OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.

— @HaggardHawks

Let’s just say it wasn’t a great night. Ms Insomnia refused to take any hints that her presence was unwelcome.

Then: loadshedding. Stage two did not affect me today, but it did others with whom I had planned Skype meetings, and the entire schedule for the day was thrown into disarray. After the Eskom news, and the flurry of re-scheduling that followed, I did manage to crawl back into bed for a few minutes with coffee and a book and Glinka for company, but then the whole day started running away from me and I had to get up and face the chaos. It all stabilised, eventually, in the afternoon and I managed to do the shopping I had to and some decent work that I am happy with, but I am now exhausted (and back in bed with the Ladies and a lovely glass of red).

Day One Hundred and Forty. Despite the daily count, I don’t feel time any longer. Is it REALLY August? How did we get here? What does it mean? Winter should be coming to an end, I hope (I was so cold today that I started shivering). I want more light, earlier in the day and later at night. I need to spend more time in the sun again.

And, I want a few days without drama and without having to deal with unkindness. It saddens me to experience how toxic people sap all energy out of one. Luckily, most people I work with are not like that, but the vampires among us – on the grand and small stages of everyday life – manage to do a lot of harm, and usually for nothing else than satisfying their own fragile egos. There is nothing left to do but soldier on.

Especially considering the other numbers haunting us daily:

Over eleven thousand deaths in the country. A small town. Just because of a virus, because people breathed in infected air, touched the wrong thing. 750 000 Covid-19-related deaths worldwide (and that is only the official tally). Numbers like that are impossible to comprehend. They make one feel numb with horror.

In Earth to Mom, Sue Brown describes a period of grief and sorrow as “the thinnest time”. Ours is the thinnest time.

The new flowers in my house bring a spark of joy.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”

— NICD