{"id":985,"date":"2020-04-15T08:34:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T15:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/?p=985"},"modified":"2020-04-15T08:34:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T15:34:31","slug":"isolation-week-4-gone-to-the-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/isolation-week-4-gone-to-the-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Isolation – Week 4 – Gone to the Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the adage, April showers bring May flowers. This year, however, April has been snowy and bitterly cold. We should be seeing temps in the high single digits (that\u2019s high 40\u2019s for my fellow Americans), but we\u2019ve had temperatures fall as low as -14C (that\u2019s about 7 Fahrenheit). There have been no April showers, just big dumps of snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the sun did manage to peak out, the puppers and I made sure we got out for walkies. And it appears the neighbourhood birds were just as eager to get out as we were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Chickadees are the most common bird in my area. Their chattering calls echo from the forests. How-ever-in-the-world such a tiny bird can make so much noise is beyond me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And the downy woodpeckers are out looking for bugs. Good luck, little guy. It\u2019s too cold for many bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also spotted this sparrow building a nest in a neighbour\u2019s trusses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These past few weeks have been weird. There have been several nights where I\u2019ve had to wake up and check my phone to see what day it was, or what day tomorrow would be. My \u2018weekdays\u2019 mean my alarm went off and I got up, assuming it was a work day. What day it was exactly, sometimes I didn\u2019t know. I just got up and did whatever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The only good thing about working from home is an odd thing probably unique to me. I suffer from secondary insomnia as a by-product of my anxiety. Those days when I\u2019m tossing and turning at 3 AM can now be spent on the couch playing repetitive games until I get tired again, and I don\u2019t have to worry about the 6 AM hangover. But now that we\u2019re going past a month in isolation, I\u2019d much rather have the no-sleep-hangover and go to work tired if I can leave my freaking house!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cabin fever is real, yo! I\u2019ve always thought I was a homebody. That was, until I had no choice. Now I\u2019m pacing in front of the window, wandering back and forth through the house, organizing my sock drawer . . . I\u2019m going insane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully Mother Nature took pity on us poor folk and gave us one . . . count them ONE . . . day of seasonal temperatures. Beautiful clear skies and t-shirt weather drew us out of our homes for a day. We shielded our eyes from that giant ball of nuclear explosions in the sky and waded through streets that turned to rivers. All signs pointed to spring once again returning . . .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Until frickin\u2019 Mother Nature dropped half a foot of snow on us the next day! I swear, there\u2019s a conspiracy going on around here. \u201cLet\u2019s see how cray-cray the peeps go if we tease them with \u201cnormal\u201d weather, but then BOOM! go full tyrant on them!.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Life is not normal, and neither is the weather in these times. End of days, indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully next week will be better. Fingers crossed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Rissa <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard the adage, April showers bring May flowers. This year, however, April has been snowy and bitterly cold. We should be seeing temps in the high single digits (that\u2019s high 40\u2019s for my fellow Americans), but we\u2019ve had temperatures fall as low as -14C (that\u2019s about 7 Fahrenheit). There have been no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[95,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid19","category-winter","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6odz9-fT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":816,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/gone-to-the-birds\/","url_meta":{"origin":985,"position":0},"title":"Gone to the Birds","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"November 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Call it global warming, call it climate change, call it fake news, call it whatever you want. 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This summer was all about finding ways to lower my stress levels and keep my head on straight. Chickadee-dee-dee Many pictures of birds were taken during this time, like this chickadee (my favourite bird!). It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Day to Day"","block_context":{"text":"Day to Day","link":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/category\/day-to-day\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/BooUnhappy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/BooUnhappy.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/BooUnhappy.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/BooUnhappy.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":716,"url":"https:\/\/www.rissarenae.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/that-first-day-of-spring\/","url_meta":{"origin":985,"position":3},"title":"That First Day of Spring","author":"Rissa Renae","date":"April 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"One morning while leaving for work, I heard it\u2014that unmistakable call of spring, the American Robin singing for all he was worth on top of my neighbour\u2019s house. 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