Weekly Update: May 4th to 11th — The Wine in the Pines

The Week

In a parallel reality, this is the week where everyone in Washington State would be returning to their pre-quarantine routines and long commutes. This is not that reality, however, and our current state of normalcy is to remain indoors for at least another month to wait out the virus.

This week was similar to the past several weeks, but these past few months have been the most unusual in my entire life - I have never experienced a time where I skipped a season. It is as though I was a coma patient that went to sleep in winter and woke up in the summer. When the shelter-in-place orders were issued, the trees were still barren of life and the sky was a soft gray with a temperature that always hovered around the mid to high 50s. Enjoying the first week of May through the comfort of my living room windows, the trees are now brightly green, the sky a soft blue, and the temperatures are in the 80s. The 80s. Warm pleasant weather is widely celebrated in the Puget Sound region, so it is strange that I haven’t been able to experience it.

Mr. Mustang, on the other hand, hasn’t had time to ponder on thoughts regarding missed seasons and transitioning weather, as 12+ hours of his day have been focused on his computer screen. Work has been especially challenging this past week due to looming deadlines for roadway projects and the fear of what the future of civil engineering work will look like. His company is busy now, but a majority of road infrastructure projects are paid by the gas tax - and there has been a dramatic decline in gas consumption during the quarantine - which means lack of money for next year’s budgets.

In an attempt to keep him from stressing too much, I’ve found that food is a perfect distraction, so I have been cooking up a storm lately. I’ve become quite accustomed to being a domestic housewife during the quarantine by preparing homemade meals every day. The cherry on top of myself transforming into a 50s housewife during the quarantine is the fact that I literally make Mr. Mustang sandwiches for lunch every day of the week. Before the quarantine, I was permitted to take home an old panini press from the office (since it was going to be replaced with a newer model), and it has been a godsend having it. I’ve been experimenting with different varieties of sandwiches that all get the enhanced treatment of being grilled between two hot cast iron surfaces.

Jesus, maybe the quarantine has been getting to me? Here I am talking about making sandwiches for my husband like a damn Stepford wife. I realized that my new routine during the quarantine has become too routine and I need to shake things up a little bit next week.

Saturday & Sunday

Saturday was just blah. Nothing happened, I did nothing, and I felt like the least productive person on the planet. Mr. Mustang and I didn’t have our feet touch the floor of our bedroom until 12pm. The most remarkable thing that happened was how hot it got and how lazy it made us. Reaching 86 degrees in Woodinville with zero breeze, there was no escape from the heat inside. Having all the windows open did nothing, having all the blinds down did nothing, the best we could do was endure. We don’t have traditional air conditioning in our place, and as of last week, we don’t even have basic fans. The two fans we used to own were terrible and generated less wind power than the flaps of a butterfly wing. The most productive thing I did on Saturday was spend hours reading reviews of different AC units and justifying the cost to cool the room for only a few days out of the year. Having AC in the Puget Sound is rare but is becoming more common as newer homes get built, and I’m reaching my boiling point (pun intended) to say ‘screw it’ and just buy one. I did buy a new fan online, but because it was not considered an ‘essential item’, it won’t arrive until next week. Fortunately, the hot temperatures will only last for the next 48 hours.

Sunday was Mother’s Day, so Mr. Mustang and I chatted with both our mothers in different rooms - that lasted for nearly two hours. My mother, Mrs. Doe, has been retired for a few years now, so she has been adjusting to the quarantine flawlessly, but still pines for the days where she can ride her bike. Mr. Mustang, on the other hand, remarks that this is the first time he hasn’t gotten to see his own mother, Mrs. Reindeer, on Mother’s Day in his entire life. He has always been able to make time to drive down to see her, but now he can only wave hello through a tiny screen on his phone when speaking to Mrs. Reindeer.

I still stand by saying that both Mr. Mustang and I haven’t experienced any form of ‘cabin fever’, but this past Mother’s Day we came to terms with the pale reality that the effects of the quarantine will linger far longer than we initially expected. We, like everyone else, hope that normalcy will return swiftly as summer approaches, (but secretly we all fear that this will last well past into the next year.) Until then, I will be making strides to try to stir the pot a bit for the next few weeks as a means to prevent Mr. Mustang (and myself) from getting stir crazy.