Ways to Survive a Virus Pandemic

April 4, 2020

This is Michael Powell.  Small business owner. Father of 4.  Homeschool dad and husband. Carpenter, creator of useful and interesting things.  I fix real world problems, bring about transformative home improvements, and always push forward in the face of adversity.

Reporting to you now in the midst of week x of the virus shut down.

I am currently focusing on Ways to Survive.

Ways to Survive a Virus Pandemic   

Humor.

I will be attempting to introduce a certain kind of lost comic strip to my daily living.

Here’s one I came up with yesterday when my daughter Lily (Art Projects Kid) and son Leo (Full-Speed-Ahead Kid) decided to make a nice little kitty nest Lily found in a craft book. This powerful duo cut a entry hole in a cardboard box (diaper delivery box), Lily sewed a little pillow made out of a kitty-cat fabric she got from her Secret Santa, George (my brother Sam’s son), with the Brother sewing machine that sits on Ava’s desk (Ava is Well-Read-One) in the room the two girls share (used to be my office until it was painted a ocean teal color and a dangled crystal chandelier installed). Then they padded the inside bed with a small blanket, rested in the yellow kitty cat print pillow, and wrapped the whole thing into Lily’s pink inside- out hand printed, “I’m a big sister” shirt she made to announce Vivienne’s impending arrival 2 years ago. And then they sprinkled cat-nip in it to entice the feline siblings: Daisy (our female white cat with black spots) and/or Molasses (our tiger grey bushy runt of the litter Lily fell in love with when he was but the size of chipmunk). They were both a bit big for the nest, but eagerly attempted in turn to fit inside. This created an executive decision on the part of the household as we were all engaged in this activity by now to expand the footprint of the kitty nest, bringing in a secondary wing taped to the former allowing a bit more scratching room to shed and nestle.

Here’s the funny part:

My son decided to test the digs to make sure it was suitable for cat habitation.  They had placed the nest on the coffee table I made for the living room and he proceeded to stick his head inside to determine the merits of the pillow, the softness of the blanket, the subtlety of the natural light filtering in through the pink shade of the cotten-T, and it was good.  So good in fact we had to pull him out, kicking and elbowing, refusing to come to the table to eat the wonderful meal Adriana had prepared: sauteed shrimp Nonno had brought last visit, mixed with fettuccine.

Comic strip: Fix it Dad to the rescue

“My house feels so small; I’m getting Claustrophobic.  Ahhhh!” Says the Mother

Fix-it Dad.   “Here Honey I built you an escape nest, kida like your own room to get away from the kids, like that time in the Cosby Show Cliff made 

that room for Claire.”

The Mom puts the nest on her head and heads for the couch.  

“I’ll be in my room until it’s safe to come out.” 

Looks like this: