The end of May

Well another month has gone by well almost today is the 29 Monday will be the first of June. I don’t know actually what to say about the last three month, life seems to just go into a void nothing to speak of nothing. I have stayed in my home as much as possible only going to get groceries when needed. I have watched television, I have played in my art room, made masks and played with my sewing machine. Two weeks ago my husband went back to work that was good for him. I have had three in house doctor appointments and a couple of Zoom type appointments. Speaking of Zoom I have had a couple times to meet friends on Zoom, must say it’s been nice to be able to do that a chance for talking to someone beside my husband or the cat. I have been able to talk via internet, facetime, and phone to speak to my local friend every day but even that seem lacking to how we use to meet at least once a week for lunch and chat. That will start back again someday but right now I myself am not ready to go hang out where there are a lot of people.

Last weekend was memorial weekend and it seems that people aren’t handling social distancing well because bars, pools and such were very crowded. So now I am waiting to see what happens in 14 to 15 days if there is a spike in the numbers of people who get the virus. As I set her it is Friday the weekend comes and I can’t see anything different then any other day. I remember when the weekend was my time off now its just another day.

Just another Day or is it?

We have been at stay at home/social distancing for over 6 weeks now. I think, well sometimes I am not even sure what day it is they have seem to run into each other. Maybe today is Sunday or Monday not sure. I believe it is now the month of May, April just kind of disappeared into a blur of being in the house.

I was signed up for a weekend camping adventure for June but just got a letter and they cancelled seem like life will still be on hold until summer is over, In fact I believe it will be in a holding pattern until they have a immunization for it. Then people will feel a bit safer, I know I will I fall in the at risk category.

I wonder how long people will remember this time and everything being closed, people wearing masks. How long will it just be a memory spoke about on the television like 9-11, Vietnam War, Kennedy’s assassination things only half remembered like the Spanish Flu, did we learn a lesson will we remember the simple steps that can help keep us from getting virus. Wash you Hands, cough into you elbow, stay at home when your sick. Time will tell

Checking In

Setting at the Lake, while maintaining social distancing

We are beginning our 6 week of isolation, well Bill has not worked for 6 weeks, I sort canceled all of my appoints the week before so I am going into 7 weeks. The GM strike we had in September lasted 6 weeks so we sort of done this already. Hoping we will be back to work by 1 June but time will tell. All we have done is go to the store for groceries and Bill mainly did that. Twice now on a nice day we have gone out a set by a local lake and enjoyed the sun and watched people fish. Today I watch two blue herons flying back and forth and one of them almost landing where a goose was which turned into sort of a stand off.

I have COPD so when I am up and active I am suppose to be using oxygen, then comes this Virus and we now are asked to wear masks. So I contacted my Doctor and asked about wearing the mask over my oxygen and was told its ok. SO this works out good for me because I also am claustrophobic and having the o2 on under the mask helps me. I can’t imagine what its like for other people who are claustrophobic.

I have been very busy making masks I have about 10 more cut out to make for my husband when he starts back to work, I believe he will need to use them when he walks through the plant.

April 22 2020 Earth Day

It was 50 years ago that the first Earth Day happened. I was just graduating High School and trying to figure what came next. Wow the next, I got married, had a child, got Divorced and joined the Navy in a span of three years. Oh I also attend a couple of college classes in Wichita State University. I still remember being in one of those auditorium type class room and have my purse dump and out came a child’s pacifier fall out. I spent my son’s first birthday in Navy boot camp I felt bad about that but felt it was the best choice to be able to support my little family since I was a single mother. So after boot camp I went to my first duty station took a couple month to settle in and get base housing. Then my son joined in me in Sunnyvale California, which from what I understand I would not be able to afford a place there now that it is silicon valley.

I ended up spending twenty years in the Navy, it was in the Navy while stationed at Pax River, Maryland that I met my husband and we married a few years after I retired, but that another story. And I seemed to have wondered from my reason for this post. I don’t remember much about the Earth Day Actions I was just to busy working in the Military and raising a son. It was only after I retired and moved to Las Vegas that I began to be aware of it and civil action that were going on. Mecury Nevada is the site of nuclear testing and every year there would be a big march to the site with civil action- being trespassing and getting arrested. I never took part in the marches or the civil action but would go to the Veterans camp and help where I could with cooking, cleaning etc… alway a behind the scenes action.

This year theme is climate action and from behind the scenes I am working on reducing my carbon foot print. I us towels and rags instead of paper towels, my group of friends have all made feast bundles which means when we get together we bring our own reusable dishes, silverware and drank containers. I am also spending time during this pandemic to research and see what else I can do.

Earth Day 2020

I am taking part in the Digital gathering for Earth Day 2020, I will have an online zoom gathering at 7:00pm central time, plus will be attending some of the Digital events. You can see the link below. I hope you might join me. If you would like to attend the Zoom let me know and I will send an invite.

The New Normal

Yep just doing the new normal. Practicing social distancing and enjoying my own company. Spending a little time with my husband before he wanders off to the gargage to do whatever it is he does. Yesterday he made me some buttons so I can make headbands with buttons for mask so I am going to do some more sewing today.

I am finding its hard to remember what day it is, today I laughed because when I open my daily pill box I said oooo its Friday. I was wondering how many people are finding the same thing happening to them. I have started at night to say thank you for another day and in the morning my husband and I ask what each other are planning to do today. I find that if I can find projects and things to get busy that helps the day to fly bye. Like today I woke up seems that I just had breakfast and now its almost lunch time.

I am hoping that soon life might return a little back to normal I don’t think for me it will never be the normal as I had before. People will pay more attention to health issues, hand washing even to the possibilities to keeping a two or three week supply of non-perishable food on hand. Cleaning supplies, paper towels and of course toilet paper on hand. Then things changes and many years in the future again like the Spanish Flu they will have forgotten and it will happen again.

Just another day

Well yesterday was a pretty day warm with a light breeze and I just couldn’t set here in the house so we decided to take a ride in Serenity. Serenity is my 2000 Roadtrek170 popular a class A RV. We went to the lake near our house and pulled out the lawn chairs and set and enjoyed it for a couple of hours. While there my friend Linn and her dog Radar came to visit in her Roadtrek Mora we kept our distance from each other but just enjoyed being out and being able to talk to each other in person.

I have also been busy sewing, first I completed a jacket I had cut out along long time ago. then the media started asking for cloth masks and now they are saying we should wear them when we go out SOO I have been making masks. I use to make cloth dolls so I collect a lot of fat quarters to make clothes for them so I have a lot of cloth that I can make into masks. I also found a box that was full of fat quarters that I know I didn’t buy but someone must have given me, which included some star war material. I have had a trial on the masks first couldn’t get earloops right then tried to make ties but just didn’t work. Then I broke my sewing machine, well I have two one is a brother with lots of neat stiches and stuff, that’s the one I broke or course, and a singer that a simple straight and zigzag machine. I couldn’t find the plug for the singer so ordered one from online. It came in and I got to work I have figured it out and now I am making a few a day. I can only set at the sewing machine for so long before my back start to hurt and I have to change positions.

For those who don’t know I have COPD and need oxygen when I am up and active, I am over 60 and so that puts me in a high risk category so my husband does all the errands in town like grocery shopping. So I counted yesterday I had not been out of the house for 28 days so I did need a little R&R ride to change the view. Today I am right back in the house and going to go back to making mask after lunch.

I also thought I would ad a little note here about masks and glasses. I got this information online not sure if it works but so far I have used the metal in my mask and don’t have a eyeglass foggy issue.

  • If you are wearing a traditional mask, you can squeeze the metal nose piece tight so warm air from your mouth and nose won’t blow up to your glasses.
  • If you made your own cloth mask, you can sew a paperclip into the nose bridge. You can then fit the paperclip to your nose and cheekbones to limit fogging.
  • You could also fold a piece of tissue like an accordion and put it in the open space between the mask and your face

Monday Monday

Well last night or sometime yesterday they extended the shelter in place to the end of April. Things are getting real here the dogs are complaining cause they get no alone time, they can’t go through the trash with someone around all the time. The cats yea they are highly upset since I moved all the toliet paper up were they can’t reach it to play with anymore.

We are doing okay here its nice that we both have a place in the house where we can get away from each other so I still have a bit of alone time and so does my husband. I reach out to my friend through the week just to check on them and checking on family during this time. I know they keep saying social distancing but I say physical distancing social connection. Last night the Greater Kansas city Interfairth group had a online (ZOOM) pray gathering and my and my husband took part in that and it was kind of nice to do. As I was getting ready for going online looking to see what kind of mess you can see behind me I got to thinking about what I was going to say. I remembered hearing about the drum you can hear all over the reservation in South Dakota and hearing how since people are staying in things are improving less pollution, cleaner waters, animal returning. So this came to me:

Can you hear the drums? They beat the heart beat of Mother Earth. The Mother Earth will heal us but first we must let her heal.

Just another day in

That just about says it. IN. If it wasn’t for my phone I wouldn’t even know what day it is. They just seem to flow together. I have been busy completeing some sewing projects tried to make some mask but so far not being very successful. I am not giving up yet after all got a few days to play here in the house. Starting to get phone calls from the VA rescheduling my appointments to telephone which is fine with me the longer I can stay away from people and practice socail distancing is find with me.

Yesterday I set my alarm and my husband came in and we did some chair exercises and today I went up and down the stairs which for me is a bit of a workout. I think I will look into some other exercise things for Monday. Today the Government said GM would be making ventilators so I don;t know how that’s going to work or how it will affect my husband but maybe he will be back to work soon. He is getting unemployment so hopefully we will be okay. Hey its not like we didn’t just go through this for 6 weeks during the strike. We have plenty of food and even more art supplies and gobs of things to do. I even have a honey do list that he is avoiding.

There is a local company that is making hand sanitizers instead of brewing and just this week they made so you could buy it online and pick it up, before that you had to wait in line in your car and hope they didn’t run out. So I order some yesterday and we will be picking some up tomorrow at 9:00 am so I will at least go on a car ride. But all and all we are doing good and taking time. Each day we come together, him from the garage me from the art room and check in. Trying to keep it normal.

Shelter in Place

This is day 5 of my self isolation, they have announced here in the Kansas City area that it will be a month of shelter in place starting this coming Tuesday. The government is trying to flatten the curve, and I hope they are able to achieve this.

I was sitting her thinking about those who were alive during the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, 9-11 and events like that how fired up we as Americans would get we would fly our American Flags out the front door and our young would gladly enlisted in the military to fight the good fight.

Well now we are in a World War again the enemy is unseen but very aggressive. For many it seem there is nothing they can do to fight this enemy. Yet many are fighting it, the medical are working hard, the government doing what they can, companies stepping up make hand sanitizers instead of beer. Many people are sewing masks. But what can you do as a single citizen ? You can adhere to the Shelter in Place. Do what you need to not be part of the problem not be the canon fodder that is out there helping to spread the enemy. Do your best to not allow the enemy in your home, wash your hand after handling boxes, bags and things that come from outside of the house. This is hard try not to touch your face unless you have washed your hands.

I want to take a moment and talk about mental health of this War no I am not a therapist. I can only speak of my own feelings. I know as I watch television I feel the fear of what is coming, I feel helpless. So this is when I turn off the TV or news and get busy cleaning, sewing, drawing, talking to a friend on the phone. There are many out there who are doing home concerts or just getting together online. I will not forget the social aspects of my life but I will continue to Shelter in Place.