Hey.
I hope you’re feeling ok, hanging out all alone, holed up in your home, day after day.
For such a boisterous bunch of bears as we, I know we’ve seemed pretty quiet since the covid lockdown started. While I’ve felt a strong urge to reach out, write, just say hi, sing a little ditty, everything’s felt so wonky, it’s been hard to find the words. Anyway, thought I’d catch y’all up on what’s been going on in our socially distant bear caves.
News & Ruminations
Mary K is still working (remotely, of course) at her normal day job, making masks, sewing cute stuff, learning about business-y stuff online, standing on her head, acting in short films directed by children, and taking pictures of her cats. She’s also, of course, extremely busy pulling the various levers and pushing the buttons that keep the Bearcave running.
Rob Waz made a couple super-fun “Music from Household Sounds” videos, and has graduated to making new songs sourced from the local wildlife he catches in his backyard. You’re going to love “What Happens When You Squeeze a Squirrel” and “Xylo-Rat.” (I know shit is like, really weird right now, so I feel compelled to tell you that’s a joke. Rob is neither squeezing his resident squirrels, nor making percussion instruments from rat bones.) When he’s not making sounds with spoons, he’s parenting, writing other types of music, and wearing great socks.
Rob & Mary’s Household Sounds
Tyson has been putting together some abstract videos, making music, and building every single thing I’ve idly desired in the last few years. From a crappy, uneven asphalt pad that is our tiny backyard, has sprung a decked-out and covered garden paradise. He’s also had a very sudden and delightful conversion into being interested in gardening and baking. Not only has he built an awesome composting system for us, he’s taken it upon himself to learn all about soil testing and amendment, and all that stuff I don’t love. And now the cookie supply never runs dry, and banana breads periodically appear, as if from thin air.
As for Jess (that’s me!), I wrote a little pandemic birthday song a while back (it seems like 10 years ago, at this point), and have been writing so many words in preparation for pilot season. I’ve also been buffing up on creative vegetable dishes, as quite a lot of chard comes in a farm box, and one can only eat so much stir fried chard before chard psychosis sets in. I’ve been noodlin’ and doodlin’, and just put up a couple new shirts and swag items in our shop. We have priced them as low as we can through our printing service so you can get some inexpensive tees. I know mine are taking a beating with so much wear. You’re all wearing the same clothes for days at a time, too, right? Like…that’s what we’re doing now?
Jess’s Happy Pandemic Birthday Song
We’ll be adding more shirt designs soon, and all of us have various mini-projects in the works that will be hitting our YouTube channel in a trickle over the next month. If you’d like to be kept abreast of all the happenings, sign up on our mailing list.
We love you all, and hope you and yours are healthy, happy, and holding up emotionally as we navigate these strange, seemingly interminable days. All our well wishes and good bear spirit to you.