Dispatch from the Hideout | Mixed Metaphors

Oct 19 2020

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Sealioning, Chukars, Pandemic Fatigue

As I write, it’s Sunday morning. The temperature is 40 degrees (feels like 34) — raining with the possibility of snow today — the first of the season — as we prepare for the l-o-n-g, dark, and cold Midwestern fall and winter ahead. COVID-19 cases in my home state of Wisconsin are surging; we are hot spot, logging an infection rate just under 25%. Trump campaigned here Saturday in Janesville, risking the lives of the citizens he was elected to protect. It’s an increasingly dystopian time, 15 days away from the election. Will our lives be mentally, physically, and spiritually restored, or how many more of us die? Continue reading →

Tagged Autumn, Chukars, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Pandemic Fatigue, Pod Squad, Quarantine Bubble, Random Topics, SASY, Sealioning, Shelter-in-Place, Social Distancing, Winter, Wisconsin

Sep 07 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Staycation Edition

Staycation – “A vacation that is spent at one’s home enjoying all that home and one’s home environs have to offer.”— Urban Dictionary

Things change, and some things remain the same.

From an earlier Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! essay about Staycations from September 6, 2015, The Pleasures (and Lessons) of a Staycation:

It’s that time of year again when September arrives and I extend the Labor Day holiday by taking my annual Staycation. While students return to school after their families unpack from vacation and pack those back-to-school backpacks full of brand-new school supplies, I take a break from my day-to-day work routines and make my “to-do only if I want to lists.” For me the essence of a staycation is to practice spontaneity (yes, I admit that I need to practice), sleep in if I want to, brunch at home or out with friends, attend movie matinees on weekdays, plan lots of coffee dates, stay in pajamas if I want to and take a vacation from showering for a day, and most importantly write, and edit, and write some more. I read too, essays and blogs, opinion pieces online, poetry and movie reviews and reread my journals. Continue reading →

Tagged Best Friends, Brother, Changing Seasons, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death & Dying, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Father, Films, Friends, Grandniece, Labor Day, Memoir, New Baby, Pandemic, September, Social Distancing, Staycation, Things Change, Wedding

Aug 02 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

“The goal isn’t to live forever, it’s to create something that will.” — Chuck Pahlaniuk

First some background. As my Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! readers know, I’m a writer and blogger. Friends and family, from firsthand experience, are also aware I’m a storyteller. I’m 70-years-old, yet consider myself young at heart and continue to be a student of life. I’m a work in progress, and perfectly flawed. I live alone and on the continuum of introvert/extrovert, I fall in between. I’m an ambivert.

I’ve been socially distancing and sheltering-in-place to some degree since my previous job ended at the end of February and has continued due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since May, I began working part-time at a job as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate that is more an avocation than vocation. I’m grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged Ambivert, Blogging, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Grief, Journals, Legacy, Letter to Loved Ones, Loss, Love, Memoir, Mixed Metaphors, Pandemic, Recovery, Relationships, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project

Jul 18 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Quarantine Bubble Edition

Definition: Quarantine Bubble – “A quarantine bubble is a group of individuals or families whose members have been safely quarantining and who can now start hanging out with other observant groups, so long as the families observe safety guidelines and agree to be exclusive.”

The social trend is called by many names as people seek safe, in-person interactions outside of the home in response to the isolation of coronavirus lockdowns — quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods, COVID-19 bubbles, or quaranteams.

Melissa Hawkins, Director, Public Health Scholars Program Health Studies at American University in Washington D.C. writes, “When done carefully, the research shows that quarantine bubbles can effectively limit the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 while allowing people to have much needed social interactions with their friends and family.” Continue reading →

Tagged Coronacoaster, COVID-19, COVID-19 Bubbles, COVID-19 Journal, Dispatch from the Hideout, Facemasks, Lockdown, Lockdown Lingo, Pandemic, Pandemic Pods, Physical Isolation, Pod Squad, Quaranteams, Quarantine Bubble, Safer-at-Home, Social Distancing

May 23 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: What Was, What Will Be

“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time…” — Thomas Wolfe

On the Friday before the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, I reminisced about holidays past. Years ago, a group of friends nicknamed, ‘The Orphans,’ would plan an annual camping trip to Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin. We dubbed these one of the ‘The Orphan Holidays.’ From a vignette from my memoir in the works, Perfectly Flawed. Continue reading →

Tagged Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Holidays, Home, Loss, Pandemic, Physical Isolation, Relationships, Skin Hunger, Social Distancing, The Road Ahead, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project

May 11 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Skin Hunger

“Touch is the first language we speak.” — Stephen Gaskin

“Touch has a memory.” — John Keats

As I continue to chronicle my COVID-19 journey in this seventh in a series of dispatches from the hideout, I’m faced with identifying my fundamental needs as I socially distance. I’m reminded by op-ed pieces that more precisely — we’re physically distancing — that we can still reach out and interact with each other virtually — or at a safe distance of six feet in small groups of people.

Though I’ve started to work at my new job at an LGBTQ+ community center, it remains closed to the public which it serves. A small group of staff, including part-time advocates like myself, provide services and plan for an uncertain future, aka, the new normal. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work and to collaborate with others again, especially since I’ve spent, for the most part, the past almost 10 weeks, physically alone. Continue reading →

Tagged COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Home, Pandemic, Quaranteaming, Quarantine, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Single, Skin Hunger, Social Distancing, Spring Fever, Touch, Wisconsin

Apr 29 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life

“It’s back to normal, but it’s a different normal. It’s not the same as it was before, but people are getting back to work. Life goes on. ― Eric Young

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ― Maya Angelou

On May 1^st it’s back to life, a return to some degree of normal, however, it will certainly be different, a new normal. I return to work and begin a new job as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate. I’m grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged Back to Life, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Home, Memoir, Pandemic, Personal Narratives, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, The New Normal

Apr 22 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Stirred Crazy

For this next installment of Dispatch from the Hideout, I originally planned on writing about how I became stir crazy as I sheltered-in-place and stayed-at-home alone. Instead, following Trump’s LIBERATE Tweets which fueled demonstrations by his supporters in a number of states, I’ve changed the focus to an opinion piece, Stirred Crazy.

Stir Crazy

One benefit from the pandemic experience is I’ve learned that I’m able to thrive on my own, while still desiring social, physical, emotional, and spiritual connection with others, including loved ones and a larger community. Continue reading →

Tagged Coronavirus, COVID-19, Demonstrations, Dispatch from the Hideout, Governor Tony Evers, LIBERATE, Pandemic, Politics, Protests, Rallies, Shelter-in-Place, Stay-at-Home, Stir Crazy, Stirred Crazy, Trump, Wisconsin

Apr 12 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Easter Holiday

Like most holidays I celebrated as a child, Easter was a hybrid of religious traditions, the social culture from the generation in which I grew up, and our own ethnic and family rituals, which we repeated in some fashion every year.

Easter Holidays Past

Note: Includes excerpts from Poop Eggs & Lamb Cakes

Today is the Easter Holiday and Passover. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, my family had many traditions which we repeated every year, some with glee, and others with complaints. On Easter Saturday, we’d color eggs, which the Easter Bunny would hide that night. Mom boiled two or three dozen as our family grew. She’d cover the kitchen table with newspaper and the kids would crowd around it with our crayons, the white wax marker to write our names, a spoon in hand ready to dip the eggs in the assembly line of Easter egg dye in her Corelle coffee cups. Continue reading →

Tagged Dispatch from the Hideout, Easter, Easter Brunch, Family, Family Traditions, Fathers, Friends, Holidays, Home, Home Alone, Lamb Cake, Memoir, Mother, Movies, Pandemic, Poop Eggs, Racine, Seasons, Shelter-in-Place, Spring, Stories

Apr 06 2020

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Edition

“There’s a difference between solitude and loneliness.” — Maggie Smith

“Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.” ― May Sarton

This past week I hit the wall to use a metaphor. The difference between solitude and loneliness became viscerally clear. I consider myself someone who enjoys my own company and solitude, who goes to great lengths to protect it, and over the years has learned to be both independent and resilient, two skills critical to survive the pandemic. Continue reading →

Tagged 12-Steps, AA, Alone, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Gratitude, Grief, Home Alone, Loneliness, Pandemic, Recovery, Shelter-in-Place, Sobriety, Social Distancing, Solitude, Stay-at-Home, Tools to Survive the Pandemic

Mixed Metaphors

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.

Tag Archives: Dispatch from the Hideout

Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life

Dispatch from the Hideout: Stirred Crazy

Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Easter Holiday