Hey, I’m on here before the picture has even changed. Trying again to go see sandhill cranes and maybe a whooper or two. But I got very little sleep last night, if any . . .
Good morning. Slept through the night, the children did. Granny knows because granny woke up to listen periodically. But another day has begun, or will in another couple of hours.
Morning! Today is a good day…I woke up! And the air is fresh, the snow is beginning to melt off of the roads and I might get in a walk. Tonight we will once again have small group. It will be good to see our dear friends, pray and fellowship together.
Those are cute little birdies up there! 😊
The world goes on. I slept well and have 2 stories to work on today.
I read this strange piece last night on WSJ about people who work from home setting up “fake commutes” just to give them a sense of work vs. non-work hours in their day. Some actually get into their cars and drive around, others take a walk around the block; some get dressed in real clothes!
No one seems to miss their commutes, but it’s seemingly a challenge for many to divide their mindset and days so work doesn’t just blend into the rest of their lives.
This pandemic has really upended so much of our lives.
The thing that’s overrunning our hospitals and morgues right now, mumsee. County Health officials are hoping we’re maybe close to “peaking” here in LA County, but no guarantees. For two months or more the number of cases (and deaths) have only been skyrocketing.
Haven’t heard that, Janice, but I’m thinking public health is probably helping oversee where bodies go at this point. It’s down to using refrigerated vans in some cases.
Talked to someone at the city yesterday who said by February we’ll start seeing faster vaccine rollouts, which will help. They’re setting up Dodger Stadium — which has been used as a mass drive-up testing site — to now be a mass vaccination location. But that would only handle a small percentage of LA residents, of course.
City source thinks by fall things ‘should’ be getting better.
Most of the wealthy people I know are being cremated.
Most of the people I know who have lost elderly family members are planning services for whenever this lifts.
What I don’t understand is people putting off their weddings even longer. Why not get married now and have your party later?
Zoom weddings look like fun, and certainly cheaper, to me.
That reminds me of a poignant photo a friend posted the other day. Her daughter was walking past the TSA sign, carrying her wedding dress and pulling a roll-on bag, on her way to her wedding in Canada. Her family couldn’t get into the country.
“I never thought I’d see the day I wasn’t standing beside my daughter,” my friend wrote, “but she’s going on t, a new name, a new address, a new country, and a new life with a brilliant terrific young man we are pleased to call our new son.”
Honestly, I’m tearing up, again, just typing this.
Yes, I was wondering about RK last night too, but I believe I did see an update from yesterday?
I’ve mentioned it before, but my good friend’s younger (in her 30s) daughter was to be married last spring — after living together for 5 years and the guy *finally* proposed on Valentine’s Day with much pressure from both families.
Because she wanted a big wedding (her mom had one, too, they love the big weddings) it was postponed and still hasn’t happened, of course. My friend said she should have the wedding ‘she wants.’ I’m with Michelle, just do it already, party later.
I may have told you before.
We had a very large wedding.
We waited in his office until pastor of FBC Columbia, SC finished preaching.
At the end of the service, he announced that there would be a wedding immediately.
Everyone was invited to stay. Most did.
The organist played, we walked down the aisle together. Dr Ellis said the proper words. We kissed, I paid Dr. Ellis $10.00 and we went out to shake hands with what seems like a million people.
It has lasted 63 years, so far.
My brother keeps going to funerals for those in our extended families on both sides of our parent’s so funerals are still taking place in this part of the country but are usually limited to family. I wish my brother did not always feel the need to be there for all of them. He must be immune to Covid, thankfully.
Our health care provider now has vaccines available for those over 65.
Janice, it sounds like your brother is good at staying connected to family. My mother-in-law also wants to keep in touch with everyone. She’s being semi-cautious in this season, but nowhere near as much as we are.
We didn’t get out to see cranes this morning; I hadn’t slept and my husband didn’t feel well (nothing contagious), and both of us went back to bed. I’m going out for a walk now, since I haven’t been out for several days.
“Rest in power”? Is that being said about deceased Christians? If so, the only thing I can think of is that it may be referring to the power of God, but even if that is the case, it doesn’t sound quite right.
We are better. Thank you for all the prayers. Miguel is still super weak, but his spo2 in up on the 90s consistently. I just have wheezing when i lie in bed. The employee health lady said maybe i should wait till that passes. I told her i am not in the habit of lying flat while at work, so will be fine.
I started my last semester of nursing school yesterday. We were on zoom yesterday and through Thursday. I think we have in person skills check offs next week. I am taking 6 classes this semester. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Today was one of Nightingale’s days off. She declared it to be my “Birthday Eve”, as tomorrow is my 60th birthday.
I was so surprised and delighted to come out to the kitchen/dining room this morning and find that she had decorated late last night after I had gone to bed. There are balloons in rose-gold, white, and clear-filled-with-gold-confetti, a shiny rose-gold heart-shaped balloon, a line of long bundles of tassels in white, pink, and maroon, and some other kind of cute wall decorations that I don’t know how to describe. Nightingale had arranged them all along two walls in the dining room, in a cute, but tasteful way. Very pretty and delightful! Brought tears of joy to my eyes.
On the table is a sparkly rose-colored table runner, and a vase of pink roses with some other flowers. (She picked up the flowers today when she went out to get a nice lunch and lattes for us from the Stafford Coffee Company.)
Tomorrow, we will have pizza and some sort of dessert for dinner, and then on Friday will be my family birthday party with Chickadee included. For that, Nightingale is going to make a delicious, but easy (for her) angel hair pasta dish with a light sauce, and scallops. And of course, she will make one of her amazing cakes. (I forget what she called it, but it is some kind of coconut cake, which I had requested.)
Since AJ is no longer on Facebook, I don’t know how to get photos to him anymore. I will try to share them on here in comments and see how that goes.
Speaking of Nightingale, she is on her fourth date with one of Boy’s former football coaches. Coach, as I will call him, has been taking her out for dinner about once a week, and has yet to even hug her. In today’s world, that is considered odd, but I am hoping that it is an indication that he is somewhat of a gentleman.
I’ve heard the “rest in power.” I think the context is black power or powerful women, that sort of thing. It might have been said of RBG when she died. I don’t like it either, partly because it turns things upside down. Our mortality is ultimately our powerlessness; we have no power in our death, but we go to face God.
Kizzie, the no hugging is likely a Covid thing. Not necessarily, but likely.
Janice – I have the photos on my phone, and I use email on my laptop. I would have to figure out how to access my email on my phone. I pretty much only use my phone for texts, calls, and taking photos. Sometimes I will log into Facebook on my phone to share some photos, but then I log right out again. 😀
I used to use my phone to deposit checks to my bank account, but haven’t done that since my bank got bought out by another. I have to get that new account on my phone soon.
With Covid I have seen some real extremes, some people who totally ignore it and some people who are crazy paranoid. As you know, we are isolating more than anyone else I know. We have not been within six feet of anyone else in ten months. I’m not “making fun” of people who take it seriously, but in the last week I’ve seen two things that have made me go “Huh?”
One was writing about what can seniors do safely if they have been vaccinated. It pointed out that for vaccination effectiveness, you need to have both doses and then wait two or three weeks. So far so good. But then it reminded the reader that it only has a 95% effective rate, and you really shouldn’t be interacting with someone else who hasn’t also had the shot. It suggested that a vaccinated person might want to see grandchildren, and said that if you want to see your grandchildren, you can see them outside from six feet away. Then it said what if a person really, really wants to hug a grandchild after getting the shot? And it said, grudgingly, if you really, really have to hug your grandchild, then do so outside, both of you wearing masks, with your faces turned away from each other.
Is this kind of stuff going to encourage anyone to get the shot? I mean really, why bother? You don’t get the shot to hug someone wearing a mask, outside, with your faces turned away.
The other one was an article about how dating has changed during the pandemic, and how most people now have their first several “dates” virtually. It gave as an example a 31-year-old man who’d had one first date in which they took a walk together and stayed ten feet apart, but he has decided it’s not worth the risk, so now he is going to do his first dates virtually. OK, so what does this person do for a living? Does he really never take “risks” as great as a ten-foot-distanced walk?! Thirty-one years of age means “low risk,” ten feet apart outdoors means NO risk. I am being scrupulously careful, but my husband allows me to walk with someone else, both of us wearing masks (I’ve done so twice so far), and he and I have stopped to chat with people who are eight feet away or so, even if we aren’t wearing masks, since a few minutes outdoors is simply not a high-risk encounter. And I’d say if a young man is THAT attuned to risk, he probably has some issues. Are we rearing a whole couple of generations of paranoid people? (I think more younger people aren’t cautious at all, but if the ones who are cautious are paranoid, that isn’t good.) Imagine being eight years old and your grandmother has had a couple of shots to keep from getting a disease that might kill her . . . and now that she has had her shots, she can hug you outside, both of you wearing masks and with your faces turned away. What is that going to do to your development? Are you going to keep imagining that you’re sick and that your hug might have killed your grandma?
Last summer someone posted on Flickr (I think she was quoting a Canadian government official, not sure what were her words and what were the official’s words, but either way the woman approved what she was posting), encouraging people not to go for walks, because someone might have Covid and they might have sneezed and you might step on the sneeze. And then she said they might have spit and you might step on the spittle (obviously a bigger risk than “stepping on a sneeze,” but no, still not enough to terrify me into staying inside my house). She also said that driving anywhere not totally essential is risking an accident, so stay home unless it’s to drive to the store. Well, if I go for a walk, I meet meet a raccoon that has rabies, or I might get hit by a car. Then again, I might stay inside my house and it might catch on fire or it might get hit by a truck.
Going through life thinking we can move our risk to zero is impossible. It would NOT be healthy for me to stay inside and not go out at all for months on end. I’m glad my husband agrees. But some of the risk protection is really extreme. And no matter what we do, we will someday die of something.
Apparently ‘rest in power’s was originally used in graffiti to refer to those who had been murdered in high crime neighborhoods – a somewhat disjointed in syntax cry for justice, that eventually got picked up by activist groups but is rapidly becoming just a meaningless catch phrase on social media: https://slate.com/culture/2019/09/rest-in-power-phrase-history-appropriation-black-activists.html
There are plenty of young people who are far too casual about COVID. I have three first and second hand accounts of younger people really not taking it seriously. While working, I witnessed in a parking lot, a group of young people, none wearing masks, get out of the same car go in a group, towards an apartment complex. They reeked of marijuana and talked in that hyper way people do when they’re high. They certainly were not members of the same family. While getting tested most recently, I overheard another person being tested tell the nurse the reason they had come to get tested was because a friend had visited them, after being symptomatic and having been tested – the person stated that the infected friend got their positive test results during their visit to this person. I have already mentioned my coworker’s account of her brother’s catching it after deliberately not wearing a mask and visiting multiple places. People like that are the reason the healthcare system is overburdened, and why people like me will have their surgeries further delayed. Not taking precautions isn’t just putting oneself in danger, a concept many people in our individualistic society are taking forever to grasp.
Wandering Views 
Hey, I’m on here before the picture has even changed. Trying again to go see sandhill cranes and maybe a whooper or two. But I got very little sleep last night, if any . . .
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Good morning. Slept through the night, the children did. Granny knows because granny woke up to listen periodically. But another day has begun, or will in another couple of hours.
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Then don’t go driving around, Chweyl.
Good morning everyone else.
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Amen, the Church is alive.
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Morning! Today is a good day…I woke up! And the air is fresh, the snow is beginning to melt off of the roads and I might get in a walk. Tonight we will once again have small group. It will be good to see our dear friends, pray and fellowship together.
Those are cute little birdies up there! 😊
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Morning all. Please pray for clear thinking as there are so many details to take care of. Now what to do with my car?
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The world goes on. I slept well and have 2 stories to work on today.
I read this strange piece last night on WSJ about people who work from home setting up “fake commutes” just to give them a sense of work vs. non-work hours in their day. Some actually get into their cars and drive around, others take a walk around the block; some get dressed in real clothes!
No one seems to miss their commutes, but it’s seemingly a challenge for many to divide their mindset and days so work doesn’t just blend into the rest of their lives.
This pandemic has really upended so much of our lives.
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Amen, Jo.
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What pandemic?
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Very cute photo. 🙂
The thing that’s overrunning our hospitals and morgues right now, mumsee. County Health officials are hoping we’re maybe close to “peaking” here in LA County, but no guarantees. For two months or more the number of cases (and deaths) have only been skyrocketing.
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I wonder if funeral homes are being bribed to take care of wealthier clients needs first? Could that be a story, DJ?
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I don’t think funeral parlors are having much of the old business as funerals are pretty much out.
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Haven’t heard that, Janice, but I’m thinking public health is probably helping oversee where bodies go at this point. It’s down to using refrigerated vans in some cases.
Talked to someone at the city yesterday who said by February we’ll start seeing faster vaccine rollouts, which will help. They’re setting up Dodger Stadium — which has been used as a mass drive-up testing site — to now be a mass vaccination location. But that would only handle a small percentage of LA residents, of course.
City source thinks by fall things ‘should’ be getting better.
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Most of the wealthy people I know are being cremated.
Most of the people I know who have lost elderly family members are planning services for whenever this lifts.
What I don’t understand is people putting off their weddings even longer. Why not get married now and have your party later?
Zoom weddings look like fun, and certainly cheaper, to me.
That reminds me of a poignant photo a friend posted the other day. Her daughter was walking past the TSA sign, carrying her wedding dress and pulling a roll-on bag, on her way to her wedding in Canada. Her family couldn’t get into the country.
“I never thought I’d see the day I wasn’t standing beside my daughter,” my friend wrote, “but she’s going on t, a new name, a new address, a new country, and a new life with a brilliant terrific young man we are pleased to call our new son.”
Honestly, I’m tearing up, again, just typing this.
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In other news, I bought the always-ebullient Tiggerboy a dustbuster yesterday.
The power! The noise! The excitement–he’s a joyous two-year-old and the floors will never be so clean!
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I’d hoped to arrange a farewell Zoom meeting for Jo, but I think that’s just. one. more. thing. in a week full of busyness.
We’ll be following your adventures and praying for you, Jo! I’ll wave when I drive by the exit on Friday, again.
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Husband’s surgery is a go for tomorrow. They’ll spend up to two hours cleaning up his sinuses. Oh, I hope and pray this works.
Rk, how are you all doing? Thinking of you and praying for you.
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Yes, I was wondering about RK last night too, but I believe I did see an update from yesterday?
I’ve mentioned it before, but my good friend’s younger (in her 30s) daughter was to be married last spring — after living together for 5 years and the guy *finally* proposed on Valentine’s Day with much pressure from both families.
Because she wanted a big wedding (her mom had one, too, they love the big weddings) it was postponed and still hasn’t happened, of course. My friend said she should have the wedding ‘she wants.’ I’m with Michelle, just do it already, party later.
Makes sense to me.
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I may have told you before.
We had a very large wedding.
We waited in his office until pastor of FBC Columbia, SC finished preaching.
At the end of the service, he announced that there would be a wedding immediately.
Everyone was invited to stay. Most did.
The organist played, we walked down the aisle together. Dr Ellis said the proper words. We kissed, I paid Dr. Ellis $10.00 and we went out to shake hands with what seems like a million people.
It has lasted 63 years, so far.
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Elvera says she paid the organist.
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My brother keeps going to funerals for those in our extended families on both sides of our parent’s so funerals are still taking place in this part of the country but are usually limited to family. I wish my brother did not always feel the need to be there for all of them. He must be immune to Covid, thankfully.
Our health care provider now has vaccines available for those over 65.
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Janice, it sounds like your brother is good at staying connected to family. My mother-in-law also wants to keep in touch with everyone. She’s being semi-cautious in this season, but nowhere near as much as we are.
We didn’t get out to see cranes this morning; I hadn’t slept and my husband didn’t feel well (nothing contagious), and both of us went back to bed. I’m going out for a walk now, since I haven’t been out for several days.
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Wow, Janice, you’re vaccination lines are moving way faster than ours. We’re looking at March or even April for that age group in California.
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*your
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More and more I hear this phrase “may he/she rest in power” (just saw it on a written comment someone sent me for an obit I’m doing).
It just rubs me so wrong on a theological basis. Have you been hearing that more where you all are?
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“Rest in power”? Is that being said about deceased Christians? If so, the only thing I can think of is that it may be referring to the power of God, but even if that is the case, it doesn’t sound quite right.
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We are better. Thank you for all the prayers. Miguel is still super weak, but his spo2 in up on the 90s consistently. I just have wheezing when i lie in bed. The employee health lady said maybe i should wait till that passes. I told her i am not in the habit of lying flat while at work, so will be fine.
I started my last semester of nursing school yesterday. We were on zoom yesterday and through Thursday. I think we have in person skills check offs next week. I am taking 6 classes this semester. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!
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Today was one of Nightingale’s days off. She declared it to be my “Birthday Eve”, as tomorrow is my 60th birthday.
I was so surprised and delighted to come out to the kitchen/dining room this morning and find that she had decorated late last night after I had gone to bed. There are balloons in rose-gold, white, and clear-filled-with-gold-confetti, a shiny rose-gold heart-shaped balloon, a line of long bundles of tassels in white, pink, and maroon, and some other kind of cute wall decorations that I don’t know how to describe. Nightingale had arranged them all along two walls in the dining room, in a cute, but tasteful way. Very pretty and delightful! Brought tears of joy to my eyes.
On the table is a sparkly rose-colored table runner, and a vase of pink roses with some other flowers. (She picked up the flowers today when she went out to get a nice lunch and lattes for us from the Stafford Coffee Company.)
Tomorrow, we will have pizza and some sort of dessert for dinner, and then on Friday will be my family birthday party with Chickadee included. For that, Nightingale is going to make a delicious, but easy (for her) angel hair pasta dish with a light sauce, and scallops. And of course, she will make one of her amazing cakes. (I forget what she called it, but it is some kind of coconut cake, which I had requested.)
Since AJ is no longer on Facebook, I don’t know how to get photos to him anymore. I will try to share them on here in comments and see how that goes.
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Speaking of Nightingale, she is on her fourth date with one of Boy’s former football coaches. Coach, as I will call him, has been taking her out for dinner about once a week, and has yet to even hug her. In today’s world, that is considered odd, but I am hoping that it is an indication that he is somewhat of a gentleman.
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Happy Birthday (early), Kizzie.
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Kizzie, you send photos by email. I think there is a page on this blog with the email address.
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I never have heard that phrase, DJ.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rest_in_power#:~:text=In%20mainly%20Black%20and%20LGBT,homophobia%20or%20transphobia%2C%20or%20suffered
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I’ve heard the “rest in power.” I think the context is black power or powerful women, that sort of thing. It might have been said of RBG when she died. I don’t like it either, partly because it turns things upside down. Our mortality is ultimately our powerlessness; we have no power in our death, but we go to face God.
Kizzie, the no hugging is likely a Covid thing. Not necessarily, but likely.
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Cheryl – Good point about the Covid thing.
Janice – I have the photos on my phone, and I use email on my laptop. I would have to figure out how to access my email on my phone. I pretty much only use my phone for texts, calls, and taking photos. Sometimes I will log into Facebook on my phone to share some photos, but then I log right out again. 😀
I used to use my phone to deposit checks to my bank account, but haven’t done that since my bank got bought out by another. I have to get that new account on my phone soon.
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With Covid I have seen some real extremes, some people who totally ignore it and some people who are crazy paranoid. As you know, we are isolating more than anyone else I know. We have not been within six feet of anyone else in ten months. I’m not “making fun” of people who take it seriously, but in the last week I’ve seen two things that have made me go “Huh?”
One was writing about what can seniors do safely if they have been vaccinated. It pointed out that for vaccination effectiveness, you need to have both doses and then wait two or three weeks. So far so good. But then it reminded the reader that it only has a 95% effective rate, and you really shouldn’t be interacting with someone else who hasn’t also had the shot. It suggested that a vaccinated person might want to see grandchildren, and said that if you want to see your grandchildren, you can see them outside from six feet away. Then it said what if a person really, really wants to hug a grandchild after getting the shot? And it said, grudgingly, if you really, really have to hug your grandchild, then do so outside, both of you wearing masks, with your faces turned away from each other.
Is this kind of stuff going to encourage anyone to get the shot? I mean really, why bother? You don’t get the shot to hug someone wearing a mask, outside, with your faces turned away.
The other one was an article about how dating has changed during the pandemic, and how most people now have their first several “dates” virtually. It gave as an example a 31-year-old man who’d had one first date in which they took a walk together and stayed ten feet apart, but he has decided it’s not worth the risk, so now he is going to do his first dates virtually. OK, so what does this person do for a living? Does he really never take “risks” as great as a ten-foot-distanced walk?! Thirty-one years of age means “low risk,” ten feet apart outdoors means NO risk. I am being scrupulously careful, but my husband allows me to walk with someone else, both of us wearing masks (I’ve done so twice so far), and he and I have stopped to chat with people who are eight feet away or so, even if we aren’t wearing masks, since a few minutes outdoors is simply not a high-risk encounter. And I’d say if a young man is THAT attuned to risk, he probably has some issues. Are we rearing a whole couple of generations of paranoid people? (I think more younger people aren’t cautious at all, but if the ones who are cautious are paranoid, that isn’t good.) Imagine being eight years old and your grandmother has had a couple of shots to keep from getting a disease that might kill her . . . and now that she has had her shots, she can hug you outside, both of you wearing masks and with your faces turned away. What is that going to do to your development? Are you going to keep imagining that you’re sick and that your hug might have killed your grandma?
Last summer someone posted on Flickr (I think she was quoting a Canadian government official, not sure what were her words and what were the official’s words, but either way the woman approved what she was posting), encouraging people not to go for walks, because someone might have Covid and they might have sneezed and you might step on the sneeze. And then she said they might have spit and you might step on the spittle (obviously a bigger risk than “stepping on a sneeze,” but no, still not enough to terrify me into staying inside my house). She also said that driving anywhere not totally essential is risking an accident, so stay home unless it’s to drive to the store. Well, if I go for a walk, I meet meet a raccoon that has rabies, or I might get hit by a car. Then again, I might stay inside my house and it might catch on fire or it might get hit by a truck.
Going through life thinking we can move our risk to zero is impossible. It would NOT be healthy for me to stay inside and not go out at all for months on end. I’m glad my husband agrees. But some of the risk protection is really extreme. And no matter what we do, we will someday die of something.
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Apparently ‘rest in power’s was originally used in graffiti to refer to those who had been murdered in high crime neighborhoods – a somewhat disjointed in syntax cry for justice, that eventually got picked up by activist groups but is rapidly becoming just a meaningless catch phrase on social media: https://slate.com/culture/2019/09/rest-in-power-phrase-history-appropriation-black-activists.html
There are plenty of young people who are far too casual about COVID. I have three first and second hand accounts of younger people really not taking it seriously. While working, I witnessed in a parking lot, a group of young people, none wearing masks, get out of the same car go in a group, towards an apartment complex. They reeked of marijuana and talked in that hyper way people do when they’re high. They certainly were not members of the same family. While getting tested most recently, I overheard another person being tested tell the nurse the reason they had come to get tested was because a friend had visited them, after being symptomatic and having been tested – the person stated that the infected friend got their positive test results during their visit to this person. I have already mentioned my coworker’s account of her brother’s catching it after deliberately not wearing a mask and visiting multiple places. People like that are the reason the healthcare system is overburdened, and why people like me will have their surgeries further delayed. Not taking precautions isn’t just putting oneself in danger, a concept many people in our individualistic society are taking forever to grasp.
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