Here's Johnny.....or rather John.... or rather Joao!

Welcome John (Joao) Fontoura Dickson.  Even if you arrived a month early.  You're still welcome.

Leonor and Joe saw the doctor last Friday, and she thought the baby was still set for a late June arrival.  But, Sunday, Leonor started having contractions, and when they were three minutes apart, they scrambled for the hospital.  When the baby's heartbeat slowed down, the doctor opted for a caesarian procedure, and 15 minutes after the epidural, baby John appeared.  

 
He's small, 2.2 kilograms (4.6 lbs) and he even lost a little weight in the first couple of days, which I'm told is normal.  After a small gain in weight, Leonor and baby John came home, on Friday.  Thomas greeted them with a poster and a kiss and a good start to the new normal in their house. He was so happy to see his mother!

I've said it before, but the world stops on news like this, even when things look so bleak outside, on the news.  We saw one cute picture of Joe and the baby that showed Joe reading to the baby until the baby fell asleep.  Joe was sleeping and the baby's eyes were open.  Must be a Dickson thing.

The whole experience brought back memories for Janet who remembered bringing Sean home to his toddler sister after a caesarian.  In pain, tired (exhausted) and just pushing through those first few hard weeks.  Her advice – get as much help as you can, Leonor.  Unfortunately, they had hoped that Leonor's mother would be able to come, but corona got in the way.

Other news – Annie's looking into moving back east, Great Barrington to be precise.  She and her partner, Sankar, have been told they're going to be working from home for a while, so why stay in the big city?  They're looking at furnished apartments around here, and we went to check out a nice one they found in Great Barrington.  Keeping our fingers crossed.  Maybe the first of July.

Annie's not the only one considering moving.  Timmy is thinking of a late fall move back to the west coast, Washington state, perhaps.

Simon's growing, and seems to have turned a little bit of a sleep corner.  And a smily corner.  Margaret and Andrew are also considering coming up here in June for a short time.  C'mon up!

There's a photo here of Andrew with a corona beard.  They are happy to have Daniel back home for a short while, to help out while Lur is taking care of her parents.  We know how all consuming that period is, with no easy answers.  

Here's a stock tip – Mike's Lemonade.  Whenever I talk to David, he seems to be refreshing himself after hours in the garden with a cold Mike's.  Around here, I see more Hard Iced Tea cans on the side of the road than the lemonade version, along with lottery scratch cards and donut cups. 

On the nature front, my annual battle with the groundhogs has started.  So far, no damage to the garden, but I am filling up holes with ammonia and moth balls as soon as I see a new one.  We borrowed a large have-a-heart trap from friends, and I looked outside last week and saw that it had sprung.  With a brown thing inside.  When I went closer, I noticed it had a white underbelly.  And a long snout.  An opossum.  I later told Mary that it looked dead, and, without any ridicule in her voice, she reminded me that's what they're known for.  After a Homer Simpson slam to the head, I read up and saw these creatures were by and large harmless. So I just opened the door and let him out.  He continued to play dead.  A little while later, I went out and he was gone.  Or was it a she?

Florida is gradually opening up, but John and Marilyn are being very cautious.  Marilyn hurt her back and is slowly recovering.  A few of us know what that's like.  Sorry.  

Mary had a doctor's appointment in Boston for a stress test for her heart valve situation.  The doctor told her he's looking at replacement surgery, sometime in the next 4-6 weeks.  We go back on Monday.  

One thing we found ourselves saying a few times this week – wish we could be there.  To help out, to just see you guys. 

 
Love from up here.  And, welcome again, John (Joao).  

   
 

John Dickson

Encore de la Paix

A new chapter - coronavirus diaries

The long-term forecast doesn't show a temperature below 32, or even 39, day or night.  Does it mean it's safe to plant in the garden?  The lettuce I put in there two weeks ago gives me the hairy eyeball eavh time I enter the garden – why did you do this to us, they seem to be saying when they look up at me.  Today, though, there's new growth, and they were nicer.  Wait til I pick them, and eat them.

Spring has finally sprung up here, and while I wouldn't say it's worth the wait, it sure is wonderful. 

Coronavirus means, we're spending more time at home, so we're actually way ahead of where we normally are – with beds mulched, flower boxes planted, garden roto-tilled, lawn mowed, etc. 

That got me to thinking.  With no travel and with no visitors, what else has changed?  I notice we have a little more money in the bank account (hard when so many people are suffering, but we have more than spent our stimulus funding on charitable giving, both near and far.)  Speaking of money, we haven't gone to the ATM in quite a while, still having the same cash in our wallets from weeks ago.  We pay for everything with plastic, and that means that our Visa bill is higher each month.

The other day, I noticed a sliver of soap in the dish.  It was smaller the next day, and gradually got even smaller in the course of a week.  With visitors, we never would have allowed that sliver to remain.  You may remember Grandma Dickson, in a depression-legacy practice, used to bond old soap slivers to new bars. 

Other changes – with no meetings or classes outside to attend, I end up not putting my hearing aids in until dinner time, and sometimes not even then – living in my own little cone of silence.  We talk an awful lot more about haircuts than normal.  The electric bill is higher, probably due to more time on the computer.  And, I've figured out how to borrow books from the library, for my Kindle reading pleasure.

In addition, the social distancing has had a nice side effect for us – we have managed to avoid the colds we usually get this time of year.  In fact, Mary remembers that from January to March she had a long, lingering cough that has gone away. 

And one more thing, Mary and I our both taking on tidying up, cleaning out projects.  She has been going through her sewing materials in the basement, which has led her to start making corona-masks, using African fabrics (photo included.)  My project is to take up the digitizing of Pop's Weekly Letters, that I had started way back in 2005, before I ran into a brick wall since it was so slow and long.  It still is, but there's always wonderful nuggets in them.  Here's one from September 1990:  "The quote of the week belongs to Sean, who after walking too long at the zoo said: ''My feet are getting crowded.'"

Enough about us. Please feel free to add your own corona diaries, as Janet did last week.

Ooops; I almost forgot one more big corona-related family news item.  We have pulled the plug on the Poconos this year.  Mountain Springs was nice enough to roll over our reservations to next year – July 15-18.  Janie, Rell and Susan Pratt are all ready to join us next year.

Out in Illinois, Lur and Andrew are totally given over to taking care of her parents.  Her father is home from the hospital, and Lur has been sleeping most nights at their home.  Daniel came home, and has been social distancing with his high school mates.  Nice photo included here.  And, I hope all of you have seen Claire's macramé projects on Facebook/Instagram.  Beautiful work.

David, like many of you, continues to keep up his walking regimes, and has also been attending to spring gardening prep.

In DC, Simon is growing well, and beginning to fall into a manageable sleep routine.  In Brazil, Thomas is working hard at potty training, and Leonor is into her final weeks of pregnancy, understandably tired.  Out in Oakland, Annie is entering a new job phase with an undetermined length of time for working from home, any home, any place.

One final comment about our next generations.  Most of you fit the demographic of "knowledge workers" and are coping reasonably well.  In our conversations, you seem to have adjusted to the new realities, better than one would have thought.  My only hope is that these are not permanent; that we can emerge and give you the lives that you all want, for you and your families.

A few birthdays – Elliot, Sean and Matthew – a few anniversaries – Peter and Janet, Andrew and Margaret.  Anyone else? 

That's a wrap – stay healthy, love from up here 

Diaries

So, who's started a coronavirus diary?

Not me, except if you count a couple of disconnected weekly letters.  David says he's been writing letters to Grandma and Pop, with the message that "I wish you were here (to see the children and grandchildren," and "I'm kind of glad you aren't here (to deal with the virus and how we're handling this, or not handling it)."  I think David says he mails them to Carnegie Lake, with no return address.

Here's a few things we've noticed that are different in our household.  The dishwasher fills up faster.  Because we're eating every meal at home, perhaps?  We have been sharing meals with Tim – sometimes he cooks, sometimes Mary.  But never me.  

We're spending more time on phone calls, or Zoom calls.  When we're on a Zoom call, the conversation invariably turns to what tv we're watching, and we spend a few minutes talking politics.  Not sure that it helps either the broader situation or our blood pressure.  We did have a few laughs about Clorox and Lysol, even though it really shouldn't have been funny.

We find we have to get out of the house for exercise, even when it rains.  Result – we've come back to the house drenched a couple of times, but happier than if we stayed home.  We get a lot more emails to join webinars and things, except on weekends when the emails trickle down.  Finally, people up here seem to be so eager to get out that it when it's been nice out, life seems almost reminiscent of the good old days – the parking lot at the boat ramp is full; the streets are full, usually with loud motorcycles; everybody's out walking.  

One more thing.  Even though we have nothing really to do, we still manage to run out of time at the end of each day.  How does that happen?  We have too many projects going at once.  Mary, for example, has been cleaning out the basement and drawers.  In the process, she has come across old pins, jewelry and small knick-knacks.  She found one pin and was about to throw it out.  We got out our magnifying glasses and saw in very tiny letters Panama and Coast Guard.  I seem to remember Pop saying he ended up in Panama with the Coast Guard.  David said he thought Gramps was in Panama during World War I.  Photos of the pin and Pop in the Coast Guard included here.

On to the category of Zooms.  We've had a couple of family Zooms.  Annie and Sankar work from home, with computers set up in different parts of the living space.  Their farmers market has opened back up with distancing requirements, and they too are doing daily walks.  Margaret and Andrew are fully occupied even though neither of them are working.  Well, being a new parent is work, and hopefully there are moments of joy thrown in.  Simon is eating well, and growing.  He has funny facial expressions.  All is well down in Brasilia, with Joe and Leonor and Thomas sitting the virus out in their home, far from the worst affected areas in that country.  We've figured out how to share a book with Thomas over Zoom, and at least we enjoy them.

Out in Dundee, Lur's father has landed in the hospital a couple of times after passing out.  They're not sure what's going on but the doctors have found a growth on his kidneys.  Lur's been staying with her mother, but with no one allowed in the hospital, it's hard for them to be in touch with doctors.

Down in Daytona, things are quiet.  John and Marilyn say that things are gradually opening up, including the swimming pool at their community center.  They've been playing cards and recommended a movie "Bad Education," which we watched and agreed with their recommendation.

The weather has turned above zero, so we're outside, getting ready.  A truck dumped mulch on our driveway, we have a few daffodils and the forsythia are blooming.  I've even mowed the lawn once.  That's progress.

Stay safe everyone, and healthy, and if you don't want to write a living through coronavirus diary but just want to record something for your great-grandchildren, just send an e-mail to popsweeklyletter.bubba@blogger.com.  It'll show up automatically on this website.

Love from up here.