#WDIIA-G, #WTIIA, #CampNaNo,

 

This is both a greeting to you and an assessment of my day. All quarrels of the past were mended, and hilarity ensued. I wonder if anyone has done a study of the lockdown process and where the highs and lows are. How many arguments happen and how did the people survive, not killing each other, and these are the people we love and would never want bad things to happen. I’m sure if lockdown were alone or with roommates, one doesn’t like much it could get scary!

 

Anyway, this #What Day Is It Anyway and #AtoZChallenge is brought to us by the letter:

Before I get too far, I need to say that once again, it is very close to midnight, so I hope I can get done before I lose my daily blogging record. And that is #What Time Is It Anyway. But Hey! I had a

And I used it in my #CampNaNo Writing today as I will assign it to one of the characters or a couple of them. What if we all write down what we don’t want to be left unfinished, or unsaid? Since the virus is hitting closer and closer as we know, more and more people who have it or have recovered from it or sadly didn’t get to finish with the rest of us. I made a list that was quite long but

At the top of my list is I would hate to not finish my daughter and her boyfriend’s socks.

My CampNano seems second for now. The characters are holding their own.

There are letters to write

People I want to see again and give GREAT BIG HUGS to

The list went on and on. The more I thought of it.

I don’t know if it will work. It has in movies. The main character can’t die because there is just too much for them to do.

And speaking of CampNaNo:

I wrote 2,248 today without a problem. The story is taking off. The word-count is now 10,076. It should be 11,669. So close, but if I can pull off another day like today, I will get caught up. Yay! Me!

Shoot it is after midnight. I hope I didn’t lose the daily streak.

Anyway, a quick recap of my CampNaNo story Pandemapolypse. So, of course, write what you know. There is a pandemic. My characters have learned via a dragon that is in all my Haven books, Enelrad came to help us all. She chose these characters because they have this innate ability to communicate with each other. How many of you have friends or family members so close that you talk alike, you pick up the phone at the same time, you can sense their troubles and are ‘Johnny on the spot’ for them and they for you? Well, this band of mothers and daughters have this for their peers and maternal bonds. In fact, when the daughters were having their last camp/picnic/birthday party, and the dragon appears, the girls were so afraid, for only a moment, but it was enough for the mothers to drive up to save the daughters.

And the adventure starts. And there is a lab cave. And there are huge aquariums where one of the daughters learns to communicate with marine animals. And the biologist/microbiologist has discovered that she can communicate with the virus on the slide. What! Yes! Well, this virus has it’s own name for themselves: ZOTci. They are angry beings! One of the first things they do is call humans bigots. And I guess from their point of view that must be true. We, vegetarians, don’t eat meat. But we kill the virus whenever we can.

There is a lot to do to solve this issue, on the real-life timeline and in the story. I think I will have much more fun trying to see the world from a virus’s point of view than facing lockdown and hospital truths shouting at us all day every day.

Anyway, that’s the gist of it! So hopefully you are all snug in your beds and staying healthy or getting healthy, Stay safe. Find ways to be grateful.

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? 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.

 

What Day is it Anyway? #SoCS Edition Saturday, March 21st, 2020

 

 

 Something I keep telling myself.

And the thing is many of the worries we have in life turn out pretty good. I can’t predict which ones but I do have to report that the Bank issue resolved itself bringing our balance back to helping our food stock to keep us fed for two weeks. Yay!

Another issue that we caught by looking at the bank statement worked out by calling the source. The specialist at that business saw the problem and solved it immediately. Reversed the charge and all was good. I hope you are all finding good things in the midst of all of this like we did today.

Took a walk, several times today. It was just in the yard but the sun was up and two of the four outings I could just wear a T-shirt! Wow! It was wonderful!

Maybe laundry is just a thing you get done in your house. I remember when in the family of six I was chief cook, bottle washer, and laundry matron. Now just getting my own laundry done is something I put off until there just isn’t anything else to wear and I’m down to my last towel. I remedied that today. Woo Hoo!

With fibromyalgia and arthritis, there are days of aches and pains, tiredness, and worry of fever. And this is spring so there is congestion going on. Normally I wouldn’t worry about any of it. I had gotten used to all those feeling and knew what to take to make it better for me. For the last couple of days, and this is just for the record, I’ve had all of that. Breathing is easy. The walks, though not with a lot of energy, were bearable. So I am claiming fibro and allergies. I’m not going anywhere more than I have been before, so I’m not spreading around my nearly hypochondriac sickness.

I did send out a question to our community about a mountain that my adult offspring like to camp at. It is only 12 miles away. And though the road is pretty rough, once you get there the scenery is awesome and the smell of pine trees is so uplifting to the spirit! But I was told that this is the season of wolves and big cats and one should take a gun. Not sure I want to deal with that. Still, it might be a nice ride for us and we could stay near the car. We have seen bear scat up there. But I think it might be a little soon for them. We’ll see if the cabin fever wins over the wilderness fear.

A friend of mine mentioned the importance of paper journaling during a pandemic. I have mentioned, and not followed through, starting to write more by hand. I am going to try and do that.

So the last thing I want to mention is: What a beautiful sunset we had tonight! Picture a lot more reds and pinks.

 

 

So this was a combination #WDIIA and #SoCS Thank you, Linda, for the wonderful prompts!

 

 

What Day is it Anyway? Friday, March 20th, 2020

I know it’s Friday because of Grey’s Anatomy last night and garbage collection today.

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And Fridays my friends and I get on FaceBook IM and talk face-to-face. We have been doing that for quite a while now. Our talks go on for hours. Most of the time the only reason they end is one or all of us need to hit the necessary room. LOL! But sometimes I’ll leave Kali or husband to chat with them so I can find relief and come back and chat some more.

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While we chat we knit or crochet, or talk with one of the friend’s daughter and granddaughter. Today, we got to see the baby grandson. What a cutie! Usually, we see them wander into my friend’s room as they drop off or pick up said granddaughter. Now we saw them on the phone. It made me cry that they had to stay apart. My friend and her granddaughter have created a beautiful relationship. But the hugs and relationship have to be apart. Breaks my heart.

Granted in previous plagues there was no internet or even phones. That had to be heartbreaking. Especially for those that lived alone wondering what was happening to the people they love.

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Many have adapted the three-degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon is now played with how close are you to one affected with the virus. I have two degrees twice. I don’t know the people but the people who love or know the affected.

But the degree of separation may be even closer as the roommate of my friend had been in contact with one who later tested positive. They are doing their best not to be in the same room or keep the mutual surfaces clean. But I must admit to being SO worried!

Neither of my friends have great immune systems. One had a heart attack recently and has rheumatoid arthritis, the other a survivor of cervical cancer. I worry. I don’t want to. I try to tell myself that should we actually know that we only have a couple weeks to live I wouldn’t want to spend it worrying about the end but live life as full as we can under the circumstances. But it is a reality we all must face. The funny thing is, things could have happened to us at any time during our lives to kill us. Aren’t we blessed to have lived through the love and beauty and excitement we’ve had our whole lives? Every moment is a gift!

The facts change from day to day. At first, we were only worried about those of us that are older, but now we are seeing all ages getting it. Staying in and doing the best we can to stay healthy is what most of the people I know are doing. My daughter has been working at home for a while now. Hunkering down is same/same for her. I worry for her and her man, but not as much as her siblings. Two of my sons are still working. One in a high demand job that has him going crazy. There is little downtime. I worry about these two sons, and their friends and significant others.

Again, there is nothing I can do besides stay in touch and say prayers. The control we thought we had in life isn’t ours to hold.

There are so many friends and family out there that I have shared good times and lots of love. May we all come out of this healthier with better systems in place to handle it all with grace and peace.

Love and health to all of you!

Thank you, Linda G. Hill for this chance to communicate with our blogging community about our new normal. #WDIIA

Stream of Consciousness Saturday –Wire

Per Linda:

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “wire.” Use “wire” as a noun or a verb or any way you’d like. Enjoy!

More slipper socks finished. Yay!

And the snow is falling. About an inch in an hour. Here’s the latest of my porch banister that was just wet and brown an hour ago:

(revised edit: two inches now at the finish of the blog)

That is the peaceful scene I wished for in December or January. Here we are early spring and I wanted to start getting out for walks. But I guess it is helping all of us stay inside and meditate our lives.

You know at any moment we all could have died. Let’s say by accident or gunshot or our own stupidity. I guess the risk-takers would have been more prone to death than those who live from a cautious point of view. It’s all according to how we are wired.

Heck, we have enough coyote-to-roadrunner ratio here that we could have been hit by:

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The loss of life from any or all those incidences are devastating. Yet, they happen every day, bar the anvil. We try to protect ourselves as best we can from any of these, yet our thoughts don’t stray to or remain on the what-ifs.

Our new shared reality is built of constant worry on top of the regular worries of paying bills and surviving winter.

Some of us are wired to be gregarious. We must be around people at all times. Others of us are more of quiet wiring. Many taught to greet with a hug or handshake are shaken to bows or not even meeting people. Besides, who has toilet paper these days? You don’t want to shake that hand!

This is a time for the introverts to enjoy not feeling guilty for staying home, enjoying our own company. This is a time to reflect on how death has always been just around the corner. But facing that it may or may not be your own is hard to grab onto.

We came into this thinking it one more hoax, one more conspiracy. A joke. But even if so, life has come to a halt. Many I know are finding people they know have the virus. Many have it that can’t be tested. It is fear upon fear.

It is like we just opened a new book and we find ourselves in The Walking Dead or something like it. Panic is our worst enemy. Take a lesson from the disaster movies. Stay put and use your time to ponder.

I am finding it hard to listen to the constant fears of others. I’m 70 after all! I have lived a wonderful life. I have a great extended family and fantastic friends. I would hate, at any point in my life to have lost any of them.

At the same time, I have been the young mother as my young children romped about me. I chose not to take my children to see grandparents if any of us were even the slightest bit ill. So I don’t believe in my heart I cause their demise. Yet, at my age, I have lost many I have loved. This is something you never get used to. I assume if it happens on a large scale the loss will be overwhelming. Let’s hope that that doesn’t happen.

Meanwhile, what if we only have a few days to be alive? A few days to enjoy the amount of health we do have? Why spend our last moments worrying. Outside of proper precaution, what more can we do? I’m not saying ‘eat, drink, and be merry,’ I’m saying love your people. Spend as much time as you can by connecting in the ways earlier pandemics didn’t have: Skype, FaceTime, google chat. Talk on the phone if you can handle it. Write out your thoughts, email. If you are so inclined: write letters. I don’t know if sending the letters is advisable as others will have to touch and handle the mail to their detriment. But once this passes, and it will pass, there will be ways to reach out or remember each other.

I do believe we are wired to LOVE.

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Sad Sunday

I love it when family and friends come to visit. I absolutely turn to jello and can’t find my keys to the new-to-me car I’m so sad.

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Then I spend the ride home thinking about the good feelings of no bra, no shoes, and sweatpants. And fish and chips. And a wonderful newish car. I look at it and even though I am comfortable and self-soothed, and Kali snuggles, I miss the daylights out of my family and friends. Even the recommended Daylight Savings Time nap didn’t take away that sad.

Back to life as we know it. Watching Doc Martin season 9 while knitting and snuggles. I am feeling grateful for all the love, happiness, and health that surrounds me. I wish it for all of you, too!

One-Liner Wednesday

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Another day, another walk.

Nope, that’s not us. Hubby and I have on hats. The dog is Kali, white with spots. No walking sticks. No trees. Just desert.

 

One-Liner Wednesday is a prompt by Linda G. Hill.

Sunny Day

Some days all you want to do is walk around the yard with the dog and sit and absorb all the sun you can.

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Kali and I had a lazy day enjoying the sun!

Rorschach Test

When I was young and spent the night with my grandparents I felt so lucky. First of all, because my mother’s parents and my father’s parents lived two doors down from each other. Even my other cousins weren’t this lucky. And on this road, I had a great aunt or two. The second fun part of this convenience was that if my folks were visiting the one set of grandparents I could run and be at the other grandparents’ home.

Both of my grandfathers were carpenters. Mom’s dad was more of a cabinet maker. But when mom was young he actually built a wooden roller coaster and a Ferris wheel. There were pictures in the local paper with mom and my aunt as girls in these rides.

My dad’s dad was more of a home builder. When these two close families moved from ‘back east’ they bought land near each other and mom’s dad copied nearly every nail strike from my dad’s dad. Thereby their homes were very similar. I can still see and smell those two homes. Mom’s parents’ home smelled of cedar. Dad’s parents’ just smelled clean like wind-dried laundry. Mmmmm!

That doesn’t include all the food smells. Mom’s mother specialized in pies and cakes. Dad’s mom was best at meats and dumplings. Not to say they both weren’t great cooks! My mouth is watering at this vision.

But back to spending the night. The walls of both grandparents’ homes were textured with stucco, a kind of relief feeling and then painted. I remember laying on their beds and finding pictures in the textures.

As a mom of four, we had a house that had a bathroom with fake marble lined the wall. As you would sit on the ‘throne’ you could see ‘angry dad’. Beard, mustache and all. Yes, he was an angry cuss at times back then. (Not my current husband.)

Here in this house, I have found another set of Rorschach tests in this bathroom. One in the fake wood panel of the door. The others are from spackle patches that we still need to paint over.

Anyway, here are cell photos of the muses.

The only picture with true color is the wooden door one. These other two are white on sky-blue. I don’t know why they turned gray.

Anyway, do you see pictures? I have been meaning to capture these by drawing and seeing what characters I feel as I draw. Here are my first renditions.

Those were only quickie sketches. But for some reason, I felt nearly obligated to draw them out. It is like they want to be in a story or something.

Does this happen to you? Do you see pictures in tree-bark or leaf patterns against the sky? Do you feel they call to you to be represented? What do you suppose it means?