Column: Kittens, fake joints and the coronavirus; oh my!

As the pandemic crushed my summer plans for travel and contra dances, it prompted home improvement, elective surgery and kitten adoptions.

My dance calendar started early June with a new dance, Jellystone Dance Week Vacation, in Gardiner Montana, nearest town to the north entry to Yellowstone National Park.

The days were to be filled with nature and wildlife, nights filled with music and friends.

Another new dance weekend, Summergreen, in Bozeman was to follow.

Both events were canceled and the park was closed. Local contra dances in Columbia, Charleston, Asheville, Atlanta were canceled too.

With COVID-19 there was nowhere to go, but home enhancement beckoned. My attic has two finished rooms, but access was restricted to a pull-down ladder in the middle of a central hall. With a cabinet maker’s help, the ladder is gone, the ceiling was repaired and new steps lead to my office.

I also opted to have my right thumb joint replacement surgery in July (the left was done in March). It was a painful procedure removing the trapezium bone from my right hand and replacing it with a tendon cut from my forearm, but osteoarthritis was painful too.

The opposite of pain is joy delivered by grand-kittens who brightened my pandemic days. My daughter took in a stray cat with a belly full of babies. On May 31, Momma Cat had three females: Marbles, Juniper, Onyx; and two orange males: Rusty and Ginger.

The latter two found a home with me and provide endless hours of entertainment.