Don decided that his glass paperweight needed to be a part of this grouping.
I’m okay with it.
Oh, friends, I don’t have much to share these days. I find myself without a whole lot of energy or things to talk about. Winter is always tough for me, but when you add in the pandemic and being homebound…well, I’ll admit it. It’s getting to me.
We aren’t going inside stores now. It’s just too dangerous as the numbers spike and we learn of troublesome variants. We’re unable to get the vaccine at the moment. There just isn’t enough of it around here and people who are at high risk are the priority. So we have no idea when we’ll have the opportunity to be vaccinated.
And, starting this afternoon, we’re headed into a deep freeze for the next three days, with temps in the single digits and wind chills sending them into below zero territory. It’s going to be extremely cold and windy this weekend. More snow coming on Monday and Tuesday in the form of a winter storm.
Both Don and I are having a hard time at the moment, though our nature is to be positive, so I’m sure we’ll get there eventually.
The sun is shining, so that’s a positive.
Anyway, we’re fine. We know exactly what to do to change our collective mood. But I also believe in letting myself feel what I’m feeling. It’s real and totally understandable given our situation.
I’m going to force myself to do a little work on the dollhouse this morning, right after I finish this post. But first, some oatmeal.
Stay safe.
Happy Thursday.
It is tough over in the UK too. Our cases seem to be falling a bit and the vaccine programme is going well….one thing the Government seems to have got right as it is being done in a very orderly age order and we just wait to be called.
Try some more escapism TV…have you got ‘All creatures great and small’ yet? A remake of the original series with beautiful scenery from Yorkshire and lovely country cottages 1940s style….lovely!
Hang on in there…there is light at the end of the tunnel even if it is in the distance xx
Yes, we’ve got it and we’ve been watching it, Helen.
Stay safe!
It’s going to get better, but the winter is starting to get to me too.
We were in the same boat with no vaccine here. We have been registered with the health dept and at a local pharmacy here. It’s a regional pharmacy, not nationwide. Suddenly, late afternoonTuesday we both got text messages we could schedule appointments. We jumped on that and there were openings for the next day. We got our first shot yesterday!
But of course my 2nd dose falls during the week I have jury duty! Not sure how this is going to work out but I guess I should contact court and see if they will excuse me that day or switch me to a different week. Such a pain.
There is still a huge shortage of vaccine here. I know we were very fortunate and the only reason I was aware of this pharmacy was from a comment on facebook.
It’s going to be a long winter but we will get through it.
Stay safe
I guess I wasn’t very clear…we got our vaccine from the pharmacy not the health dept.
Marilyn, my county allows jury duty to be rescheduled if you have a valid issue. There should be a phone number or email address to submit a request for a date change. Never know till you present it. So good you received a shot! Hopefully the next dose will be available for you.
xo
We have a major shortage, which is why we can’t get it yet. I’m glad you got your first dose.
Frankly, I would tell the Court that you are of a certain age and don’t want to serve while the virus is still rampant and could you postpone it?
Stay safe.
I like Don’s paperweight! This January…even with all its hope…is very long and depressing. It’s just not the weather…it’s also all the fighting and whining going on in Washington. I haven’t been commenting because I haven’t been able to find too many positive things to say. I’m thinking I’m not alone in that.
We got over 7 inches of snow the other day, and it looks like another 6 or more could hit us this weekend. Plus, the bitter cold. It’s just too much this year.
A friend of mine was able to secure a vaccine appointment in about two weeks…she’s in the 75+ group. So I think that’s where our medical group at least, is starting. We are on a stand by list, however. They may call us if some one is unable to make their appointment. You are given a 2 hour window. So, there’s hope.
Hope you enjoyed your oatmeal. Stay safe! ;)
Donnamae, our hospital gives us a 30 min window when a cancellation occurs. Of course, there is no vaccine available, so at this point that doesn’t matter…… I heard this morning if they pass the no-mask mandate, we will not receive $49 million in food assistance we WOULD get ,for those who are struggling. I guess they will kill us by ignoring the pandemic, or starve those in need. What-a-state we live in!!!!!
I didn’t realize that about that about the NO on the mask mandate! They ARE trying to kill us! We have to vote THEM out before they do kill us! Sigh.
I’m over the crap in Washington. Also, Don and I made a decision the other day that we will no longer read anything about OM. He has lived in our heads rent-free for 5 years and we’ve kicked him out!
Stay safe, Donna.
I think many of us feel just the way you do. Everyday is the same. If I get too much into my own head I start become scared about the future. I know it will get better but it is very hard to be positive at times. Hang in there! Much love to you both. xo
You, too, April!
Stay safe.
I hear you, these long winter days can get really tedious, especially if you’re mostly homebound. I have had quite a few errands to run yesterday and today (groceries, library, vet, etc), so I’ve actually been busy. Our numbers are going down; they’re so low that restaurants have once again opened up for indoor dining. Thus said, Brian and I still choose not to dine in restaurants just yet. Even though they can only operate at 25% capacity and the tables are far apart, we just don’t feel safe enough with everyone breathing into the air in a closed-in space with no open windows. Some of our family members and friends don’t feel that way and so they choose to dine in, but each to their own.
I’ve been keeping busy indoors with projects. Right now I’m working at cleaning out my bookcases. I’m just about done. I have about 150 books to donate, so far. Next, I’m tackling my scrapbook/craft closet.
Our weather sounds much like yours. It is sunny, but very cold. It is only 16 degrees today. We just had a snowstorm a few nights ago and now we have another one coming Saturday. They say we’re making up for lost time with no snow until now. I’m just thankful Brian is off work this weekend so he can shovel! I can do the porch and sidewalk but I’m not good with the double driveway by myself, especially since I have a bad back and shoulder impingement. Geez, I sound old!
Hang in there…thinking of you.
xoxo
I think we’re getting your Saturday snow on Monday. This particular snow is one I’m not looking forward to!
Stay safe, Melanie!
Oh boy….it can get a little rough some times. I make sure I go for my long walks every day but I live in Arizona where that is possible most of the time. Then I tell myself over and over again I am so lucky in all ways. Most times it works. My mother (who is 90) and myself are getting our first shot at Arizona Cardinal stadium. At 2:39 AM!!! on Feb 11. We grabbed it and hoping it actually happens.
Glad you’re going to get a vaccination!
It’s really cold here and too cold to walk, unfortunately!
Stay safe!
I have sunshine today which makes a huge difference even tho it is very cold.
There is lots to do but I am not too motivated to do it!
We will all hang in there together and get through this. Our life is good!
Yes. We’ll hang in there!
Stay safe, Ellen!
I was watching some silly TV the other night, The unExplained hosted by William Shatner. This was an episode from a year or so ago about people who assume different identities and the various reasons why. One of those people was Anna Anderson, whose story I’m sure you’re familiar with. During part of the narration, there were shots of various ephemera of books, movies, and plays…and there was the playbill for Anastasia that you worked on a few years ago. Isn’t life funny sometimes? Thanks for keeping up the blog even when you don’t feel inspired.
There was a question on Jeopardy the other day about the musical as well! I shouted out loud! Very exciting.
Yes, I read a book about Anna Anderson years ago.
Stay safe, Nora.
hope you are enjoying some oatmeal right now! and that once you get started on dollhouse projects, they feel fun and not forced.
though such feelings are understandable and almost unavoidable, i am sorry you and don are feeling low (one of my words for describing what you wrote). really glad to hear you let yourself feel however you feel to not deny those feelings, but to recognize and get through them. and that you have ways to feel better. hope – for how you’re feeling right now, the weather forecasted for you and the awful covid-19 and vaccine numbers – that you are stocked up with groceries and other supplies, including treats, books, etc.
of course, experiences were/are the main thing, but what a nice souvenir of “escape to margaritaville”. i think it looks lovely and natural with your other paperweights. and that spot of sunshine does, too.
thinking of and praying for you, don and everyone else here.
stay safe and well!
kathy in iowa
Thanks so much, Kathy!
We have to get a few more groceries in, so we’ll most likely do a pick-up this weekend.
Stay safe!
Yeah, it’s important to feel it, acknowledge it. Because good grief, we’ve been living this for months! I will send you a video via messenger that made me laugh so hard because this little girl had HAD IT and she said it so well! We all need a tantrum like that!
I’m the same. You have made your commitment to post daily. I don’t and I’m glad because I’ve got nothing. So, I baked more pumpkin bread, will do up a nice dinner and hopefully pick up this mess of a house — which no one but me sees anyway. All shall be well. Just not soon….and so, we roll.
Yep. And so, we roll (perfect.)
I saw your message. I saw that video last year and Don and I played it over and over again. Hilarious!
Stay safe, Jeanie.
I feel your pain. I try to do all the things I know will make me feel better….but that “all’s right in the world” feeling is just too hard to attain. I am happy to achieve the “Okay I can make it through the day “ feeling. That is as good as I can get right now. We get our second shot on Monday. That is a great relief but it certainly is not back to any kind of normal. It is really hard to get motivated. It seems like the days just keep slipping by. It seems to help to set some kind of goal be it ever so small. We can do this or rather we will do this if we want to or not. Your post helps. Thank you.
Eileen
So glad you’ve been able to get vaccinations, Eileen.
Yes, I try to set some sort of goal or chore for the day. Some days I’m successful, and some, I’m not.
Love you, cousin!
Stay safe.
Oh, boy, do I ever get it!! I am so tired of thinking of something to have for lunch, having the daily “what do you want for supper?” “I don’t know, what do YOU want?” I have made a list of things we have so we at least can look through that now and try to come up with something. It was -5* this morning and the next couple mornings look like the same. More snow for the weekend. ugh. The state of our state is a complete cluster. And the news in Washington continues to drive me crazy, although it is nice to hear intelligent rational people speaking until we hear a Republican. It truly is like Groundhog Day. One good thing, I guess, is I am reading about 1 book per day or day and a half. The house could use some dusting and vacuuming, but it is only the 2 of us, and we can pretend we don’t see the dust for a few more days. It isn’t going anywhere. So, as you can see, we are all in this awful craziness together. There appears a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel is ohhhhhhh soooooo long!!!! Take care.
The tunnel seems endless, Chris!
Thanks so much.
Stay safe!
Oh boy, do I hear you, Claudia. I dip in and out of a feeling of hopelessness which I just have to constantly combat. And, with my husband, he unfortunately gets more and more irritable with the confinement, such that sometimes we’re going at each other verbally and argumentatively (just too ‘cross’ with each other) which is just not productive or even kind. (This wasn’t how he’d thought he’d be starting out his retirement; he’d planned to freelance, as I’ve said, but also do a lot of volunteer work, not just be the guy who takes out the garbage.)
This is very, very tough on seniors who are locked down and for so long, but then I keep thinking of people who have to get out there and go to work every day in the still out-of-control virus, which then makes me grateful I have a safe and sheltering place.
But, you know, that’s been the way most of us have I guess looked at being ‘homebound’ ever since this pandemic started, but I’m personally coming up on year of this, as I shut down fairly early since we’d had early warnings from our friend who was on that Diamond Princess ship off Japan, which was its own epicenter of contagion before anybody really knew anything about coronavirus, which also means I’ve had nearly a year of FEAR and that’s hard on the psyche.
We have to go against the fear with knowledge/information and indeed hope, and this is the same thing we have to be doing right now with scary headlines about continuing national unrest and our governing bodies which are trying to collect themselves after too many years of you-know-who.
I don’t live with a lot of gray (weather) because I’m in the quintessential sunny Southern Calif but I can certainly begin to see what it means for you when coupled with COLD since we, too, have the gloomy and colder, rainy-drippy days right now. Just glad you can be cozy indoors with Don and although I know you miss having a dog, it’s good you’re not having to be outside with one in the snow. My old dog does NOT like to get her tootsies wet, and then we worry she hasn’t relieved herself, so it kinda grates on the mind and the day. At least I did catch my elderly feral kitty inside one of his outdoor warming shelters yesterday in the drizzle, so it made me feel good he’s relented to going inside of a closed-in space to keep himself dry. We have this stalled ‘river’ of rain hovering, now knowing if it’s going to slam us or bypass us, but I guess we’ll know this afternoon and evening.
Anyway, thinking of you. Claudia, again, I truly understand and feel something of what you and Don are going thru; just like my rain here, we’re all stalled in our lives for a good, long while yet until they can finally, in the U.S. and the world, get a handle on curbing the spread of this deadly virus. Who would have wished this on anybody, of how our lives have been so beset with unease, with loss, with being in limbo. I can get preoccupied about the loss of time in the last ‘quadrant’ of my years here on earth and how I don’t want to waste the time like this, day after day after day, observing the world but not being ‘of’ the world. (When will this ever end?) But we also know we’re resilient as humans and as Americans, so this is just another thing we have to get thru in the journey.
Hang in there; stay warm; try to keep to a schedule and get busy at something. Otherwise you’ll be like me in some of the days when it’s been hard to get out of bed or off the sofa, which is no way to be (so my husband cooks, I’m going to go work on bills, we’ve got an eye on the sky, and that’s today; what we’ve got is today, and we can make it count in the small ways as much as the big ways).
When I know some people are FINALLY starting to pay attention, my cousin in another state who is in his 70s and has taken too many chances with the virus (and he has multiple underlying health issues!), told me he, too, has stopped going inside the stores (he’s a big shopper, always shopping, always eating out at restaurants, too much ‘gathering’ with others, etc.). Didn’t think I’d see the day with this, but I’m so glad he’s decided to be more careful for himself. I think it was on Brian Williams’ nighttime news show a couple of days ago, where I saw Michael Osterholm (epidemiologist from Minnesota and now on the presidential advisory board for Covid) being interviewed, and he said quite directly that when before you’ve been inside a store and done just fine with your mask, NOW with the possible variants (with that much more virus being potentially spewed in an enclosed space [because the variants are apparently more aggressive]), you may not be so lucky, which is why he was trying to zero in on trying to get people to stay home whenever possible (I guess until they can get vaccinated).
I have to go to the doctor on Monday but I just have to say my prayers that even though they’ve all got the vaccine there now (for themselves, as healthcare workers/front-liners), that they, more than anyone, know how to keep patients safe in the clinic (although I’d rather not go out at all, but I’ve been sick for five weeks and it can’t wait any longer as I risk bigger problems). Stress, stress, stress! (It’s not a stretch that it could be contributing to my physical health issues of the moment; another of the ‘we’ll see’ stuff.)
Too much stress for sure. Hang in there, Vicki.
Stay safe!
Just wanted you to know that your blog is one of a very few that I read every posting. And often reading your blog is almost like talking to a friend because I have a LOT of the same feelings. I hope this brightens your day knowing that you have been a comfort to others.
Oh, thank you so much for your kind words, Janet.
Just what I needed on this day.
Stay safe!
Claudia,
I hear you on the frustration – numbers not where we need them to be and people still out and about – restaurants just reopened! We are tired of being home, but there isn’t another choice other than patience. We haven’t been in a store, we haven’t even seen family other than facetime. Sadly, my mothers husband passed away unexpectedly at home last week and we hadn’t even seen him in person for over a year. Beyond sad.
Hang in there, Claudia!
Hugs,
Christy
I’m so sorry for your loss, Christy. I’m thinking of you and your mother at this time.
Too many losses, too much time spent apart from family.
Stay safe!
I don’t know what button I just pushed but I mean to say thank you for being honest and human. Nobody has any answers now. Just plodding along. Think I will crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head and try to sleep. I don’t have the energy to call anyone , do any drawing or reading. All things that I usually enjoy . I know I will snap out of it . Something will happen to force me to shift gears and get back to a routine. Stay well and safe everyone.
I understand, Maria.
Hang in there and stay safe.
I do not like platitudes from people when things are not going well…I will say that you must feel as you must…we all have to be permitted to do that. Prayers
I totally can relate.
Thank you, Brenda.
Stay safe.
You two stay safe with all that snow and freezing temps! I am going to start working on the Valentines to send out to all my sisters and girlfriends. I love Valentine’s Day.
Good idea, Tana. That will be a nice project!
Stay safe.
We also don’t have much to talk about, except the weather. It’s been raining for a week and will continue for another one at least. This is totally unprecedented for high summer in the part of South Africa where I live. However, the cooler weather is a blessing and in a drought stricken land, water from the sky is always welcome.
As you know, we also breed the variant of Covid with bigger teeth here. Because people are undisciplined. Stupidity comes at a price. I’m not even going to talk more about it.
Claudia, physical activity is very important for your mental health and immunity in times of stress, and especially now that it’s winter and movement is restricted. When you’re feeling down, put on a yoga video or dance.
Keep your chin up. I hope you feel better.
I’ve been ready about the variant in South Africa, Megan. It’s alarming, I’m sure.
Stay safe!