After Covid

My first outing was to Madera Canyon where I watched two Coatis roaming around their patch for food

When you're almost dead and don't have the energy to clean, there's the aftermath of house cleaning!  Good gods!  There was laundry, bed sheets to wash, cleaning the floors, dishes and so on and so forth. And then, there's the whole covid sleep factor. 

Nova "helps" me organize a trip.  Knock on wood.  I'm hoping it happens. 

When you have covid, sleep is amazing.  I have spoken to so many dead people in my dreams in crazy fantastical places that it's not even funny.  The dreams are intense and real.  And the sleep is deep and sound.  Maybe it's because we have one foot in the grave now?  Who knows?  But it has created a terrible sleep pattern over these past 2 months!  I stay up until 4 in the morning and sleep until 11 everyday but expect myself to keep the same daily routine with less time to do so!

Cassin's Sparrow

After a month of quarantining, I am slowly getting my groove back.  I had a haircut!  And I've been hesitantly interacting with humanity. Once you get covid, you don't ever want it again. I went to the post office today to mail off some masks to a friend but noticed two "Karens" without a mask in our mask mandated city of Tucson. It made me angry.  There were so many people being careful and two jackasses didn't social distance or wear a mask.  My attitude? Get the hell out of the post office.  I don't want covid again. And it's not fair to the all the people who were standing there socially distancing with their masks on.  There's a special place in hell for people like that.  Needless to say, I reported the post office for servicing those covid spreaders. If we don't take this seriously, I will never see my students again.  My tolerance for stupidity is very low now.  And I am angry. There were a lot of wide eyes at the lady. I won't be going to the post office again. 

Blue Grosbeak

The public is exhausting. I am grateful for the friends and family who brought us groceries while we were down.  Even today after the covid, shopping can be very draining. So much careful planning has to happen for every visit to a store. I try to go when numbers are low.  And I avoid shopping on the weekends now. I think that was the hardest thing to do......grocery shop again.  The body has to build strength again and those first baby steps were hard.  I'd break out in a sweat for a minimal amount of exertion. So I had to approach my birding that same way for a week until my body could build strength.  It was a treat to see people outside exercising as if there wasn't any major pandemic going on.  It has also been very strange that there hasn't been any real quarantining happening in Arizona even after we became the hotspot.  If you're lucky to leave your covid hell, it's a real eye opener!

a juvenile Bridled Titmouse begs the parent to feed them

Escaping the endless horrible news after quarantine is a must. I get so bored, but thankfully, I enjoy writing. For several weeks, I pulled out those "emergency blog posts" while we were dealing with our sickness.  I lost the stamina to write.  Now that I'm back to "normal", I have enjoyed the writing process again. I had a few students who shared with me their stories of the covid infection.  Here is some useful information if you get the mild case of covid. There are 3 choices with this virus. You either are asymptomatic, have a mild case(what we had) OR you are in the ER/Covid Unit/ventilator due to breathing issues. If you experience "allergies or a slight cough", get tested as soon as you can. After the hellish experience with our mild case of covid, we were told by doctors that a slight cough can be expected for a few weeks after you had the virus. (which was good to hear).  It's probably similar to what smokers experience.  Hopefully it's not for life. 

Lesser Nighthawks are quite visible now at sunset.  We had one fly over the garden recently.

One night, my stubborn German side came out and said, "You're going for a walk!" Part of the resistance building came from simple walks at night or from the car.  My first attempt was a walk around Agua Caliente Park when everyone went home.  I watched Lesser Nighthawks and Purple Martins zip around me at sunset. 

Greater Roadrunner

During those first few outings, I just drove in my car and went to places away from people.  Monsoon is here now and it has been rather beautiful so I did my yearly trek during a rain event to count Cassin's Sparrows in the grasslands.  There was lightning so I stayed in my vehicle, the USS Betty White. 

A lot of the action has been also happening at home.  I've been purchasing more oranges and seed for ONE station under our oak trees in the courtyard. You can see the plants getting "excited" for the rain events.  The humidity in the air is wonderfully nasty for humans but the plants love it!  It looks like they are almost glowing green as if they were giving a sigh of relief. And after getting beat up by the sun for nearly 2 months, they immediately perk up with that glorious first nitrogen rich rain!

a view of the beautiful monsoon sunset from our side garden

Tucsonans get excited about the monsoon season.  Most people groan elsewhere but in the desert West, it's a celebration. It also makes for very comfortable birding after the rain event. I just have to be careful with the lightning. It's not a joke here. Birding is also good for the memory.  I had a moment on the trail today when I forgot the name of the blackbird with red on the wings.  Seriously! I stopped what I was doing and concentrated.....RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD! It took about 30 seconds to remember. I was a bit scared that I couldn't multi-task and remember all the birds zipping around me.  Baby steps. 

A first for our patch!!!!!!  A Bullock's Oriole visits our feeder!!!!  It was so exciting!

I am so glad we secured our place with our catio screen.  Crime rates in midtown have gone up.  For TWO nights, there has been a police helicopter shining lights over my garden!  An armed felon hid on my neighbor's patio!  It was very scary.  And then the next night, two men, one without pants, lit a dumpster on fire and ran into our little forested oasis. But no worries readers:)  I have strategically placed deadly cacti, like cholla in unexpected areas where people could run or hide. It's super painful if you step on it. They are placed near lush vegetation making the person think that it's "safe" to hide.  LOL!  Besides keeping the criminals out of our oasis, I also placed cacti like cholla in our garden to encourage Cactus Wrens and Curve-billed Thrashers to nest.  They have lost habitat in midtown due to construction and so I'm trying to help them out. They do visit our gardens often for insects, etc. 

This has been a good year for our Broad-billed Hummingbirds.  We've had lots of nesting happening.  I keep putting in their orange jubilee plants and keep the feeders full.  They stick around all year on our property. 

And after being in bed for nearly a month, I got fed up looking at ugly ceilings.  So, I pulled out the supplies I had stored and mustered the little energy I had to begin Covid Project 3, the Coastal Room.  

This room surprised me with different challenges.  The vinyl material I used did not want to stay up on the ceiling unlike the other room. There were cuts in the ceiling for electric additions.  And notice that there is an area of the vertical wall that needs to be re-painted.  As I began the art of redesign, I cleared the area for a blank slate. 

I watched so many DIY projects on Youtube and did a lot of reading.  The glue did not work.  I used tacks to keep the thin planks up on the ceiling and quickly realized I was going to need a staple gun to make this project work. Plus the tack method, which worked in the other room, did NOT work in this room.  And it killed my thumbs. 

Each day I did little by little.  My body would get tired and then I knew it was time to stop.  I wasn't going anywhere so I didn't force myself.  

As the ceiling was being completed my photography began to come in.  So I started placing the work in different areas to get a feel for the coast.  

Like a jigsaw puzzle, I began to sort out all the pieces and details.  

I sat back one evening and smiled.  It all fit together.  Now there is more I have to do!  Do you see where the horizontal seams are on the ceiling between the wood planks?  Well.  A wooden beam will cover that seam adding to the coastal charm.  I need more reds and whites over the next couple months to complete this project.  So I look forward to adding those fun and simple ideas.  When I finish this, I'll post the complete pictures.  Right now, I'm happy how this turned out, but I want to finish this before work starts up again.  Until next time and thankfully there will be a next time......stay safe and free from the nasty covid.  Avoid the Karens at all cost.  You don't want this. Now that we've recovered, I'm even more careful.