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.

Critics

Critics are funny people. I mean, how is it even possible to be an "expert" at something that's so subjective? And critics are always looking for some hidden meaning in a film...or music or book. why can't it just be a great story? I've liked some movies that critics liked, but for the most part, I stay away from anything that a critic says is fantastic. Isn't the point of entertainment to be entertained? I don't always want to be made to feel something. 

Star Wars was an amazing movie at the time. I'm sure there are at least a 100 other movies that are wildly popular with movie goes that the critics hated. That doesn't even make sense to me. The critics hated Waterworld. I thought it was very entertaining. At least it was an original idea! 

My fella and I are trying to find things to watch on Netflix and Prime video. Even an original  Netflix/Prime series is ok. Some of those are actually pretty good. The critics liked The Marvelous Mrs Maisel so I wasn't going to watch. But Chuck's daughter said it was a lot of fun, so I did. It is fun. They also liked Fleabag, which I didn't. They hate Upload but I think it's fun.

It's the same for books. In general, all the critics dislike most of Stephen King's books. Honestly, I don't even like all of them, but still. MILLIONS of people DO like them! So who the hell cares what a 100 critics think? AND, why do you need somebody to tell you if you should buy/listen/watch something anyway.

Now for something completely different

I think I should be a bird watcher. I like birds. I like watching them. I like that they all have different ways of doing thing and I love seeing it all play out at our backyard diner! It's amazing that we have so many different types of birds at our feeder.

we have a few different varieties of Sparrows...in abundance!

These cute little Chickadees

Cardinals all year

Cardinals mate for life. We have 2 couples :-)

A Blue-jay occasionally

They are loud and bossy

Blackbirds

They stay on the ground mostly

These pretty little birds. They're Dark Eyed Juncos

This is a Common Grackle. Messy birds

Morning Doves!!

They stay on the ground too. We have a little flock that stops by

We also have a lot of these, House Finch

Like a Sparrow with flair

These little guys crack me up! They SWOOP in super fast, grab a sunflower seed and take off!

It's a Nuthatch

And I love the little Tufted Titmouse. Soooo pretty.

My least favorite bird, the Starling! They're pigs and they eat everything!!

Then there's this little Wren. One of these built a nest in my fella's motorcycle helmet one year!

This next one is new to our feeder this year. It's a Rose Breasted Grosbeak. Man is it pretty! So striking in person. But dang, they fling the food out of the feeder for a foot at least! Ugh.

And, we get alllll the woodpeckers!

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Red Headed Woodpecker

I can never tell if these are a Downy Woodpecker or a Hairy Woodpecker

and of course this GIANT dude!

Pileated Woodpecker

One year we had a ton of these, but not so much this year. 

It's an American Goldfinch

And last but not least,

a Bluebird

And of course we have Robins and  Hummingbirds, Great Blue Herrons and Red Tail Hawks. But not at our feeder. It's a nice pastime, watching the birds.

Pandem......blah blah blah

Last Saturday we went shopping, in real stores! It was fun :-) It's nice that businesses are opening up. 
Also, it seemed like about 1/2 of the people I saw were wearing masks and the other 1/2 weren't. And the ages were all different, of mask wearers. It was nice to get out and do normal things though.

I was thinking on my drive in this morning, about everyone's mental health. Admittedly, I don't read or watch a lot of news. I see the headlines. That give me the gist of things. Even at that, I was feeling a little depressed last week. It was more of a general sadness kind of feeling. Almost like, loss. Is that weird? I felt it a little more strongly this morning. As more and more people head back to work and more and more businesses open up, I see more and more headlines that say things like, "Things will never be the same again" and "Things you will never see again." Things like, X store is going out of business. X store will not reopen. X performer has canceled their 2020 tour. It's almost June. The year is almost 1/2 over. Over before it really started. Yep, I feel a sense of loss. AND, I still feel all the time like I'm under reacting and over reacting at the same time! 

I don't feel like the numbers add up. I mean, when the media says there is an increase in the number of COVID19 cases - they forget to say, but we're testing 10 times the number of people, so duh. When they talk about it in my home state they say, there were 300 new cases confirmed yesterday, making the percentage of people testing positive at 14%. Isn't that a better marker? Some states report COVID19 deaths differently than other states. Like, in Colorado, you can have COVID19 and die of something different so they don't count that as a COVID19 related death. But in other states, you could die of a heart attack but be positive for COVID19 and they count that as COVID19 death. Does that account for the decrease in stroke and heart attack deaths so far this year? 

The CDC says that during the 2009 flu pandemic, (H1N1) an estimated 12,469 people died in the US. The Hong Kong flu of 1968 killed about 100,000 in the US and 1 million globally. The Asian flu of 1957 killed 116,000 in th US and 1.1 million globally. Those were all "new" flus and pandemics. The whole world didn't just stop because of those. And all of those numbers are estimated by the CDC.

What the hell are you supposed to believe?

Pandemic life

Enough is enough! Don't you think??
Has social distancing been effective? Was decimating the American way of life and the economy, effective? Or was it even necessary? Isn't it mind boggling that in just a mere 60 days, you can essentially take down a whole country?! 

The head of WHO says the worst is yet to come. Dr. Fauci warns of "needless suffering and death" if we 'open' too soon. So what the hell do you want everyone to do?!?!?! There is already needless suffering going on. Have you been on social media? Do you have any sense of what 30 million unemployed people are going through? Or the millions upon millions of people that effected by those 30 million being unemployed!? You people better get your shit together because the average joe won't stand for this much longer.

Now that businesses are starting to open up again, the mix of emotions in workers is all over the place! They want to get back to work, but what's the cost if they do? The media has made it nearly impossible to make an informed decision. UGH 

I think the next couple months are just going to be hell.

Pandemic life

and now for something completely different; good news!

The North Face is giving 50% discount to health care workers through the end of the year.
Crocs is giving away 10,000 pairs of shoes a day to healthcare workers!
Adidas is giving first responders and health care workers 40% off until May 12th
Kroger is donating 200,000 gallons of milk to local food banks, through the summer
Nike is donating 32,500 pairs of shoes to health care workers
Jet Blue is giving away 100,000 round-trip flights to health care heroes.
and ingenuity abounds!!

https://www.wthr.com/article/anderson-senior-creates-free-ear-saver-straps-frontline-workers

and so many other great stories. Look for those stories, instead of spending your time reading doom and gloom!!

Pandemic life

Well, now that things are starting to reopen, there's a whole new set of disgruntled people. One of the local malls opened - with 2 entrances and staff counting how many shoppers were coming and going. But a lot of the shoppers were pissed off because only a handful of stores were open.  😲

Still, to this day, I always feel like I'm under reacting and over reacting at the same time. Also, I want people to do the right thing but still feel like I shouldn't be forced to do it. I get the whole stay at home orders but honestly, you can't make me. Also, because I'm always under/over reacting, I just have a hard time believing that this will change the world forever. For instance, Disney is a cash cow and completely bottom line driven. I find it hard to believe that they will lower their max occupancy permanently. I'm not sure about buffet lines. That's a staple in Vegas. Do you think they're willing to give that up? Or in small towns? Maybe, if millions of people had died. But they didn't. 

I'm happy things are opening back up but I don't want to stand in line to be one of 50% of the people that gets to go in. I don't want anything that badly. Not even cheese balls at Menards! I'd rather just order it online. 

And what's going to happen in the Fall when the '2nd wave' hits? Americans won't do this again. So I guess if you get COVID 19 and die, you die. This is SO WEIRD!

Pandemic life

I know there are probably other things to talk about, aren't there?

On May 1st, our Governor laid out his plan to put the state back into action. Finally! 

Yesterday, retail store and restaurants could open at 50% capacity. That didn't stop people over the weekend though! Granted, the weather was super great but holy wow! There were TONS of people out and about!! We had a couple things we wanted to do but there were lines everywhere. So we just went grocery shopping instead. And I don't mean, just went and picked some things up. I mean full on, pantry was bare, shopping. Well, except for those few extra things, like ice cream. LOL It was fun. But look! The TP isle was almost normal!

I can justify the extra $$ spent though...I've saved over $400 in gas by working from home! That's awesome. I think we should get a bigger discount than 25% on our car insurance for the month though. 

Speaking of working from home. I'm going in to the office on Mon Tue and Wed now. I'm hoping that by the time it's time for people to start coming back, that could be my permanent schedule. I could work from home on Thu and Fri.  I would only have to commute 3 days a week!!!! Man would that be heavenly! There was a lot more traffic this morning too. Complete with at least 2 serious car accidents! Everyone is just going too fast, because there are less obstacles in their way. 

Oh! Saturday, my pregnant with twins niece in Utah, had a virtual baby shower on Zoom! Very creative and actually, pretty fun. I see more of those in the future :-) And mom and I did our home version of Wine and Canvas. Also fun. We can drink more and take more breaks at home. Good times :-)

Pandemic life

Today in my home state, the Governor gave us his plan to get back on track. 
He's going to reopen the state in phases.
He's hopeful that if everything goes well, all restrictions will be lifted by July 3rd. JULY!!! Holy shit. Yeah, I get it but dang. I feel like we've just lost 6 months of our life. Like waking up from a coma. We won't even know what to do with ourselves! And they haven't made up a plan for the next school year yet. Ugh.
Anyway, I was sitting trying to remember the time lines. I needed Google's help;

12/30/19; A Chinese Dr. sounds the alarm. He died on 2/7/20 :-(
1/4/20 - WHO start tracking illnesses in Wuhan
1/11/20 - the first known coronavirus death is reported
1/13/20 - the virus spreads to other countries
1/20/20 - the first American case was confirmed
1/23/20 - Wuhan is locked down
1/30/20 - WHO declares a public health emergency
2/2/20 - first death outside of China
2/11/20 - the disease gets a name, COVID 19
2/14/20 - first death in Europe, Paris
2/23/20 - COVID 19 explodes in Italy
2/28/20 - First US death
3/11/20 - WHO declares COVID 19 a global pandemic
3/11/20 - US bans travel from Europe
3/13/20 - US declares a national emergency
3/15/20 - Europe shuts down
3/23/20 - UK locks down
3/24/20 - India locks down
3/26/20 - Global cases of COVID 19 top 500,000
3/27/20 - Nearly half of all Americans under lockdown
4/2/20 - over 1 million confirmed cases worldwide
4/13/20 - over 2 million confirmed cases worldwide
5/1/20 - over 3.2 million confirmed cases, 233,000 deaths

when I look at those last 3 dates, clearly people aren't in lockdown or following social distancing guidelines. But they sure are bitchin' about not having anything to do!

Pandemic life

What entertains you right now? I know a lot of people are busy homeschooling their littles or just working, but after that, what are you doing? Maybe you're just entertained by all of life's little things. 
Like right now, I'm entertained by all the birds at our feeders and squirrels trying to find all the nuts they buried last Fall. I'm entertained just looking out my cool office window at home, at the comings and goings of our neighbors and how green everything is becoming.
Maybe you're busy being entertained by Netflix and the Tiger King? Holy wow is that bizarre! I had to bail after just the first episode 😵
Or maybe you're just catching up on all those books you wanted read?
Or hobbies! Like quilling!! :-)
Are you spending more time on social media? Looking up more things? Watching fun videos? I found a Facebook page I'm in love with; Doggy Daycare Farm Trips. I love this place! If you have FB and you love dogs, you should check it out. 
Maybe you're learning to cook, or bake!
I hope you're all enjoying this once in a lifetime opportunity to slow down, look at things and enjoy your time alone.

Pandemic life

I had another day "in" the office.
Here are things I've noticed;
I missed all the Spring blooms on my drive.
They really are working on the roads right now! Perfect time. Do we don't have to complain about the potholes now :-)
Cars on the road are multiplying. I think everyone has hit their limit. Interesting. So, 6 weeks is long enough. Hmmm.
At work, the restrooms are clean, all day! It's awesome. There are directional arrows taped to the floor in the main hallways. You know, in case we don't know what side of the hall to walk on? Cuz there are always those few ((eyeroll)) Europeans.
Also, in all the elevators, there are TWO yellow X's taped on the floor in diagonal corners. Presumably to mark social distancing? Like only 2 people are going to get on the elevator at once. Puhleez. And signs are starting to pop up about keeping your distance and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. 
The weather was still crappy when we went home but now that it's getting to be nice out, there are a lot more people out and about. Dog walkers, runners, etc. I don't think that's COVID related though. 
And I'm starting to see requisition lists of supplies that we'll be required to have...masks, gloves, sanitizer, Lysol. 
In another month it will be a lot different than today. 

Pandemic life

I don't mean this to sound exaggerated or cavalier...but the coronavirus has literally changed almost every living creature on the planet! Oh ok, maybe not bugs...or birds...
Think about that for a minute. The impact is just so hard to wrap your head around. Dairy farmers dumping milk. Pig farmers killing piglets. Potato farmers giving them away. Oil companies running out of places to store it. The push for socialism, again. Finger pointing. Misinformation. Celebrities suffering attention withdrawals. And the attention athletes are getting is more like, why do you make so much? Greed, whoa, what's happening to greed? What IS happening to greed???? Oh this is gonna be so interesting!

I believe a year from now, we'll mostly be back to normal. Humans by nature are narcissistic. Americans are consumer driver. And things that I think will change, will take awhile. Mostly, I think big businesses and corporations will start to wonder why they are spending millions of dollars on leasing office space when so much of their work can be done from home. And ultimately, what a boon for the environment too! Less gas, less pollution, less car accidents, lower insurance rates, more family time, the list is almost endless. I'm so curios to see what the world will look like in another 5 years.

Pandemic life

So what is everyone buying while they're stuck at home?

Toilet paper - 123% increase
Amazon - 23% increase
Freezers - 500% increase in 10 households have purchased one
Firearms - 80% increase. Desperate times... 
Subway - 40% to 80% decline
Frozen pizza - 92% increase. Gotta feed those teenagers! 
Frozen cookie dough - 454% increase. This one surprised me a little
Starbucks - 70% decline
Television and streaming services - 20% increase. Netflix alone added over 13 million new subscribers in the last couple months!
Hand sanitizer - 470% increase 
Airline tickets - 96% decline. WOW!
Fitness equipment - 535% increase. That many people go to a gym? 
Beer - 42% increase. LOL 
Puzzles - 370% increase. They're hard to find on Amazon, along with paint by numbers. 
Gasoline - 30% decline. I thought this would be more.
Video games - 65% increase. 
Walmart - 20% increase. I bet Target's numbers are right up there as well
McDonald's - 13.4% decline
Milk - 47.5% increase. Yet dairy farmers are still dumping milk!  

How about you? At the grocery store, I feel like we’re buying more meat but less produce. That’s odd. But we aren’t hoarding tp or paper towels. It’s getting harder though, to be stuck at home. I miss Hobby Lobby and Kohls and eating out. Last Friday, we had dinner out, courtesy of Penn Station. They have curbside pick up. It was nice. And I loved that when I picked it up, they brought it out to my car and said, "thank you for supporting us!"  I think my fella gets his fix because Lowes and Menards are still open. He's been remodeling our bathroom. And, we've gone for 'a drive' a couple times. Not the same. 

Pandemic life

Working from home has it pros and cons, like anything. 

The cons are, I'm less busy working from home. Apparently, at least 1/2 of my job is just being 'seen'. In the office, I kind of sit out in the open. The introvert in me hates that. But functionally it works out great because any supervisor that walks out of their office sees me and thinks, oh yeah, can you...blah, blah, blah. But working at home, nobody sees me so they don't think to ask me to do things for them. Also, because I'm introvert, I don't get out of the house very much if I'm working from home. I guess if I were retired and this was permanent, I would have a different routine, so I would get out of the house?

The pros are many though. No commute! That's the best! Really, I think I love that the most. Also, I'm saving a ton of money on gas. I have a window office :-) I get to talk to someone during the day who's not all freaked out about work issues. I have a window office :-) There's softer T.P. at home. Free coffee. No shoes is awesome. I have a window office :-) Pretty cool. Now I know why I was such a daydreamer in school, staring out the window. I know A LOT more about my neighbors now! For instance, the lazy guy across the street runs with his dog every morning. We just call him the lazy guy because he doesn't take care of his house. He would be a better condo owner. Every week he gets a delivery from Crown Liquor and he receives many Amazon deliveries! Then there's the woman next door to him with the 7 year old. She like to decorate for every holiday, with lots of yard art! She was recently married, not to the baby daddy. And we think she's building a tiny neighborhood of her own in her backyard! There's the big pirate ship, a big shed and 2  tiny people houses. Weird huh? Especially since her son really only wants to play in the street out front. The young Indian couple next door has 2 kids. They come out to play after lunch, presumably after home schooling is done. There's a little old Jewish fella who walks up and down our street twice every morning. The young, newly married guy at the end of the street is putting fake grass in his backyard. And the old lady a few houses down, died the other day. That was sad. Oh, and we have a TON of squirrels in our neighborhood!!! 

Yep, for the most part I like working from home. I would like to go into the office maybe twice a week. Yeah, that could work for me. 

Pandemic Life

Thank you delivery drivers!
Thank you for bringing me everything I want and/or need.
You can get dinner from PF Changs, crafting supplies from Hobby Lobby, groceries from almost anyone, face masks, medication, just about anything you can think of! AND, free shipping from almost anyone!! You literally don't need to leave your house for anything. Is that ok? What if all this social distancing really just leads to social dysfunction? I mean, we thought that social media was bad for relationships. What the hell is this going to do us? No more touching? No more going out. I'm going to buy stock in pajamas and yoga pants. 
Germany even cancelled Oktoberfest. 6 million people attend Oktoberfest...in OCTOBER! Can you even imagine what the lines will look like in November when you go to vote? Will there still be social distancing then? Ugh.