Category: My Life

Yesterday was my first foray out since the whole Covid-19 thing started.

In the early days, during the isolation, although we had food and supply shortages, people were kind. When you left their area in the grocery store check out or saw a neighbor in your home area, everyone was wishing people “Take care and stay safe”. It seemed that people made a better effort to be nice.

Yesterday was different. People are back to not caring about each other and they are once again, rude, cruel, and hateful.

So it was at the end of my day yesterday. I stopped at the grocery and Walmart on my way home from a wonderful family parade to celebrate my granddaughters 8th birthday. I was feeling pretty good and I was happy that Savannah had a celebration.

When I came up our alternate drive to the house, I saw a sign basically telling me to keep out because this was a private driveway.

After unloading our groceries, I went back to the home of the person who put up the signs. I wanted to make sure that they understood that I wasn’t trespassing but did, in fact, have, in our Deed what is called “A Right of Way” on this road.

He said no (basically he called me a liar) and I again stated it was in my Deed. “Yeah, show me!” Then he told me I was out of line and being aggressive.

I was shaken. People have not been that aggressive with me in a long while and my frustration with the situation was in fact, building. He showed me a diagram of his property. There was no Deed in his hands. The Map dated to 1980. I said that I would bring him the Deed.

I came home shaking. I went into our files and sure enough, found our Deed. I made a copy and went back up the hill.

I showed this to the man and his wife and he starts in saying that the “Verbiage isn’t clear, he will have to think about it”.

My Deed, and the Deed for the woman behind me and the cabin behind her, was printed in 1999. It clearly states that we have a “Right of Way” on that road that the man is saying is his driveway, his property and that he doesn’t want anyone using it.

Now, who is bullying who? He was not respectful, he was rude, and his mind was closed.

I came home and sat down to flip through FB and get my mind on something else. That was stupid of me. All of the Riots and hatred were on there and that further upset me.

I’ve been told that I could never understand what a Black person goes through being targeted because of their skin color.

Not true. 

Back in 1988, I was driving back to a hotel Jack and I was staying at in Miami. I was familiar with the area, and I stopped at a store I knew to get some snacks to have in our room.

As I stepped from my car, I was attacked by 4 Black men who beat me to a pulp in their attempt to get my purse.

Why was I chosen for this beating? Because I was a single white female and in their minds easy prey.

So do not tell me that I do not understand what it is like to be victimized because of your color (or gender).

Did I go smashing windows, lighting cars on fire, or hurting people because of what happened to me? No. Did I handle it well, after the violence happened in my life? No. Did I make an effort to not judge all Black people, because of what those four hateful men had done to me? Yes. And such is my life today.

I take people as they come. Not by gender or skin color, but by the kind of person they are.

So as I sat here last night, news blaring and my mind racing with the anger shown toward me during the latter half of my day, I felt like I would simply scream.

I felt shaky and as if just one more thing would break me. I didn’t sleep well and today I am still upset about it. Thus, this post.

But I want to beg people to remember to be kind. Remember to appreciate not just your family and friends, but your neighbors as well.

I’ve become a major “Germaphobe”! Just call me Howie Mandels Twin. You know he is terrified of germs (one has to wonder how/where he is surviving during the Corona Virus Pandemic.) This is how I am these days. I don’t want people near me and I am terrified of small spaces.

However, that being said, when my roots, which are a whitish/gray measured 2 inches, I knew I had to do something.

I think the drug store color is dangerous. Too many chemicals. So I’d heard from a friend that Madison Reed color company was a good one.

I spent time on their web site, consulted with a colorist, and put my order in. Trust me, it was a total leap of faith, as I had not done anything like this in many years.

The color box arrived with all sorts of goodies and I planned to perfection my date with the dye bottle.

This is when I had sectioned off my hair before I started. I was really nervous about it, but persevered!

Okay, the roots were cooking and eventually I pulled the color through all of the hair. I was wondering what it was doing under that cap.

And this is the after! It’s actually the same color I had when I was 22 and didn’t need to color my hair!

So here I am after. I feel good and as I gazed in the mirror I realized I had only one chin! Months of careful eating was paying off.

I must say that my color success and the arrival of a few of my on order items in the mail, just made my day.

It’s the little things!

During the lock-down against this blasted Virus, I have actually felt pretty comfortable. Let me tell you why.

When I started WW in January, literally, nothing fit me. I had purchased several sets of leggings and tops and I wore those with one of my aprons. (Have I mentioned I love Aprons? Especially the one-piece Japanese ones.)

Anyway, while in exile, I have worn these legging sets every day, except when I go out to the store, and then I am forced to put on “real” clothes.

Over time, I have gone from the leggings being “skin-tight”, to them being really comfortable. Of course, now our temperatures are starting to get warm, so although I can still stay in the leggings, I must now switch to short sleeve tops.

I am so comfortable in these leggings I could live in them for the rest of my life. I will be in for a rude awakening when we go back to the real world, one day.

What has been something that has been positive for you during the wild and crazy time?

Have you learned anything new about yourself? Have you been able to remain positive?

I do have my days, where it all seems bleak, but really now that our weather is warmer and sunnier, I am feeling the love.

I sure hope you are too!

 

I had a bunch of urgent errands to do on Monday. What this meant was, that I got up, put on some easily washable clothes, and prepared to go out and face the world.

With mask and gloves, I went to get the mail, and also to the grocery store. I just needed to get fresh vegetables and a few other little things. Then it was off to the eye doctor.

I had the lens removed today from my injured eye. It did not feel great, but it was not nearly as bad as it had been when I first went to him last week.

I was sent home with gooey ointment and will to see him in 10 days for a recheck.

On my way home I was thinking of the wonderful shower I would be taking upon arrival.

I don’t know about any of you, but when I have been out in this germy world, I come home and immediately strip down, run through the house and take a shower.

As I thought about this I began to think about my face. Ever since Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx told everyone to wash their hands and not to touch their face, suddenly that is all my hands want to do!

I’ve never been a big make-up wearer, and so the hand to face thing was never a problem for me until the good doctors told me NOT to touch it! Now all my hands want to do it itch or brush aside something on my face. It all means touching my face!

As I drove I thought about the things I love to feel on my face. I love to feel Dove soap, as it slips around and washes my face. I love the smell and the softness of it.

I love to feel the saltiness of the Ocean and taste it on my lips. Both are so calming.

But nothing ever made me want to constantly touch my face until now. I know, it’s the power of suggestion!

So, for now, I need to stop thinking about my eye and my face and all that other crap and focus on something else. Did I mention I just downloaded the Prequel to the Homeland Series? “Homeland: Carrie’s Run: A Homeland Novel (Homeland Novels Book 1)” and “Homeland: Saul’s Game: A Homeland Novel (Homeland Novels Book 2)”.

Now that my eye is on the mend I can get back to reading!

Wednesday morning I woke about 3 AM. As I staggered to the bathroom, I was hit with terrible pain in my right eye! I thought perhaps my eye was dry, so I put in some artificial tears.

I tried to go back to sleep, but the pain was getting worse and worse.

By 5:30 I gave up and got up. I washed out the eye, and put more artificial tears in, and grabbed a warm washcloth. Nothing was really working. The pain was so bad, that tears were flowing and falling down my face from my right eye.

Why do things like this happen in the middle of an epidemic?

I looked up my Optometrists Web site to see what his hours were and saw he is only seeing emergencies a few hours per day. I was so lucky to call early and get fit right in.

I had diagnosed myself with a scratched cornea, but found out that I had a “Corneal Abrasion”. You see, my right eye dried out so much that the lid stuck to the eyeball in the right side of the eye. When I woke up and opened my eye, I tore the skin off part of the eyeball.

Sweet Mother of God, did that hurt!

I thought I would need to goo up the eye and wear a patch, but no. What he did was place an extended wear, soft medicated contact lens in my eye as sort of a band-aid. As soon as the contact lens was in place, I felt instant pain relief!

I need to wear this lens for a few days so the cornea (eyeball) can repair itself. The luckiest part of it all is, when it hurts this badly, all you want is a relief. So I got right into the doctor before there was any infection.

I go back on Friday so he can reexamine it. Probably I will be able to remove the lens too, but I may need to wear it through the weekend.

Monday, was a pretty good day. Despite the rain, which we really do need, I found that some previously unfinished things in my life were attended to.

I was contacted via text message that I had two packages waiting for me at the Post Office. One was my pills that I take each night, and the other was a package of items I’d ordered some time ago, which came from China.

I was perplexed when I saw the writing on the package. It was written in Chinese! Well, lucky me! I have a cousin who speaks and writes fluent Chinese! I snapped a picture and sent it to her and she translated it for me. How cool is that? Thanks, Cousin!

I’m made a Perdue Chicken in a roasting bag yesterday for Easter. There was no crunchie skin, but the chicken meat was tender and juicy. After dinner, I boned the chicken and put the bones in the crockpot and began the 24 hour cooking of the bones. That gives you the best-tasting stock!

For dinner, we’re having the Chicken and Cabbage Soup recipe I made up. It is so good and very low in points.

Since I was out getting the mail I also got a few groceries before coming safely home. Almost everyone wears masks now. I did see one thing that puzzled me. A woman was wearing a mask and with her was her daughter, about 10 years old. And the daughter had no mask! Where is the sense in that?

The Grocery Store workers were now wearing gloves and masks. That made me feel good. Not because I think they would make me sick, but for their own safety.

I have had a terrible time downloading a program onto the new laptop. I have been working on it for such a long time. Weeks! Well, I did a search on Windows Explorer looking for all the files associated with this program. I deleted them all, and then took a deep breath and did a 100% clean install. And guess what? It worked!

My computer Guru, Brad, told me that I should start at the beginning of a problem. Ask on a search who has had the problem? Then if all else fails, do a clean install, like I finally did.

One more thing Brad always said was to believe in myself. And I do. It seems the more I work at computer problems, the better I get at solving them.

Happy Tuesday!