Jigsaw Puzzle, Grandkids and Decision Time

Moonwalk

Today seems to be a day for retro music. I don’t really know if that’s the right term, but my granddaughter Teya is practicing the Moonwalk! Here she is for 5 seconds!

A couple of hours ago I looked at yesterday’s email from Vinnie Ferraro who posts in his blog World Politics News. Usually he has two or three different political topics, but yesterday he simply had five videos from five different artists. “I thought we all needed a break from the news,” he said.

I played Paul Simon’s Graceland right away; the others are waiting for me!

What are you listening to, watching or reading during the pandemic? I’m reading The Tunnels: Escapes Under the Berlin Wall and the Historic Films the JFK White House Tried to Kill. We chose it for one of my book groups. I was in Berlin on Sunday, August 13, 1961, when the Berlin Wall went up! It was an exciting time to be in the city. So I am very happy to read this book.

Poetry Writing

Yesterday as part of a writing lesson in Teya’s workbook, we read a simple poem and then answered a few questions. What are the rhyming words? What word is spelled differently even though it rhymes?

Both children wanted to write poems. Both wrote about missing friends. Bruche’s was simply titled Missing Friends, and Teya’s was Away from Reality. I was impressed with their creativity!

Today I had them read with me one paragraph from a Thomas Friedman opinion piece about what we should do to recover after the pandemic. He was recommending spending on infrastructure, including broadband for the parts of the US that don’t have it.

To make his case, he described the invention of a robotic chicken by two farmer/inventors in a rural area. When the robot is operating in the hen house, it keeps the chickens healthier because they run from it instead of sitting around!

It also diminishes the effects of a pecking order. Apparently getting pecked to death is a real threat to the lowliest chickens! I had the children write a summary.

After we did a worksheet on animal classifications they were eager to write poems again. Teya said, “Let’s write haiku;” Bruche agreed. I told them to write about animals.

Today we also did some review of squares and square roots; they love doing that and have memorized all the perfect squares up to the square of 20. Do you know them?

End of Our Puzzle

With a loud smack on the table, Beth announced that she was putting in the final piece in our puzzle!

We were all thrilled. The principal puzzle makers have been Beth, Nkiru, Teya and me.Today we finally dismantled the puzzle which I’ll take back to Westport and give to the Library or the Senior Center, when they reopen. Both keep puzzles underway which people can work on for a few minutes or a few hours!

Sam is convinced that this was a really bad puzzle. We had so much trouble finishing the black sky. There were several pieces that looked nearly correct!

I’m not convinced which is why I’d like others to try it!

Here’s The New York Times article about puzzles and puzzle makers from a few days ago. This article helped me believe our puzzle was extremely challenging but not poorly created.

Nigeria’s Lock Down

President Buhari announced that the country’s lockdown will continue for 14 more days.

The lockdown affects the capital Abuja, the commercial capital and largest city Lagos, and Ogun State. I assume Ogun State is included because it borders Lagos State and the Republic of Benin. After all, the state’s motto is “Gateway to Nigeria.”

To Leave or Not to Leave

Beth and I have now been notified that we’re on a US Embassy evacuation flight on Saturday morning. We have to fill out an online form.

The email notification says, “If you do not complete this form by 10:00 AM WAT (West African Time) on Thursday, April 16, you will lose your space on the flight.”

So it’s decision time. And I’m not sure what to do! I do have a confirmed flight on Delta on May 3, which is when the airlines have said they’ll start flying. But suppose they don’t?

I enjoy working with Teya and Bruche on their lessons and just spending time with them. Nkiru is here for another few weeks on her internship. She hopes the Trace office will be able to reopen so she can see her colleagues and friends before she leaves. She wants me to stay.

Beth and Sam recommend staying since I would be alone in Westport, unable to get together with friends.

So why am I undecided?

One reason is that I miss my own space and my own stuff in Westport! But I’ve now rearranged furniture in Sam’s living room so I have a great desk space and a comfortable chair where I can read. When Beth leaves I’ll have a little more cupboard space in the guest bedroom, though Nkiru may move in to share my room.

What else? I miss having a whole place to myself, though I can imagine that will get old in very few days!

Here I can tell the cook what to prepare; in fact I’ve taken on menu planning and shopping lists. In Westport no one will cook for me!

Advice welcome if it comes in the next few hours! It will be 9:15 pm or so when I finish posting.