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Plague Diary

A 2257-post collection

Friday!

I don't have enough flour to be confident about making bread, but Mayhem is taking up the slack by using all my bread mix to make bread according to the instructions. He's loving it.

I like the fact that none of this bread mix is going to waste. Mayhem is making bread to be proud of, even though I can't eat it.

I've blended my harvests together this morning and made some ENORMOUS sourdough frisbees. When Chaos gets back to school, I'll have to figure out bikkie-sized ones she can take some to school. I think calling them 'frisbees' is definitely the way forward.

Mayhem gave me a wonderful phrase this morning, during our extended bullshit session as I made frisbees. Its, "making mountains out of mole-ecules" and it is gorgeous. Keep an eye out for it appearing in a random fiction of mine henceforth.

The Muppet is declaring victory and scattering around backpats for himself in every other sentence. In spite of clear evidence to the contrary. As long as he says it on the news, it has to be real. I guess.

Australia is gearing up to ease off on the restrictions so that businesses can flourish [one of which includes the return of Polly Waffles from extinction. I may have pulled an Earth-is-healing gag somewhere on my social media.

I mean, I kind of had to.

I'm bracing for the inevitable second wave over here. Stuff's going to get worse, and it's going to get worse in areas where the administration prioritises business above people. The areas most rife with plague have always be the ones flaunting social distancing rules.

In combo with the news that people can get re-infected, it's looking like the plague is here to stay. Fun for me, because persistent lung issues thanks to yet another slice of idiocy from the US mercantile department [long story short: USA sold defective pertussis vaccines to Aus. I now have chronic bronchial asthma] and I do not need pneumonia as a persistent threat in my life.

It's been super slow this morning because frisbees and cleaning, so I should get on with the story for today.

May I write faster so I have more time for myself.

Getting a Groove

This morning, I over-estimated my harvest and cut up twice as many olives and mushrooms as usual. Nothing was wasted, though. I added them to a quick two-egg scramble, added cheese, and called it an omelette.

Of course, miss Chaos got half of everything, but she didn't want the omelette. Meh. I thought it was tasty enough. Whatever.

I think, this Friday, I will only be making savoury pancakes. The bread flour starter is still getting healthy and I think another week

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These last few weeks have been a long year...

New Zealand, one of the countries with the strictest protocols against socialising, has effectively halted the spread. They're talking about easing off with every caution about returning to the lockdown. Australia's opening up to letting two adults at maximum go and visit friends and family, with a weather eye for outbreaks.

Meanwhile, some creative folks came up with a creepy folksong about the outbreak. In twenty years this will be "traditional" and nobody will remember that it was ever made.

To the

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Cue the Heist Music!

In order to even try and get decent flour, I have to leave the house at 7:30 in the morning.

Which means I have to at least try to rush this out.

Plus there's no telling what restrictions there may be on flour once I get there. Yes, I recognise that I'm part of the problem, but I also want to make some decent bread.

You know, like literally everyone else is doing these days.

It's raining despite the sunshine, so

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A lot to unfuck

Mayhem has a job to go to. Chaos has online school to attend. I have a FUCKOFF HUGE MESS to unfuck because we all baked this weekend. I made bread, Chaos made keto-Anzac bikkies with the help of Beloved and I... and Mayhem made bread according to the instructions on the packet.

Turns out bread mix works fine when you use the yeast they include in the kit.

That bread didn't even last 24 hours. It was baked in the afternoon and

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Baking is fun... when you can

Heist plans will be underway for early Tuesday-ish, when I shall journey out of my bubble in the earliest possible hours to lay my hands on some decent darn flour to try and get one of my starters onto proper bread flour and not a mix. I may have to go with plain flour with nothing in it if I can't find the good stuff.

I mostly failed at bread. Things have been improved by putting my doughs into bread pans for

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Well, shit...

So I made my first loaves with bread mix, and Beloved decried that bread mix just makes bad loaves forever.

I'm still learning random BS here. Nevertheless, I am attempting to create loaves only with the wholemeal starter until such time as I can actually get my hands on proper bread flour instead of bread mix.

I'm going to have to get into the shops HELLA early to get my mitts on that. Gotta get me some heist music to organise that

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Thursday!

We have two recycling bins, now, which has got us finally ahead of the absolute mountains of recycling we've had clogging the house. Tomorrow, my starters are due a feeding and I still have enough to keep them going, but not enough to make loaves :P

Would that I could wish away the plague, but... I have half a standing chance of getting some flour today because I am off to the post office to mail the family grandparentals some homemade masks!

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Managing Some Successes

I scored some of the good cream at Foodways, so I'm happier about my place in the world. I also acquired some strawberries for Miss Chaos, so her confinement thanks to the plague is just that little bit happier.

I can't rely on Woolies to have flour yet - sold out every time. I am seeing a return of TP, paper towels, and pasta. Sanity is slowly restoring itself. People are returning to only getting what they need.

People are also baking

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Getting The New Swing

Today, I have a shrink appointment. I'm not leaving my house for this, neither is my shrink. We're using telecommunication technology to do the thing that used to be done in person.

I'm still procrastinating about getting my flu shots because the plague is still rife and that's one of those things that necessitate going in person to get. You need medical experience to jab someone with vaccines, you know.

The cold is starting to creep into the mornings and it's getting

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Another Monday

Time passes in a blur and it's difficult to know what day it is without checking my computer. If it wasn't for machine memory, I'd think anything shy of "day" and "night" are social constructs and ignore them completely.

Good news - I have a pre-existing account on Woolworths. Bad news, the stuff I want to get from Woolies is not available in my area. Two steps forward, five steps back.

The Aussie Government is planning to open up only if steps

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Accomplishments? Ish?

Once again it's another Sunday morning in which I have enjoyed a livestream of art care of Toasty. An experience that gained me the opportunity to edit some of an Inter-Mission episode. I got one story edited, so yay progress.

One quarter of the way through an episode I should have had done two days ago.

The plague is doing things to my ability to can.

Not so much the actual plague, but the stress surrounding the news involved with the plague.

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Conflicts Erupting

The right wing has always had a solid platform in the rural areas. That's where things like inheritance laws, firearms freedom, and the importance of repopulating have important sway. It's dressed up in aggressive morality and argued with islands and whatnot, but that's more or less what it boils down to.

Rural areas have really spaced-out population and are thus less effected by the plague. They get less of the impact than the left-wing people living in cities. So the rural voting

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Highly Distractible

I've had my meds. I've had my caffeine. I've fed the cats. I've harvested and fed my sourdough starters.

...and I'm still watching vids on YouTube.

I still have to publish an episode of Inter-Mission and that will be coming soon. Patience. I need to focus, I need to unfuck the house, and I need to at least make an effort towards filling up my buffer.

Of course, my gremlin brain has gone on to wanting to do a different creative project.

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More Idiocy From Admin

We need food. It's that simple. One of the reasons why there's so little pasta or flour on the shelves is the supply chain is broken thanks to the plague. The other reason, I just learned is because some idiots in charge are still selling water to the highest bidder thus causing aussie farmers to be unable to farm. [TIL FML]

Hope you like almonds, because foreign almond growers are the only ones growing crops any more. Between them and the firkin

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