Have you ever had one of those days where all you did was sort through things? That was our day. It felt like we did nothing, but then again, we do know exactly where everything we own is - for the moment! And that's actually quite a lot, when you think about it.
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| A winery coop by the village river - will there be tastings in the fall? |
Day 40 - this is a special day. We woke up a little earlier - yes - because I set an alarm. It's time
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| A neighbor showing solidarity |
Quarante is French for forty. Gee, it's a bit like quarantine. Yep, there is a reason. I learned this from Maria.The writer My neighbor, DL Nelson, introduced us online last month. Maria is an American who lives in Spain and blogs about her village life. Like us, she and her family are under a quarantine which began two days before ours. So as I read her blog about their Day 40, she taught me about the word Quarantine. It came from the Italian word 'Quaranta' which means - hold your breath - forty. Yep.
It turns out that an old method of keeping people suspected of carrying infection apart from the healthy was to "quarantine" them for forty days. Cool. Oh, you can let your breath out again,
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| The fire department - no, that's no longer the wagon that comes to the rescue! |
By the way, if you wish to read her take on the previous days, the way to see a list of blogs is to click on the overall title. I'll bet you already knew that. Like if you wanted to read earlier blogs of mine (Going back to 2015!) you can click on the main title of my Blogs "Shared Scribblings." You would then see them all listed. Not that there are many. I used to be very lazy about blogging. On the day they announced the quarantine, I vowed that I would write one every day. Little did I realize it was going to go on for so long! But, writing is all about discipline and I'm working on it.
Our fortieth day as a couple bound by quarantine began quietly. The routine of breakfast, social exchange, news, and exercise went as usual. Lunch had three courses, as usual, and finished with coffee. Today's meal included a fabulously simple veggie dish that's going into my next eBook -Taste the South of France. I will share
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| A really quick vegetable dish |
Y announced he needed to find the running clothes a family member left here before the lock-down began. I knew my own part of the wardrobe was a bit disorganized. Okay - really disorganized! So I went up and did my part. It's fairly tidy now and I found my missing camera tripod! (Along with travel documents and several books) As a result the whole afternoon disappeared and we now know what is in every drawer, hanger, cupboard, box, and cubby in the entire house.
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| It will be great to ride bikes once again. Glad I don't have one like this! |
So, dear friends. The end is closer than the beginning of this strange time in confinement. We are thinking positive. Forty days. Then another few weeks. If the numbers continue to fall or at least
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| View a cross the vines toward the Albères and Spain |
A demain, les amis! (Until tomorrow, friends!)
Link to Day 41
40 days and 40 nights, walking in the desert for 40 years, etc; there must be many many references to 40, in literature many more than I am aware of. The nuns at my Catholic school told us the significance of 40. It is a l o n g time. There may be more to it than that, but this is the explanation I remember. I’m not Catholic, but I loved my school in Panama City, Florida, and I loved all the teachers. The nuns were warm and nurturing. They were also hilarious, and had so much fun with their students! ...Trip down memory lane. Praying that we are on the downside of our quarantine days. Thanks again for the lovely blog!
ReplyDeleteNumbers are fascinating! (Says the math teacher and computer programmer in me, hee hee. Yes, we are all hoping this has worked and that the peak has now passed. Thank you, Linda, for sharing your memories with me!
DeleteThank you for mentioning my blog! I'm glad someone likes to read it!
ReplyDeletePerhaps boule de gomme refers to an eraser. And the mystery is about something that has disappeared like pencil rubbed out. Sometimes languages can be so literal in their sayings that we can't see the literalness and give the saying an air of philosophical magic. Mystery and an eraser. Something's disappeared and no one knows why. Who knows!
I certainly do enjoy your blogs, Maria! And I hope you are able to continue your book once this confinement is done. I know how you feel - I have ideas but when I sit down to write, I'm not getting very far! May 2nd for your country's release! Hurrah! I also will hop it is not raining. Cheers! xx
DeleteOK you mentioned quarantine which gives me a chance to talk about the French precision with words which I notice and appreciate. At the beginning of this, when the French government was repatriating citizens from Wuhan or off cruise ships, they were not letting them go home for two weeks since that was how long it might take for symtoms to appear. Remember the various holiday camps, hotels etc. that were requisitioned? They were being quarantined but, since it was only for 2 weeks, the French mind couldn't call it a "quarantaine" because -- as you and your friend Maria know -- that means 40. So I heard the word quatorzaine being used on the news (14 not 40).
ReplyDeleteThen when the government decided it was necessary to do what the Asian countries, Italy and Spain had already done -- shut down most businesses and have everybody, sick or not, stay at home -- well they couldn't call THAT either a quarantaine or a quatorzaine (because most of us weren't sick and it was going to last for a while). So the word "confinement" was chosen as the official word.
English hasn't quite known what to do. Some say quarantine but that is awkward for the same reason the French think it is impossible. Some say lockdown but that is awkward because it's original meaning was "to restrict prisoners to their cells as a temporary security measure" and, alas, its most common meaning today is "temprarily keeping people from entering or leaving a building such as a school due to an emergency".
"Shelter-in-place' is probably the best word we have but even that is a little widespread as it means "to seek safety within the building one already occupies, rather than to evacuate the area or seek a community emergency shelter" and is often used for radiological or chemical pollution or -- alas -- school shootings instead of the more appropriate lockdown. All these English expressions sound more ominous than "confinement" (at least to me).
Vive les français and their "mot juste".
Hope you're having a good Sunday.
Loved your response, Sandy! You should blog it! We do feel like it's a lockdown because we live for the snowy slopes, the sandy beaches and the salty lagoons. The village is very small and with the evening curfew and the many policemen we do feel locked in. Though, as a California classroom teacher, I have experienced true lockdowns with gunmen in the streets and frightened children locked i the room with me, so I know it's a "Whole other ballgame". We are really lucky to be "Sheltering in Place" in the south of France. "Confinement" sounds just like being in prison to me so I've used all three words interchangeably. Fingers crossed, we'll get to stop using them in two weeks time... at least until the second wave hits. Sunday was wet! Today is pretty much the same. We both said, "Please let it be dry on the day we are released!" xx
DeleteI hope it will be dry on the day we are released -- like birds from our cages -- ready to fly again.
ReplyDeleteI always use confinement. For one thing it is the official word in French. In English it sounds kind of Jane Austen-y to me rather than being in prison. I'm rereading Emma and this is the word she used when Emma and family had to stay at home because of a snowstorm. But you can't say déconfinement in English -- except, apparently, in relation to ammunition or nuclear energy -- not the kind of déconfinement we are looking forward to.
ReplyDeleteI hope it’s dry too. You are so cute to tell me I “can’t say”. I always say phooey to that. Someone told me once I couldn’t use the word “flomped” in my sixth book. I said, “I can and I did.” Will flomped onto the couch,” because he didn’t flop or stomp. He definitely flomped. Language is ours to construct and deconstruct. (Unless you’re French, then you have an academy of uptight nay-sayers who say that you may not use the word weekend. And look how well that has worked.) Have a wonderful Tuesday, mon amie.😘
I sit corrected. I should have said "one doesn't usually say" and not "you (personally) can't say. :D
DeleteI am intrigued by the precision of French (back to my original comment), have a more moderate opinion than you seem to of the Académie Française and ignore "ça ne se dit pas" as best I can (unless it's about grammar.
I think it’s an impossible task to police language. And wrong. Shakespeare would have been banned in France for creating so many new words and phrases but I hope I wasn’t rude... I didn’t mean it to be. When I taught English to my Spanish speaking students in California, I would say, “the convention is...” so follow the rules as best you can when you write a term paper, a letter to your boss, or apply for a job. But play when you feel the spirit! Life should be full of joy. (And I was also their math teacher - where the rules were what led to correct answers. But if they created a new solution that gave the same result, I would cheer for them.) Giving me a class to teach was a bit like putting a crazy person in charge of the asylum.
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