Serendipity

The new neighbors across  the way and the new neighbor  who coud not build on the "unperkable" property, and instead, put in a dock for 6 his six figure boat with  two 100 HP outboards makes weekends a bit noisier than usual.  I do not begrudge them their  weekends and holidays and perhaps we also were noisier when we first moved  here having visits with the grandchildren, but I am older now and would like a more peaceful neighborhood.  All of our quiet neighbors have left for retirement communities and a younger crowd is moving in.  This crotchety old one is going to have to accept the motocycle, skidoo,  large motoboat noise along with that of weekend lawmowers and leaf blowers, I guess.

It was noisy on the river this Sunday while I was weeding.  I was in my front yard and the noise on the river was muffled and blocked  by the house.  Hubby,  on the other  hand, felt it was time to  mow the lawn!  There were several hours of  THAT noise and then suddenly he was way up by the driveway and I had peace and calm once again.  Amazing how body tension disappates  when all is calm.

I could hear my natural neighbors once again.  I heard a woodpecker making some call.  I heard the song of an unusual bird  and wish I was able to find it.  Birds are migrating and we never know what is coming through this month.  

My face was covered in sweat with sweat drops falling off my nose as I put down the clippers and got  my camera.   I sighed as the quiet  of  the  woods settled  in.  I was on my knees taking a photo of a very small gray tree frog that I had carefully avoided  while weeding earlier.  He was about the size of  my fingernail. Then in the quiet I heard an unusual sound.  

It was a very close whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.  I looked toward the garage wondering if  hubby was in there and had turned on some fan that had trouble starting.   It was an odd quiet sound and I just knew it was mechanical.  Then a shadow  crossed over me and as I looked up a  large bald eagle flew 12 to 15 feet over  my head and was crossing the lawn heading toward our gate and other trees at the front of the yard.  

Yes, I was too much in awe of  his prescence to  turn  the camera on him fast enough.  His flight was so quiet that you would only have heard it when there was no other noise aroundIt reminded me of the very quiet flight of the barred  owl  that we had unintentionally followed down the river on our second canoe  trip  the other day.  These birds of prey are certainly most stealthy.

Life Is Too Damn Complicated

My first advice for the day is to not order expensive European chocolate over the Internet.  I know, you have probably never considered that luxury.  Hershey's Company has made it very difficult to find something not overly sweet but creamy and chocolaty in the USA.  They have been able to manipulate what comes into this country to compete with their overly sweet candy.  But in the time of COVID I decided I needed a fancy reward.  It tasted fine...BUT!!

Several people commented to my last post about their complicated life with passwords.  I decided to take a photo (heavily blurred) of my MANY passwords lists.  I keep them on spreadsheets.  One spreadsheet is titled SHOPPING/BILL PAYING/INVESTMENTS.  Another is titled COMPUTER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE  (i.e. router, laptop, wifi...)  I also have photography, travel, and subscription spreadsheets with passwords.

This might give you a clue as to why I do not change them very often, but instead, try to make them complicated.

I had to log into a government server the other day for my husband's evaluation of some grant work.  That site required at least one lower case letter, at least one upper case letter, at least one number, and one character.  But it also had to be twelve characters in length!  I really wish we could implement safe biological scans soon.

Here are the many pages of stuff I try to maintain:

I have some sympathy for those who are not as well-organized. People, like my husband, find this technological world a nightmare.  This world is not for the weak of heart or mind! 

Oh, then you also have to remember the passwords to access the spreadsheet files on your computer!!

"A computer hacker is a computer expert who uses their technical knowledge to overcome a problem"...right!

It all begins with just one creep from Russia with too much time and not enough money. Somehow Hubby's email got hacked. The first time in decades, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky. No bank accounts or other emails or friends' emails seemed to be impacted.  Then, being the good person that I am, I went in and changed my two email passwords as a precaution.  (I did not change the password for the email I use for this blog...but I must admit I rarely check it!)  The result of all this careful tying up of loose ends was that I got logged out of everything each day.  Blogger, Facebook, three emails...etc.  I worked my way back by re-entering or in some cases changing those email passwords again, but I am too stupid to make sure the interface I am using keeps me logged in because I check the "keep me logged in" box and I still have to re-enter the next day.  At least a drop-down box asks me to save the passwords...each and every time....drop, drop, drop.

I actually have two personas on my PC.  My hidden one for Blogger privacy and my other one for the real world.  Yes, it is all way too complicated for an elder world.  Thus, it has taken me some days to be brave enough to log in here.

I did not get logged out of bank accounts or doctors' portals which is good!

Because I am a slow elder and cannot really understand the difference between Google and Microsoft and why I need passwords for those, it has taken me days working to try to get this all straightened out once again on my computer and I was not the one hacked!   I am not sure that I have completed my work, but I am here at Blogger once again!  (I have lots of blog reading to do.)

There is a bright side to every storm front and that was we got phone calls from friends we hadn't heard from in decades!!  (How can they be friends if we do not keep in touch you may ask?  Well, when you have lived a long life you leave friends like breadcrumbs as you move around)  Hubby actually had a week full of long phone calls with old pals as we caught up on their lives.  I think his (fake email) call for help had many worried due to the real issues with Corvid19.  It was almost like being able to travel about once again.

I was involved in some of the calls as both of our cell phones and landline could be busy at the same time.  Two of the callers asked if we were Republicans?  I am not sure why they thought this had to do with anything, but I explained that I was not and would not talk politics with them if they felt that was not a good thing.  They dropped the subject and we went on to other issues!

I know so many nice people and some of my FB friends have said the same for them knowing nice people who support Drump.  I am not saying I am dismayed by conservatives...as I am liberal on some issues and conservative on others.  I am dismayed by friends who are The Donald supporters because our current leader is a disease...not an ideology.

I do sometimes wonder if challenges such as computer problems become more important because we are so isolated these days and feel even more so when cannot connect electronically.  

Well, now I need to go write about our long canoe trip the other day on my other blog.

The Beginning of a New Season

Above is the completed new patio with the teak gazebo (turned into an arbor) donated by our neighbors.  This was taken before the solar lights and the flower pots I need to add.

I have been taping the Convention via Cable.  I do not need to see all the ads and PBS seems to have too much talking before the speeches.  Therefore, I tape and watch at breakfast the next day.  I can fast forward through lots of advertisements which really shows how much money CNN (and other networks) make on this!

I know that it is all ritual and programming and well-crafted timing and allotment of time to those who have paid their dues.  But it is the way of politics. Trading and bartering and the Dems are the big-party umbrella of varied people who have lots of issues they want to be addressed.  I just hope that the far left can be patient with the changes they are demanding and have willingness to compromise.

I will probably not watch the GOP convention as I have seen the guest line-up and most of those people are either from the upper-middle class and have no history of serving their country or helping their countrymen.  They are mostly scandal headliners who got in the news for their extreme behavior or behavior not normal for an average citizen.  It will be a convention of hate and not vision or hope.  

This afternoon since the weather has cooled we will go out for a canoe paddle in an area that we have not visited via water.  I hope to get some later afternoon photos of wildlife or scenery and I hope you will enjoy my sharing on my other blog.  Hubby probably hopes to catch fish.  We have not gone out much because the parks and boat ramps have been closed due to the virus and the weather has been too hot and humid to sit in a slow-moving canoe.

Restrictions on life are not going to change anytime soon.  Colleges are now realizing that Americans are neither sheep nor passive when it comes to restricting their social behavior.  We are a spoiled lot.  It has been drilled into us about our rights and science has become so politicized that common data and facts no longer penetrate the beer fogged brains of the young.  They are also angry that their youth will be restricted.  They are shortly facing adulthood and feel it is their right to party these few years they have.  Besides they will not be the ones with inflamed organs or facing death.  Have you ever met a twenty-something who felt death was possible?

I have tried to get back into an exercise program and that process has been fraught with both success and failure.  For instance, I am VERY good a finding excuses to postpone the effort!  I do feel better (if sorer) after my exercise, but I still do not like it.

Currently reading the book "Things That Make White People Uncomfortable" by the NFL player, Michael Bennett.  It is rambling but reasonably well written so must have undergone some editing.  He confirms everything I have felt about both the NCAA and the NFL.  I am speed reading it since I am not a football fan and have not been for decades, but I want to know how he sees societal change and what he wants to do.

Well, my coffee is now cold.  So going to get out of pajamas and into canoe clothes.  Hope you set aside some time today to enjoy...just enjoy.

Are You Getting Enough Water?

The world goes around. The seasons change. I am fully aware this will continue even when I die and after I die.  There is nothing special about a human that stops the movement of the universe.  

My days are filled with less in the way of successes or progress or something to be proud of.  I cook and then I eat what I cook.  Pandemic or not, old white ladies must have our food.  I admit that I am eating far more vegetables because I refuse to throw out good food.  People are starving, you know!

Beets and fennel for roasting.

If you think you have the worst of it these days please watch this 12-minute PBS report on a desperate journey following people who REALLY have the worst of it this year.  I guarantee you will be very thankful.

I have completed my request for an absentee ballot.  Hubby is driving it up to the election office to drop off since we can no longer depend on secure and speedy mail delivery.  He will park outside the election office and phone from his car and they will come out to pick up the request.  We can vote fairly early and there are election boxes to put your ballot into.  We have quite a few spread across our county.

One of the counties to the north of us just shut down all their testing sites due to questions on the protocol they were using.  Everyone who was tested in the last two weeks must now get tested again! 

I have put in a request to see a specialist for my ongoing cough/allergy issue.  It has not gotten worse but has not gotten better.  I don't know if I can meet directly.

A TV doctor did say today that a child getting a serious Covid illness or dying from Covid is pretty rare, like getting struck by lightning or hit by a car.  He did not mention that the child would be standing out in the middle of a thunderstorm or in the middle of the street to actually validate this comparison to going to an enclosed classroom every day.

Well, I must go and fold the clean sheets.  I love having clean sheets on the bed!  I am so thankful that I can do that, and the water flow to my washer is phenomenal, thank you very much!

Boxes

I was trying to create a mental image of what is happening in my little world.  The Corona pandemic has put us in boxes. Some are big boxes and some are tiny boxes.  The boxes I leap into have high walls even if they are larger than the box I just left.  No matter how high I leap to bravely land in the next box, I cannot see the horizon or even check out the box thoroughly before I land like the timid house mouse I have become.  I will not be able to see the horizon for a year or more.

Hubby and I ate out TWICE this week.  The first venue was a card table on a patio of the restaurant at least ten feet from any other table.  The second venue was a picnic table on the lawn of the restaurant also far from other tables and with canvas on the side to prevent those on either side from sending their breath our way.  Disposable menus, masked staff, and one-way doors in and out were the rule.  I felt reasonably safe.  I have reached the time in my life where I feel this venture is a bit necessary or I will accept being a hermit permanently.  We used alcohol gel on hands before touching utensils and glasses and then washed when we got home and tried not to touch our faces.  I did eat the french fries with a fork and then used my fingers toward the end.

I live in Trump country and most of the people I encounter think this is all too much carefulness (nonsense), which means I have to be even MORE careful.  I will NEVER understand how science became the enemy.

My daughter and her family drove down to the Carolinas to spend a week with friends and a week in a rental house on the beach last week.  She left the dog for us to watch.  Below nice and clean after I gave him a bath in the sink.

When daughter and family return on Sunday to get the dog I will be cautious about making the visit short and not inviting them inside for refreshment.  If they are OK in 14 days, I may drive up for a visit....maybe.  My daughter said she felt safer in a house that they rented...not sharing an elevator, not sharing a hallway, not needing a restaurant or sharing a swimming pool with anyone but the family they are close to.  She was in a much larger box for 10 days that I have encountered...but still a box!

Regarding Isaias., my daughter's vacation was denied only one day due to rain.  They were able to pool swim and beach walk and it has certainly been a wonderful trip for them.  Here in our area, we also had no trees down and missed the three tornadoes that were just miles away!  No flooding, but one leak in the roof above the upstairs bathroom!  Now not sure if that was wind-driven and not a problem or if we need to inspect the roof.

As an update from my last post, my friend from Scotland who IM's me weekly through FB revealed that he is indeed a "trans."  I thought our messages had been somewhat odd and while I playfully teased him about wearing red spangles, I am so glad I did not mess up and embarrass him or me by saying something stupid!  I asked a mutual friend and she told me he came out a little over a year ago.  I am sure he is terrified of his decision...especially in conservative Glasgow!  I then immediately Googled information on this, because I have not a clue how not to say something unknowingly mean or non-constructive.  I feel painfully for him as he is in his 40s and alone.  So hoping he lives a good and full life.

Planning on staying in the "home" box in the coming week, although I may go out food shopping.  I can order it in, but sometimes my list misses stuff as I start to cook---like my cornmeal.  Where in the heck did that go?

Hope all of my readers are finding their boxes well-cushioned and full of views of green grass and views of summer and a tiny window in the cardboard to see the future.

No One Gives Ideas on Handling the Somewhat Odd parts of Life

My husband seems to find an excuse to run an errand at least once a day.  Home confinement drives him crazy as he is a people person.  I am not.  I like people well enough, but unfortunately, I like them better across the Internet or through an email.  I think I fall short in the friendliness skill area.  I find I spend a bit more time on Facebook visiting others virtually as they handle the pandemic.

Friko asked if we could go out.  Our state is one that shut down early and has been able to maintain a flat line with few upticks.  Therefore, our stores are open, our restaurants are open as long as the food is served outside and tables are at half capacity, our doctors and dentists are accepting appointments if you are feeling it necessary.  Other retail outlets are also open.  We are required to wear masks in all indoor spaces and wear masks when we cannot distance outside.  We can now drive more than 100 miles from home and the few states to the north of us will let us in!!  I used hand sanitizer on myself and all over the car handles, etc. when I get home.

I still place the mail in a box by the door and then later spray with alcohol before I open it.  It may be a useless precaution, but we are dealing with life and death here.  I wipe down the wine bottles when I pull them out of the cooler for use and sometimes the boxes of food depending on how I feel.

We do not take trips yet, except that one to the historic city I wrote about earlier.  We got out in the canoe and the motor boat...but even those have been delayed due to the horrendous 90 degree days here.

I mentioned Facebook and wanted to write about two friends that seem to be messaging me quite often with rather long talks back and forth.  I am not really close to either of these people.  I met them at my son's wedding years ago and have not seen them personally since.  One is a former CIA person who now works for the emergency services in his state and the other is a young man who works on computer tech stuff near Glasgow, Scotland.  They both are in their early 40's and not married.  While we only talk about things like gardening or in the case of my Scottish friend, how he wants to dress up when he can finally get out and celebrate at a nearby bar... I do often wonder why they message an old lady like me.  They both have parents they are close to because I see the posts on FB.  They both have expressed a wish to find that "someone special" so maybe they are thinking I may know some single girls...which I actually do!  But cannot imagine how in this time and distance I could work out something.

Anyway, I cannot help but wonder if there was no pandemic, would I be juggling this unusual virtual friendship?  Life is funny and odd but, man, if I could hook these very nice men up, I would!!

Where Have I Been?

Where?  Here: fighting insomnia with a half pill of an over-the-counter sleep aid, dreaming deep complex dreams ( not necessarily bad dreams, just exhausting detailed events usually full of people I know), binge-watching my favorite British mysteries, and perhaps just procrastinating.

I have gotten housework done.  I probably do this because it takes my mind off of things.  Since we are home more, and hubby and I are together more, I find that hubby is slowly losing his short-term memory.  I may remind him 3 times a day, and unless it is something he wants to get done, it does not get done.  His mother started to lose her memory at his age, and that hangs over my head.  He has left the burner on twice this year!  He is aware of it and worried as he gulps down tons of flavinoids.  He is the one I always turned to for making plans and arranging trips. Good thing we do not have any trips in the future.  I am still trying to get him to cancel the hotel reservations in Hawaii that we made for our 50th anniversary.  We were going in December, even though our anniversary is actually this coming August.

My daughter is coming down the end of this week for us to babysit her dog while her family takes a vacation to the beach in South Carolina.  They have friends down that way.  We bought a timeshare there and they never want to use it, so now I have to figure out how to get rid of it.

I have an uptick in a chronic cough I have had for years.  This is not the time for that because of the pandemic.  I have no fever and do not feel exhaustion, so I just want this cough gone and in the past, the doctor has designated it is caused by post-nasal issues/allergies.  It will go away for months, but lately, it is hanging in there.  It will be hard to schedule a diagnostic appointment.

On another dark note, the south side of our brick home has a rather impressive crack in the brick going down 2.5 stories to the ground, and it now looks like we will have to install two of those helical piers to correct the foundation on that side.  4 to 5K!  Waiting for the engineer's estimate.  Hate to see the home I love aging.

A bad news/good news bit is that our neighbors who we like very much are moving to a larger community to the north.  The good news is that have a teak(!) gazebo that they gave to us and with our helper, we are converting it into an arbor for under the dogwood tree in the front yard.

Good news...there must be some...in no particular order...I will get to see the grand-children briefly when they come down in a few days.  

Good news...I have air conditioning in this hellish summer.

Good news...I am eating very healthy with all the fresh fruit and veggies from summer garden booths and our own garden.

Good news...I found a young gal to cut my hair out on my deck and she is pretty good.  We are slowly beginning to understand how to communicate how I like my hair.

Good news...I have a lot of e-books and regular books still waiting to be read.

Good news...I still have blogging and bloggers to "take me away."

Food and Flowers

In line with everything else that is unpredictable this year, our garden has been sporadic in its production. We got many sweet peas to eat, just not an abundance to freeze. (In actuality, when I freeze them, they do not taste nearly as good and we end up throwing the last few frozen bags out! )

 On the good side, there is not an abundance of Japanese Beetles dining on everything in sight. On the bad side, I have seen only 10% of my normal butterfly population at this time. Even the caterpillars are not eating away at my fennel as they usually do. 

 The heat and humidity are intolerable and thus you must garden before 8:00 AM or not at all. I did just 30 minutes of weeding and the sweat was leaking into my eyes!  Most of my flower beds have soaker hoses, so I do not have to stand outside holding a hose and trying to avoid wetting the foliage.

 Hubby got up early today and went fishing! He went alone as he was unable to get a friend to go along, and I worry about that a bit. The fish head will make great bait for crabs!  (Note he always wears a bandanna these days in case some emergency comes about and he has to talk to strangers.)

He also harvested the small number of blueberries that are just getting ripe yesterday and they will be dessert tonight. I will make a clafoutis for the first time.  We grew blueberries at the old house and they were so abundant we gave away pints.  Our shady and clay-like soil here at this house has made growing blueberries a big challenge and we are lucky to get just a few pints.

Today is a good day.  I am going to sleep through the bad days, I have decided.

Let Us Make It Better

Have a safe and meaningful Fourth of July to my American readers.  (Happy Independence Day to Canadians)  May we all learn to accept our differences, share our abundances, without shame take what is offered to us, and forgive those who trespass intentionally or accidentally.

Now is the time for a new and better day in America and you and I can and will make it happen.

Road Trip!!

The world continues to turn while I stand still. It can be suffocating as this virus which is up against an anti-scientist leadership, is winning.

Hubby and I took our first road trip in over a month last week. We check the weather for thunderstorms and we saw sunny, and of course, hot weather ahead.  We brought food/snacks and hand sanitizer and masks.  The Governor had lifted the 100-mile limitation of driving from home.  I had not been to the historic Ellicott City in Maryland since their last two devasting floods. It is a small town of over 70,000 and sits just outside Baltimore. It was a mill town in Central Maryland and built along the Patapsco River.

"The town was founded in 1772 by three brothers, who took advantage of the location’s proximity to the Patapsco River to create a thriving milling industry. It later became a hub for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, with a train station (which stands to this day) built at the bottom of Main Street in 1831."

The now-abandoned flour mill.

The museum was closed due to the virus as were some of the shops.  Unfortunately, the devastating flood has forced many of the tourist shops to either close or semi-close as they work on remodeling. The river came down Mainstreet and you can go to this link for a complete documentary of the tragedy.

"In 2019, Ellicott City was still reeling from the disastrous downpour of May 27, 2018, when a severe rainstorm walloped the town, leading to flash floods that ravaged roads and buildings and killed one person. It was the second torrential, 1,000-year storm to pummel the town in as many years. On July 30, 2016, heavy rain soaked Ellicott City in a span of just a few hours, causing flash floods that inundated Main Street, wiped out storefronts and vehicles, and killed two people."

Even today the danger is still there, although they are continually working on re-directing the river.

There were people on the streets, but only a few tourists.  Most were working or getting lunch.  Main street is an uphill downhill walk!

While there were places to eat lunch, we opted to eat our own food.  It did not help the retailers, but we are over 60 and must be very careful.

If you look closely at the photo of the shop window above, you can see the reflection of hubby and I playing at tourist.

We managed to fritter away the entire day by including a 3-mile walk along the river and got home just before dinner time.  A good break before we hunker down in the week ahead.

It Worked!!

I was so busy, I only had time for few photos and one follow-up on our Blue Crab feast for Father's Day. I was determined that this would be a relaxed and calm visit. 

Hubby is very social and has not had the opportunity to expound on his garden, his oysters, etc. for months and since it was Father's Day I let him do his thing. I am surprised that their ears did not fall off! 

I laid out the food on a large farm table in the basement where it would be safe and cool and bug-free. 

I used paper products and only drinks from bottles and cans. We had homemade coleslaw, a partially homemade potato salad with spring potatoes from our garden, and a fresh green salad with our own lettuce, baby carrots, and edible-podded peas with store-bought cucumbers. I also made garlic bread to go with the steamed blue crabs.

We caught eight from the dock, but hubby gets distracted these days and forgot to reset the traps so we had to buy a dozen from the local crabber. 

I thought the food was good, and for the most part healthy, and with ice cream for dessert, we did not feel weighed down by the summer heat. 

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I had fans going both for the mosquitoes that love my daughter-in-law and the virus issues as we are all talkers. We sat about 4 to 5 feet apart and with the heavily moving air pushed to the yard, I think we were reasonably safe. (Of course, we will all know for sure in 7 to 10 days.) 

Psychologically it was a very good break for me to get together with someone other than hubby to talk over stuff. All of these people traveled through Ireland with us several years ago, and so I told them Scotland is next on the list before we die!! This COVID has certainly made me appreciate the company more. As an introvert, I am still glad when everyone is gone and everything is cleaned up...but I did really enjoy the visit!

Father's Day Already

Happy Father's Day to those of you have have children, stepchildren or socially adopted children. For those of you who have lost a child, thanks for being a person brave enough to bring a child into the world and caring for that child. Today my son and his wife and her parents are on their way down to our house! Yes with Covid19 this is a bit of a gamble. I have sterilized the rooms they will use. i have made three salads to go with the crabs. They are coming for a blue crab feast. Photos to follow.

It is a Dangerous World Even in Quarantine

Four weeks and a lot can happen when you hunker down.  As we drove through the more populated town to the north of us on our way to visit family, I noticed two huge areas of major construction alongside the road into the town.  Big areas of development, in the middle of a recession!  As we exited the small town on the other side I saw that our old dental building was totally gone with just a bare lot left behind!  I wonder if these kinds of changes are always there and we don't notice because we see them happening incrementally?

As I wrote we avoid seeing family.  BUT they invited us up to their big yard for an outdoor picnic of KFC and assorted sides including brownies for dessert, and when you say loved ones and fast food, who can say no?  

I was thrilled to see the three grands and my son and his wife and my daughter and her husband once again after four weeks of no time together!

We did not hug but also did not wear masks as we sat mostly six feet apart in the lovely spring air and were careful about touching only our own utensils.  There were sanitizing wipes on the table as well.  We all brought our own drinks.

Faces blurred to protect the guilty.  Shoulder brace was removed for a short time.

My son-in-law was the first to arrive with a shoulder brace.  I soon learned he had recently had surgery for an old golf injury (bone shaving of some type) as well as a brand new major torn ligament surgery, both done together.  Four weeks in a sling for a very active dude and it is killing him.  It is also his right arm and he has learned to be very ambidextrous.  With the kids involved in learning and the wife on conference calls, he has been left to his own devices.  I can imagine using a computer keyboard with only a left hand is very annoying, to say nothing of lots of other stuff.

Then I saw that my 13-year-old granddaughter now has a full mouth of braces.  She seems accepting of that and I honestly thought her teeth were perfect before!

But the final surprise was seeing my very active par-core grandson in a foot boot.  When I asked what had happened he said he twisted his ankle and it hurt so much they went in for x-rays and found that he is one of the 4% who are born with an extra bone in their foot and injuries take longer to heal because the tendons/muscles get compressed???

I am guessing if this was a normal year where I might not see them for months, this would have all passed without me noticing and that I would learn about this all anecdotally and promptly forget.  

It does seem to me that tons of things happen when you are hiding out at home.

Stay in the Bubble and Keep it Small

Are you tired of reading about the Pandemic?  I am yet I still click on every new link that wants to teach me how to protect myself.  I really, really, really miss my kiddos.  We did drive up almost a month ago and visited both houses and stopped and talked and had snacks and wore masks (most of the time).

Now that I have read an article about "bubbling"...

I had to send that article to the kiddos as we have been asked up for a BBQ this Sunday.  I really, really, really want to go.  I sent them the article and they explained that right now they were probably in a small bubble (number of activities and meetups with others) but were soon going to expand that bubble to a more risky venue as the kids' activities opened up.  They are young, they are healthy and they know they are going to live forever.  I guess I need to see them before they are more greatly exposed and I die.

I think we will go.  It will be outside, in a large yard, and we are going to bring all our own food and eating utensils, etc.  (Except for any finger food?)  I really believe that you are unlikely to catch the virus from food.  Just do not touch your face at all during the entire meal!  You have to sit far apart as no one is wearing masks when they are eating.

The second wave of growth in the virus is coming and I really would like to visit my family before it arrives in our area!

We are home 90% of the time.  I hit the supermarket once a month with a mask and have an efficient list to shop.  All the rest I get online.  Other things are all delivered.  We do have to go to the P.O. every other day, but that is hardly a mass of people.  I am careful about touching anything and do not touch my face and then wash my hands about 10 times after I get home.

Let me know how social distancing is working out for you!

Neighbors, Ya Can't Pick Them!

"The more we can be in a relationship with those who might seem strange to us, the more we can feel like we're neighbors and all members of the human family."Fred Rogers

My neighborhood has changed dramatically these last few years.  It is a small upper middle class (not to be skewed by the lottery winner third house down) neighborhood.  We are very rural with only seven <4 acre lots on our side of the street and 4 lots on the other and one empty lot at the cul de sac.  Actually, there are 3 empty lots and one that is expensive will never be buildable as it is not able to perk.  More about that later.

Anyway, out of the eight homes that were here when we built on our lot about 13 years ago,  four of those original neighbors have sold and moved away.   We are pretty good friends with our neighbors on the left side of us but they are gone 6-7 months of the year to Florida.  They have HUGE home and I anticipate they will want to live permanently in Florida as they age and time goes on unless the pandemic and politics down there change their mind.   My husband is a great social animal and we have become new friends with the new neighbors on our right side, even though we are in the middle of a pandemic.  He is good at making friends by dropping off plants and they have responded by dropping off banana bread and chocolate covered strawberries!  

I have not met the new neighbors who own the large lot at the far end of the road near the highway, but he has built a dock for his 100K  or even more expensive boat.  The reason I am quoting prices here is that he must have lots of money and must be really disappointed he cannot get a home built on the river.  He does come by that dock and take his boat out on the weekends.  The boat is full of grandkids and a few adults.  Anyway, this last weekend I got to listen to some popular style of music (loud and repetitive) while he entertained on his dock.  His dock is almost a mile from my yard and yet I could hear the "noise."  Why do people always assume you like their style of music?  

Fortunately, it was for only several hours on a Saturday.  I am a bitch and would have called the police (even though they are overworked these days with protests and pandemics) and complained if it went on and on or if it happens more often.  I do not mind the occasional BBQ BUT!  Even my neighbor to the left of us in the big house was polite enough to call a few years ago to let us know she was holding her church service on her front lawn and we would have  "noise" for a few hours and hoped we would not mind.  She is a gem!  It was a one time only event and I did not mind.

To belabor this neighbor thing, I went down to my dock to take photos of our wonderful sunsets the other day and happened to look across the river to our neighbors on the other side of the river.  We only know them superficially because one of them is our Postmaster.  I took this photo.

They seem like such nice people...I will NEVER understand someone who likes 45 and claims he is a good leader.  If your grandfather likes to walk in on 15-year-old girls naked, makes fun of the "cripple" across the street, calls people names, and demands that you do not disagree with him EVER, he is not someone you like.  You may be required to be polite, but you are not going to vote for him for dogcatcher.

Ok, my last little note on neighbors.  As my readers may know, my son lives in a suburb near the city area of D.C.  You may (or may not) have read in the news about a 50-year-old white guy on a bike confronting three teenagers who were putting up protest flyers in support of the black lives matter movement in a park in that area.  Two were 17-year-old girls and one was a 16-year-old boy.  The biker assaulted the two girls tearing the flyers from their hands and then rammed his bicycle into the boy before riding away.  Since the boy was smart enough to film the assault on his cell phone, the man was identified and arrested.  ( I do not know if the teenagers were black or white, but that does not matter!)  The reason I am writing about this is I got a text message from my son today that this man lives a few doors down from my son's house and there was going to be a protest in the neighborhood as a result, so he wanted me to be aware and not be concerned! 

I had to add an addendum to this.  When my son stretched his and his new wife's money and bought his rather small house (smaller than 90% of the houses in his neighborhood) I was pleased because the area looked so stable and economically safe and middle class.  I do remember saying I was a little disappointed because it was certainly "white bread."  

You cannot pick your neighbors, but you hardly expect this!

The Bank Lobby...no, not the one that is closed

I am exhausted today.  I am angry today.  I am bewildered, and it has nothing to do with what you are reading in the news!  I did not want what I got in the mail yesterday.  I do not need what I got in the mail yesterday. Please hang with me here.  

I received in the mail yesterday a Visa debit card that arrived in a plain white envelope from an address in Omaha called Metabank. (MetaBank, the retail banking division, operates 10 retail branches in four market areas: Central Iowa; Storm Lake, Iowa; Brookings, S.D..; and Sioux Falls, S.D.. MetaBank offers traditional banking services designed to serve the needs of individual, agricultural, and business depositors and borrowers.)  

 

Most people toss their credit card offers, but I decided to open the thin white envelope and found inside my "Economic Impact Credit" in the form of a VISA debit card.   Yes, this "small" bank is the one issuing the Federal payments as a VISA debit card.  Not one of my two large banks on the east coast, but some unknown!  The reason soon became clear.

Some of my friends have gotten their money as a direct deposit to their bank.  The IRS has my bank routing information to one of the largest banks on the east coast, but they did not use that.  Others have gotten their money as a check from the U.S. Treasury.  Instead, I have gotten this Visa debit card in an unobtrusive envelope with absolutely no advertising from the Treasury office that some of us will be getting our money this way.  I have read that some people have tossed this envelope thinking it was a solicitation for getting a credit card!  

The U.S. government has made no effort to make this clear to people.  I also learned that there are numerous fees attached to the use of the card.  They (Metabank) allow you to make only one withdrawal per day from an ATM before they charge you $2.00 per transaction.  Because my HUGE bank is "out-of-network" my bank is charging an additional $3.50 per withdrawal and will not allow me to withdraw a large enough amount to empty the card in one day!  This is money that people who cannot put food on the table could use.

Start adding this all up and you can see the bank lobby is making millions of dollars off of this VISA debit scam.  Not only in fees but in the money they are holding from people who threw away their card!

In addition, my card balance is not in even dollars but ends in 50 cents.  You cannot get 50 cents from an ATM.  I will have to spend it somewhere and overspend to get the 50 cents.  I cannot imagine how someone who has never had such a card or does not read small print will get confused and end up owing Metabank money before they can figure out how to cancel.  I will attempt to clear the balance tomorrow, and hopefully donate it all to a worthy cause(s)...although emotionally I would like to donate it to the Democratic party and buy a balloon with Trump in a diaper.

Greed is endless.

Adjusting ...adjusting...adjusting

Those of you who use WordPress or another interface to Blogger may find this post neither here, there or anywhere.  Blogger has developed a new "better" interface.  It seems that it is designed for mobile devices because we all read blogs on our phones/tablets?  I am sure that many people do read the more popular blogs on their "mobile devices" but most of my readers probably do not.  I cannot imagine reading something like a blog on that tiny screen.

Anyway, this new interface, and the super-simple symbols and the relocation of stuff is making me a little dizzy!  I got all cozy with the old-fashioned model.  Yes, they do allow us to go back and use that, but I will work on this and stretch my mind a bit.

I cannot figure out where the HTML interface button/link might be in case I have some coding adjustments... I will have to work on that.  Maybe HTML coding is so old and obsolete that no one uses it directly anymore?  Oh, THERE it is! 

Now I am going to load a photo...just to see if I can do it!  Most of the interface stuff is still there only somewhere else-there...Now to make the photo bigger.

... I think you can see the little color-coordinated spider on my evening primrose better now.

There is a link on the original bookmark fro Blogger that says I can go back to the older, more familiar interface.  I will now go ahead and publish this and see if it works.  The AARP (organization for retired folks) says learning new computer programs is good for you.  I hope this counts as a new program!  It is certainly learning.

The world changes endlessly and we must keep up or wave as it passes us on by.  Nothing wrong with being left behind, but only if you want that.

If Time Were Not a Moving Thing

With so much time on my hands these days I  go through books faster than usual.   I had read the book "Time and Again" by Jack Finney a few years ago. I had forgotten that I had read it and started to re-read it just last week and then remembered how I had found it somewhat intense and a bit claustrophobic. It is a science fiction book about an artist being selected to create time travel with his imagination/self-hypnosis and this will be used by the government to change what they want to change in the past. It was a well-constructed novel based on factual historical events in New York in the late 1800s.  There was a rumor that the story was going to be made into a movie by Robert Redford, but that fell through.

Now, I have turned to read "Speak, Memory" by Vladimir Nabokov because...well, why not go back in time with a great author? It is an autobiography.  He begins recreating his first impressions of his life way back into toddler-hood. What an impressive memory he has. It reveals lovely patterns of existence and symbolism in the context of the turn of the Century in Russia in a wealthy family.  In the prologue he explains that all of this was edited by intense give and take from older siblings and other friends who seem to remember some of it far differently than he does.  

" I have journeyed back in thought---with thought hopelessly tapering off as I went---to remote regions where I groped for some secret outlet only to discover that the prison of time is spherical and without exits."

That is the fugitive of time.  We see one creative side and another set of eyes that passed with us through that same window will throw cold water on that memory washing away a rosy color from our glasses and coming up with evidence of something very different.  It is almost as if our memories of our past life are "but a dream."

OK. ENOUGH with the song lyrics.

Nabokov also said "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."  Well with that depressing perspective I will admit I can now move forward with fewer expectations on the importance of my leaving a memory or even a footprint!

"Initially, I was unaware that time, so boundless at first blush, was a prison. In probing my childhood (which is the next best to probing one’s eternity) I see the awakening of consciousness as a series of spaced flashes, with the intervals between them gradually diminishing until bright blocks of perception are formed, affording memory a slippery hold."  Nabakov again.

Above is a photo looking back to our dock, a memory for this year. Our first venture across the water in almost a year since the recreational boating lock-down was lifted this holiday weekend.  My husband was thrilled and I brought a book in case he had luck at his old fishing hole.