A Lot Can Change in a Month

I don’t think I’ve ever written a catch-up post without random cat pictures sprinkled throughout, so here’s one of Tara to get things started. 

Tara

One thing (maybe the only thing?) that has been consistent over the past year and a half is how quickly things can change.  If you wait a month in between blog posts, what’s going on in your little corner of the world can drastically change.

I’m back to working from home.  We were back in the office for about a month.  Our official work from home started on August 9^th, but a few of us started working from home about a week before that.  We have mask requirements in place again, but there was about a week between those starting and when the CDC started recommending masks even for vaccinated people in areas with substantial or high spread.  Our county continues to have high spread and a lower vaccination rate than the rest of the state, so we’re fortunate to be able to work from again.

Charlie

Caroline is thrilled that I’m working from home again.  My work laptop seems to be her favorite thing in the world, so she’s back to spending her days on my desk. 

On my last day in the office, I discovered that I have a mask and dress that match perfectly.  I didn’t realize it until that morning when I was getting ready to leave, but I was pretty excited.  Lots of people commented on it.  One of my coworkers asked if I had a mask to match all of my dresses.  I don’t, but that would be pretty cool.  I still seem to be the only person at work embracing more colorful masks.  As one of my coworkers pointed out, though, I have a pink office, so no one should expect me to show up in a dull mask.  I still think that masks in cheery colors or patterns help make the best of a bad situation.

Our library system did a summer reading program.  You were given cards to fill out with time spent reading.  It was a check-off system, in 30-minute increments, and you turned the cards in when they were full to be entered in a drawing for prizes.  They had a program for kids; they got a free book every time they turned in a card, in addition to being entered in the drawing for prizes.  The adult program was just for the drawing at the end.  Each branch did a drawing and had prizes.  I won one of the prizes! 

I was so excited to win!  I know the picture isn’t the greatest, but my prize was a tote bag (great for taking books to and from the library), a tumbler, a book light, and a puzzle.  I’ve loved the library for as long as I can remember, and the only award I ever won in public school (before we started homes-schooling) was for reading, so I was very happy to win anything in a reading program.  Even as an adult. 

We’re currently enjoying some cooler weather, which is a nice change.  It’s still warm but not miserably hot.  We’ve been opening the windows in the mornings and evenings.  I love it when the weather is mild enough to do that.  I’ve seen a list of the 12 seasons of the Carolinas floating around the internet, and I’m not sure who started it, so I’m not sure who to link to.  Here’s a link to it, showing that we’re currently in False Fall.  I’m just glad we’re no longer at Hell’s Front Porch.  It’s one of the most accurate things I’ve ever seen about our weather, especially the various winters and springs. 

So how are things for you?  Are you working from home, or are you back in the office?  How many seasons do you have?  And which one are you in?

Throw Back Thursday – So Many Sequins!

Since I haven’t done one of these in a really long time here’s a real blast from the past.   This is my sister, Gabrielle, and me after our last dance recital.   I’m fairly certain we were seven and nine, though we may have been eight and ten. 

Gabby is the blonde and I’m the brunette.   I will never understand why my mom thought those bangs were a good look for me!

The trophies were for completing two years of dance classes. 

 You may notice that Gabby is holding two trophies and that I’m only holding one.  She also did gymnastics, and got a trophy for that.  I wanted no part of gymnastics. 

They handed out the trophies at the end of the recital.  They called the names, in alphabetical order, and you walked on stage to get your trophy from the dance teacher.  You were supposed to curtsy (for the girls) or bow (for the boys) to the dance teacher, be handed your trophy, walk slowly to the middle of the stage, curtsy or bow to the audience, and then walk slowly off the other end of the stage.  The idea was for there to be three kids on stage at a time.  A kid basically exiting the stage, a kid in the middle of the stage curtsying or bowing, and a kid coming on stage to get their trophy. 

We both botched that.

I got my trophy and ran like my life depended on it.   The video showed me sprinting past the two kids in front of me.  I made it off the stage and back to the dressing rooms before they got off the stage. 

Gabby more than made up the time I didn’t spend on the stage.  She pranced across the stage waving to the audience like she was Miss America.  The two kids behind her passed her, and they weren’t sprinters like I was.   This picture is her still hamming it up after we got home.  

That was our last year of taking dance or gymnastics.  Our mom always made us do everything together, and I hated dance after the first year.   She made me stick it out for another year, and then Gabby had to quit when I did.   I’m not sure why everything had to be both of us or neither of us.   They should have left Gabby in dance and gymnastics since she loved it.  And, given my sprint off the stage, they probably should have considered finding a track team for me. 

So what about you?  Did you take dance lessons?  Did you have to take the same lessons as your siblings?  

A Few Random Things

This is kind of a miscellaneous post since none of these things are enough for their own post, but I do want to start blogging more regularly.

Since this kind of post isn’t complete without a random cat picture, here’s one of Caroline.  This was one of the times she “helped” me while I was working from home. 

Speaking of working from home, after doing it for so long I seem to have lost all faith in my ability to dress appropriately for being at work.  I seem to text my sister about once a week asking if something matches.  This was the latest.  We decided that it does match. 

It was HOT here yesterday.  It rained a lot earlier in the week, then got really hot, which is perfect weather for the yard to turn into a jungle if we’re not careful.  So, we agreed to make sure we cut the grass after work yesterday.  I mowed, Nick used the weed-eater for all of the places the mower doesn’t fit, and in some of the places where the grass was so long that the mower needed a little help.  It had only been six days since we cut the grass the time before!  I’m not kidding when I say it can turn into a jungle.  Quickly!

Did I mention that it was hot?!?  Nick doesn’t normally sweat, but he was sweaty yesterday.  I always get sweaty, but yesterday I could actually wring sweat out of my clothes, which is really gross.  We’ve definitely reached the part of the summer when we are completely over cutting the grass. 

Apparently, Duke found it exhausting to hang out in the air-conditioned house and watch us mow his yard.  He has a hard life.

After we finished with the yard and got showers, we were starving, but it was still too hot to want anything heavy.  So we opted for a snacky dinner of fruit, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, and crackers.  

The cheese was a Wensleydale, which I’d never had before.  I bought it at Aldi.  And I’m honest enough to admit that I bought it because of Wallace and Gromit.  I’ll also admit that we discussed our Wensleydale in very, very bad British accents.  No disrespect to those of you with British accents.  We both love the accent but are both terrible at doing most accents. 

Our Wensleydale (Are you reading that in Wallace’s accent?) was honey lemon flavored.  After Googling it, we learned that the texture is somewhat dry and crumbly.  We both liked it.  I think it might have been a little better served with something that wasn’t also dry like the crackers were.  We still have some Wensleydale left, and I’m thinking about getting some strawberries or melon to serve with it.   I’m definitely open to suggestions on how best to serve Wensleydale. 

So what about you?  Are you a fan of Wallace and Gromit and/or Wensleydale?  Do you doubt your ability to dress appropriately after spending so much time at home?  Is it HOT where you are?

A Chemo Angels and Senior Angels Update

Since it has been almost a year since I’ve posted much about Chemo Angels, I thought it might be time for an update.  As usual with this kind of post, the pictures aren’t related; I just think they’re good pictures. 

If you’re not familiar with Chemo Angels and Senior Angels, you can read my long post about them here.  The very short version is that Chemo Angels matches patients who are undergoing chemo treatment (known as “buddies”) with volunteers (known as “angels”) who write them letters and/or send them small gifts on a weekly basis.  Senior Angels is a sister program but matches seniors (still known as “buddies”) with volunteers (still known as “angels”) who write to them on a weekly basis.  I’ve signed up as a card angel with both programs. 

I still have the same chemo buddy that I had last time I posted about the program.  She’s the one who sent me such a sweet gift at the beginning of the year.  I’ve been writing to her for over a year now, and she has written to me a few times.  She seemed to be doing fairly well in her last check-in.  I love hearing that she’s doing well. 

I still have the same senior buddy that I’ve had from the beginning.  November will be two years that I’ve been writing to her.  She has written to me a few times.  I always love hearing from my buddies, especially since they’re not required to write.  Her daughter does her check-ins and always mentions if there was something she especially enjoyed hearing about.  That makes it much easier to write to her!  I sent her a copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and apparently, she loved it.  Knowing that, I think we must have very similar taste in books, which has given me lots more ideas for different books to send to her. 

On a side note, if you haven’t read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, do yourself a favor and read it A.S.A.P.  It’s such a great book!  It’s one of my all-time favorites, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read it.  

Charlie

I’m still writing to my teenage chemo buddy, but it’s no longer official.  We’ll call her Anna (not her real name) for the purpose of this update.  I received an email in April that Anna had completed her first year of treatment and that because the treatment is so long (two years or more) for Anna’s type of cancer, those patients are only allowed to stay in the program for one year.  The email came exactly one year after the email that I’d been matched to Anna. 

Anna’s mom had shared the link to her Facebook page about her treatment and progress in one of her check-ins and invited her angels to join the group, which I did.  Anna seems to have a lot of ups and downs.  There are times when her treatment is going well, and she’s able to keep up with a lot of normal activities.  Other times, she’s sick, losing weight, hospitalized, and in need of blood transfusions. 

The email that Anna’s time with the program was up arrived the same week that she spent some time in the

 hospital and needed a blood transfusion.  That seemed like a horrible time to send a last card saying, “well, your year is up, good luck.”  So I kept sending cards as usual.  I also sent one to Anna’s mom, asking if it was alright if I kept writing to her for the rest of her time in treatment.  Anna is 15, so it seemed like a good idea to get a parent’s permission to keep writing to her beyond the official limit of Chemo Angels.  I gave her my email address and told her how to find me on Facebook so she could tell me yes or no. 

Anna’s mom sent me a really sweet Facebook message.  She made me cry!  She said they’d love it if I kept writing to Anna and that she had saved all of my cards and pictures. 

Obviously, I’m still writing to Anna.

Duke

I don’t want it to sound like I’m bashing Chemo Angels in any way.  Overall, I think it’s a great program, and I understand that everything has to have rules and limits.  I just think sometimes you need to look at a situation on its own, not through a filter of “these are the rules.”  There are plenty of things where hard and fast rules are the only good option, but this didn’t seem like one of them. 

I’ve also signed up to be on the substitute list.  One of the most important requirements for volunteering with Chemo Angels or Senior Angels is that you must send something weekly.  The idea is that one positive thing needs to be reliable.  But, they do recognize that volunteers have lives outside of volunteering and that you may need a little break.  So they have a substitute list.  I haven’t used it, but my understanding is that you ask for a substitute for your buddy for a certain amount of time; vacation, you get sick, move, etc.  Someone else writes to them during that time, and then you start back. 

When you join the list to be a substitute, you’re added to an email group, and they send emails to the group with the basic information about the person they need a substitute for, as well as how long the assignment is expected to last.  If you don’t think you’d be a good fit, can’t take on another buddy, etc., you don’t have to respond.  If you’re interested in being their substitute, you respond, and they let you get an email with all of their information if you’re matched as their substitute.   

I signed up as a substitute card angel for a lady who loves cats and enjoys baking.  It seemed like we had plenty in common, so she’d be easy to write to.  I was supposed to be her substitute for about six weeks, but her regular card angel wasn’t able to start back.  The program sent me an email giving me the option to become her regular card angel or end the substitute assignment and have her assigned to someone else as her regular card angel.  I opted to become her regular.  It seemed like a lot of passing around if someone else became at least her third card angel, and we have enough in common that I don’t think I’ll run out of things to write about.  In her last check-in, she mentioned enjoying my cat pictures.  We all know I have no shortage of cat pictures to share! 

Howard

I still love volunteering with Chemo Angels and Senior Angels.  September will be two years that I’ve been volunteering with them, and I don’t see myself stopping any time soon.  Sometimes I think I get more enjoyment from it than my buddies do, especially during the pandemic when it forced me to focus on something positive every week. 

It’s definitely a little easier to write to them now that things are getting back to normal and we’re getting out a little more.  We visited a National Park earlier this month, and I was able to get postcards to send to them.  And I really enjoy taking pictures I think they’ll like. 

If you’re curious about Chemo Angels or Senior Angels, you can check out their website here, and there are links to posts about other blogger’s experiences in my long post. 

 So, have you sent or received any fun or interesting mail lately? 

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?  

Photography Practice

 Early on in the pandemic, I thought I would get a lot accomplished.  It seemed reasonable with so many things being canceled, and being at home so much.  That was definitely not the case.  I didn’t accomplish much of anything in 2020.  

I bought myself a real camera toward the end of 2019.  One of my coworkers has an art degree, and does some professional photography.  He was going to give me lessons.  Like so many other things, that got put on hold.  

I did some practice with the camera around this time last year, but never got around to posting any of the pictures.  We went to a park so I could play around with the camera.  It was so cold that day!  It was the first time I used the camera by myself.   The park we went to used to be a golf course, and it’s really pretty.  

I know these aren’t the best shots, but I think they’re the best ones I took that day.

The park has a trail that loops around the perimeter.  I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures of streets and trails.  I like how it kind of looks like they don’t end.  This is one of my favorite pictures from that day. 

There isn’t much foliage this time of year.

There’s a pond with a bench.

And here’s the pond from a distance.  I think I probably should have centered the pond in the shot.

This is where the park backs up to a neighborhood.  The trees are the border.  

And this is the tree border from a distance.  This is my other favorite picture from that day.  I’m not sure how “good” of a picture it really is, but I like the pops of green.  Of course there’s the green from the evergreen trees, and I tend to like trees against sky pictures.   But there are also some patches of green grass in the field.  Almost everything is brown and dormant, but those little patches of green are there.  It’s like they’re defying winter.  Winter is my least favorite season, so I like the look of anything springlike coming in.

Do you enjoy taking certain kinds of pictures?  Have you found a way to improve your photography skills? 

Masks

I know this post is really, really late in the grand scheme of wearing masks, but it seems like wearing masks will be going on for quite a while, so maybe better late than never.  And I’ve seen a few other people post about their masks, so I decided to as well.

Obviously, we’re wearing masks.  North Carolina has a mask mandate in place, though it’s not rigorously enforced everywhere.  We’ve been making a point of supporting businesses that do enforce it, and not supporting the ones that don’t.  It’s something we both feel very strongly about.  

That being said, it took some getting used to remembering to always bring a mask, and some trial and error to figure out the best way to organize them.  It seems like it’s always a little hectic trying to leave the house, and we’ve learned to keep things we need to take with us near the door.  We hang our keys near the door, so we decided hanging masks near the door would work.

We put up this hook for them.  

It’s very sturdy, so whenever things are back to normal we plan to use the hook for things like bags of library books that need to be returned and other things that need to be taken somewhere else.

We have a lot of masks.  It took some trial and error to find the ones that are most comfortable.  And Nick hasn’t been able to work from home, so that’s a mask every day, two now that the CDC has started recommending double masking, plus additional masks for any time I have to go into the office, or any time we have to take pets to the vet or go anywhere else.  Since they can’t go in the dryer, I wanted to make sure we had plenty of extras for the times when we get behind on laundry.  So we have a lot of masks.

We’ve also been following the guidance to wash them after every use.  I feel like the guidance to treat them like underwear; don’t touch them/take them off in public, wash them after every use, etc. is pretty simple to understand and follow.  

We have this bag hanging near the door to collect the dirty masks.  It’s just a reusable bag that I used to take to Aldi. 

It’s washable, and I periodically wash it along with the masks.  I know we could just put the used masks in the laundry hamper with everything else, but there’s a lot of potential for the mask to be taken off and left somewhere else in the house on the way to the hamper.  Since there have been cases of animals getting COVID, we don’t want to risk Duke or the cats getting sick from a contaminated mask, so the bag near the door works well for us.  We come in, put the mask in the bag, and immediately wash our hands.  

All of the masks that we’ve bought say to hand wash or wash on the gentle cycle, so they all go in the washer on the hand wash cycle.  Early on, I put them in with other things that were washed on the hand wash cycle, but the masks tend to get caught up in sleeves and pant legs.  A few accidentally went through the dryer that way, and I felt like I had to throw them away after that.  I wasn’t sure if they’d still be  effective, so I threw them away.  After that, I started counting the masks and making sure I had hung up the right number of masks before I put anything in the dryer.  That kept me from ruining any more masks, but it was a pain, so now I just wash the masks by themselves. 

It was a challenge figuring out how to dry so many masks at once.  We can’t hang them anywhere within reach of the cats because Caroline and Mortimer will chew the straps.  And a mask with no straps is pretty much useless.  The best method I’ve come up with is using a straight plastic clip hanger like this, so I can put several masks on one hanger.  Then I put the hanger on one of the hooks we have over our bedroom and closet doors.  

The cats can’t reach them, and they get plenty of air to dry.  

I decided early on to get masks in cute/cheerful prints/patterns.  There definitely hasn’t been much joy and happiness during the pandemic, so I decided to put a little bit of happiness wherever I could, and cute masks make me a little bit happier than plain ones. 

 

I’m a Friends fanatic, so of course I have a Friends mask.

Nick is a huge Star Trek fan, so he has a Star Trek mask.

If you’ve visited much, you know I love to cook, so I  have a mask with a cooking print.  

Nick loves sloths, so he has a sloth mask.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that most of my masks have butterflies.

Unfortunately, Nick’s job doesn’t share my view that cute masks bring a little bit of happiness, and they have a policy of solid color masks only.  They adopted that policy fairly early on, so Nick only has a few masks with prints.  We have a lot of solid colored masks, since Nick has to wear masks a lot more often than I do.  I’ve bought masks in pretty much every possible shade of blue since that’s Nick’s favorite color.  I refuse to give up on trying to squeeze a little bit of beauty and happiness into wearing masks.

My job, while being very strict about enforcing the mask mandate, has said we can wear any kind of mask we want as long as it’s not offensive.  So I still get to wear my happy masks whenever I go into the office.  Most of my coworkers have opted for solid colored masks anyway, but I don’t think it surprises anyone when the person with the pink office shows up in a mask with butterflies or rainbow hearts.  

So what about you?  Did you have a hard time getting used to remembering to bring a mask?  Do you prefer patterned or solid color masks?  

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?