Well, There's That

It's becoming increasingly difficult to enjoy the quarantine.  At first, it was kind of like a giant vacation for the nation, but now it 
has lost that appeal.  It has left small towns and villages to look like ghost towns, their centers void of any kind of human activity.  It makes it people grumpy, sad, lonely, scared and confused and makes it difficult to find joy.  
The Voice, that lives in my head, pipes up, "You got a roof over your head?"  I answer yes.  "Well, there's that."
"You got clothes to wear?"  Yes.  "Well, there's that."
"What about your health?  Other than you have tried to eat your way out of boredom, you're pretty healthy?"  I sigh another yes.
"Well, there's that."
"So, since you are pretty healthy, from all that food, could it be considered a blessing that you had food to eat in the first place?"  I can hear a bit of snarkiness coming from the Voice, but again, I answer in the affirmative, knowing what is coming....."Well, there's that!"
"You have a car?"  The Voice knows very well the answer to this question and before I can answer, it quips, "More than one?"   I just nod.  "Well, there's that!"
I got up to leave the room, even though I knew it was in vain.  The Voice, hot on my tail and pecking me on the shoulder starts again, "Hey, you got family?  People who love you and care about you?  Those same people, they come visit you, right?"  I whisper a silent yes.  "Well, there's that!"  
I'm walking faster now, heading for the back door.  "Just one more?"  The Voice sneers into my ear.  "Go for it.", I reply.  "You got people who pray for you?"  
My hand on the door knob, I stop dead in my tracks.  I hear the soft swishing of the robe the Voice has worn for the last 60 days, fall silent behind me.  I think about the question.  The Voice always likes to turn the knife blade, but only to make a point.  Yes, I have many people who pray for me.  They have probably held me up in petition when I could not utter a word myself.  I have seen the power and miracles that have materialized in my life because of the kindness and love of others.  A tear runs down the side of my face as once again, I nod a silent yes and brace myself for what is coming.  "Well.  There's.  That."
I step outside and breathe in the fresh morning air.  I look at my surroundings and I realize how very blessed I am.  It hits me like a sledge hammer, as it always does, especially when I've been having a pity party.  I walk down the driveway.  I know the Voice is following me, bathrobe swirling in the light breeze, but once the Voice gets outdoors, it becomes enthralled with all that the Earth has to offer.  It will leave me be, for awhile and well, there's that.

To Never Lose Sight

The kitchen was galley style, long and narrow.  The cabinets, stove and refrigerator where on one side of the long rectangle, the kitchen table on the opposite side.  The table was galley style too.  Long and narrow.  Plus, it was attached to the wall with large ornate wrought iron brackets on each end, thus, it had no legs.  Children see things in their own world.  It was on my first couple of solo visits to friends that I realized no one else had a table attached to the wall.

Mother was a collector of many interests.  One of those interests was birds.  On the wall, above that galley style table, were many birds.  Some were pictures of birds, but most of them were actual three dimensional small sculptures or bas-relief plaques, where the bird seemed to emerge from the background.  Meals were always a treat when there was a blue jay perched precariously on a limb, above ones plate.  In her later years, her love of birds never wavered and she could fill many hours watching her feathered friends on the feeders outside her patio door.

Although the bird wall was constant material for jokes, it had more than just a decorative meaning.  It was actually a learning tool.  After many bowls of cereal and egg sandwiches, I learned the names of all the species on the wall.  Little did I know that those lessons would stay with me all through my life.

Mother endured our teasing about her bird love and was on the receiving end of many an eye roll.  Thinking about that, the Voice, that lives in my head, snickers and whispers in my ear, "What goes around, comes around." The Voice, as usual, is right.

I now hold the title, amongst my family members, as the bird lady.  There are five feeders right outside of the back patio doors and they are a constant flutter of activity.  A small woodland is the backdrop for this scene and it provides for many birds I had only seen in my trusty bird book.  The trusty bird book is always within arms reach and its pages show the wear of many searches.

There is rarely a time, when the grandchildren stop by that I do not have the opportunity to share a new bird find with them, or whip out the book to show them a picture.  They are tolerant of me, even though I have perceived the occasional eye roll.  

One of the most recent new bird sightings has been the Baltimore Oriole.  The picture in the book does not do it justice.  The color of orange is so vivid, it almost looks unreal or other worldly.  After rigging a small plastic container to the feeder pole, filling it with grape jelly, this beauty of the forest is a regular.  It is not unusual to find ten, or more different species all at once and I marvel at, not only their stunning colors, but their unique designs.  

The other day, my youngest grandson, nearly a teenager, sat at the table, looking out the patio doors.  He was telling me a story when all of a sudden his eyes grew big and he said "Oh wow!"  The Baltimore Oriole, in all its orange glory, had landed on top of the feeder.  The look on his face was priceless as he beheld a piece of the kingdom he had never seen.  He agreed that we would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful shade of orange.

These times we live in are strange and have many people fearful of what that future holds.  Perhaps if we took the time to not lose sight of what is really important, we would see a much different picture.  Perhaps finding joy and some inner peace from the simplest of things can ease our minds of current events, if only for a while.  Faith is what we make it and sometimes it is only a faint thin line.  That is a good time to remember when Jesus said that God takes care of all of his creations.  He even knows when a bird falls.

From The Desk of The Dog: A Day In My Life

Hello everyone!  It's Runtly, the ever so entertaining Jack Russell Terrier, JRT, for short!  Since I just love people, I want to help them!  Mom says everyone is tired of being cooped up and maybe it would be a good idea for me to share what a day is like for me, to help cheer them up.  

Humans don't understand that a day in the life of a dog, is like the best day ever.  Every morning we get to do it over again!  I do like to change my routine up every now and then, just to make it more fun!

Each morning, I get up and ask politely to go outside.  Living in the country versus the city is WAY better, in my most humble opinion.  Mom says there is nothing humble, or polite, about me and to get back to the story.  Anyways, I go outside and the very first thing I do is check for mice.  See, I have become a great mouser!  One day I found one in the bench on the front porch and I caught him!  So, from now on, that is my first course of business, checking that bench.  Then, I move on to the front steps and do the most wonderful thing......I sniff the air.  It's amazing what a snoot full of fresh morning air can tell a dog about his kingdom.  Then I bark.  Sometimes I just bark bark and other times, depending on the information from the sniff report, I barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark, until the entire forest is awake.  It's fun helping out my fellow creatures.

Usually by this time, my giant German Shepard buddy, Max, knows I'm up and he comes to great me.  We have a few sniffs, size each other up, wag tails and go about our other business.  We also make sure we try to out perform each other when it comes to marking our territory.  This sometimes mean I might end up getting wet.  But, all in good fun.

Then, I go back into the house, get a snack and maybe a drink and take a nap.  Naps are an essential part of dog's life.  Humans need to take more naps.  When Mom and Dad are done with breakfast I wait, oh so patiently, to see if they left me any scraps.  Believe me, bacon and egg sammich day is way better than cereal day.  After breakfast, it's time to chase the birds.  Mom feeds the birds.  I don't like that because I don't like Mom to feed anybody but me.  I must admit though, she has a ton of birds and even a few squirrels and I can make them scatter like stuffing out of a new toy!  Then, I bark some more.  Then, I takes me another nap.

When Mom lets me, we go for a walk into the woods.  Mom stays on the trail, but not me!  I run through the brush and go way down the hill to were the water is.  I don't get in the water but every once in awhile, there's a turtle along the edge.  Guess what I do to him?  I bark at him!!  It's so exciting.  Then when we get back to the house, I find a spot in the sun and take a rest.  Resting outside does not count as a nap because there's too much goin' on to be really asleep.

When the weather is nice, I stay outside with Mom and Dad just about all afternoon.  Now that I'm becoming an expert mouser, I am also fine tuning my skills as the mole police.  There is absolutely nothing better than having your head, shoulder deep, in a mole run!  Mom says if I get real good at it, she may hire me out.  I'm not sure about that but I gots lots to practice with.  Also, now that I am learning to be a country dog, I have learned to ride in the car without being afraid anymore!  Not only can I ride in our car, I will get in anybody's car that opens their door for me.  I can ride in the neighbors' 4 wheeler and I can even ride on the mower with Mom, while she pulls a noisy trailer down the gravel road.  I sit in the mower seat and Mom gets to sit on what's left.  I be a pretty good dog.

When evening time comes and the sky gets dark, I like to go out just one more time.  There is something across the road, in the thick brush that needs to be barked at.  This activity usually gets me in trouble.  Mom says there could be things in that brush that would like to eat me.  I'd like to see them try!  Then, after I eat my supper, which is about the only time I really eat.....there's too much going on during the day to waste time eatin', so I just eat at nightime, I get ready for bed.  If I rolled in something delightful during the day, I hafta have a bath  I get between Mom and Dad, get under my blankie, stick all four legs into the air and I be so thankful for my wonderful day.   Sometimes I even be smilin' in my sleep cause I know I get to do it all again the next day.....and if the next day brings rain, it's still all good because that just makes the naps last longer!  Woof!

What To Do?

During this crazy quarantine time, what exactly are folks to do?  Many cannot go to work, schools are closed and the economy is grinding to a slow burn.  In some cases, both parents are home with the kids, day after day.  Many have learned the value of teachers and many have dreamed up some great ideas to fill the hours of endless days.

There is one dad, who, upon hearing the word 'dadasaurus', spoken by one of his daughters, instantly turns into a velociraptor.  It does not seem to matter where or what the occasion might be, but the daughters video this and put in on social media.  I laughed, until I cried, watching him attack a cake sitting on the kitchen counter and also came to the conclusion his wife is an absolute saint.  If in need of a good laugh, please google 'dadasaurus'.

One engineering parent made their kids an enclosed slide for the indoor stairway by taping boxes together.  The child lays on a mat or towel and down the box tunnel slide they go.  The smiles, as they emerge from the end of the slide, on their faces are worth every piece of duct tape used in the project.

A young man turned his basement into his own private amusement park/gym.  He can leap off the steps, land on a suspended kangaroo ball, swing out over a small trampoline, flip off the ball, land on the trampoline, bound back up into the air, catch the kangaroo ball on the return swing and end up back on the stairs.  Sounds like a rocket scientist in the making.

Lots of people have taken to cooking.  There are more recipes scrolling through the social media sights now, than there are during the Christmas holidays.   Of course, these new dishes have to be eaten and several people have lamented about just how much they have eaten during 'lockdown'.  But, there is always a solution to this problem and the diet and physical fitness industries are not experiencing a lack of followers.

One young entrepreneur, a boy of nearly 13, has taken to chopping wood.  Where he lives, there is no shortage of downed trees and although fire wood may not be a huge commodity right now, he's planning for the future and cleaning up a lot of brush piles on the side.

Speaking of cleaning, it is probably safe to say that more closets and garages have been cleaned in the last month than for an entire year.  One good lesson from this is folks realizing how they can actually do with less, along with making a few dollars off the local online swap shop.

Having not been able to do yard work for nearly four years, due to city living, I have now made up for all that lost time.  I've trimmed and cut brush until sunset.  I've also learned how to make fire.  I've come to understand the importance of a good kindling base in order to have a roaring fire as the ultimate goal.  I've also discovered that if the base fails, a leaf blower makes a heck of a bellows. 

Aging: 101

It's a sure bet, and I'm a terrible gambler, to say that millions, if not trillions, of dollars are spent yearly on anti-aging products.  Just type 'anti-aging' into a search bar and within a millisecond, there will be over 300 million items to choose from.  If an individual spent five minutes researching each item, well, they would probably be found as a skeleton, with their bony little fingers still resting on the keyboard, many years later.  That would be irony at its finest.

I will be the first to admit that it is sometimes hard growing old in a world that is geared towards the young.  Standing in the foyer of the gymnasium, 45 plus years ago, waiting to graduate from high school, many of us were laughing about how old we would be when the year 2000 rolled around.  It seemed like that was eons away and we would never grow old.

Of course, there are the things that no one told us about getting older.  They didn't tell us about our hair.  That one day, it may fall out, or get thin AND it was going to change color, all by itself.  They didn't tell us that same hair would also decide to grow in places it never had before. This is especially true for women. Maybe it just got tired of being on top of ones head and thought it would look much nicer on top of the upper lip, or perhaps the chin. It would also decide that is was not necessary to grow on the legs anymore.  Those who thought this was maybe not a bad idea are usually those that find one 3 inch hair, sticking straight up, off the top of a knee, the first time they don a pair of shorts for summer....after they are already in some public place.

They didn't tell us about our skin.  The once taught organ, that we thought defined us into warriors of our time, somehow lost some of its elasticity.  We never knew that over the years, gravity would take its toll and begin to pull, ever so slightly, on our precious covering.  Making it look longer than it should be and even allowing it to fold over on itself, like a blanket.  Hanging upside down, like a bat, might have helped that situation, but no one told us that either.

They didn't tell us to take care of our knees, and other joints.  That they could become swollen and ache.  No one stressed upon us that these things were necessary, in order to continue to carry us around, from place to place, point A to point B.  But, we were invincible, that would never happen to us.  Not those teenagers, standing in that foyer, with the world by the tail.  Maybe someone did try to tell us but, like the lyrics of a song, "they did not listen, they did not know how, perhaps they'll listen now".  'Now' comes much later.

There are all kinds of things available today to combat these changes in our physique.  Lotions, potions, surgeries with plastic.  Exercise, diets, bikes, treadmills.  The ones that have worked the best for me have been the ability to close my eyes and still be, on the inside, that girl in the foyer, avoiding mirrors and bathroom scales.  But, there is always something or someone to help remind us, or slap us back to reality.  I was on the receiving end of this very thing, not too long ago.

My two youngest grandsons were helping me move my art studio, again.  The oldest, nearly 16, of this duo was taking a break, sitting in my desk chair.  I reached over the top of the desk to retrieve some old photos.  An old friend had sent them to me.  She had run across them during a recent downsizing of she and her husbands' space. (That's another thing they didn't tell us, that we really don't need a bunch of stuff.)  Anyway, they were pictures of several young girls, frolicking in their pajamas during their stay at a cheerleading camp.  I tossed the pictures in front of my grandson.  He picked them up, laughed and then began to study each one.  He looked at me and said, "G, who are these girls?"  I didn't respond, just smiled.

He was laughing about one girl, in her one piece pajamas, complete with the drop seat in the back.  "G!  Who is this?"  By this time, he's nearly snorting.

I smiled once again and said, "Me."

His mouth fell open, his eyes were as wide as saucers as he gave the photo another close inspection.  Then, with all the sincerity of his youth, he looked at me and spoke these words...."G, what happened!?" 

LOL!, I have no idea.

The DA in the TPA

A recent meme floating around on social media platforms stated:  "I'm using lettuce for toilet paper.  Today was the tip of the iceberg, tomorrow romaines to be seen."  Yes, it's a bit gross, but funny none the less.  The recent pandemic in the toilet paper industry is a real mystery.  No  one seems to have the exact answer as to why the shelves, in stores across the nation, have been wiped (no pun intended) clean of all toilet paper and anything papery that may be considered a facsimile of said coveted white roll. Maybe there is some new craft idea, floating around the web, that is making coffee and end tables out of the mega packs of toilet paper.  My mother-in-law, God rest her soul, would have never been caught up in this toilet paper madness.  The stairwell in her house, that led to the second story, which was rarely used after her children left the nest, was so full of toilet paper that one could have easily been buried by a TP avalanche at any given time of the year.  Every time I inquired as to why she had so much of it, she would always reply, "It was on sale!"  Smart lady.

One of the items people like to swap for toilet paper are the wet wipes.  This incredible feat of mankind started out for use on babies but soon became popular with people of all ages.  They have also become unpopular with a certain sector of the public, the plumber.  Why?  Because people flush them down the toilet....BUT, it is printed right on the side of the package, 'flushable', so what seems to be the problem?

Playing the devil's advocate, yes, they are flushable.  So are fish, small hamsters, jewelry, Matchbox cars, other small toys, socks, disposable diapers and money.  Indeed, if it will swirl round and round and then go down, it's flushable.  What many do not understand is that just because it can no longer be seen in the bowl, does not mean its sailing happily down the sewer system.  What can happen, using this flushing logic, is that these things, that do not disintegrate quickly, if ever, get lodged in the sewer pipe and can then cause all that flushing madness to come back to haunt the flusher.  Nothing better than to see it again, in the bowl, or better yet, on the bathroom floor, making it's way to the next room....usually in the middle of the night. 

Let's give the plumbers a break.  Let's not play the Devil's Advocate in this Toilet Paper Apocalypse and use some common sense.  Not only will the plumbers be happy, so will the front lawn that didn't need to be dug up from the house to the street.  

The Reset Button

Many electronic devices have a reset button.  It is usually a very tiny apparatus, located in some extremely obscure place on the device and can only be pressed with something tiny, like the end of a straightened paperclip.  Probably the most recognizable reset button is the little square that sits quietly between the two electrical ports on a GFI outlet.  Those are the outlets located closest to areas that are wet, like kitchens and bathrooms.

Pressing a reset button does just what its name implies.  It puts whatever the device is back to its original starting place.  In theory, it makes it just like it was, before ever being used.

Life has a way of hitting our reset buttons.  Recently, my better half and I had the opportunity to leave the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, a place we had called 'home' for four years.  Things were changing.  The apartment complex had been sold and when that reset button was pressed, nothing was as it was before.  Familiar faces and co-workers disappeared, tenants were leaving en masse and the place literally came to a grinding halt.  

A new opportunity arose.  A job offer.  The offer was from a place I call the "Beautiful Land of Pike".  Home.  Another reset button had been pushed.  We scrambled our belongings together, shoved them into a Uhaul truck and 18 hours later, we were home.  We arrived just in time to celebrate the end of the year holidays with family and friends.

Right before we bid Raleigh, NC farewell and during his last week of employment there, my husband hurt his back at work.  He and a refrigerator did not see eye to eye, while one moved the other, from  the back of a truck, down a ramp, in the rain.  Thinking it was just a wrenched back, he went to the chiropractor.  For a reason, unbeknownst to us at the time, the pain in his back did not go away and began to radiate around his ribs and across his stomach.  

Another reset button was about to be pushed.  The result of this was not going to be setting us back to normal because in the first week of February, we found out he has multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that likes to eat bones.  As of yet, this is not a curable disease, but treatable.  Its prognosis though, for a man who has worked with his hands and tools all of his adult life, was rather bleak.  Nothing heavier than 5 pounds can be lifted and, among other things, ladders are off limits.  

This reset certainly was not what we were looking forward to, but, it has made us reset our own thought process.  We have discovered that even though somethings are out of the picture, activity wise, others can be learned.  He can take a walk, with the ever so entertaining Jack Russell Terrier, Runtly, and they do so daily.  In fact, I've nearly lost my "he's my dog" status because Runtly rarely leaves his side.  He can read a book, run the sweeper and a dust mop, fix his own breakfast and learn Sudoku.  This last accomplishment is a work in progress.  It has given reason to rise early in the morning, to beat the next puzzle, or tearing the sheet out of the book, telling it what he thinks of it and slam dunking it into the trash.

Our lives, like the lives of so many others who face one of the many varieties of this disease, have changed.  It will not be exactly the way it was and we can only do one day at a time.  It has a weird comparison to what is going on in the world today.  There is a disease spreading around the globe.  It has put the entire population at a near standstill.  People are perplexed and some are afraid.  Perhaps planet Earth has hit the reset button.  Maybe it's a time for change, to not take things for granted, to learn new things, to take one day at a time.