Persian year 1399 delivers new normal challenges
“… Persian New Year, Dan.” Nazy noted. “It’s 1399 on the Persian Calendar.”
“Isn’t 1399 the year that the plague hit Europe — on the Georgian Calendar?”
“No, Dan.” Nazy replied — not because she knew the answer, but because she knew that I was wrong.
Persian New Year begins at the exact time of the Vernal Equinox. This year that arrived at 8:49PM (California Time) on March 19. For the most part, Nazy and I celebrated traditionally:
“… except that the ‘green sprouts’ I was growing for the celebratory table didn’t…”
“….. sprout?” I interrupted.
“Well, no.”
“Luckily, we have a lot of algae in the aquarium that we’ll use to host the traditional goldfish.
Braving the (near) curfew, we followed another tradition by carrying a flower out the back door and into the front door. This will guarantee Good Luck for the coming year.
Remembering a lesson from a previous New Year celebration from our time in Holland, I made sure that the front door was unlocked before we left — and equally sure that the back door would not slam shut in locked mode.
“I was younger when I had to lift Darius to the window,” I thought. “The windows in this house are higher and probably locked.”
The journey downstairs, outside and back in
Since the ‘stay at home’ order did not preclude walks along the beach, Nazy and I took advantage of the nice weather to go for a stroll in the Douglas Preserve that overlooks the ocean. (We would have walked along the beach, but the tides were not favorable.) We spotted paragliders and…
“… wildflowers, Nazy.” I noted.
After a really, really dry January and February, we’ve had a lot of rain during March. As soon as that happens, things, eh, spring to life.
We wore surgical gloves for our walk, but …
“… maybe I shouldn’t wear my lion ring under the gloves,” I told Nazy. Luckily, we, unlike the local hospital, have a lot of surgical gloves. We are, in fact, checking into making a donation. As an aside, a note from the city’s head of public health, as of last Tuesday the hospital could handle 13 Corona virus tests a day. 13!
“But, Dan!” Nazy interrupts sartistically. “The president says..”
Melika’s children are, of course, out of kindergarten and pre-school. We’re all working on home-schooling activities, noting…
“….however, that a lot of time they spend at school is spent outside: running, jumping and playing with their friends. It’s not possible to replicate that when you’re supposed to stay in your house — without seeing friends.”
So: they can play (in the driveway), and they’ve discovered that they can run around (in the house). And, as long as we maintain social separation, Nazy and I are still able (and allowed) to take them for walks.
I’ve also introduced Tiger to a mathematics computer learning program. He’s now working on division with numbers from 1 to 100. I’m also reading a book about the universe with Tiger. Arrow likes to ‘do A, B, Cs’ on the computer before printing them out. He also likes to watch Volcano videos: he has lots of questions and always wants to be sure that there are no nearby volcanos. Nazy is teaching them art and Farsi.
As a treat, all three of them like to watch video clips from movies. The current favorites are Singing in the Rain and Make Them Laugh. Azelle prefers Circle of Life from the Lion King and Let it go from Frozen.’
Exciting things are happening in Bellingham — more next week. In the meantime…
… be careful out there, wash your hands and maintain your distance socially,
For last week's letter, please click here
A Few photos to make your day happy
Arrow and Tiger
Hanging Out
