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.

What Day is it Anyway? Sunday, March 22nd, 2020

Wow! I have to ask myself, what did I do today? It is 10:30 PM. My wake up was a little over 12 hours ago. Here is a little of what my day held for me.

On Sundays, we wake up and watch CBS Sunday Morning. I eat my breakfast toast or bagel during the show and get the coffee or other caffeine onboard. Anyone who has been watching “live” shows sees a big difference in how the shows are done now. Even our Sunday Morning showed the social distancing in effect. That makes me both happy and not so much. Knowing that we are still in the early stages of this pandemic. How will it change? Much of the show was dedicated to our new normal.

I know we watched another show after that but I can’t remember what it was. I know with all the bingeing we did we are now trying to catch up on our recorded shows. I might not remember because the highlight of my day was taking a stroll or two or three around the yard. I’m nearly ready to leave for a real walk. Thank heavens for sunny warm days. Yes, 55 degrees is warm. We are still dripping faucets at night as it is in the 20s. But after a cold, low snow winter, I was able to walk without a sweater or coat. I must have adapted to this weather as I used to freeze at 67! I’m not ready to wear shorts like some friends and a neighbor out here, but no coat is a thumbs up!

Most of my day is knitting, as you know. I’m anxious to take my daughter’s first sock off the loom. I want to try a certain cast-off and I feel I want to be aware of the tutorial on YouTube to make the best stretchy cuff for her. Meanwhile, the second sock is at the cuff part and the stitches used are more time consuming so I put it off. I do have her boyfriend’s first sock to the point that I’ll be making the heel soon. Now that I have his on two of the same size looms I am trying to keep both socks nearly caught up with each other. So I may put off the heel one until sock two is caught up. I still have a couple of hats in the making. But I only worked on boyfriend’s socks today.

During the knitting, I watched Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets:

It was weirdish but good for entertainment. In spite of whoever did the chest plate for our female star, must have been male, there were plenty of good lines from out starlet that I not only applauded, I shouted out to my three males of the house!

There might have been other shows. But it is Sunday and my evenings are usually watching The Walking Dead and The Talking Dead. I think having watched so much of these kinds of shows in the past few years, I find myself not as panicky. You see it isn’t about the zombies, but how people come together. How the good and the bad are affected. How old rules of social life can change and how to adapt.

If you haven’t watched it and are into it, this was a great show and there were tears. I hope that wasn’t too much of a spoiler. But The Talking Dead helps me get over whatever trauma I hold from TWD.

By the way, this is not tonight’s show. More on that in a moment.

Tonight’s show was done from the homes or offices of the stars. Like all live shows, keeping the social distancing so as to stay alive and well.

While I did my Duolingo lessons, I focus on German and Spanish but have added French and Esperanto. and while writing this blog I have had on one of my favorite go-tos: Alaska the Last Frontier. My brother knows the Kilchers and has shared his experience being up there one summer with me as I watch. I love that family. I wish I would have tried living up there like that when I was younger and energetic. I wonder how they are dealing with this new normal? Probably just fine as they are already socially distant.

Well for some people this is a boring kind of day. But for us, this is how we’ve been living since SSDI and then retirement SSI. I keep my hands busy trying to do something for others (yay! socks!) and keep my mind occupied watching writing, directing, acting out stories. Or listening to stories on Audible or Kindle Text-to-Speech.

So this is my version of What Day Is It Anyway? A prompt given to us by Linda G. Hill.

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.

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!

 

 

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!

Bus Ride

Well, today was fun and different. My honey and I got to go to the senior lunch in the little town of Summerlake. Town? Well, maybe smaller than a hamlet. It is only half an hour from our place, and it is beautiful. The ride itself is gorgeous.

Though this isn’t our bus. It is similar. We have a couple little busses like this to give rides to “town” an hour and a half to two hours from here for doctor appointments or grocery shopping. These busses are for seniors or the poor or disabled. Our town is small and comes under the county rule. There is a lot of political garbage that goes on that seems to imply that Christmas Valley is nothing but the red-headed stepchild (cliche –I love red hair and stepchildren are valuable people!) that shouldn’t have the significant needs we have.

Still, we do have the busses, and many of us enjoy the driver and her husband and consider them our friends. They help the people getting on and off the bus. That care goes far beyond driving. Once, they even helped us get a television when ours gave out. They help with food and clothes for those in need when they can. Good people, ya, know? On the bus, they get the conversation started on the long rides and keep us all light and comfortable.

My own disability makes the rides so painful I rarely go. The seats have such little padding that every bump is jarring. I know I am not the only one that finds the ride painful. By the way, on other trips, our driver tried everything she could to help me get comfortable. That touched my heart. I have brought pillows and blankets and my coccyx cushion. But the ride is so long that I just can’t get comfortable.  I prefer to drive our truck when we can afford to take it. It seems our driver’s side is the softer of the two seats. Even still, I have to take pain relief and play my music loud to get past the bad roads our county doesn’t find it necessary to fix.

Ah, but I stray from the point. Today’s ride was bearable partly because of the company on the bus. (And did I mention it was a short trip?) Our driver was fun and kept the conversation going. The lunch itself was exceptional. I am the only vegetarian, and the team that set up the lunch made sure there was food just for me. Wow! I was so touched!

We didn’t know most of the people at this lunch. But everyone was friendly and fun. At the end of the lunch, when we thought we were going to get up and ride home, a guy got up and made a loud whistle. That got our attention. What a fun speaker, this character with a long beard. The bin held the items of his stories.

Okay, don’t judge. From this angle, I can see how it sounds a little hokey. But we do live in the country so…  The bin contained furs. The vegetarian in me just shuddered. But it was more like the informative campfire talks we used to go to on our family camping vacations. I loved those. I learned a lot about nature’s fauna and flora from those talks. Our speaker made it a bit of a contest as to who’s fur is this. He’d hold up the coat and treated us like he did the school kids where he did the same talks. There were stories included to keep it going. He was delightful, and it made a fun day even better.

Because this restaurant was so close, my pain levels weren’t nearly as high. It helped to get out and enjoy our beautiful scenery and camaraderie.

And when we got back, I got to go to my favorite place in town, the library. I renewed my card and turned in my knitted donations and yarn cakes. That was the icing on my day. I couldn’t say cake because they were yarn, you see?

Just Jot It January/One-liner Wednesday — Aesthetic

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I wish good health to all my friends!

 

Just Jot It January and One-Liner Wednesday are brought to us by Linda G. Hill.