things unrelated to pandemic life

 This is so awesome!

https://www.wthr.com/article/news/nation-world/wildlife-overpass-utah/67-45099dcf-7b66-4196-81be-516176a88f1b

Also, Cosmo is dumb. I mean, I know at my age I'm irrelevant when it comes to fashion, but I actually like a lot of the things on this list!!!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/style/fashion-trends-that-we-hope-never-come-back-in-style/ss-BB14qT1X?li=BBnb7Kz#image=1

And because I love lists, the top free iPhone apps of 2020 are;

Zoom, TikTok, Disney Plus, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Messenger, Gmail, Cash App, Amazon Shopping, Netflix, Google Maps, DoorDash, and Spotify. Nice to see that facebook is sixth on the list, not first! Poor Mark Zuckerberg probably hates that. hahahahaha!

And, Time Magazine named LeBron James as athlete of the year. I don't care. But this is what they said about him, 

“He is the greatest basketball player of his generation, arguably of any generation. And he won a fourth title this year. That’s no small thing, but his true influence was what he did off of the court,” said Goldberger. “LeBron has had a remarkable influence across activism for athletes around the world.”

That really pissed me off..."but his true influence was what he did off the court." So what you're really saying is that his athletic prowess doesn't matter. What you really gave him this title for is because of his activism - screw his basketball talent. Good grief.

And last but not least, what were people searching for on Google? Well here you go; (funny, LeBron isn't on any of these lists!)

https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2020/GLOBAL/?ftag=MSFd61514f

Happy Thanksgiving!

 The year is 2020. Historical on so many levels. 

Thanksgiving is tomorrow! This year, I thought about skipping this annual tradition of mine. Then I thought, aren’t I the one who always tries to look for the silver lining? If that’s true, then this year should be no different. More challenging for sure, but no different.

Let’s get started;

If you were employed all year, be thankful for that.

I you had a home all year, be thankful for that.

If you had enough to eat all year, be thankful for that.

If you were in good health all year, be extra thankful for that.

There was no live entertainment, but there was still music to listen to.

There weren’t many sporting events you could attend, but games were still played, races were still driven and championships were still decided.

You didn’t get to dine out as much as you wanted to but maybe that made you a better cook! (There’s more in the culinary world than just macaroni and cheese you know!)

Your favorite TV shows were put on hold and there were no movies at the theater, making you a little more thankful for a good book.

Birthdays were celebrated a little differently for most of you. Thankfully though, you still had one.

There were far less baby showers to attend but babies still came into the world. 

Instead of vacations, maybe you fixed things up around the house.

Maybe you built a model, finally learned how to crochet, or discovered that you like puzzles!

Consumerism took a back seat to basic consumption.

And we all learned a little more about what essential really means. 

 

My own list includes;

Naps, cute masks, sugar cookies, pajamas, lots of quilling, ice, Tums, sweet dreams, working from home, humming bird feeders, good conversations, humor, our new percolator and Christmas decorations-early! 

And of course, the most important things; Family, even the nutty ones. Friends, even at a distance. Love. 

Yep, it’s been a strange year. Toilet paper shortages. No cleaning supplies. Frozen pizzas and Top Ramen flying of the shelves. Amazon, Door Dash, Zoom and Microsoft Teams became a thousand times bigger! Memes became standard. Waterways became cleaner. The air, less polluted. There’s an overabundance of oil. Virtual became a thing. Through all of that though, there were still plenty of things to be thankful for. 

Life is good people. Be a little kinder. Give a little more. Help when you can.

Have Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Pandemic life

 Geez!

At least the election is mostly over so we don't have to be stressed out about that anymore.

And, what happened to BLM? It seems like you heard something about racial injustice every day, for weeks and weeks. But now? Did it go away? I'm confused. There's still a lot of hate out there but it seems more general now. Like people just hate everything right now! 

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I'm pretty sure most of the country isn't going to abide by all the recommended restrictions. Especially since they announced this week that there's an effective vaccine soon to be available. Yeah, the rest of the year is going to be weird.

Also, I saw some headline that said Fauci said things could "start" to return to normal next April. What? I don't understand. How can he possible know that? I mean, why not February? Or July? Why did he pick April?  I also saw something last week that some entertainment venues are considering requiring proof that you've been vaccinated before they let you in. Pretty sure that can't work on any level! I see crazy headlines all the time. 

Some days, Montana seems like a fantastic idea! But then I remember Hobby Lobby is right up the street and I throw that thought out :-)

Pandemic life

Good grief! Is it EVER going to end??? Honestly, don't you think the toll on mental health is immeasurable by now?! There are days at a time when I always feel like crying. I still think it's weird in the grocery store. No flavored Coke products. Sometimes there are cleaning supplies, sometimes there aren't. Some frozen foods are still hard to find. Some frozen fish is hard to find. And expensive when you do. We went to Costco last weekend and there's still a "limit 1" on paper towels, TP and water. which is fine but why do they still need to say that? Thankfully there's no limit on bottles of margaritas!! 

Last month, just for something to do, my guy and I went to Michigan. Our destination was Mackinaw Island. It was so nice to get away, even for a few days. We went to the beach! Us Hoosiers don't have a lot of experience with the beach. The weather was wonderful too. Michigan is weird though. Anyway, Mackinaw Island was fantastic! There were A LOT more people there than I expected. For the most part, everyone had a mask on. Even outdoors, by themselves. When we wanted to have lunch, there were long lines and wait times everywhere because nothing was completely open. It was really kind of strange. You would think we'd be used to that by now, but we aren't. We took a tour of a Coast Guard ice cutter and we drove over the bridge to the UP. Now we've been to every Great Lake except Superior. On the way back, we stopped in Frankenmuth to go to Bronner's Christmas store. OMG!!!! It was AWESOME!!! Seriously, 7 acres of Christmas decorations! Ahhhhhhh. I think if you couldn't find an ornament for anything specific, then it just isn't made. Hey, want an ornament of a giraffe in a tutu? Yep. How about a casket? Or a jack-o-lantern? How about Santa on a rocket ship? Or a chili cheese dog? What about a 20 foot artificial Christmas tree? It was astounding! And also cram packed with tourists. Crazy! They even have a shuttle for the parking lot! Oh yeah, definitely my kind of place. Thanks honey :-) 

Also, the lack of news for a few days was a nice relief. Because how could the pandemic be any worse? Oh, there's an election tomorrow! It's just exhausting, all the bullshit. And this morning on my way in to work...businesses already have their store fronts boarded up. It's disgusting, all the hate and negativity. It made me cry. So I'm going to work from home the rest of the week. I'm not coming downtown, just in case. It's just too overwhelming.

(remember, you can click on the picture to enlarge it)

Yep, this is the Grand Hotel! 

                                       They just don't make things like this anymore

a natural spring

           Along our walk, we saw this slab of rock. That was funny.

In case you didn't know, cars are not allowed on the island. Just horses and bicycles.

this bridge is 5 MILES long!

                                                               Ship's innards 

Officer's mess

Pandemic life...still

 Well, it's the backside of October and here we are...still...trying to decide how not to die from COVID-19. Now they want us to know that small gatherings indoor for Thanksgiving are a bad idea. That was right after telling everyone that Halloween should be canceled. Screw you guys..

How much more do you think people can suffer? I hate this year. 

But...there have been some really great memes. In case you need the laugh, here are some of my favorites;

 

Pandemic life

Well, it's September. Yep. Uh huh. Hell.

Traffic has certainly picked up though. Schools are still closed. I'm still parking on the 1st level in the parking garage at work. That's nice. It's still taking less time to get to work and go home, also nice. Out of 1100 people in our office, I would say that about 15% are working here. Everyone else is still working from home. I guess it will probably remain that way until next year some time. Ho hum. I'm still trying to work from home on Thursdays and Fridays. For the most part, it's working. I like my schedule. Other pros and cons as far as office life goes; Pros = the bathrooms are always clean - there's always coffee in the coffee maker - it's quiet - there's never any waiting for the microwaves at lunch. Cons = the vending machine are empty, no place to go for lunch, the snack shop is still closed, it doesn't feel safe to walk around downtown anymore, (I actually carry pepper spray with me!) and masks masks masks. Is it possible for grouchy people to get grouchier? If you're already sad, can you get sadder?

In our regular lives, we've started trying to return to our tradition of going out to eat every other Friday. It's weird. There's no salt and pepper shakers on the tables anymore. You have to ask and then they bring you little paper packets. Every other table is tapped off so you can maintain social distancing. Most stores seem to be busier but I don't think people browse anymore. Just get in and get out. And so much is still not fully open. We've taken a few drives for the day. But we don't really stop anywhere. Still, it's nice to get out of the house. I have 28 days of vacation stacked up. I guess because I was already home for a couple months, it didn't seem necessary to take vacation time?  I guess I just need to start taking a day here and a day there. I don't want to be one of those people that end up 6 months of vacation on the book when they retire!!

My annual Thanksgiving email is going to be a lot different this year. Maybe I'll skip it.

Did I mention that I applied to participate in a Holiday craft fair this year?!?!? It was a big step for me. Last week I found out I was accepted!!!! I was pretty excited about that. But they had to let us know that they will be holding it online this year and we can participate if we want. Regardless though, we're automatically invited to be in next years show. I'm still trying to decide about the online thing. But for sure next year, I'll be there, in my very own booth/space!

Pandemic life

 This is frightening to me on so many levels;

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/08/26/coronavirus-vaccine-mandates-covid-19/3346210001/

traveling magnets

I love refrigerator magnets. I love looking at them in funny boutiques and airport gift shops. I love getting them when we travel anywhere. It's an inexpensive and small trip memento. I like coffee mugs too, but you can't have 100 of those!

I use to put my magnets on the side of the fridge. Then my fella said, stop it! But, but, but....

Then I saw this FANTASTIC idea on Pinterest!! An oil pan!!! A BIG one! Voila! A place to put all my magnets that I can lean behind the door in my craft room. So awesome. 

There used to be a man at work who would travel every chance he got. I asked him once when he was going to Idaho for a meeting, if he would get a magnet for me. It was the start of something so great at work! Pretty soon, whenever somebody had to travel, they came back with a magnet for me! It's the best. I'm going to run out of room one day. Thanks to my niece, I have one from Hawaii. Thanks to my daughter in law, I have one from Alaska. From vacationers, I have magnets from Belize and Jamaica! So fun. :-)

Pandemic life

 5 months later and here we are. Still. Still wearing masks. Businesses still not open. Schools still not open. Millions of people still unemployed. Still no live entertainment. Still no movie theaters open. Shortages still apparent in grocery stores. Still no sporting events. Still. It's August!!!

OMG! I can take a lot but I'm sure FED UP now! I'm so tired of all the unhappiness, drama and anger. And I hate to admit it but I'm tired of all the inconvenience. I'm tired of forgetting my mask. I'm tired of wearing my mask at work when I have to walk down the hall to the bathroom! I'm tired of feeling uneasy walking around downtown. I'm tired of everybody bitching about everything!

I miss smiles. I miss having lunch with a friend and dinners out on Friday nights. I miss my dogs. I miss Friday morning breakfasts in the cafeteria at work (thanks honey, for filling in!!) I miss just casually walking around the store, any store. I miss live entertainment. I miss expectations and I miss planning.

I guess I woke up in a sad mood today. Sigh.

Looove

 I found a new channel on SiriusXM. It's channel 289, the Love channel. Oh yeah, it's awesome. Nothing but love songs all day. Yep, mm hmm, love, love, love!!

Be My Baby, Something in the way she moves, How deep is your love, When a man loves a woman, I will always love you, You make my dreams, Wild thing, Best of my love, Can't help falling in love, The first time ever I saw your face, Unchained melody, Make you feel my love, Faithfully, Endless love (or anything else by Lionel Richie!), I only have eyes for you, My girl, To love somebody, I want to know what love is, I think I love you, Love will keep us together, Don't it make my brown eyes blue, Best of my love, Love me tender, I honestly love you, I got you babe, Unforgettable, Crash into me, How sweet it is, Just the way you are...

YES! Every time I listen to this channel it makes me smile. 

Life continues...

We have bird brain babies!!! Peep peep peep peep! Google tells me that they'll only be in the nest for 12 to 18 days and that there are 5 to 8 babies in there! I'm DYING to look in there! I just can't imagine how they fit in there! They're about a week old now so I don't think it would be too disturbing if I tried to see in there. I might wait a couple more days. I'm still just so impressed at how strong and determined those little suckers are. They crammed a lot of sticks in there and they're tiny little things! Secretly, we must be bird geeks. :-)

******UPDATE******

I looked. I had to!! I carefully held my phone over the hole on the top and....click.

Look!!! babies!!!

Loyalty

Brand loyalty and/or company loyalty is such a funny thing.

I don't think I've ever used anything except Crest for toothpaste. Different flavors maybe but always Crest.

If I have to purchase boxed Mc and Cheese, it's always Kraft.

I would choose Costco over Sams Club any day. Given the choice, Target would always win over Walmart.

90% of the time, it's a matter of service. If your service is great and your product is meh, you'd still stick with them. Their product and pricing could be great but if their service stinks, you'd ditch them if you could. I've shopped at other more expensive stores just because of their great service. I stick with my expensive dentist because he's so kind to me and I really need that.

Treat your customers right.

A   L*O*N*G  time ago, we used AT&T for our telephone service. I hated them. Worst customer service. I was never so happy to ditch a company when I canceled my land line, 14 years ago. Shortly after that, they started sending me all these great promotional deals and come back and you'll save $$. All I could think was, if you cared about my business when you had it, I might not have left! Boneheads. Anyway, I'll never, and I mean never, use AT&T again.

When we switched our cell phone service from Sprint to Verizon, they never asked why or if there was anything they could do to keep me as a customer. After 10 years you'd think they would be curious why they were losing me? Nope. That's fine. I'll never go back to them. Worst customer service.

Last February we ditched cable TV. Now we just stream everything. Netflix, Hulu, Disney. We've been with that cable company for 20 years. We kept our internet service though. Last month we started getting weekly junk mail from them. We miss you! Come back! Look at this great deal! Blah, blah, blah. This really irritates me. I was a customer of yours for 20 years and you never once offered me a great deal. New customers get all the great deals and free phones. But your loyal customers don't get squat. That doesn't seem like good business. Maybe you wouldn't need so many new customers if you just treated the ones you have, better. Hmmmm.

The past

This was so interesting and tragic and sad;

https://www.smh.com.au/world/suitcases-tell-stories-of-lives-lived-at-the-margins-20150617-ghpu6l.html

Sometimes, when I see old photographs in a box at an antique shop, it makes me feel so sad. I know people love to go antiquing but I wonder if they ever think about the story behind those items. 

Asparagus

I love asparagus. I could eat a lot of asparagus. Mmmmmmm. But asparagus makes your pee smell. It does, really. But it turns out that that's not true of everyone who eats asparagus! Isn't that weird?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-asparagus-makes-your-urine-smell-49961252/

I'm really not crazy! Whew!

getting organized

Last week, my fella took another tote bin plus some other things, to Good-Will for me.  He said donations were piled up outside! That doesn't usually happen at our Good-Will store. It made total sense to me. So many people at home, cleaning up, throwing crap out. Yep. I'm doing it too!
Coincidentally, I saw this list (you know how much I love these) today;

Things is your house that a professional organizer would throw out!
* Flimsy kitchen utensils -that's good one. I need to do that
* Writing implements - I'm in trouble
* Reference material - I don't think that's entirely true. Like how to books. I'm keeping those until I know how to do it.
* Trip memorabilia - you know, old maps and travel brochures
* Expired things - food, medicine, vitamins...when was the last time you looked in the back of your cupboards????
* Storage 'solutions' - like containers that don't have a lid anymore, even Tupperware!
* Hobby supplies - oh, hell no!!!!!
* Outdated technology - probably. But if you had kept your old Apple PC, 
you'd have a lot of $$ right now!
* The "to-be-fixed" pile - maybe, after a year or so, just to be sure
* Parts for discarded items - accessories and manuals to things you don't have anymore! (mom)
* Secret stash - this one cracked me up because rinsed out jars was on the list! Ugh
* Swag and freebies - like all those pens you pick up and should throw out now!
* Unmatched things - socks, gloves...but I know the second I do, the other one will turn up!
* Awards and trophies - that's just sad
* Cookbooks - Noooooooo
* Clothes hangers - you have unused clothes hangers? I say, buy more clothes!
* Vases - I'm cool with this one. You really only need a couple.
* Refrigerator magnets - hahahahahahaha, when hell freezes over! It's my thing man!

Crisis Fatigue

Have you heard of Crisis Fatigue. It's a real thing. It's sounds pretty self explanatory.

Here's a pretty good article about Crisis Fatigue. It explains what is actually happening to your body.

https://www.wired.com/story/crisis-fatigue/

It's interesting. I suspect that there are A LOT of people in the world suffering from it. On different levels but still. I am. And it's exhausting. Also, there's something called the 'quarantine 15!' It's about weight gain during the pandemic. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-right-mindset/202003/what-is-quarantine-15

That seems pretty normal to me. If you can't go anywhere or do anything, what else is there? Eating or drinking. Or both! I've definitely been drinking more. I know I'm doing it too...and I don't care. HA!

Bird brains!

Oh, not literally, like real brains, just the term. Sheesh.

Last year when we were on our fabulous 30th anniversary road trip, we bought a bison skull. I always wanted one. We got it in Deadwood SD. It's awesome...and big. We finally hung it up a few months ago. It's awesome...and big!

(I can see a good use for Christmas lights, can't you?!?!?)

I use to have this little, fake cow skull on the wall. My fella hung it outside on the front porch. It works, it's rustic. Anyway, a couple weeks ago we came home and found all these little twigs on the porch,

What the heck?! So we're looking all around. I thought maybe a bird thought it wanted to build a nest in the wreath. Nope that wasn't it. Hmmmmm,

Then my fella spots it...

Do you see it???

Here's a close up,

 A tiny bird is building it's nest inside the fake skull!!!! It's called a House Wren, a little smaller than a chickadee. Also, it has a pretty song, a pretty loud song! Aaaaaaand, it's July! Isn't it kind of late to be nesting?? I guess we're going to try and use the garage door more right now so we don't disturb them so much. What funny birds.

Great sorrow

Today we said goodbye to our beloved 16 year old miniature schnauzer, Greta. 

Greta, the bestest girl evah. 

Greta with the sweet, loyal, loving soul. There are so many things I want to say about her. 

She weighed 2.8 pounds when we brought her home at 7 weeks. She was about the size of a beanie baby! Seriously, how cute is this?!?!?!

I can't believe that was in April of 2004. We've had Greta for 1/2 of our married lives together! Whoa. That's a long time!

She was 5 months old when she got her first haircut. When I picked her up, I was so startled that I laughed out loud! Are you sure this is MY dog?? This is her before and after picture;

 

When she was a puppy, we had this little plushy squirrel for her that she loved. She killed 4 of them before we had to move on to a larger plushy! Her second favorite toy was a rubber squeaky burger. Squeaky toys were the best. She knew the names of her toys too. We didn't really make an effort to teach her those either. But she always knew the difference between "get the burger" and "get the ball."

When she was a 'teen' we kept her gated in the kitchen/dinning room. She ate a corner of one wall and tore up the vinyl flooring in another corner. Man she was busy! She chewed up any book I left out but she never ate our shoes. Oh, well...there was her love of slippers 😂

I walked her every single day, no matter the weather, to teach her good manners so she would be an awesome dog. And she was! She was a quick learner too. But every once in awhile she would rebel. She would pull on the leash, bark at everything, stop at every post and light pole and sometimes just walk into someone's yard and lay down! Such a character!! 

Once we were walking and this strange cat crossed the street to come say hi to us. Greta usually barked her head off at cats (for no reason). But she didn't that time. The cat walked a blocked with us, right next to Greta, before it left. We found out later that it was a deaf cat. Greta was smart, eh!? 

She knew all the right commands pretty early too. Sit, down, and twirl :-). She loved tug of war and scrunched up balls of paper. Christmas was a lot fun!! 

One of our favorite games was hide and seek. I would hide some place in the house and my fella would say, "where's da mama?" It was harder to make it challenging after a couple years though, she knew all my hiding spots! 

She loved to sleep under the covers, right behind my knees. 

She was completely food driven. You could get her to do almost anything for a treat. We weren't big on people food, just here and there, but she had her favorites. The milk in the bottom of the cereal bowl, peanut butter, pizza crust and Dairy Queen.

She knew when I said, "love da mama" that I wanted a cuddle and she would jump on my chest and lay down. Super cute. After my fella retired, she liked to lay by him all the time.

She wasn't a digger but she sure was athletic in her youth! She never did catch that bunny though. And until she got much older, she didn't mind the snow. She always hated the rain but the snow was ok.

She didn't love Pepper when we brought her home. But it turned out that she really grew to care about her. After Pepper died, she lost her appetite. She lost her interest in walks or playing or hanging out outside. That grief coupled with her age and failing physical abilities, was pretty hard on us. Heartbreaking as a matter of fact. 

We really struggled with what the right thing to do for her was. We wanted to keep her with us. For as long as we could I guess. But that's not always the best thing for you pet, is it. She was struggling to eat, struggling to drink, struggling to stay on her feet. Because she was deaf and mostly blind, everything startled her. 

Greta loved us all unconditionally. There were moments when that unconditional love just made my whole day worthwhile. The love of a dog is a gift. 

It's so hard to imagine our home without her. I know it's been awhile since we've seen her sitting at the window waiting for us to get home, but I'm still going to miss that. 

I'm going to miss her toasty hot little body next to me when I was chilled. I'm going to miss her twirl for a treat; She always had grand expectations. That's a good way to live your life.

Her absence will be profound. 

She was the bestest girl evah!

                                                                                 

                           totally bribed them for this shot

"dad! is that for us!?!?"

                                         

                       She actually did pose for pictures

                but she didn't like all the pictures 😜

                                   Yep, another bribe 😊

                        One day when I came out of the bathroom, there she was, waiting....😂

Greta and Pepper had wonderful lives and ours will be changed forever without them.