Quite a year and a half.

SPENDING TIME DURING THIS LOCKDOWN.   We are already retired, but not being able to do the usual stuff (daily gym, daily shopping, visiting friends, folk dancing, etc.) means that there is a lot of time to fill in during the day.  Somehow, I have evolved a routine that seems to have become, well, routine.  Before getting to it, I would love to hear how others are filling the spaces.  

My day seems to consist of a two hour breakfast drinking coffee and doing the daily crossword puzzle.  kudus to my friend David for forwarding the Philly one, which helps fill that time slot.  I have painfully amassed a few weights, so I can do curls and squats, tricep curls, and what my better educated friends call "flies." (flys?)  For those with a sense of humor, I also do sit-ups on the living room floor, and an ever-diminishing number of push-ups.  

Gardening takes up some time, as I have learned how to coax grass to grow, after 55 years of fruitless (literally) attempts.  No secret:  just rake like the dickens, pull up the big weeds, put down seed, put down a covering of topsoil, and water.  Voila!  five or six days later, little sprouts appear, and you can see how evenly you dispersed the grass seed.   As we have some really big trees around, raking leaves is a constant.  Daily, even if the leaves are all gone--to get the juices going and the thatch up.  I mean, a lot of raking.  Ever see grass try to commit suicide?  Maybe I am over doing it?

As we hate ads on TV, but are thoroughly addicted to it, we watch a lot of mysteries on the subscription channel MHZChoice.   Foreign mysteries, from all of Europe.  We have exhausted all of a great German series ("Tatort") and are currently watching a French series called "Murder in...." that is set in a different town in France for each episode, usually with different principal actors.   Ever hear of Sarlet?  Lovely medieval town, with just as blood-thirsty citizens as, say, the most dangerous county in England. (We all know that's Midsomer County, absolutely not the place to even visit, much less live in.)  Also Avignon, Bastia, etc.   A fictional detective, Brunetti, lives in Venice, but speaks German--interesting stories, but it takes some getting used to to hear "Guten tag, Commasario, ales is schwer......"  If you want to fall in love with a geographically gorgeous area, watch another Italian one, Montalbano.  This time the dialogue is Italian, and the area is Sicily.   Sweden's mysteries are vast and entertaining.  It is interesting that one of the safest countries in Europe puts out so many murder mysteries. 

Finally, every once in a while, I try my hand at writing a post for this blog.  Now, what do you do?