A Very Good Day!

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.

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Happy Tuesday!

Bears, Coyotes & Raccoons

I find it amazingly surprising that my Easter Eve and Easter morning were consumed with a little bit of fear.

You see on Saturday night my neighbor called to tell me that the bears were out. Oh, crikey I thought, my bird feeders are still out!

I struggled with the idea of how I would go and get them without being eaten by wild bears. Humor me. After being locked away, feeling paranoid about Covid-19, I just knew the bears would ultimately get me!

Jack told me to bring Lili with me. She would protect me. But wouldn’t the bears get Lili?

After a few minutes Jack, Lili and I went out to get the feeders. Lili shot right up the hill towards the bears, but when I called her back, she was a good girl and came!

I felt relieved that I had gotten the bird feeders in when all of a sudden Lili began making a terrible ruckus at the back sliding glass doors. I turned on the light and I could just make out a creature I thought at first was a Fox. Upon further reflection, I realized it was a Coyote!

That thing did not move. It stared at me as if challenging me to come and get him.

I admit that this Coyote scared me more than the bears. You see, they will grab small dogs and run off with them. Ending their days on this earth in an awful way. A Coyote will fight with a dog of similar size and Lili is just slightly larger. Coyotes are bad.

This morning, as I was outside walking my little ones and Lili, Lili and Arnie took off as there was a Raccoon near our driveway. There I was, in my pajamas, running through my yard, yelling at the dogs to come back. Eventually, they did, but Lili was covered in mud, and I had to drag out the hose and wash her off. All before my first cup of coffee!

I’m still very concerned about the Coyote and will need to leash walk the two dackels at night. For a while anyway. At least until I know he has moved on.

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Seven Things I Love

Header 1 (2)First of all, Happy Easter to you all. It’s an odd holiday this year, as none of us is able to spend the holiday with our families. We’re stuck at home, praying for the World to return to better health.

But on this Blessed Day, I wanted to remember a few of the things that I am grateful for.

87970298_10221923432536629_5711858259418152960_n1. Amanda, Matt, Savannah, and Quinn. They make me so happy and I feel so lucky to have them in my life.

342. Jack. We’ve shared 32 years of marriage and shared so much along the way.

Arnie & Anneliese3. My dogs Arnie and Anneliese and Lili.

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4. My home. I am warm and have food and my bills are paid. Right now I feel very lucky.

Screenshot_20200407-063749_WW Mobile5. Weight Watchers. I feel so fortunate to have this program that is helping me reach my weight and fitness goals.

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6. My cousin, Janet, me and my sister Mel. How very thankful I am to have these women in my life. I have a couple more cousins that are so special and so loved. Our family is small, but a good and loving one.

best two7. The living breathing nature around me. We have Doe’s come each year to have their fawns in our field. It is a beautiful thing to see.

Life or Something Like It ~ April 2020

All these self-isolation orders have caused several things to occur in my daily life. Here is a shortlist of just a few things that are big changes for me.

  1. Arnie had oral surgery just before this all began. Afterward, he couldn’t eat anything hard, so I was using baby rice cereal mixed with warm water and a tin of his wet food to feed him. Yesterday, I ran out of the baby rice cereal. I thought I had some, but I did not. In my old life, I would have run out and gotten more at the local grocery store. But since we are not allowed to do this, I made due. I wet his crunchy food and mixed that with his wet food and he wolfed that down. Score!
  2. Jack got a flat tire on the trailer for our tractor. He is doing work on our patio and needs to move heavy square cement blocks from down in our driveway to the back door of our house. I cannot help him here because those suckers are heavy. I did offer to order whatever he needs from Amazon. He could not commit. So we wait. In our previous life, he would have driven over to the tractor shop and had them fix this pronto.
  3. Getting our mail. When we moved here in 1999, we took a Box at our local Post Office. Our driveway is 600 feet long and since we couldn’t see a rural delivery box from our house, we opted for a box at the local Post Office. Each day, Monday through Saturday, we’d toss the dogs in the car, and head to the Post Office to get the mail. Now, I can look online and see what is in our local mail that day, what packages, and then choose when I go to get the mail. No dogs, no Jack, just me in my hazmat suit.
  4. Every Wednesday morning at 7:45 I would leave my house and head to Weirs Beach to go to my WW Class. I would weigh-in, and then as my friends arrived and also weighed in, we would sit and talk, and eat our breakfasts. Now, I attend class online, at different times, and I don’t “see” my friends. We text or talk, but it is not at all the same. I miss the camaraderie with these wonderful women and one brave man, who occasionally joins us.20200404_191313None of them have seen me since a very large portion of my weight loss has occurred.
  5. Likewise, I miss going shopping after class. Usually, I would see my friends at a few local shops, as we simply enjoyed being out in the world. Living in a rural community means that you don’t have big shopping areas locally and have to make do with what is available.
  6. Life right now is to go nowhere unless it is an emergency. One stays in and stays home until this blasted Virus is past us. It is what it is, but I look at how much everyone’s lives have changed. I only hope that it is over soon.

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The Friday Five

The Friday FiveI cannot say that the time is flying by right now. In fact, it seems to drag by each day. I wish I was feeling more motivated, but I am not. In fact, just the opposite.

  1. It’s Thursday as I write and it is snowing. Not that I think this snow will stick around for long, but my poor doggies sure do not like going out in this mess.
  2. For our anniversary dinner, I am cooking a Ribeye Steak for the two of us. I also will serve a fresh salad.  A nice quiet meal.
  3. I survived my trip out on Wednesday and now I have important prescription that have come in the mail, so I have to go out tomorrow to get them. I am not nearly as afraid about it. I will do exactly what I did on Wednesday and I will be fine.
  4. I’ve been watching a series of programs on Air Line Disasters. Oddly enough, it takes my mind off of things.
  5. I’m still working on programming my new computer. It’s a good machine, but that is about all I can say about it. Not the best I have ever used, but not the worst either.

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It’s Getting to Me

This morning Jack decided I had to go out. He needed new batteries for his blood meter for his diabetes, as the current battery was close to death.

I had planned to go out tomorrow. I planned on wearing dirty clothes to the store, using head covering, facial mask, and gloves. I was ready for that. But suddenly, having to go out today, found me having a panic attack.

Would I make it? Would I be infected? Okay. I need to do everything I had planned for tomorrow, just one day early. I was terrified.

You see one of the cases here in my small town presents like this.

“A young woman was self-isolating at home with her children. She just went to our local grocery store and back and always wore a mask and gloves. Suddenly this healthy young woman is stricken with Covid-19. Was her husband also self-isolating? Well no. he works for the State for the highway Department and went out every day, without protection. Their carelessness has caused real problems for us in my little town. Several more cases have been reported and it all stems from that one, thoughtless couple.”

The cashiers, the workers, and even the patrons such as myself, are angry. Angry at being put in this position.

When I got to the store today I was all done up in my homemade hazmat suit. A few times I felt like I was having a panic attack, and I was grateful to the mask, as it kept me breathing and not passing out.

I found myself looking at people and wondering where they had been? Did they look germy? I saw a young mother with her little baby, who sat in the front of the carriage, chewing the basket handle!

***Shriek***

I was able to get our prescriptions, food for a couple of weeks, and I stopped and got Jack his wine. I picked up our mail, which had Anneliese’s prescription and a couple of bills. I was home by 1:15, wiped everything down in the basement, brought it upstairs, and then ran into the shower.

Then I prayed. I prayed that I didn’t pick up any germs while I was out.

I made my lunch (my favorite roasted eggplant) and now I am sitting here, in the warm sunshine trying to relax. I put my pajamas on after my shower and I feel delightfully clean and comfy.

Yes, a good way to unwind.

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The Wednesday Hodgepodge

From this Side of the Pond

1. How will you celebrate Easter this year?

Unfortunately, we will celebrate home, alone. Perhaps I will make a roast of some sort.

2. Is it easier for you to receive grace offered or extend grace to another? Explain. 

It is much easier for me to extend grace. I find it quite difficult to believe that I am even worthy of the care, love, and concern of others.

3. Do you say grace before meals? If so do you have a standard dinnertime grace or is it more ‘off the cuff’? Do you say grace when dining out? Do you have a favorite grace? Any special memory associated with ‘saying grace’?

We do not say grace. My husband never did it, and I have not forced him to. In my youth, I always said grace with my parents. My Dad said some really beautiful ones.

4. What are some challenges you think the next generation will face? (Generation Alpha-born between 2011 and 2025)

I believe they will have to learn how to work for what they have. Not every child, but so many are living in a world where there every wish is granted immediately. I also believe they will need to learn to appreciate what they have.

5. Share a favorite quote or lyric featuring the word faith.

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6.  Insert your random thought here.

Now what kind of trouble do you think I could get into staying home and going nowhere? This morning I got an alert from my BJ’s Credit Card. A purchase had been made on my account in Wilmington, DE.

Now call me upset. Where have I been in the last month? Well, I got food and supplies at BJ’s on Friday the 13th of March. Now I have not been back there since.

I have a few credit cards and they are used at certain places. One for food. One for gas. (BJ’s) and one for Amazon purchases. That’s it.

Well, I must say that the Bank that handles the BJ’s Account was wonderful and they canceled the account, and will be issuing a new card.

So that is my Wednesday Hodgepodge. Truly a bunch of good questions that had me pondering the answers.

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I am a Moron

When one has copious amounts of time on their hands they begin looking for things to do. It had been some time since I updated my Ipod (which I seldom use due to using Amazon Music on my cell phone). Well, two things have changed. The first being that I have a new computer, and would need to set up the new machine with Itunes, and second, my brain does not retain what it once did, thus I recalled nothing about setting this all up.

The Dackel Princess Reading her Mail(Greta and the laptop.)

In fact, I stumbled all around Apple’s Web Page until I locked myself out of my account.

Call me crazy, but I honestly could not recall the sequence of events I needed to go through to get Itunes to recognize my Ipod.

I tried and tried to go through their unlocking process and finally, after about an hour I looked at the screen and realized I’d been using the wrong username! Yes, call me embarrassed!

Now that I have unlocked my account, I need to figure out how to get Itunes to talk to my computer. I’ve saved that joyous learning session for tomorrow, as I am just done in from today.

I know just enough about computers to be dangerous! Not really. I do pretty well, but since I got my last laptop, so many things have changed and instead of converting things back to a menu I know I have decided it is time for me to learn the new “better” systems. Forced learning. It’s maddening but necessary.

I have one little crocus that pushed through the earth today. It’s adorably cute and I have threatened Arnie that he is not to wee on it!

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Our Lake has no ice left in it now and once again we have a moving, living, breathing Lake. I do so love the Lake at the beginning of Spring. So full of life.

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Thankfully, I do not have to cook tonight. It is all leftovers! Yay! Not that I mind cooking, but right now it is rather intense cooking three meals a day, seven days a week.