Archive for March, 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.


 

 

 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!

 

 


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


Welcome to the new normal!

 

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We needed to check out our balance. Usually, it is easy and we check online. There were irregularities. Not big ones, but big enough to mess up our day. We are used to having more month than money by two weeks. We manage. But this little bank oopsie was enough to keep us in suspense all day.

We had no choice but to call the bank. Do you remember talking to real people? Yeah, you are old like me. So ‘All agents are busy, thank you for your patience, blah, blah, blah!’ And then the guitar music plays. Four hours! We finally gave up. We figure there are no agents or only a few and if you are the lucky ones you might get to speak to someone on the other side of the globe. The whole household sat on tenterhooks waiting as one of us would have to go to the store to pick up the needed stuff, if we could recoup the loss. This represents all of us!

 

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Luckily my son helped us out. We figured at fourish here on the west coast, it is after closing time on the east coast. So we hung up. At least we were not on cell phones all that time. Landlines are so much better for sitting on hold.

Whew!

The lesson, check your balances often. With fewer employees at any business, complications will arise.

By the way, this is Linda’s newest prompt to help us all connect during this crisis time.


I could think of nothing better for One-liner Wednesday!

Linda G. Hill's avatar

“All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from one in which they were small.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

The first half of this quote is becoming all too obvious in the world we live in. But the second half remains a challenge. Think about it. What small things in your life do you now have time to make great?


If you would like to participate in this prompt, feel free to use the “One-Liner Wednesday” title in your post, and if you do, you can ping back here to help your blog get more exposure. To execute a pingback, just copy the URL in the address bar on this post, and paste it somewhere in the body of your post. Your link will show up in the comments below. Please ensure that…

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Since we are retired folk, our lives are basically the same as usual. My bother and son live with us and have volunteered to do the shopping and getting the mail from the post office. Our small town is having as hard a time as everyone else. Our school and library are closed. I would assume the few restaurants are closed. We have two small stores, Cheron convenience, and a little grocery. We had already done the first shopping of the month so we won’t need toilet paper for a couple weeks.

So life continues around here, right now, as usual, with me knitting socks and hats, and the big guy doing his researches online. All the while we are bingeing our shows, like always.

We are finally caught up with one I didn’t like the first time I tried it. Westworld:

I think I may be willing to try Battlestar Galactica now. I have been able to follow the characters better than I used to. That had been one of my problems. The other was the treatment of women. But stick with it if that is your issue. These fems are kickass!

We are also caught up on Outlander. And I can say my reading is ahead of the television series.

I don’t know why I like them and seem drawn to them, but I love to watch disaster movies or medical shows. I just finished this one yesterday, the old classic Outbreak. I’m left with the question: What happened to that cute little monkey?

Last night I needed something I consider light–because I’ve watched it so many times, Greys Anatomy. I ended up watching several in a row. And I wonder why I didn’t get to sleep until 4? I was reading Outlander after watching the show. Common sense, Dar! I know!

The weather doesn’t want to settle down and be spring. Remember last night where the raindrops froze on the storm door window? Here’s tonight’s pic:

I hope you all are staying safe and warm. This was my edition of What Day is it Anyway? This is another great Linda G. Hill prompt.

 

 

Making it Monday


There is still a lot of snow on the ground. Flurries and rain made me wonder how the Carpenter’s song would go if they could sing it today. The snow was melting at one point. While enjoying a video chat with friends I took this one through the front picture window.

A few minutes ago I heard something hitting the window. I didn’t know if it was rain or snow. I went to the storm door and saw drops on the window. I reached out to touch the droplets. They were frozen. It makes the window look like bathroom glass. Kind of cool. We are expecting about four inches of snow tonight. Makes me want to pull out the Christmas lights and start singing carols!

So what am I making? More socks! I am nearly finished with my daughter’s first sock. I just need to bind off. I’ll probably do that tomorrow. It’s the one on the right. The other one is at the point of the heel. The hardest part of the sock is the ribbing. I am doing this part with four purls, four true-knit stitches. The rest of the sock is the flat knit-stitch.

As you can see I am making these on the KB His and Hers looms. I now have two sets of the same size so I can keep the pair of sock as close to the same size as possible.

And here are the boyfriend’s socks started on the His looms. I am going to take the stitches off the bigger purple loom, upper left, and put them on the empty smaller one. These two looms have the same amount of pegs. I like the smaller set better as they are more comfortable for my hands.

 

Oh, I worked on the soft hat, too.

This may be close to being done.

I have other projects but my hands seem most attracted to these WIPs.

Just Sayin’


40% chance of precipitation.

 

Kali thinks I can control this. Poor puppy! At least the rest of us have places inside for our needs. One word: Piddlepad.


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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!

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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:

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(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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Going BovineGoing Bovine by Libba Bray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was recommended to me by a very good friend. I couldn’t afford to buy it at the time. Luckily the library had the Kindle and Overdrive versions. I seemed to like listening to the audio more than trying to track the Kindle.

Guys doing girl or women’s voices as it always sounds condescending, to me, but Erik Davies (Narrator), kept my interest and I soon lost the distraction of his female voice.

Though a serious subject matter, this story has you wondering what is happening and nearly breathlessly following the characters on their adventures to save the world and the main character, Cameron’s life.

It has been labeled “Quirky”. I agree! It is certainly worth the read.

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