TWAS COVID...

 T'was 3 sleeps before Christmas, and all through the town, people wore masks, that covered their frown.  The frown had begun way back in the spring when a global pandemic changed everything.  They called it corona, but unlike the beer, It didn’t bring good times, it didn’t bring cheer.  Airplanes were grounded, travel was banned. Borders were closed across air, sea, and land.  As the world entered lockdown to flatten the curve, the economy halted, and folks lost their nerve.  From March to July we rode the first wave, people stayed  home, they tried to behave.  When summer emerged the lockdown was lifted, but away from caution, many folks drifted.  Now it’s December and cases are spiking, wave two has arrived, much to our disliking.  It’s true that this year has had sadness a-plenty, we’ll never forget the year 2020.  And just ‘round the corner - The holiday season, but why be merry? Is there even one reason?  To decorate the house and put up the tree, who will see it, no one but me.  But outside my window, the snow gently falls, and I think to myself, Let’s deck the halls!  So, I gather the ribbon, the garland, and bows, as I play those old carols, my happiness grows.  Christmas is not canceled and neither is hope. If we lean on each other, I know we can cope!

DECEMBER 2020

DECEMBER 2020

                                         

What a year it has been.. I have so many feelings about 2020.

I put angels on this post because we as a country and world have lost so 

many souls this year due to this horrible virus COVID. Angels were

here one minute and days later gone. Families in shock and just 

left empty. I pray that in 2021 we will begin to heal and come back in some way

to a more calm life. I know some will be changed forever. Our service workers and 

medical doctors and nurses have had a very hard year. May 2021 be better for us

all.  

 

SEPTEMBER 2020

 SEPTEMBER

                                               

                                            What A MONTH.... It seemed at times like it was never going to end. Full of hurricanes and earthquakes, fires, pandemic and upheaval all over the country and world. I was afraid to even see the news on tv each day because it just got worse. Certainly not like any other September I have lived through. Remember those days???  The ones where all you worried over was the winter to come and how bad it might be? Did you get all your leaves raked up etc. Simple days of no worries about the world and its problems. 

I sure miss those days. Will it ever ever get back to those days. My opinion is NO. Things have changed the world is all different now and we will never see those days again. That sounds so negative but it's what I think. We will someday get back to NOT having to wear masks. Might take a year or two. I just don't think that our days of violence in the streets will be over for a long time. The winter weather might stop some of it but it will not go back to the way things were before. 

For me, I am grateful I have not been sick. I got my flu shot and was told it would maybe help but they have no idea how effective it will be this year with Covid around. We are smarter now wearing masks and keeping cleaner.. so maybe FLU will not be as bad. I guess we just wait and see. 

One of my best friends has NOW moved outside the state of California and I am ever so glad. Living in the fire zones was so stressful. Now that it is yearly and not seasonal.. it just was so scary every single day there. One of our tenants moved this month and we will miss him here. He was here 3 years. Sad because he said he did not want to move but HAD to. They increased the rent and he needed to be in a place he could afford. I totally understand where he is coming from. I hope it never happens to me. Moving around as much as I have in my life and then being without a home for 3 years.. well this is home now and I do not want to move again. 

Well must wrap this up.. another month down. Where ever you are I hope you are well and safe. 

                                            

AUGUST UPDATE 2020

 

                               

 YEP things have changed here at Blogger. They have made it more difficult to do a blog. Sad to say there will be a lot of people who will just stop blogging. I am down to once a month so I will stick it out I guess. Time will tell. I sure wonder who makes these decisions to change things that work. 😒 

NOTHING much going on here.. I am staying home a lot more than I used to. No need to risk getting the virus. I know flu season will be worse. When I do go out I get as many supplies I can. At least I know I am prepared as much as I can. August here has been HOT the AC has had very few days off. Sure different from years past. It's been a real challenge to go out in the heat and humidity with a mask on for sure. Mandated by the governor here in Michigan to wear one in the stores etc. I have had a lot of trouble breathing. Just glad I do not live in the southern states. No way I could handle it. 

Relatives are okay so far. Fires in California are making them evacuees. Horrible worries that there will be no home to come back to. I am so grateful that I moved from that state YEARS ago. Saw that people are moving from the state more and more now too. People in big cities do not want to be where there is a lot of rioting and looting etc. Seems the whole country is in upheaval. 

ELECTION time is growing near and so much political arguing going on. I stopped watching a lot. It was giving me such anxiety. I have never had in my old life such a mess going on in the country. 😖😕 Find myself watching old shows that I saw when I was a kid. Much better than what is on now days. Brings back good memories too. Biggest decisions here now are whether to send grade school kids back to classes. I know that older kids can handle things but seeing reports that even high schools that opened were not safe no matter what they did. A neighbor said not letting their grandkids who are kindergarten and preschool age go. It is just not worth them getting sick over. Colleges here opened..students moved in and a week later.. sent home. So if not safe for grown kids.. why risk it for grade school kids?? Parents have big decisions to make. Kids are not learning what they would be in school for sure. They are not sticking to scheduled lessons and lose interest fast. No clue if they will be passed on to the next grade.. have a feeling they will have to take the school year over again. What a big mess it is. 

SO where ever you are.. hope you are staying well and safe. 

                                 

JULY 2020

                                             


So here we are. July.. it came in hot here in Michigan. Many straight days of 90 degrees or more and it continues for the whole month. Summer for sure. We are surely living in a COVID world now. So many rules and regulations and there are more everyday.Good news we can find toilet paper more now after all these months. Antiseptic wipes and masks you can find but in some places the prices are crazy high. So scary when stores are now limiting cash transactions. Some places will not except anything but CARDS. Are they afraid the germs on coins will last? No one has said. They talk about a shortage of coins..hmm what's the real story? Will we ever know?  Now I ask ahead of time before I even purchase if they accept cash. Do they give change or round it off? Crazy!! 😕

I have a feeling it will be a long time before we all are able to get away from wearing MASKS everywhere we go. On a recent trip to our local hospital for tests, I encountered the routine of temperatures and screening before entering inside the building. A sticker was placed on my shirt telling all that I was CLEARED. I felt somewhat okay knowing that for a moment I was OKAY. 😊 I have on several occasions  lately had to tell people they are too close to me, something I never would have thought to do months before. It is hard to deal with such big changes something I hate to do.

Speaking of changes, my niece has a 9 year old going back to school, well that will really be something. The smaller kids, they do not distance or do what older kids do.

So many parents may opt to not send them to school at all. Will that be against some law.. who knows. This whole Covid world has us all in a crazy place. 

Sad to say I heard a lady in a  grocery store talking to her daughter about how she was not buying a lot because she could get sick and die in a week from the virus. Her daughters face said it all. There is a lot of fear out there in the world.  

So five months into this new world of Covid..our lives have sure changed..each month and day that passes there are changes it seems. Let us all hope that in the months to come there is great progress on finding out what cures it and keeps it from coming back. 

JUNE 2020

   
                                   

                
                             
WHAT to say??  
 Everyday we were bombarded with updates on CORONA virus. The news got worse
and then some better. Many protested about the strict regulations and went against them anyway. Businesses learned that if they tried to get people to wear the masks inside their stores.. there would be backlash. Some died because of it. We were warned that if we did not take precautions to be "safe", the next round of virus would be worse. Some states lifted their regulations earlier than others. CORONA left the news very fast. People were still dying by thousands, and recovering, but corona was not what it was. Then MAY 25th happened. 

 A black man who went into a store, just a routine day..happened to get a phony 20 dollar bill from a machine. Police were called and what transpired was the most horrible thing one could imagine. A young woman filmed it all on her phone. WE as a collective WORLD saw what happened. A man lost his LIFE at the hands of a
policeman and not in a easy shooting way.. a hard long 8 min begging for his life kind of way. Within days the WORLD responded to this death. Everyone now knows his name. GEORGE FLOYD.  So then protesting in such magnitude that the world had never seen before, took place. YES it was global, destruction and death took place. 
Burning, looting and lives and businesses were destroyed. The White House was under attack, so they called in troops and fortified the gates. The president of our country had little to say really. There was NO leadership.. no calm voice to try to get people together. It was very sad indeed. He did photo ops and acted as if nothing much was happening. 

So all this happened in a period of maybe a week or so and then 4 days of funerals for George in many towns. Thousands stood and attended along the way. His poor family endured the loss in the public eye. The protests turned more into peaceful marches and want for change. CHANGE took place. It is June now and change is still taking place. Police are being charged in many cities for undo violent behavior toward black people. On August 28 a million people are expected to walk to the same place where Martin Luther King made his famous speech back in 1963. He had a dream..I do believe that his dream may finally finally take place. May GOD help our country to make the changes happen. It's time has come. 

                               

MAY UPDATE 2020

                                               

WELL May is here. Michigan has finally gotten some warmer temps and the grass is so green.  I am really enjoying it. I still have my air conditioner covered but that won't last long. I got out this week after 13 days inside. Boy were my eyes opened. First off NO hand wipes and NO ONE wiping off carts. Instead I saw a spray bottle and a large roll of brown paper towels. I sprayed my cart good and wiped it off  best I could and then used my own hand sanitizer I had  carried afterward.  Since the last time I was out, things really changed. Meat  and eggs were hard to find in some places, and stocks of pasta, breads, soups and chips and snacks on the shelves were in on the way to empty. The prices were higher than before. Supply and demand I guess. The truck came in the day before according to a cashier guess only certain supplies come on certain days. Just happy to find some items on my list.  Blue arrows on the floor told me which way to go, but I noticed that not everyone was observing it. NOT everyone was wearing a mask either. It is mandatory here, signs tell you, but really no one is stopping you or telling you to leave. I made sure that I stayed away from people anyway. It sure seemed odd. 

We are STAY HOME until MAY 28!. People are NOT happy at all about it.  As of today the 16th we have lost almost 5,000 people here in Michigan. We made national news and our governor has been interviewed many times on news networks. She was called "THAT WOMAN" by Trump.Many protesters showed up at the state capital in Lansing with guns and flags. Many of them were Trump supporters. The governor did not back down much.  She is on  Joe Biden's list for Vice President.
I sure hope he does not choose her. I just think she has enough on her plate here to do and is not the strongest person. So many other choices. People seem to think it is too severe to have so many restrictions. Well they seem to work for some states to keep things under control. Some states have already lifted so many restrictions so we wait to see what the consequences are.

 I do look forward to the "OLD DAYS" when we can now get haircuts, go to stores to shop and see movies and go to festivals and fairs etc. They are all cancelled this summer. It will truly be a long one with no events to go to. Hoping that my next blog in June will have much better news than May. 

P.S. I DID buy a hat.. I bought TWO!! 
                
UNTIL THEN>. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES AND STAY SAFE. 
                              

BUY A HAT!!

SO it has come to this. Stuck in Virus limbo like millions of others unable to get a hair cut. A simple trim, buzz cut, whatever.. no deal. So I trim my own pretty well in the front but the back is another nightmare. I usually have a pixie cut so it doesn't matter but this stuff is grown out 5 inches. Not wanting to have a mullet, I asked Sis to trim it off in the back. What the heck,..it is just straight across right???? 😕😨✂✂

NOPE...the dreaded word..OOOPS.. came across her lips..I knew I was in for it. She said.. well I am sure you can FIX IT..😱 ME...I asked her to fix it. Soo she says.. 
better give up.. just BUY A HAT.. everyone else is in the same boat. YES they are.
I am not and never really have been a hat person.. this will drive me to it for sure. 
Right now you cannot shop freely much here in our little town. The GOODWILL closed and most all other shops. It's a ghost town. My next trip out I will check the Dollar General again for another scarf for a mask and a hat. By the time I get done I will look like the baddest bandit  around...we all are becoming the shady characters our mothers warned us about.  Smiles covered up..who knows who is lurking around the corner. 😅

Stay well my blogging friends..WE are in it together...it will end eventually and a whole new way of living will be what we will be grateful to have. 😷

HELLO DEAR FRIENDS...

               C O R O N A  V I R U S   I S    H E R E .... 
  

                                 THIS IMAGE FROM THE CDC shows what it looks like under microscope.

   I  am blogging from my apartment..self distanced from the population.
There are 8 apartments in my building. They have steam cleaned the  hallway carpets and twice weekly they come in and clean the doors and surfaces. We talk to each other from across the hall or outside away from each other. I don't allow anyone in my apartment. I hope nothing needs fixing until this passes.  I spray my door way and door knobs outside so that I know I try to keep things away. Am I paranoid? NO.. just careful. 

One hyphenated word that has changed our whole world. Like 9-11..one day we were fine living our daily lives and the next a whole new way of living was upon us. Words like quarantine, self distancing, and Pandemic are now the norm. Daily briefings, school and business closures updated hourly. All countries involved world wide. What I thought would happen has happened. My fear level went from 3 or 4 to 10.
I mean..going outside into the world of people and germs. We know not where it is .. it is different from any other virus we have been in touch with. I wear a mask when I go outside and carry a wipe in my hand at all times. After 10 days I am still coughing from the cold I caught. Neighbors asking me questions. NO I DO NOT HAVE IT! My lungs are just weak and when I get a cold it hangs on and goes into my chest. 
WHAT chance do I have against a virus that ATTACKS the lungs that requires people of health risk to be on a ventilator? NOT much. So it seems I will be here for a long time into the summer. I just cannot imagine it but I guess it will happen. WE WILL GET THROUGH IT. 

I feel that when this gets a vaccine that works and they can make enough to help us all.. life may go back to a sort of normal. I say sort of.. because we all will be changed because of it.    I spray my MAIL.. when it is delivered.. I have no idea how many people have touched it, breathed on it.  
I use gloves to touch it. EXTREME.. not in my mind. When I go out it is an ordeal. I only stay in stores a short amount of time as possible. I like others have been stockpiling all the items I think I need. So far so good. I am used to NOT FINDING things in the stores when I go. When I get home I spray my coat and leave it near the open door. I wash myself all over and change my clothes. YES I DO.. it makes me feel better to know I am doing my best to help myself. YES life has changed.. We had a family member pass away and NO services will be held. The family has to distance itself because the elderly. Just life changing. We will have a service later.. but who knows when that will be. 

So that is what I am doing.. things to help myself get through these times. I listen to what DR FAUCI says and he tells it like it is. When he or the experts tell us it is time to relax a little.. I will..until then I remain
on guard. 

PLEASE dear blogging friends. I wish you well and hope you and your family stay away from this horrible virus. 

CORONAVIRUS....

          
               HELLO AGAIN....

       So lets address the elephant in the room.. CORONAVIRUS.. In my opinion only.. I think it will get a lot worse for the whole world before it gets better. When the CDC came out and said “NOT IF but WHEN we get it bad”, WELL that put me into being prepared MODE. Living in a small town and having little access to a vehicle I have to make plans to buy supplies. When you get most of your cheaper goods from a country that is NOW in lock down it will be hard on the stores to replenish themselves here. It won’t be all of the sudden..it will be a slow process but it WILL happen. I guess we AMERICANS have depended so long on imports that it will be a shock to some. BUY AMERICAN.. Yes they cost more but at least we are helping our economy and our citizens with jobs. Do I buy  only American products.. NO I don’t, so I am not perfect. I spend plenty in the dollar stores because my budget makes me. Most of the products there are imports.

  There is a lot to this virus that the country of origin is NOT telling us. A  L O T. I am scared of the regular flu much less one that is even worse. I get my shots every year and take an OCD approach to trying to keep clear of illness. Having asthma my whole life, when I get sick, I really get sick. I pray the USA gets more prepared and keeps its citizens safe as they can. Seeing the reports of CHINESE cities all but empty..scary. People made to stay in place, schools and businesses shut down for MONTHS not weeks or days. I dread that to happen in our cities here. F E A R is a terrible thing to live under. 
Enough of my ranting.. I do hope we all stay as well as we can and get through this whole virus situation and see an end to it.  UNTIL THEN…. 


                          

WINTER FINALLY APPEARS!

                                                                                          
Sooo Winter finally made it to our little city. We have seen green grass most of the
whole month of November, and December. I know folks are happy that love the cold and snow but me.. I prefer it to come and then GO not stick around. After the polar vortex last year, this is welcomed.

I made sure all my doctor appointments were BEFORE flu season hit hard. Good thing seems everyone is down with something or another. My reports are excellent. My glaucoma is under control with very good numbers and no return visits until Spring. My cardiologist visit went the same. That dreaded AFIB did not return after 2 separate 2 week monitors. Praise the Lord.. I am soooo blessed. NSR or normal sinus rhythm is a wonderful thing. So 2020 started on a good note. My sister moved into my building in August last year as she prepares to sell her home. She is not all that happy living in a small place after a big house and that is to be expected. She is closer now to her daughter and grandkids and me so that is a good thing. Hope it will get better in time when things settle more.   Life moves on in my world.

I wish you all happiness and good health in the new year.   Happy Winter..