How am i becoming the squirrel guy you may be wondering? Well, let me tell you…
Last night i was going to post a piece on how i am personally doing during the lockdown. Which is surprisingly well. Maybe too well to write a post about, because it feels like so many people are struggling in big and small ways.
i guess the biggest concern going into lockdown was tbV [the beautiful Val] and i being in the same confined space for so long and how long it would take before we started getting to each other. If anything, this has been the complete opposite and we are quite possibly the closest we have ever been in ten years of marriage. The fact that we are both so overwhelmingly busy both with official work or volunteer things and with our own side fun things plays a huge role in that i’m sure. So that’s been amazing.
We really are doing quite ok
Then, in terms of need, we have everything we need by a long way and most of the things we want. And at the end of the day, we have toilet paper [don’t get me wrong – we have it at the start of the day as well!] which seems to be what half the world was overly concerned about back in the day. But in a time when so many people are living in awful conditions, or worrying about money or jobs, we actually have it pretty good. [Which, as a side note means we absolutely have to be doing our bit in looking out for those who don’t have it so good, which has been part of our busyness at this time]
So when i talk about this fear, please know this is a bit of a light-hearted thing and more of a gentle concern than me trying to suggest for a moment that this is anything compared to millions of other people. In a relatively safe and secure context, this is the biggest personal concern [i have many concerns when it comes to others] that i am facing right now: i think i’m becoming the squirrel guy!
What do i meat?
Literally that – no, it wasn’t a typo – i have become the cartoon. Just ask tbV. i will start out doing one thing – writing a blog post – and then halfway through i will see a notification on Whatsapp and click on that and be directed to a YouTube video and click on a link next to that and read an article on which celebs have dyed their hair puce [and now i have to go and google ‘puce’ and i may never come back!].
i think this is something i was somewhat prone to before – becoming distracted easily – but it has gotten so bad during lockdown. And while it is mostly light-hearted or maybe a little annoying [and means i sometimes forget things i am meant to have done which is not good] there is an element of danger in it – i think i am 5-2 to tbV in terms of leaving a stove plate on [has anyone else done this during lockdown? Seriously that is a little scary!]
How nervous do i need to be?
But it has gotten a lot worse during this time. A very tiny part of me is worried in that i am 46 and surely this is a little too early for the onset of old and old-related things. And i am wondering if it is lockdown-related [so it would be really helpful to know if anyone out there is going through a similar thing] where distractions are being actively created [subconsciously] to keep me distracted from the more worrying things happening in the world. Could ‘being distracted’ be a coping mechanism? i honestly don’t know, i’m not a botanist! [Which is a super private joke i don’t expect anyone except tbV to get unless you saw that particular whale sketch which is amazing – get thee to google!]
That’s it really. i’ve become Captain Distracto. At least i am just becoming The Squirrel Guy, not an actual squirrel. That would be nuts!
How about you? Any strange behaviours or habits that you have discovered since lockdown? Or things that might have been there to some extent but now feel like they have been heightened or are a little out of control?
i cannot imagine a successful Support group for my kind of condition. Picture it: Group of us sitting in a circle and the leader beckons to me and i stand up and confidently announce: Hi everyone, my name is Brett”Fish” and i am a…. OOH LOOK, FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!!
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