What Day is it Anyway? Tuesday, March 31st, 2020

Great!

That’s all we need!

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It was a 6.5 in Idaho. We are pretty close yet we didn’t feel it. Apparently, they felt it in Washington. We didn’t. Family in Idaho had parrots and parakeets warned loudly. 2020 needs to take a break and let us all catch up!

So, this child of Southern California goes to the voice of reason. Dr. Lucy Jones, the face of every quake we had while we lived there.

Here is the URL to her Twitterfeed: https://twitter.com/DrLucyJones

Anyway, she shared this YouTube on her Twitter feed. Here is an earthquake song. I’ll share what she said in a minute. Enjoy!

 

Here are some of the tweets Dr. Lucy Jones shared. Go over to her Twitterfeed to see the latest.

Dr. Lucy Jones

@DrLucyJones·

3h

An M6.5 earthquake just happened in Idaho this evening, northeast of Boise. https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70008jr5/executive…

@USGS

website is not showing aftershocks yet, but you should expect them. The largest aftershock to the average M6.5 is M5.3. Half have aftershocks even bigger than this

Dr. Lucy Jones

@DrLucyJones·

3h

An M4.8 aftershock occurred 35 minutes after the mainshock. You should expect more

Dr. Lucy Jones

@DrLucyJones·

3h

Replying to

@DrLucyJones

Idaho has a history of bigger quakes. In 1983, the Borah Peak quake was M7.0. Today’s quake is almost 100 miles northwest of the 1983 event.

Dr. Lucy Jones

@DrLucyJones·

3h

Idaho is part of the Basin and Range tectonic province. Everything west of the Wasatch Mtns. is getting slowly stretched out as a bit of North America tries to cling to the Pacific plate

~~~~~~~~~

The weather for the past week has been making the stay home mandate even harder to follow. Lots of wind and rain and sleet and snow. Come on Spring! The dog is wanting to take a walk without me. The only weather she doesn’t like is rain. So the house may be blowing away and she is delighted to be outside. She’ll walk to the gate and stand there waiting for me, her human inside the house, to catch up. I usually have to yell to her to come back. I want to get outside but the wind and allergies are keeping me in.

I haven’t knitted in the last two days. I guess it is the FaceBook suck, cause I can’t think of what I did instead. How does that happen? I even did a questionnaire or two. Who really cares how many piercings I have, or tattoos I don’t have? Rode a motorcycle, sure. Want to zipline, only in my dreams! I don’t think arthritis and fibro would allow it.

So I’m going to stop at my usual ten-minute scan and go away.

Oh, I did play a game of GoFish with a friend. We had the Facetime going. Here’s the website where you can realtime play. PlayingCards.IO

I don’t remember ever playing GoFish. It was fun. It is a bit of an old-school type of site. Not a lot of fancy-dancy graphics. But a fun way to meet with friends and family during this time of isolation.

I do seem to be spending more time on the phone or Zoom.com or FaceBook messenger. It is kind of nice to connect with friends and family like that. And with everyone home from work, it is easier to do without interfering with their day. I’m always home, so…

Since I am not finished with Outlander book 5, I am putting off watching the series equivalent on Hulu. And we are caught up on regulars shows. So the show in the background is Dr. Pol. Teddy was left in the bedroom and that TV was still on. When I came in he was watching it intently. So it is a nice show for the furries, too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73MHQpe53UA

I hope that plays for you. For some reason, it didn’t bloom into a true YouTube screen.

So that’s my day-ish. I am seriously thinking about A-Z and CampNaNo because I’m crazy like that.

What Day Is It Anyway? Brought to us by Linda G. Hill so we can keep track of when we are.

The Escapist Coloring Club–March Edition

Escapist Coloring Club

March Edition

So I woke this morning and realized that tomorrow ends March and I hadn’t submitted my coloring project. So here is the picture before:

Yes, that stain is the reverse side of the coffee stain. It became a small hole as I tried to erase it. Oh well. It’s coloring that counts. During this time this is a great stress breaker.

So, here is my finished product. Almost all with some colored pencils that I hope to use up so I can use the prettier, brighter colored ones. I used erasable pens to make certain features stand out.

I wish the colors showed up better but I had to put in hope and love for everyone! And

Happy

 

Linda G. Hill’s Escapist Coloring Club is the place to check out this fun prompt.

 

What Day is it Anyway? Sunday, March 29th, 2020

 

Amazon.com

There are good things happening due to the forced isolation. My friends and I love Zoom.com. Yesterday I learned that the church I occasionally attended back in my past residence was using Zoom to join the flock. Since there is no church like this here in this small town, it was great to join in. It was fun to hear the story of how a string connects us all. That was the object lesson. Everyone was to bring a string to the service. One of the leaders read a book to everyone. It was a child’s illustrated book. My string, of course, was very near. My daughter’s Boyfriend Sock was there right next to me. So it represented the link to my friends and family in the town that the service was from and personally to my daughter. The service centered on the connectedness of us all while in isolation. It was comforting and inspirational.

As a person with social anxiety boarding on agoraphobia, this situation is natural. Add to that my coccyx/hip pain in sitting in most chairs and church is out. I must admit I am not one to endure a long-winded preacher. For me, it is all about the singing. Today’s service didn’t have the audience singing, but a couple of beautiful voices did sing. After a listen or two I was singing with them here. The pastor’s message was short and sweet. She blessed the virtual strings represented. I hope I can join again next week. In comfy clothes, in comfy chair with the camera on or off. Since Hubby joined me the camera was useless as it seemed to point to the wall between us, so I turned it off. There were over a hundred people present yet I felt zero discomforts.

On another note. This darn weather has been so bad for a walker like me. And tomorrow there may be lightning storms. I don’t walk in those, either. Maybe I will pull out one of the new yoga YouTubes and see if it will work better than the chair yoga which made my coccyx/hips hurt worse when I got into it before.

March is nearly over. It came in like a lion that just sat down and decided to stay. Grrr! Well, I guess I will use my time catching up on my coloring!

Thank you, Linda G. Hill for the prompt to keep us connected during this pandemic. #WDIIA 

 

Stream of Consciousness Saturday –Beside You

Per prompt-maker Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “beside you.” Write about whatever is beside you when you read this prompt. Not when you sit down to write, but whatever is beside you right now. Take note of it if you think you might forget. Enjoy!

I noticed the prompt last night as I was turning off the computer.  As usual, my cell phone was beside me. I have a feeling this will be a common answer to the prompt. If we weren’t holding our phones close enough before this new craziness, we are now. We want to make sure our loved ones are safe, we want to stay updated on all the things going on around the world. It is a way of holding the world close. As close as a prayer. As close as an appendage.

Sure it is where we find the relief while playing a game or two as we wait for the next emergency we hope won’t come. The second-shoe-to-drop feeling that we’ve all been living during our two-week isolation. Hearing the bad news about the curve and checking to make sure it isn’t us. Knowing the numbers will probably get more personal. All that in one little tiny rectangular item. Not even as large as an envelope that our foreparents would have waited to receive to know how their loved ones were. Who knew an item a little over 5 inches could hold so much for us?

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What Day is it Anyway? Friday, March 27th, 2020

 

 

Food, Friends, Frustrations,

& UNFinished

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How many of you are finding it hard to finish anything? I’ll raise my hand.

Sure the lack of things in stores added to the end of month lack of funds, make creative group cooking takes some of my time. In normal times I cook about once or twice a month for group meals. Now we need to make things like potato/beans/rice burritos. Today pressure cooker potatoes, and frozen asparagus, were my contributions. I had vegetarian bacon with mine, the guys added their own proteins like frozen chicken breast or tuna. In the old days, potatoes and beans and rice were only for the end of month eats. And though it is exactly that, by now, the potatoes would be sprouted. But since the shopping was done a couple days ago, these babies were gorgeous! I love using my pressure cooker as everything is done so fast and tasty. But I don’t feel like sharing my pressure cooker or special pans with just anyone. Wait. I need to restate this: I don’t want anyone to cook in it, or my special non-stick ‘tofu’ pan. I have shared things like that and ended up not having them after one use by someone in the house beside me. So call me selfish. At least I share the food I make in these special pans. But that means at this time I become a chef. Since standing in one spot is the hardest of exercises for me I made a bargain that the guys do clean up if I cook. That worked out just fine. Tomorrow spaghetti. No need for the pressure cooker. But the people here don’t seem to understand how to cook pasta. Being married to an Italian the first twenty years of adulthood, I have an advantage. Darn! Did I mention I hate cooking? I do like to eat, though so this is in self-defense.

~~~

After I had my food ready I was able to get on Zoom with my friends. I love our Friday ritual. The three of us chat like there’s no tomorrow. Oh, wait, say that isn’t so. But at our ages, and health restrictions, we need to embrace love fully!

~~~

Due to this:

My handwritten journal with day to day entries about the pandemic and how it applies to us, some of my knitting didn’t get done. But it is fun to write and kind of keep track and reflect the lows and lowers of something scary but bringing out the best in most people. Yes, I include those, too. But no projects got finished this week.

Embarrassingly, here are a few more reasons things didn’t get done:

Onnect

For some reason, that game can suck me in and hours later when I look up from my phone, nearly blind with daylight changed almost magically to night. Thoughts to self, Stop playing this game when there are so many things you need to do. I have this game on my tablet, too. The phone, though smaller, has better graphics. Still, addictive and dangerous to your eyes. Play at your own risk!

 

While I’m at it. Here are a few of my favorite games to play while listening to audible books (Outlander 5 is the longest book ever!) In general, these games are fun. But I hate how you need to be socially connected or have money to keep playing. At 2 or 3 AM I am trying to quiet my mind, not find friends! And I certainly can’t afford to pay for cartoon games!

Toon Blast

Toon Blast is probably my favorite of these in that I love the graphics, the cute cartoons, there is a little bit of a challenge and strategy to use, without making me nervous. When any of these games tell me I’m out of lives I just move on to another. I don’t care that lives will be restored in 20 minutes. I usually go away frustrated that I couldn’t keep working at it until I complete a level. In fact, sometimes I enjoy a level so much that I’d like to keep on long after I complete the goal. I just like watching the blocks fall away.

 

Toy Blast

Though a lot like Toon Blast, there are fewer chances to earn lives or coins within the game. I quit discouraged. I don’t play for the challenge or social status. I play to relax and have something to do with my hands while listening. I can’t knit that time of night as that is too much light for my hubby.

Merge Dragon

I just got this and have played only a couple nights. There is far too much to read, in tiny print past the time of glasses to make me happy about it. It’s interesting, though.

Fishdom

This one was over-advertised so I refused to get it for the longest time, even though watching fish swimming through tubes and not get eaten by the shark or burned by lava. Finally, I gave in. It isn’t the tubed fishy thingie. Instead, it is a connect three or more, like the blast games above. The part I like is the opening scene is an aquarium of fish that swim around and sometimes they actually chat with you. Since the goal for me is to help me get sleepy the aquarium is the best part.

There are other games, card games or Sudoku. I find the card games a bit boring after playing them most of my life in one form or another (like with real paper cards!) Sudoku can distract me from the story as I try to figure each puzzle out. During the day I will play different word games. I love them but I don’t get addicted. I can’t play them while listening to stories as the words distract from the words being spoken.

What helps me sleep the most?

Teddy on special blanket is leaning on my left shin.

and

Kali sleeping while leaning on my right thigh.

Best stress relievers ever!

So that’s my March 27, 2020 edition of What Day Is It Anyway? It is Linda’s prompt to help us all through this tough time.

Per Linda:

…if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.

What Day is it Anyway? Thursday, March 26th, 2020 — This and That Thursday

On Linda’s Page (prompter of What Day Is It Anyway?) she talked about not getting to sleep until the third hour. In comments, I mentioned how it isn’t fair that the senior hour for shopping is early mornings. That isn’t really fair and is assumptive of the rule-makers. (I do understand that the cleaning and shelving of products happen at night. Thank you shop-owners for being so kind. This is a life-long issue for me! A night owl by nature.) Though there must be seniors that are early birds, I would guess a lot of us fall into the tossing and turning and seeing holes in the ceiling and stars above, or mountains or monsters that are just clothes or bedding tossed on the corner chair or table–and those are the creative moments. Most of the tossing and turning is pain enhanced by what-ifs, worst-case scenarios, or guilts of what didn’t get done the day before, or that never-ending list of things that must be done tomorrow–which never get done. And we of the senior variety or high-riskers have the most to worry about.

And that leads me to the wake-up with a back story. It is a non-COVID19 story. <shock-face> One night a month or so ago I was rolling over in my sleep. I grabbed the blanket to cozy in. My hand felt crusty-gooeyness. Yuck! I was so sleepy I wanted to ignore it. But YUCK! I’m sure it was upchuck! So I got up and removed said blanket, washed my hands and donned another blanket with a note to myself to keep the cats off my bed. Yeah. That’s gonna happen!

Solution: I found an old pink blanket to put on top of my regular covers. My day starts with me waking because two cats are lying on my up facing side (I sleep on my side) while Kali is curled up near my tummy. I wake because I know that this cozyish moment could turn into World War III including teeth and claws if I don’t get ahead of the situation.

I get up. I yell, “Everyone out of the pool, now!” I do the fastest bedmaking because Teddy is impatient to get the special blanket. Which comes next. It is an old pink blanket. Though thin, it should protect a little against possible crusties. Teddy seems to smile at me and steps right on it and curls up with a sigh that says, ‘Finally!’

As the morning moves on one becomes two as Rosey joins him. These two can be the worst of enemies but it is obvious they like to be together.

 

 

In other news:

I love it when my nails get this long.

There are things you can do with nails that you can’t without. Like a good back-scratching. And they make my fat fingers look nicer. But regardless of the science that says nails stay cleaner when they are short, I tend to disagree. See how clean these sweeties are? When I have short nails, the free-edge gets blackish with dirty, greasy, grimey, crud. I use the brush and have to scrub harder. Without nails, there are things I can’t do with nails, like rub my face. It’ll be nice not to scratch my eyeballs! Though we are advised to keep them short during the pandemic, this is the stage I have to cut anyway–rebel much?–because they break down below the quick. That hurts! So bye, bye nails!

Guess what. I know it is Thursday because last night was Chicago Med, Fire, PD or the Josh Gates shows which are on at the same time so we watch them on the weekends.  I love C. Med. I like C. Fire. I tolerate C. P. D. I love all the Josh Gates shows. I will share the trailers in a moment. I just wanted to finish my thought, it is Thursday and we already took out the trash for tomorrow! Now the trailers.

 

I think of Josh as another of my sons, in fact, he looks and has similar humor to my step-son, so I love him! And I think the shows are very exciting while being educational.

I know. I just noticed this is two trailers from the same show. He has other shows but I didn’t want to wear you out with YouTubes–no, more like, I didn’t want to wear me out looking them all up. Sorry. <–I wanted to say, ‘My bad’ but I hate that phrase!

And now, for no particular reason, a picture of Kali. I think she wanted equal time with the cats starring on this one. Sorry that you had to see the (cleanish except for the cats’ scratchpad cardboard flakes) piddle pad and her ‘hide the biscuits’ (really dog treats not the other) towel. But hey, there’s Pictionary!

Gotta love that face!

😍😘🥰🤗

How is your day going? I hope you are all staying safe and well! Enjoy the close you can get or the internal reflections that can bring you peace, hope, and love. Whatcha cooking? Today we are having Lana Burritos.  Leftover beans and rice with smashed (pressure cooker) potatoes.

 

One-Liner Wednesday – Change

Sometimes change comes in drips or drops,

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sometimes change comes in a tsunami.

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Yeah. I think we’re past the dripping. It seems we refused changes of beauty before. Now maybe this tsunami of illness will bring a strong-armed change. If we take the time to be responsible people we may find the best in all of us.

 

I don’t know where that quote came from. I looked it up on Google and didn’t find it. If anyone knows who said it first, I will be glad to give credit where it is due.

One-liner Wednesday is a fun prompt of Linda G. Hill’s creation. It is easy and fun. Click on the blue link.

The white scarf on the door: a life-saving lesson from the 1918 flu – STAT

When my grandmother got the flu during the 1918 pandemic, a white scarf tied to her family’s front door signaled quarantine. We need to be doing that today.

Source: The white scarf on the door: a life-saving lesson from the 1918 flu – STAT

What Day is it Anyway? Tuesday, March 24th, 2020

Today had less of what I wanted to get done. Less writing. Less walking. Less getting things read on the internet.

I did get out and walk around the yard. It was snowing big fat flakes. By the time I was getting tired the sun was warm on my face. It was not a long walk. That was the way of the weather today, it was switching from windy to cloudy then sleet, then snow, and back again within minutes. The walk was fun. But fibro flares were killing me. Kali was so excited in the snow and didn’t want to go into the house.

Even knitting was less. I think I got a row or two on the sock.

I made a group lunch, pressure cooker beans, and rice cooker brown rice. I made sure to put veggies in. It was good. It felt healthy.

Then a nap took over. Teddy and Kali decided to sleep really close to me. It was kind of cute until the jealousy took over and they tried to claim me.

So how did I get to this end of the day and have no idea what happened to the rest of the day that isn’t listed here? Has anyone else had that happen lately?

What Day Is It Anyway? And where did it go?

What Day is it Anyway? Sunday, March 23rd, 2020

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When I started the #What Day Is It Anyway blogging I thought it would be a good way to keep track of days and feelings as this Covid19 grows.  A friend from my old writing group sent me a note about how in the old days, other plagues, journals were found to guide us in the future. Awkward sentence. I hope you understood it. I have to get this done in a hurry as I still have a lot to do before bed.

She also talked about having written a lot in MySpace and her son wrote a blog and couldn’t get back in. How many computers have you been through that crashed with all the information you loved and wanted to save?

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SO… as of yesterday, I started a handwritten journal. In it, I am keeping track of my feelings and the progress of the disease. So far as we know, we are still three degrees of infected. But if the charts are right it will hit closer to home. I want to keep track of everything. Much I can share here. But those hypochondriac thoughts or which shoes are best for walking may not need to be here. Too scary or boring, ya know?

I wondered how to start. I thought, what if a person were to find this in the future. Say an archeologist. It could be a time when science isn’t what it is today. And then the question came to me, what if the internet doesn’t exist? What if they have no computers?

Have you ever tried to explain the internet or blogging to someone who might have never heard of it? Well, there were three pages that included encyclopedias and the use thereof.

I have multiple colored pens and I change as the subject changes drastically, or a mood hits. Then as I rambled along I thought, what if they can’t read cursive? I have the ugliest print. I think my cursive is okay. So I did a chart showing the alphabet in cursive and print so they might figure it all out.

It’s been fun, in a way. I’ve written about 700 words. My hands only cramped up once. So I will continue.

One the physical side it was ‘witch on the bicycle’ windy so I didn’t get to take a walk. I could handle rain or snow or sun, but the wind is the worst. Hopefully, I’ll get the chance tomorrow. I did love being out there yesterday and the day before.

We caught up on The Good Doctor after lots of news. Now I am watching Contagion on Netflix. I’m on the third episode. This one scares me more than the others. I don’t know why. So here’s the YouTube trailer. Use your own discretion to decide if it is for you.

Wash your hands, keep your distance. Love one another. Take a walk if you can. Be creative in whatever way the muses hit you. Hang in there!

***

Per Linda:

Why I’m writing this post:

Because if you’re like me and stuck at home already, or if you’re going to be like me soon, the days of the week are going to be hell to keep track of. We have a wonderful community here on WordPress and all over the Internet as well, and I’m sure many people are feeling nervous and/or isolated. I want to make sure every one of us has somewhere to congregate and someone to talk to.

I want everyone to know that you can start discussions with each other in the comments, and if you’d like to write your own “What Day is it Anyway?” post, you can link to this one. Hashtag #WDIIA.

Let’s keep in touch!