Getting Back to Normal

 

It has been a long time since I’ve posted, which seems to have become my pattern over the past couple of years.   This time, though, there seem to be more positive things going on in between posts.  I’m not sure how long that will last, with the delta variant, but it’s nice for now.

Here are a few of the highlights.  As usual with this kind of post, most of the pictures aren’t related to the post.  They’re just pictures I like and haven’t gotten around to posting yet. 

Like many people, I’m fully vaccinated.  My group got bumped up pretty fast, so I got my second dose on March 28^th.   I didn’t expect to get it that soon, but it seemed like it really sped up.  Everyone at work was emailing information about clinics, and several of us ended up at a drive-thru clinic about an hour away.  It was so efficient!  Everyone was really nice, and they did a great job moving people through.  

I ended up getting the Pfizer vaccine and had fairly mild side effects.  I had a small, slightly itchy rash around the injection site after the first dose.  I had a large (pretty much my entire upper arm) very itchy rash around the injection site after the second dose.  I messaged my doctor, and he called in a cream that cleared it up within about a week.  I’m told skin reactions aren’t unheard of but aren’t one of the more common side effects.  I’m very, very prone to skin reactions, so it makes sense that I’d be one of the people to get a rash.  My sister is fond of saying that I can get a rash if someone looks at me the wrong way.  She’s not exactly wrong. 

I will definitely take a week-long rash over COVID, though.  Possible death or permanent lung damage versus a rash?  I’ll take the rash, thank you very much. 

Nick and my sister were fully vaccinated last time I posted.  Both of my parents and Nick’s mom and step-dad are fully vaccinated as well.  We’ve been able to see my sister and parents, which was wonderful.  There’s more travel involved in seeing Nick’s mom and step-dad, so we haven’t seen them yet.

We had our neighbors over for a cookout and game night a couple of weeks ago.  We’ve been out to dinner a couple of times and have met friends for lunch.  It is so wonderful to be around people again!  I think that was something I took for granted pre-COVD, the ability to see people by going out to eat or having someone come over for dinner.   I hope it’s something I will always appreciate going forward.  

I’m finally back to working in the office.  We went back on July 6^th.  There are a few more teleworking options than there were pre-COVID, but I’ve opted to keep the same schedule I had before COVID.  I’m embracing being back to normal!  I have some projects I’m really excited about coming up, so I’m doubly happy to be back. 

As so many people are, we’re trying to schedule all of the appointments that we missed in 2020.  Our dentist’s office isn’t scheduling any appointments.  They just put you on a call list and aren’t saying how long it will be.  I got lucky when I called for an eye appointment in June.  They were scheduling for January but had one cancellation for the next day.  I was pretty sure my prescription had changed, so I happily took that appointment.  My prescription had changed drastically!  In addition to glasses, I have prescription sunglasses, but my insurance only pays for one set of frames and lenses per year.  I couldn’t get new lenses for the sunglasses without leaving them at the office, but I could for the glasses without leaving them.  They said it’s because the sunglasses frames are so old.  I’ve had them since 2012, but they’re still in great shape.  So I have new sunglasses (frames and lenses) and new lenses for my glasses.  And I still have my old sunglasses for working in the yard.  I’m hoping my prescription won’t change for a few years so I can eventually get to the point of having a backup pair of glasses and sunglasses. 

Charlie

 We’ve been working on another house project.  Because, apparently, we didn’t learn our lesson with the kitchen.  Our back porch was screened in when we moved in, but over the years, the screens have torn, and the outdoor carpet has fallen apart.  Nick’s mom gave us a Lowe’s gift card for my birthday in April, so we decided to re-do the porch.  Like every other home project, it has been more difficult and taken longer than expected.  It’s so close to being finished, though!  And I think it will all be worth it.  I envision lots of al fresco dinners and time spent outside reading. 

I don’t have many pictures yet, since there’s still work to do, but you can see the color we painted it in these pictures of our cute little groundhog visitor.

Isn’t the groundhog adorable?  They remind me of Howard the way they stand up.

Howard

The groundhog hasn’t been back.  While I would have liked to see him again, I think it’s probably best for him that he’s staying away from our yard and away from Duke. 

Duke

 So what about all of you?  Are things getting back to normal for you?  What have you been up to over the past few months? 

A Few Random Things

This is kind of a miscellaneous post since none of these things alone are enough for their own post.  Of course, like all of my random things posts, there will be cat (and other) pictures sprinkled throughout. 

Howard

I’m trying to reply to all of the comments now.  I’ve posted about it before, and the opinions seemed fairly mixed.  I replied to comments when I first started blogging, way back in 2012, but just stopped somewhere along the way.  I’ve decided to try it again for now.  I can always stop if no one seems to read them, or if I don’t really have anything to say.  I haven’t responded to some of the comments on my photography post because they were really long when I started to, and I’ve decided to just write a post instead.  I’m hoping to have that finished soon.

Mortimer

My best piece of random news is that my dad got his first dose of vaccine last week.  My parents live in South Carolina, so my dad got vaccinated shortly after they opened up appointments for people 65 and over.  They’ve lowered the age limit now, so my mom has an appointment scheduled for next week. 

We’ve had almost a week of wonderfully nice, warm weather, even getting up to 70 degrees.  The daffodils are starting to bloom  I’ve been wishing the tree hadn’t destroyed the hammocks when it fell!  Today is the last of the good weather.  It gets rainy and colder, even going down to highs in the 50s for all of the 10 day forecast.  I hope that will be the last of the colder weather, but I’m not counting on it.  March tends to lose its ever loving mind every year and torments us with another bout of cold weather.

The company, Corel, that owns WordPerfect has absolutely terrible customer service.  We’ve been trying to contact them for over two weeks about an issue with the program. They take a few days to respond to every email, and it feels like they’ve been deliberately dragging it out.  Nick sent them all of the information they might need in the first email, but they’ve been emailing and asking for the same information he already sent, one thing at a time.  Email on Monday asking how many systems it’s installed on, email a few days later asking for a screen shot of the error, etc. 

Their latest response is that we have a pirated copy of the program and need to buy a new one.  We most certainly do not!  We bought it brand new, from Best Buy.  It’s old, but it’s not pirated or stolen.  When we first started having problems with it, I was mostly prepared to buy the new version of it since ours is old.  It seemed worth checking to see if we could get a little more life out of ours first, though.  I really, really like WordPerfect, a lot more than Word, so I wasn’t opposed to replacing the program.  Now that they’ve been so obnoxious, I’m less inclined to buy their product.  Bad customer service is bad enough, but I really don’t like being accused of stealing, which I feel is what they did when they said our program is pirated.  I use Word every day on my work computer and if the Corel people want to be jerks, I can certainly use Word on my personal computer. 

 

Caroline

I’m making mask adapters again.  One of my coworkers asked for one for his wife.  She works in retail, and had one of the ones I made early on, but it disappeared at work.  I made a few for her, and some extras for her to take to work as well.  I was really happy that someone asked for them.  I’ve been telling people to let me know whenever they need them, and I’m glad someone finally did.  My sister has handed out all of the ones I sent to her a few weeks ago, so I’m working on another batch to mail to her. 

I found a new chiropractor that I’m extremely happy with.  I hadn’t been since before the pandemic.  The chiropractor I had been going to has been open, but I won’t be going back there, ever, because of their COVID behavior.  I kept putting off finding a new one, but persistent headaches are a good motivator.  I Googled “chiropractors in my town” and then looked for Facebook pages to see what their practice was like.  I had never realized how helpful a business’s Facebook page could be!  I eliminated two from my list immediately, and found what looked like a solid first choice and a decent second choice.  I called the first choice to ask about their mask policy and ended up making an appointment for the next day.  They are awesome!!!  The practice reminds me a lot of the one I absolutely loved when I lived in SC.  I’ve been going weekly and feel so much better. 

Dogs make people smile.  Especially friendly, happy three-legged dogs.  Since almost everything is curbside or drive-thru now, I’ve been taking Duke with me almost every time I go anywhere.  He loves going for rides, and I think he misses seeing other people and going places.  He’s always so happy when I get his leash out.  And people are always happy to see him.  Everyone just seems much happier when I have Duke with me. 

Duke

So what about you?  Have you been enjoying warm weather?  Do you have a favorite word processing program?  Have you found it helpful to look at a business’s Facebook page?  

2021 So Far

 I can’t believe we’re already so far into 2021.  I think even in normal times, without a pandemic, January shouldn’t really count when it comes to goals, resolutions, etc.  It just seems like the weather is always truly awful, and a lot of it is filled with trying to re-set back to normal after the holidays.  

I took this picture on January 2nd, when we were out for a walk.  It seems fairly representative of 2021; bright spots of hope against a lot of gray. 

My best/brightest news for 2021 so far is that Nick and my sister have both received both doses of the vaccine.  My sister works in healthcare, and got her second dose two weeks ago.  Nick works in the emergency services, and got his second dose last week.  They both ended up with Moderna.  There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to which vaccine people are getting.  My sister’s boss got his vaccine a few days before her, and got Pfizer.  A friend of ours got hers at the same hospital Nick did, a week after he did, and got Pfizer.  

I don’t know about other states, but NC keeps changing the groups and priorities.  I think most of the changes have been for the better, so I’m hopeful that it will keep getting better.  Initially, they weren’t going to prioritize people in the emergency services, and said they’d get the vaccine based on age/medical conditions.  That meant most of them would have been in the last group.  How many 75 year old firefighters and police officers do you know?  I was very happy when they changed that, and put them in a higher priority group.  Last time I checked, teachers will be our next group.  My job might fall under the second part of Group Three, but no one seems to know for sure.  We’re still mostly working from home for the foreseeable future.  

South Carolina has started vaccinating people 65 and older.  My dad is over 65, but my mom won’t be 65 until July.  My dad is on a waiting list, but has no idea when he’ll get it.  

In non-COVID related news, we’ve had several days of high winds with wind advisories.  We lost a tree to one of them.  Nick has to go in to work really early every other Thursday, so it was still dark when he left, so he didn’t see the tree down.  It was how I started my day because I saw it as soon as I let Duke out.  And Duke barked at it, a lot, so once he saw it there was no missing it.  

I’m not sure how much you can tell from the pictures, but we were incredibly lucky it fell the way it did.  Most importantly, Duke was safely inside when it fell.  It destroyed the hammocks, which I’m very sad about, but we think at least the stands are okay.  And if it had fallen any other direction it would have hit one of the following: our house, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the right hand side) fence, our fence and our neighbors’ (on the left hand side) fence, or our back fence.  Any of those would have been worse than the hammocks!  And at least it happened when it’s too cold to want to spend time in the hammocks anyway.  

Our neighbors have a fire pit, so we asked them if they wanted the wood, which they did.  They were also nice enough to loan us a chainsaw, and help move the wood.  So the cleanup was a lot easier than it could have been.  

We’ve also had some snow.  Definitely not as much as other places have had, but I’m still hoping we won’t get anymore.  

I got a very sweet surprise from one of my chemo buddies in the middle of January.  I checked the mail and there was a package addressed to me from a business I didn’t recognize.  I thought it was a maybe a case of something I ordered from Amazon coming from an independent seller, but I usually pay fairly close to attention to that, so I was a little surprised.  This was what I found when I opened the package.  

And this is what it looks like all assembled.

It was totally unexpected.  You’re told, over and over again, not to expect to hear back from your chemo buddy.  The program isn’t supposed to put any pressure on them, so they have no obligation to write to you, let alone send you a surprise package.  I think mine are just extra nice because I’ve heard from all three of my current buddies.  My senior buddy sent me a sweet Christmas card, and my teenage buddy sent me a sweet New Year’s card.  I’ll be honest, it totally makes my day whenever I hear from them.  

So how has 2021 started off for you?  Are you working from home?  How is the vaccine distribution going where you are?