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A metaphor for my take on life and how it affects me. |
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| The projections and actual events get more dire everyday. We can only hope and pray that sheltering in place is working. I saw a report that showed my town of Apple Valley had it first case of COVID19, with other surrounding communities having 3 or 4 cases. It's here and its knocking at our door. We are a bedroom community of greater Los Angeles approximately 60 miles south east. We have three hospitals in the High Desert, two in Victorville and 1 in Apple Valley. It's plain to see that when the numbers go up our little hospitals will be over whelmed in hours instead of days. My wife and I have talked about the possibility of surviving this ordeal. If we do not become infected our chances are high. If we do catch it, we're in the group of over 65 with underlying conditions. If there are not enough ventilators to go around we will be sacrificed. Fact of Life! At what point do you say your goodbyes? Is it a wait and see, or do you hedge your bet and talk to those you love. My wife and I have experienced something like this before. Her aunt lived with us, and was hospitalized. She was on deaths door but held on until we arrived at the hospital. Once we were in the room, and Lou told her it was ok to let go, she breathed her last breath. We have been with both of Lou's parents when they too passed. The news report how people are dying without loved ones present. The other problem will be if the number of deaths overwhelms communities and they can't get them buried. How do you make sure your mother will be buried in her plot next to her husband. There are no guarantees, one can only give it to the Lord! Buckle up it's going to be a bumpy ride! Life Is Good - God Bless |
| I don't know about you but I have stayed somewhat busy during our days of quarantine. We have done a fair job of staying home, with only 3 trips to the grocery store and 1 to the bank. I spent most of last week getting all my prescriptions changed to mail order, and chased down some other problems. Having to stay on the phone on hold for 45 minutes on one occasion and 30 minutes on another. The calls were successful and worth the wait. This week we started with cleaning the house on Monday (an every week ritual). I've been walking the dog for 30 to 40 minutes daily and riding the bike to no-where for 30 minutes every other day. My wife continues to work outside planting her garden and she potted two tomatoes. Today she plans to add fertilizer to some of her plants and get it worked into the soil and watered. Yesterday she sprayed insect repellant all around the house. She never stops; I can't keep up and I no longer try! I hope to begin to do some writing this week and get into a habit of sitting down and putting words on paper. I continue to feel put off by my lack of enthusiasm for this project. I shall overcome someday! I feel good about our situation at the moment and hope life continues on an even keel. The projections for the pandemic don't look good and I pray everyday that we can make it through this hectic time. Life Is Good - God Bless |
| I don't know about anyone else but I have stayed busy for the last few days. When this Pandemic started I called my pharmaceutical insurance company and changed my prescriptions to mail order. Things are changing and it takes patience to work through all the companies you need to deal with. Yesterday I spent almost two hours on hold trying to take of my business with several companies. It turned out to be successful but somewhat stressful. If you don't cover all the bases when you're on the phone with a company you have to make a 2nd call to follow up and complete everything you missed. That was a big part of what I did yesterday. I had appointments scheduled in April, but talking with my Doctors office they choose to close their office for 3 weeks. Fortunately I had them send new prescription orders for all my medicines. I believe I'm covered for the duration, or until something unexpected comes up. I have been doing my walking and riding the bike; yesterday I mowed the lawn. Doing my best to keep moving and not just sitting. It would be easy to become a couch potato, reading and watching TV. After morning news and a couple of DIY episodes, I turn off the the TV and get moving. Now I'm headed for the bike to get my 30 minutes and then take the dog out for our walk. Life Is Good and God Bless |
| I think reality is setting in, about some of the things I do. I said I'm going to write everyday but that is not the case, I want to ride the bike daily also but that isn't happening. I've been walking daily when the sun is out and the wind is mild. When the temperature drops and the wind picks up, I'm in the house looking out. I do have legitimate excuses. Yesterday I was listening to an audio book by J.A. Janis one of my favorite authors. My problem with audio books has to do with the narrator. He is reading in slow motion and it takes forever to get through the book. I'm not a speed reader but I do pretty well, and it doesn't take me near as long to get through a book. I did manage to walk and ride yesterday and I walked today but the wind is picking up and the clouds are starting to come in. We're do for inclement weather for the next 3 or 4 days. I think I'll be riding the bike, reading and typing for the next few days. I called several of my cousins who live in different parts of the country to see how they are coping with the Pandemic. It seems like North Carolina is doing better than New Mexico and California as far as food in the stores go. We're all having to change the way we do things. None of us thought we would experience anything like this in our lifetime. I hear the bike calling my name, so I will end this blog and head into the room and watch some TV while I pedal. Life Is Good and God Bless |
| Its been a long time since I sat down to fill in the blank space on my blog. I would say I've been preoccupied but that isn't exactly true. I didn't feel like I had anything interesting to say and didn't want to sit here and look at a blank square. There was a time I had something to say and I put it in my blog, but I lost that feeling. Now I'm at home, (instructed by the Governor of California to shelter in place since I fall into the category of Senior Citizen with preexisting conditions) and I'm trying to figure out what to do with my time! I’m looking forward to putting my thoughts about the world we live in, into my blog. We have a major problem and everyone is trying to figure out how to deal with it. I never thought I would see a pandemic in my life time. I’ve seen the movies that mimicked a pandemic and the problems that come with it. Fear and Panic have taken over; people are stocking up on food, cleaning supplies along with guns. My wife and I went to the store yesterday and there was no bread, flour, eggs, toilet paper, and other important items. How can we shelter in place without supplies to live on. It's a catch 22 and nobody seems to know how to correct the problem. I take my dog out for a walk, and try to get in the 30 min of time (suggested) to improve our health. I would like to say it's daily affair but that's not the case since I'm a fair weather walker. January and February were cold but the sun was out, and so was I. March has been cloudy and rainy along with wind and that makes me to stay inside. In previous post I've mentioned the stationary bike in my bedroom that gathers dust on a regular basis. It's still there collecting dust and I've been telling myself that I need to get on the bike and take a ride. I will make this a “GOAL”, to begin a 30 min ride daily beginning today! My dilemma is our dilemma. How do we get people to stop stock piling and get back to buying the normal way? Looks like I now have something to write about and a way to keep myself occupied. Here's hoping I continue! Life Is Good. |
| Lounging around doing nothing, hoping that my body is in recovery is boring. Yesterday was a cloudy dreary day and it didn't get above 45 degrees. I'm hoping today will be a little different, maybe reaching 52 with some sun. Years ago, when we lived in Needles, my wife told me "if you're out walking then you could wear shorts if it's 50 degrees or above." Of course I always bring up that remark whenever the temp drops. We both have a laugh. When I went to the Urgent Care on Saturday, the Doctor wanted me to get a stool sample kit from the Lab and turn it back in. The problem, only one Lab was open and they closed at 10 AM. I picked up the kit and will take it back this morning. This is Monday our day for cleaning the house. Since there was only 1 guest for Thanksgiving Dinner we won't have a lot to do. I'll swifter and my wife will clean the bathrooms and kitchen area. Then she will mop the floor areas that she feels have had more traffic. We have canceled our subscription to the Paper and it will end around the 9th of this month. With that in mind we wanted to catch the man who delivers the papers and give him his tip and let him know we appreciate the job he's done. I wished him and his family a Merry Christmas. One down and 4 more to go. We acknowledge my wife's stylist, both Garbage Men, and our Postal Lady. They take care of us and we like to show them we care. It's no much but we do our best. Life Is Good - God Bless |
| My wife went to get the box she keeps her pills in and "Surprise" there was the missing pill box. I was relieved to know it had not gone into the trash. There were 3 days of both day and night pills and I'm glad it was found. This has been a different Thanksgiving this year. I became very ill, stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea on Saturday and early Sunday morning. Somehow I survived the night and started to feel better by the afternoon. My recuperation continued on Monday and by Tuesday I felt good enough to take Gracie for a walk. I knew I was on the road to recovery and was looking forward to Thanksgiving on Thursday. Except on Wednesday, I had a reoccurrence of the bug! I went to Urgent Care on Saturday and I'm starting to feel good again. My wife had a beautiful spread for Thanksgiving, Turkey, Spiral Ham, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Cranberry, Asparagus, and Rolls. Our daughter was here to help her mom with the cooking and eating the wonderful meal. They split the spoils and a lot of ours went into the freezer. I was unable to enjoy most of the side dishes but I did taste both the ham and turnkey and they were so good. Mouth watering good! Along with all this wonderful new we had a big storm come rolling in. Cold, rain and snow, it lasted for two days. We ended up with a inch and half showing in the rain gauge. The night temps have dropped into the 20's and the day temps in the 40's. Who said it never rains in California? It's Sunday Morning and I'm being reflective about the week that was. I missed out on some wonderful food, but the scale didn't go up as in past years. You have to look on the bright side! Life Is Good - God Bless |
| Things are as I left them, with no clue and no inkling of where the pill box went. I had high hopes that something would pop into my mind but nothing happened. I even prayed about it, but so far nothing there either. Someday, if it didn't make its way into the trash, it will show up. I hope! We had a professional Tree Trimmer come out and finish the job of cutting back our Fruitless Mulberry Tree. It didn't take long and they hauled away what they cut down plus raked up all the remaining leaves. Another job done, fortunately that is the only tree we have in our back yard so we don't expect to be raking many more leaves. My daily walks continue, but I know soon it may slow down. I'm a fair weather walker and don't go out in the cold, wind and rain. I can bundle up for the cold and wind, sometimes I do, but the rain is another story. It's the time of year to dust off the stationary bike and start working out inside. We don't live near a mall, besides they don't allow dogs. I thought about taking her down to Lowes and walking around the store, but I didn't do that last year and it probably won't happen this year either. We are expecting our first rain of the season this Wednesday. My wife and I are planning on spraying our yard with a pre-emergent to keep the weed from sprouting. The only problem is you need to get 1/4 to 1/2 inch of rain for it to work. Otherwise you have to water by-hand and that's a problem. It requires a lot of water and it causes our water bill to go up. Always something! Life Is Good - God Bless |
| Yesterday I had a conundrum happen that I can't explain. I took my pill box (I'm an old person) out of the table next to my chair and set it on the kitchen counter. I took the pill I needed and I thought I left the pill box on the counter. Later in the evening I went to get it, to take my evening pills, and it wasn't there. I'm at a total loss because I have no idea where it went. My wife and I have searched the house and it's nowhere to be found. I don't have the foggiest idea what I did with it. Where did my pills go? I'd hoped that it would come to me during the evening or night, you know like a light bulb going on, but that didn't happen. I took out my other pill box and started using it, hoping that the other would be found. We have person coming over in an hour to trim our Fruitless Mulberry tree. We have been hacking away at it for several weeks taking off enough to put into our trash and leave room for the house trash. It has gotten to the point we can't reach the branches left on the tree even with our extended poles. I don't feel comfortable getting up on a latter and trying to saw or cut the branches. What do you do when you can't get the job done? Hire someone! We had a company come out and give us a bid on replacing our wooden privacy fence, and take away the old one. She quoted us an outrageous price, so we'll have to find another route. I'm sure there is someone out there who can do it for a price more reasonable. We'll keep looking. Life Is Good and God Bless |
| I'm speaking of the days I missed writing in my blog. Something must have gotten in the way but darn if I can tell you what it was. My body keeps telling me that I'm not as young as I used to be. I'm feeling the two miles I walk daily. Sometimes getting out of a chair is an effort and taking the first few steps is a challenge, but once I get going I'm ok (I think)! I drove down to Yucaipa yesterday to visit my Mother. There had been an accident on I-15 earlier but was still causing a traffic backup. I chose to go a different route, taking Lake Arrowhead Road to State Route 138. This is a 2 lane road with many curves, I wasn't in a hurry but still found myself coming into several curves at a higher rate of speed than was advised. Fortunately I was able to brake sufficiently before entering the curve to keep my car in its lane. This happened several times and I should have known better. I take my iPad down with me so I can show my Mother pictures of her grand and great grandchildren. Along with pictures from Facebook to see what the people that are familiar to her are up too. We had a good visit and when I left I found the traffic was backed up again just beyond State Route 138. I took that offramp and instead of going the way I came, I took Summit Road (I'd never been on the road) along with a number of other people. It didn't have nearly as many curves to deal with and it was enjoyable ride. It came out on a road that I use when going to see my mom so I was happy because I was closer to home. My trip into the back country, did make me aware of the tinder box the whole area is! It seems like it's a catastrophe waiting to happen. We've been lucky the back side of the San Bernardino Mountains haven't burned since 1996. The weatherman said we could get some rain, a week from this Friday. We could use it, and I have some pre-emergent we need to put down before it rains. The only problem is, a half inch of rain is required to soak it into the ground. If we don't get that much rain then we have to water by hand. That's what happened when we first moved here in 2017. That was a Pain! Time to get moving and dealing with todays issues. Make that honey-do's. Just kidding Life Is Good and God Bless |
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