The Pause

Most of us have put our lives on pause. If you are retired, this is not a huge difference in the pace you used to set each day. It is a bit frustrating if you are very social and love your  meet-ups. It is a bit frustrating if you participate in social sports or even gym activities, but making a sacrifice to save lives is not all that difficult! My daughter lets her little girl out to ride bikes with a good friend a few times each week. They are told to stay 6 feet apart when talking. My granddaughter must have some social connections at the age of 12,but who knows if she understands the seriousness of all this. That is her life overseen  by her parents. She spends the rest of her freetime on the snapchat APP of her phone or doing her homework online. She is not a stellar student, but also someone who will make it through school as above average. 

My oldest grandson is a teenager and smart enough to be able to handle the homework in an efficient manner and  spends too  much time playing online games.  He is very close to his uncle, my son, so they connect electronically at the end of the workday.

The youngest is nine and tries to keep up with his teenage brother but is somewhat lost because team sports have been the  central  part of his life outside of school.

I do not  think any of my family realizes how  long this hunkering down is going to last.  

I  have restricted my going  out to maybe twice a week...maybe once more as we do  not get rural  delivery of mail.  I wipe the mail down with a bleach  and  water cloth  and let it sit for a short time before I open it

I am now getting my vegetables and fruit via delivery.  Getting the first box in  two  days.  We  will see how that goes.  I may try to get all my groceries via delivery.  My neighbor and I are planning  on leaving the box  outside the house and bringing stuff in to clean in the house.  

Yard workers and delivery do not come into  the house.  I am certainly hoping we do not need repairs.  My friend 's refrigerator just died and she got new one.  On that same day, Best Buy, which sells appliances, emailed all  its customers that they will sell and deliver appliances, but no longer install them!  They will get them to  the front door and the rest is up to you.

We planted spring potatoes in the volunteer children's garden, but not  sure if  or when community children can help us harvest.  It was just hubby and I.  We  canceled the get-together with volunteers  to pre-plant all the vegetables in small trays to  place under grow lights and hubby spent  4 hours doing  it  himself in the basement.

My daughter  had planned a long weekend  in the nearby mountains  with us, but the cabin owners canceled and refunded the money.  My son and his wife planned a weekend with us at the C&O canal in a cabin.  That is in May and might very well  be cancelled.  We have a late June trip where my husband was going to take the oldest grandson on a SCUBA diving trip to the Bahamas.  My son was going also.   I was going just to make the the three males behaved themselves.  That is farther away in time, but I will not be surprised if flying out of the country is unadvisable in June!

So life is a bit of a bore.  Even our brief  consideration of taking a chance drive up to see the cherry blossoms has been  canceled as D.C. said too many people were enjoying them!  Even  though they are all outdoors, it was too crowded.

We still  have the  local parks with their hiking  trails, but hubby and I do not know if they are crowded as this weather warms.  We will have to see in the days ahead.

Mage from Postcards From the Edge is back blogging after her lengthy illness.  But she returns to the pandemic that has us all staying home.  It is good to read her "postscards" once  again, though.  Blog connections with you all are more important than ever,  helping us realize that life goes on and we can keep each others spirits up virtually with  absolutely no exchange of bacteria or  virus!

Different Strokes

My husband and I are very different in personality. He is much like an over-eager lab. He loves people, he is on the phone, he likes to run errands and he is the one who makes friends. I like people well enough. I do not mind having someone over for tea. Except the young man that came last week stayed for three hours and I was worn out by then. This was just a few days before we all have decided to stay home. 

Last week we had our last meet-up with someone who had requested a yard visit regarding issues with drainage and protection of nearby water flow areas.  Hubby was enthusiastic in his response with all his advice until the lady politely stepped back and said, "I'm sorry, but I am trying to make some distance between us here."  Hubby smiled and stepped back.  This virus is hard for him in so many silly ways.

Therefore, this mandate by our Governor to not hold meetings or go out to gyms or restaurants, etc. has left a big hole in my husband's days. He watches cable news, he gardens, he even ran 4 miles on the elliptical today, but all of it is him pacing, pacing, pacing. I, on the other hand, am relieved that all those meetings got canceled. I hate going to them anyway. I love people, I really do. But they are like hot sauce for me. A little goes a long way.

I visited the grocery store today for weekly shopping and was somewhat surprised at how bare everything was.  Freezers were 80% empty and paper products the same.  There was even a small dent in the fresh meat counter and the seafood counter was empty.  I got enough to survive another week.  The store was about 30% full of customers and everyone was hesitant and cautious but polite.  I am out of analgesics and was going to get some Ibuprophan but a lady next to me said she also needed that and since there was only one box, I told her to take it.  It is not something that will mean life or death for me...and it may be important to her.  I did get the last sack of flour, because ...well cookies...that is sort of life and death.

Today I am editing a report hubby wrote before we send it on to someone else for approval.  But before this, I played with some spring photos.  Hoping what I post below brings you some peace of mind in this murmuring chaos. 

        

Stuff You May Not Know

While our illustrious leader is trying to keep the numbers down for infection in this country, he has explained that he really understands "this stuff" probably due to his fantastic genius gene pool. I understand, folks, that he does sound racist, but it is just "straight talk."

Anyway, I am sure you all have moved your laptops to the sink so you can wash your hands every 15 minutes while blogging, but be sure you do not knock the electronics into the sink. I am not the genius that our illustrious leader is, but I do grasp the concept of water and electricity as something not good!

If you are flying and wearing a mask, please let all us bloggers know how you are handling the eating and drinking part.  I have a plane trip in June and I am guessing this may not be on the wane by then.

I actually like the elbow bump greeting and the bowing greeting as one is joyously young and reflective: a coolness and the other is proper and dignified.  I think I can pull off either at my garden meeting next week.  

On February 26 the President said the following:  "[W]hen you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done."  As of March 8 and 15 minutes of the writing, we now have 500 cases of Covid 19 in the U.S.  He is a genius, but not a whiz at math.  One of the cases is just 60 miles north of where I live.

Am I panicking?  Not for me or even for my family.  I do panic for that younger minimum wage worker that has to meet the public every day and who has no healthcare.  He/she just needs to hold on until the GOP brings that Replace part of the Repeal for their healthcare.  It is unfortunate they could not get it passed when they had control of both Houses of Congress for two years.  Now the politicians have brought it down to theater like wearing gas masks during sessions of Congress.  (Course that guy has a few drunk driving issues, so I understand why a virus would be a joke for him.)

I may very well get it--the virus.  I mean just count how many times you touch something that someone else has touched on a normal day out...your credit card, the gas pump, the door handles of every building you enter, the buttons on elevators, the faucets and toilet handles, the glasses the waitress/waiter places on your table, the plates that are touched on the edges by God knows how many people, the seat rails on trains and metros, the handrails of escalators and stairs.  Even every can of beans, carton of milk, a container of eggs and container of gum may have been handled just a few hours before by someone who is asymptomatic or just slightly tired and fighting the virus.  Of course, they recommend that you wear gloves, but I also know that I am very touchy-feely with my face!  Spend an hour and count how many times you want to scratch your nose or wipe your eyes.

Are you terrified yet?  One woman at a Trump rally quoted a Psalm explaining why she had no fear and that she would be safe.  I do not know my Bible...not even sure where that lovely white tome with the gold edges is...!  I am sure I could not find the Psalm and God just shakes his head at me when I ask questions, although Psalms was my favorite when I was a teenager.

Well, we got an email today from a woman who was supposed to go on our wood duck box maintenance trek and said she had to bow out.  She had met up with some friends who had been on travel several days ago and yesterday she had a sore throat and was feeling "pecky".  

Keep me posted and for certainty...move that laptop aside and go wash you hands.

Spring Cannot Come Too Soon

It seems this week is just one roller coaster ride after another. My daughter-in-law was in Nashville this week for work and slept through the tornado! It did not damage her hotel, thankfully. She was not aware of the tragedy until breakfast the next day. She dodged that bullet! Many young children died or were injured, it seems. My daughter is flying to Nashville for work this coming Monday for her company. I never know where my family is on their various work trips, and maybe that is a good thing. As the current Coronavirus spreads there will be more teleconferencing, I am hoping.

It is only a matter of time before the virus reaches our state. You can see Johns Hopkins' COVID map that shows it appears at entry points to the US. My state has finally put up a map on testing. There is so little testing going on, that the numbers will be sure to climb when they test. Fortunately young and middle-aged healthy people will probably not be deathly ill but will have to be prepared to miss several weeks of work.

While buying some make-up remover packets in the drugstore a few days ago, I stood behind a stocky black man neatly dressed in a state sports jersey and a knit cap. He was buying a package of cigarettes. He reached deep in his pocket for the needed remaining 30 cents in change, spilling coins onto the floor. He handed the clerk a coin the size of a quarter and she said it was not valid currency, perhaps some chip from a game(?), as she handed it back. He reached in his other pockets and still could not come up with the needed 30 cents. He finally said he would go check his car and come back. I stood wooden Indian still refusing to help him as I hate the cigarette habit. I looked him in the eye with my best stern grandma look as he turned and said I was sorry I could not help him, but I did not like that dangerous habit. He smiled politely and then hubby, who is ever the good Samaritan even if it means buying poison, reached in his pocket and brought out the change. The black man thanked him and looked sheepishly my way before he turned and walked to the door. Such an addictive danger.

Super Tuesday of 1/3 of the primary states' voting determines whom I vote for before I even get a chance to vote. My first two choices already dropped out! My third choice was not super strong. I will vote blue no matter who, but I wish the system was not so crazy.

I have gardeners coming next week to plant trays of seeds for my husband's project and I have to clean the basement before they sprinkle planting soil all over it...I also should make cookies...spring is coming closer each day.

Being Prepared

I think we all try to be prepared as much as possible. When you reach a certain age you have exercised your preparedness muscle so that it seems to kick in instinctually. But even being prepared for the gut punch that you know is coming, does not mean you will be able to duck in time and it does not mean you will not feel it very painfully.

That little nine-year-old girl died two days ago. She was in days of drugged pain while parents sat by her bedside and held her hand. They saw it coming. It had followed a chemical respite that allowed trips to Disney World and trips to Children's House and the repainting of her bedroom to look like a Panda jungle. Now they face the weekend planning a funeral and returning on Monday to that other life that had been put on hold for months. But they were prepared, right? (no.)  They knew what was coming.

I know that death is in the future of my husband and I as we move toward our eighth decade on this planet.  One of us will probably go first and the other needs to be prepared.  I see some really strong and smart widows (at least 3) that move through their lives as if tomorrow is far in the future and the past is but a distant memory.  All three of them were leaders in their careers or society before they lost their spouse.  I am so unlike them.  I never saw myself as a homebody, but in reality, I am.  I watch each of them closely to gain some learning.  It is hard.

We all need to be prepared for this Coronavirus that is certainly a Pandemic, although the profiteers won't let the scientists call it that yet.  But this is very hard to prepare for because our diagnostic capabilities are poor, we have no idea how many people across the globe, and even in our country, who have caught the virus, survived and assumed they just had a cold and went on to spread the virus to others.  We have no idea if and when a vaccine will be created and if it will work for all of us and if we can afford it.

I am not terrified, but I have ordered the N95 virus masks so I have a small collection in the event that I need to go out and about if we are under a "shelter in place" advisory.  I have lung issues and it takes weeks for me to shake colds that move into my lungs.  I get allergies even in winter that gives me sneezing fits and coughing.  Nowadays that action can send people fleeing from your side!  I have antiseptic wipes that I carry in my purse, but I have always used these mostly in the winter to wipe down shopping cart handles and bathroom doors, etc.  I will not use public restrooms if I can help it, as the hand dryers are notorious for spewing germs (bacteria) into the air.  I have antiseptic wipes in my kitchen since we have had food infection outbreaks for years in this country and I wipe down counters and wash vegetables carefully.

I am as prepared as I can be.  I have a plan to attend a large assembly of cheer girls at a nearby convention center.  This will be at the end of March.  I also am prepared to not go and to argue with my granddaughter and daughter if I think they should stay home if the news changes dramatically in our area.  My son is taking his two nephews to a big gathering of gamers in another section of town on the same day.  I am not prepared for them getting ill, but I have the knowledge that the odds are in their favor to not get deathly ill.

I am not prepared for car crashes, airplane accidents, burglars, or a tragic slip and fall.  Life happens and I am prepared to enjoy each and every day I am given.  I have no choice.  I also find that spending one's life ducking from gut punches leaves one hunched over and staring at the ground all the time.

Where Would FB Be Without Pet Photos?

While I am allergic to cats, it does not mean that I do not like them. I just avoid them. I often find it amazing that if you enter a home where they have failed to put the cat away and you(me) avoid eye contact with the fuzzy creature, it will then rub back and forth on your ankles demanding attention and ignoring the petting of everyone else. Below is a photo of nobody's pet. It is feral in our woods but fed by well-meaning but clueless neighbors.

Above it is cruising the bird feeders! Below it is on my deck trying to catch a finch that landed on the table.

It has lovely markings and does not run from people, so I would think it would make a nice selection in the habitat house. NOw we just have to figure out how to catch it without touching it!

I have two grand-dogs in my family. One at each of my children's houses. This lovely rescue granddog came to visit this past weekend. She was adopted at about 8 months old. They do not have a history of her, but know she came through several states by van to get here and therefore, seems to have a terror of traveling in cars. She also is adjusting to being left alone. We left her behind when I took the kids shopping at our local discount store. When I returned I was greeted by this!

The other shoe was far worse! These are my go-to shoes for running outside to grab a photo and thus slip on quickly. I have owned them for years!! Oh well, now I need to shop for shoes.

She was somewhat remiss...somewhat.

Above she is ready for her walk and waiting for someone to open the gate and bring her leash. She is a lover when at rest.

While I am not crazy about pets on my furniture, I can give a little for granddogs.

Ooops wrong post!

I accidentally put my post on my other nature blog and rather than cut and paste and create a nightmare of html errors...I am sending you there with this link.

My Weekend Review

This past weekend my husband purchased tickets to the Folger Shakespeare Theater in Washington, DC. We could not get good reservations at any of the better restaurants because it was Valentine's Eve and that meant you had to make your reservations months in advance. We instead ate at a cozy pub called the Hawk and Dove. It bills its theme as an intelligent place to argue politics since they are fairly close to the Capital/Congress. There were icons of selected Presidents on one wall, but not any of the recent ones. I ordered rib eye (since we no longer cook red meat at home) and it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I also ordered a nice Bourbon cocktail as that is the only thing I drink in a "cozy pub." Hubby had a shrimp pasta scampi meal which he devoured.  I did not take photos, but it was all brown wood and coziness.  Our meal was at 6:10 which is early and thus the place was not crowded but not empty with just the right amount of subdued friendly noise.  For us country mice it was the perfect city experience.

I get anxious at these trips to the city because it is months between times using my Uber app and I had to update my credit card with them as well.  The app is much more friendly and intuitive than it used to be.  We drove to my daughter's house and decided to take a taxi to the restaurant from my daughter's house which cost $27 and the taxi was late picking us up!  We Ubered to the theater about 4 blocks up after the meal.  We Ubered to my daughter's home after the performance and that cost $17 and we only waited 5 minutes in the bitter cold at 10:30 P.M. for the ride to show!  The app asked if we were willing to share the ride and we would be picked up sooner.  With temps in the mid 20's F and a breeze, I was cold and quickly clicked yes.  We shared with a very quiet middle-aged African American woman who only offered a friendly comment when I wished her a safe ride home as we exited first.  We are only going to Uber in the future as my daughter advised.  Cheaper and faster!

As you can see above, we got there about 10 minutes early.  It is a small theater and filled rapidly.  The play we saw was The Merry Wives of Windsor.  I do like Shakespeare while hubby not so much.  This was a perfect compromise because it was set in the 1970s and absolutely hilarious.  The beatnik costumes and hairstyles and music brought back those years warmly.  The acting was superb with enough broad body comedy to keep the pace moving.  They tried to stick to the olde English with occasional 1970's terms thrown in.  Certainly shows how universal Shakespeare was and is. Reminded me I needed to do this more often as I am getting old.

We were very fortunate as there would be only a few more weeks to see plays in this theater.  There was a two-year remodeling project in the future.  I hope they keep the character of the original architecture based on the traditional theater of Shakespeare productions.  It was funded by oil baron Henry Folger and his wife and also has a world-class library attached.  The building opened in 1932.  If you are interested in the history you can go to this page.

In the next post I will talk about some shocking news I got the following day.

Waiting for the Unmasking

We are all linked together whether we like it or not.

The planet can be covered in man-made walls, but they will not make any difference because every country has different resources including the amount and types of labor and we will be forced to trade and exchange what is of value.

According to a correspondent on National Public Radio, we get most of our surgical masks from China. These are not the germicidal masks providing limited protection that you purchase in the drug store or the throw-away masks that the doctor's offices provide to protect their patients from YOUR sneezing if you are polite enough to wear them when you are ill. No. These are the tight-fitting disposable masks with two filters so that the doctor and nurse can breathe while not contaminating or getting contaminated by the germs in the operating room. Medical personnel will not operate without these masks due to lawsuits.


Most of these masks are in very limited supply in the United States now.  We get our masks from China.  China has shut down their factories.  We get most of our generic drugs from China and we also get most of the basic chemical ingredients to make such drugs elsewhere from China.  We can hope we have seen the worst of this epidemic.  (We get lots of other stuff as well, but the medical supplies are most important.)

Below is a photo of one of the American doctors that traveled with us to China as a tourist.  She has on a traveling mask with the double filter and she wore it because of the pollution in Beijing.

She and her doctor husband wore the masks during days that the pollution levels were beyond a certain point.  They checked the data on their watches each day.  Most of the rest of us did not.  One other woman had asthma and they gave her one of their masks.

The times that I saw locals wearing masks was when they went to the temples where there was lots of smoke from incense burning and smoke from the yak butter candles.  Mostly people were maskless.

China is known for shutting down its schools because of air pollution and this was bemoaned by our tourist guide who waited for the day China would have clean air regularly.  China is one of the worst polluters of the air on the planet.  Above is Tiananmen square on a fairly hazy day.  I am sure is mostly empty today.

Lost in Cathay

Dehazed and photoshopped muchly.

I have learned that the older you get and the more open you are to the differences in earth's universe and the more open you are to people who disagree with you, you realize that the globe is not all that big. We are small in this grand universe and we are closely connected in many ways. Most of us want the same things---a fair chance, honest relationships, a bit of love, and the ability to contribute to mankind in some way.  (Unfortunately, a few of us are broken beyond repair as we can see in the daily news.)

I was in China during the month of October last year (those who regularly read my blog have gotten a window into that trip already).  Therefore, I have followed the coronavirus news carefully and a few theories have come forward that the virus may have been moving through the population way back before December!  A small change in the calendar and my blog might have been written from somewhere else with much more dire news as I spent a few days in Wuhan, mostly traveling outside the city.

I fell in love with the Chinese people as they are wonderfully simple and complex.  They are really very much like us.  I worry about the people I met and those who depend on travel from other countries to fill their restaurants, fill their hotels, eat their food and buy their handicrafts.  I took many photos during my time there and I have today gone through the first three days of our trip and focused on the people to share thinking about their livelihood and health.  So come along for a quick view of Chinese outside the city. (As usual, you can click on the photos for a bit larger view.)

This is a young woman (notice the long hair) setting out fishing traps along the three gorges section of the Yangtze River.  Far from the cities and night lights.

A farm along the steep and unforgiving hillside. I cropped closer for a better look. I do not know if they live there or only work there in the day time.

There is a calm resignation about their stance.

These two men are killing time waiting for someone to rent their vehicle for the somewhat long and steep trip up the hill to the temple.  We walked, but I felt some guilt about that being the "snowflake" that I am.

Three men, two look retired, and I think one is the shop owner.  They are watching the tourists stroll up to the tall Pagoda.  I think you could get a very different quote out of each of them if you have some imagination.

Three Chinese tourists celebrating their success at reaching the top of the Pagoda.  If you can cross the bridge in three steps it means success or love.  They look just like American tourists in their joy.

Hope you have enjoyed this little vignette on the locals.

Woah...were have I been?

Hard to realize I have not posted on my blog in the past two weeks. In reality, I have had nothing to say.   !But that has not stopped me before!   My health (ear infection) seems to be improving, but I am used to improved health before a week's end and not a month's end. Part of my not posting is my depression over the State of the Union and no one wants to read about political opinions when you can get them on TV non-stop. This President has been a gold mine for cable news. I do wonder what they will hype about when he is gone. (Although he does dream about changing that Constitutional restriction for re-election like the Chinese leader did!) 

While the weather is also political, it is unusually warm here.  Days in the 50's and 60's with no snow.  It feels like northern Florida most of the time.  We do get the rare rainstorm, but it is also a little too dry for this time of year.  There have been only a few night freezes.

I realize people need good news, so a dear sweet young man I know has just received two patents for his work on cybersecurity.  He worked day and night for 5 years and he is now wealthy and it is well deserved. 

Continuing technology advances, the University of Toronto Scarborough has, for the first time, turned waste cooking oil—from the deep fryers of a local McDonald’s—into a high-resolution, biodegradable 3D printing resin.

The Pope, yes THE Pope, has given an empty Vatican palace over to the homeless.  That is something to be celebrating, certainly.  

They have discovered that putting patients in hyperbaric oxygen chambers can reduce the symptoms of Alzheimer's.  (Maybe Michael Jackson was smarter than we thought.)

"According to a recently published Gallup poll—the first of its kind conducted in almost two decades—Americans visited the library far more than any other cultural institution in 2019."  That bastion of learning brought in 10.5 trips a year, more than sports events and movie theaters.

So that is at least 5 things to celebrate.  Now go to my other blog for an avian laugh.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Going into the Doctor's for a follow-up. The first time today I feel better, so of course, the appointment is tomorrow when I will be back to normal. I have been very lazy watching the soap opera that disguises itself as a Senate hearing...resembling nothing I have seen in Law and Order but much like Days of Our Lives.  Us elders can see the dust crumbling beneath the foundations of our Democracy.  Others seem to think it is much ado about nothing and all "politics".

My son-in-law pointed out to me across the school gym a young mother that was wearing some slogan/protest T-shirt, perhaps Mom's against Guns.  I was not paying too much attention except that son-in-law seemed to find it "quaint" that I was like her, one of those angry protestors for many causes.  I wish I could find it quaint that he is unenlightened.

I have the premonition that there will be much violence ahead in the election year and many months after.  Our President's own lawyer testified (before he went to jail) that change would only come via revolution.

China has a tightly controlled society.  People are very well-behaved because they know the dangers of Chinese jails and the lack of fairness is not reasonable argument.  There is no freedom of the press there.  Their leader manipulated the bureaucracy so that he can be endlessly reinstated as a supreme leader.  Crime is low and hidden and corruption is how things get done.

I read an article in The New Yorker that followed the probable history of the first diagnosis of a patient with coronavirus which began in Wuhan. (They guess it had to do with illegal live bat sales.)  The writer in The New Yorker got her details from an article in a Hong Kong magazine since the investigative press is suppressed with death in mainland China.  The bottom line is that everything is so controlled under a tight authoritarian regime that even public health officials could not step out of the procedure when they saw a disaster coming or at least questioned the danger.  It took over 24 hours for the first sick man to get any help at all.

My Trump supporter acquaintance says that it is because China is a communist/socialist government and the government (some vague entity?) does not care about its citizens.  "Let them die."  I disagree, but will not argue.  Authoritarian rule under the guise of socialism, communism, democracy, ecclesiastical , monarchy or whatever form of government is dangerous when only one voice and the following voices of its sycophants can be heard.  Free speech, free press, arguing in the city hall is always a safer way for all citizens.

The photo above I probably posted before.  It was taken from our boat that anchored in Wuhan before our trip up the river.  Wuhan is a very large city. The city was all in lights because of the celebration of the 70th year of the formation of the PRC.  Keep the citizens focused on the bright lights!

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Winter

I have somewhat gotten used to not hearing well out of my right ear. The pain from the infection is gone, but the swelling hangs on. I used ice packs yesterday afternoon and that reduced the swelling as I can now "pop" my ear open if I open my jaw. Walking around the house with my maw open is not too much fun, so I still muddle on hearing only the muffled sounds in the house that come from the left side. I have no dizzy or orientation issues, but it does seem odd to hear a sound coming from my left side when the sound is taking place on the right!

Now I think I understand what it is like for the hearing impaired and I admire their patience with themselves. It is easy for hubby to sneak up on me in the shuffle of his soundless socks and it is easy for me to procrastinate doing all those things I do not want to do and instead read my book and play word games on Kindle. It is an artificially enforced vacation. I am retired and no longer need vacations from my life, which is a vacation. I am lazy and use it as an excuse not to exercise or clean house or run errands. (Of course with this flu expanding, I will avoid senseless trips to anywhere.)

I do think about my earlier life when getting sick meant there were chores that still had to be done no matter how I felt, and people to care for no matter how I felt, and going to bed early was the only respite I could find. I think of my busy daughter with her three children. At least two are old enough now to cook for themselves a bit.

Above my daffodils are emerging like the idiot energizer bunnies they are. I also have small tips of tulips breaking the frozen crust of soil in the pots on my deck and of course the Lenton Roses that are weeks early. Signs of spring are everywhere. I know they are pushing the season, but so am I.

Photos were taken weeks ago before the ear infection!! Spring is impatient here.

Stuck at Home

I am stuck at home for a few days with a semi-painful ear infection. It is complicated and involves fungus and microbials...and I am unable to hear in my right ear.  Which has frustrated hubby who is trying to make a point sometimes.  I am trying to be lovingly patient with my life but I hate these wasted days. I am staying away from crowds due to influenza fears even though I got my flu shot long before my trip in October. (Missing the dinosaur event with my grands.)

Thus I have pulled up old hard drives and gone through files and wondered why I save so much meaningless stuff archived! This photo below was taken in my back yard a few years ago. One is the original (the second below) and the other is photoshopped (extravagantly and easily noticed by a photo expert). To really appreciate you have to click on the photo.  This is what I am doing on this drippy day.

Spirits in my woods?

Tree Talking

I promised a link to the woodland walk. Part II is here.

A Quick Morning Update

It is now just after 7:00 AM and I have been up for over an hour. I have gone through emails, worked on photos, checked the FB page for various groups that I follow and finished my first cup of coffee. Hubby is still in bed, but the radio alarm is due to go off in minutes as he has invited a visitor to come at 8:30 and check out our oyster rafts as he discusses how oysters improve water quality. It gives hubby a chance to expound on his expertise. He is slowing down in old age and the opportunity to be an expert at his age does not come often.  I think this visitor is starting some company for floating oyster rafts driven by solar power...should be interesting.

Then we take a break for lunch and in the afternoon we are both listening to an online seminar given by a university in how to deal with nearby woodlands.  We are surrounded by woodlands and interested in ways we can keep them alive and healthy.  We had to pay for the course and its six seminars, but the hour can also be applied to our annual education requirement for our Master Gardener's group.  I may find interesting things to share on my blog for those who do not have time to take online courses.

The woodlands have changed.  I see more woodpeckers and more dying trees.  The undergrowth has been eaten away by deer, but the deer have been winnowed by my neighbors hunting across the road!  Branches get scattered in high winds making the normal shadows even barer.  

I have taken two days of long walks in woods (not ours) and have a bunch of photos of that beauty to post on my other blog.  We drove to two state parks that we have never visited in our winter boredom.  When I get that done I will link back to here so you can walk with me!

Well, I must go straighten the scattered magazines, piles of receipts on end tables, etc. so that the visitor does not see how we really live!  

Giving January Its Due

January is the cruelest month. Short days with little sun. Wind and weather that steals through your very skin. Endless politics on the TV. The continual battle not to eat all that fattening comfort food that you/I crave. Finding places to put that holiday gift you will never use.  And to add to the deep thoughts, some of my dear friends and bloggers are fighting personal health battles. Mortality is a big canvas staring me in the face these days.

I try to be a realist and accept that all things change both rapidly and slowly.  My grandchildren find me less interesting and more quaint.  Most of my friends are old people.  My routines are in concrete and interruptions make me like the stereotypical old foggey...grumpy.

Since my time is shorter on this planet, I tend to have less patience and have to control my temper when the change that I want does not happen fast enough or when a change is imposed upon me.

My calendar for the New Year is filling with activities in the coming months and like the smuck that I am, I wish it was not so full.  I want to crawl away and lick my wounds and sigh and be introverted.  Instead, I have a family that is busy making sure we are busy.

Not complaining but creakily adjusting.

Comments on a Blog

It is getting harder to monitor anonymous comments on blog posts.  When they praise me for my insight, excellent writing or want to offer advice on how I can get more people to my "wonderful" blog...all written in broken English...that makes it easy to recognize the commenter as nefarious.  I mark it as spam and delete it.  I am not a super popular blog, so I wonder how those who get many dozens of comments handle it all?

I got this anonymous comment yesterday, on a really old post, below:

"Tabor, thank you for correcting me.  I should not be commenting at 5:30 in the morning. My daughter is always telling me to PROOF READ."  This was followed by a link to some furnace ad!  (Furnace Calgary Prices Calgary)

This was an older post written after my first trip to Calgary Canada and I guess the business model is to search blogs for city names?

I do allow unmonitored comments for the first week only after a new post.  This usually means only one deletion.  After that comments are held for moderation by me.  That seems to allow me to screen most of the "scrap" from the real thing.

This Is All About the Complexity of Shoes

I bought myself a gift of fancy boots for Christmas and I have to be careful and wear them only on dry days.  These shoes are pretty comfortable!  I still have some vanity, unlike the wearers of the shoes that I feature below.

The above photo (created with some digital alterations for mood) was taken this past fall. You may guess that it was photographed outside someone's home or an ancient temple. Those are two places where people remove their shoes out of cleanliness or worship.  It was taken outside the Canggu Monastery temple in Lhasa, Tibet, China.  Look at the shoes. I was studying this and saw an unusual variety in style and color, but they were ever practical. These are the shoes of Buddhist nuns. They must shave their heads and wear the red robes each day.  No need to decide what to wear or try to find something that fits that newly expanded waistline.  Maybe having that stress removed was one reason for the peaceful smiles that they all gave us.  You just have to decide on shoe style.

This photo above (painterly) was taken at the Canggu Nunnery in Lhasa.  The nunnery is open to the public.  In Buddhism, nuns can take on the same roles as monks in teaching, preaching, performing rituals, etc.  Although some sects are more strict than others.  (All religions seem to have some misogyny based on gender.)

About 100 nuns live here and the monastery has existed since the 12th century.  They make money by manufacturing items such as clothing and printed texts as well as donations.  The nunnery also runs a clinic and employs professional doctors and serves the local residents.  The nuns are loved and trusted by the local residents because of this.  They also run a tea and bun house, but I did not have time to purchase tea as I was off taking photos!

Now back to the shoes.  They are all very similar and practical.  They are easy to remove as the nuns must do this several times a day.  Yet some are a little more flashy than others.  I was wondering if a bit of their personality escapes through the shoes.  Are the shoes donated?  Are the shoes purchased by the sect?  Can nuns go shopping?  Feel free to enlighten me in the comments.

We also were able to watch them doing laundry.  If they had not been so sweet and gentle this might have seemed intrusive.  Here below is another photo that raises so many questions.

I look forward to your comments!

Washing the Air

This past weekend, like many extended families, we had a post Christmas get together and exchange of gifts. Since there were nine of us, it got to be much like Christmas Morning all over again, except hubby and I and my son and his wife went out for Chinese lunch just before. (But maybe Chinese food is now also a holiday tradition in many families.) Anyway, the weather was predicting heavier rain in the afternoon and hubby and I tried to get an early start to the hour drive back home as the days are also short! I snapped the photo below on my phone as we saw we were driving into even heavier weather!

Getting back to our empty house (we had also dropped off the granddog which we had been dog-sitting for over a week) and this gloomy evening made the house seem even more somber. I kept looking for a tiny dog to pet, but it was just us two creaky old folks and hubby did not want any petting but did want a cup of hot tea.

This morning we woke to sunshine, but even better, the air had been washed super clean once again.

That did seem to lighten  and brighten our spirits.

Mind Mazes

Why do all of my most interesting questions, resolutions, ideas, and original thoughts happen at night as I settle in to fall asleep? I tell myself that the idea I am pondering might be a gem to pursue on my blog. My readers are erudite and outspoken and certainly could add something to the thought maze I have created as my mind misfires in the dark bedroom. 

Sometimes it is something I followed on the news while other times it is a phrase that captured my thoughts in one of the few books I am reading.  Other times it is an observation of human nature that interrupted my errands.

Then elusive sleep smothers my brain and I sleep the sleep of the half-dead, up a time or two and back to deep sleep.  The marvelous ideas evaporate with the disappearance of the morning fog on the river as the sun warms the air.

I am kind of glad because I somehow suspect that the thought that slithered off was something really inane.  Something of inconsequential importance or supercilious significance. If it had carried any weight, would it not have plunked itself on my chest as I lay in my bed in the morning demanding my immediate attention?