate it. Yesterday I got to forge for a bit, and made a bunch of hooks for the new portale.
My last job was a long railing and a smaller rail. Little did I know that this would be the end of paying work for a while. All my UNM Welding classes have been canceled and my Women's Welding Workshop had to finish early as well. I hope to see and work with them again soon. Christian had a festival booking in Croatia this Summer, but that went away too.
The eye of the storm is the mostly calm part of a Tropical Cyclone or Hurricane. Christian and I have worked over the years to set ourselves up to survive as artists. That basically means that our income is sporadic and we don't know what wages we may earn in a given year. To be comfortable with this uncertainty is sometimes challenging, and a few common sense rules apply. Have no debt is the biggest one. We have worked hard to have no debt, owning all our stuff, including our fleet of old rag-tag vehicles. Over the years I have grown less and less interested in participating in any American consumer dream, not that I ever was one to buy into that, but I think the proof is in the pudding now. We are currently living in the eye of the storm, and I am grateful to be there.
Even in a pandemic, even without work and income, even without adequate testing and contact tracing and a government that is completely failing its people, I see many things to be grateful for. Some things will change for a while, other will change forever. Change comes when needed. I can't help but be amazed by how fast things happened, and really in the end...what an extraordinary time it is to be alive.
...to be continued.
I feel the need to document this time at least with one post.
We are in the beginnings of the Covid-19 pandemic here in Taos, and we have been self-isolating at home for three weeks already. I have been homeschooling for two weeks now, slowly figuring out the new routine, which does keep changing as I get more resource material. This basically means that Kodiak has gone from about two hours total of screen time per week to 15-20 hours per week. I am trying to curb it, but most of his various lessons are online now.
Homeschooling does have huge advantages too- I am enjoying seeing how my kid learns and being a part of his enthusiastic discoveries. I have taken pleasure in teaching him proper cursive, and he is using that for journaling. He is now also learning Swedish with Rosetta Stone, which I think will be helpful for a future life in Sweden. The one-on-one learning suits him well.
Homeschooling takes up all my mornings until about 1pm. After lunch, there are those many home projects that we tackle, including building a deck portale, repairing never ending broken stuff, re organizing within the house, and mending clothes.
And then there is cooking food, based on a strict no-waste policy. As we only go food shopping once a week, all the meals need to go a bit further, and all the ingredients need to be thought of in order of spoilage. This is much like cooking in restaurants, with a skillset I still cherish. That solid decade of my early life working in restaurants is paying off now.
For my birthday, Christian set up a drawing table in my home-office space. I now have a designated area to do my so-called "small ink drawings", and other illustrative works. For those who don't know, I did go to school for editorial illustration. Clearly I veered into the more physical, intense and dirty world of metalworking, and blacksmithing. I think I use drawing as respite from all the hard core sensory stimulation of shop work.
Some older ink drawings:
a few of my newer ones:
a more recent one:(titled "it's been a hard year")
I miss metalworking! When I do get into the shop, I love it. It's not as often as I wish, but I can really appreciate it. Yesterday I got to forge for a bit, and made a bunch of hooks for the new portale.
My last job was a long railing and a smaller rail. Little did I know that this would be the end of paying work for a while. All my UNM Welding classes have been canceled and my Women's Welding Workshop had to finish early as well. I hope to see and work with them again soon. Christian had a festival booking in Croatia this Summer, but that went away too.
The eye of the storm is the mostly calm part of a Tropical Cyclone or Hurricane. Christian and I have worked over the years to set ourselves up to survive as artists. That basically means that our income is sporadic and we don't know what wages we may earn in a given year. To be comfortable with this uncertainty is sometimes challenging, and a few common sense rules apply. Have no debt is the biggest one. We have worked hard to have no debt, owning all our stuff, including our fleet of old rag-tag vehicles. Over the years I have grown less and less interested in participating in any American consumer dream, not that I ever was one to buy into that, but I think the proof is in the pudding now. We are currently living in the eye of the storm, and I am grateful to be there.
Even in a pandemic, even without work and income, even without adequate testing and contact tracing and a government that is completely failing its people, I see many things to be grateful for. Some things will change for a while, other will change forever. Change comes when needed. I can't help but be amazed by how fast things happened, and really in the end...what an extraordinary time it is to be alive.
...to be continued.
Thanks!!
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