Living in the Time of Corona

Hello my Corona friends and I hope as usual you are happy, healthy and sane. It has been a bit more than eighty days since we have gone underground, and probably a few weeks in since we have begun emerging form our cocoons. I know we were all zipped up pretty tight the first 6 weeks or so, and my roommate and I had a pretty good routine. Get up very early, turn on news go back into a bit of a coma, trying to turn out the news of the world. Have a pot of coffee and most days some breakfast, come out of coma, think about lunch, Take a very long walk, we were averaging 4-6 miles and then we had to think about dinner, because we had to make it ourselves, and it gave us something to pass the time.  I kind of miss my routine from the early stage of the Pandemic, walking and bike riding, now all these other work chores are taking up the time of my leisurely walks. Then came Phase two and we were getting a bit more brave, social distance visits, picnics and biking with friends and aside from the mask, and no touching, considering the alternative we wanted that social interaction. I remember one of my first visits back out to the burbs and we sat in my girlfriend Nancy’s yard, they had been much more careful they us, but also craving another human to talk to, not on Zoom. I thought I heard from Nancy that if I had to pee I could go in the yard, just like a puppy, but just the other day when I mentioned it she thought I was crazy, I would have never said that, I guess it was a voice in my head. People were super cautious and if you did use their bathroom, they called in the murder clean up team. Ok a bit of an exaggeration, but a good Clorox rub down. It was kind of weird, as you can’t help but think you may have soiled the room, but hey whatever makes everyone more comfortable. I am thinking I have this nice heated seat in my one and only bathroom, so I am sure that probably kills any germs. Every once in a while I find that techie has shut it off and I don’t like it. I was expecting a nice warm seat. He claims he never touches it and I don’t know how it could be me, must be the gremlins. So now we find ourselves in Phase three and retail is open, yippee, get out there and shop in your local businesses and outdoor dining has opened as well. I had fully planned to wait a few weeks and let the dust settle, after all I have my box delivered and techie wants to cook, but I took the plunge tonight.  My daughter was back from the hinterlands of isolation in Maine where she has absconded with my beloved Charlie and Maisie, for an overnight, and suggested we get take out. I said why not al fresco and do you want to come into the city?  She suggested a place in Medford, and being the adventurous diner that I am, I said that sounds grand. She might say something snarky like how could there ever be a nice patio in Medford, she’s that way, but it was delightful. Techie had another one of his endless zoom so we went off without him, promising to bring him back some dinner. Well it wasn’t as weird as I thought, going into a restaurant where all the servers and hosts were wearing masks doesn’t actually promote an appetizing dinner.  We were handed a menu with the rules, basically had to wear a mask till we were seated and then we could take them off while seated. We were given a little purple flag to wave when we needed anything and we were off to the races.  First thing we did was order some wine and an app, and right then we both said, this seems so normal, maybe we just stay here. Didn’t take long for reality to set in and you now know the party is over, as the wait staff is never going to have a pour like the one you have at home. You have to get at least two glasses of wine to get that one you poured for yourself and costs you more than the whole bottle sitting in your fridge. Of course we can’t fret about that, as we have to support these guys who have been out for a long time and no appointment only trade. They have a lot to make up.  I want to give a shout out tonight to Semolina Kitchen in Medford, as the food was delicious and the servers were exceptional, nice work.  I have two of my box meals to prepare in my fridge so I don’t want to get to excited about this dining out, as it has been easier on the CC, plus I like the way I prepare my Vodka on the rocks with a splash of soda and lime. I am almost 100% sure I can’t get it made the way I have grown accustomed, even if I order a double. Looking forward to our new found freedom and I don’t want any setbacks, so I will keep washing my hands and wearing one of my many masks.

Just sayin..

Good evening my Corona friends and hope you are happy and healthy tonight. I know lately we seem to be a bit more relaxing on the rules and getting a bit more comfortable. I know I am suffering from Mask fatigue and yes my roommate and I both are suffering from Maskne, otherwise known as mask acne. Well I googled it so now they know everything and I am getting tons of notices about all kinds of facial masks that can cure it. I still kind it very freaky that you can do a bit of research on the internet and next thing you know it is showing up on your IPAD and your phone and can be relentless. Anyway apparently there is no end in products that will take care of this problem, and like all things COVID there will be a whole new cottage industry sprouting up to capitalize on the situation. There are so many places that you can buy masks now that you would think the appetite for them would be slowing down, but I guess we better be prepared for the long haul, and just order up to match our wardrobe.  Tonight was opening night for restaurants that have outdoor seating, and I understand the ones that could offer it were sold out. Luckily it was the perfect night for it and I hope it was a successful night. Techie was walking through the North end late this afternoon and he said it looked like a lot of places just decide to put their tables in the street, but he didn’t get me any pictures, have to check it out tomorrow. You might think I would have been one of the first to run out to a restaurant, being that before Covid that is where you would find us four nights a week, but we both had different Al fresco plans tonight with different friends.  Techie had a meeting with his investment club which he has been a part of for years, we are still working so I guess they are not that good at it. He says they are more like a support group now, that get together once a month and try to solve the world problems. I went to my girlfriends and a few of us had a nice dinner and cocktails on her patio, and we were probably not six feet part and we didn’t wear our masks. I was feeling pretty good about relaxing the rules and felt a bit like a renegade and then I get a text from a friend who says he has just been diagnosed with Covid.  Say what, just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.  Now I haven’t seen him in a long time and he is not sure how he got it but probably at work. Kind of ironic as one of his business right now is selling masks online. Well right now the symptoms are mild and I hope they say that way for his sake and his family.  I guess I am going to have to get back on track and keeping better care of the rules, Techie has some issues, so we need to be very careful around him. I am going to have to go back to cooking his meals, while he solves all my technology issues and pretty sure I am getting the better deal here.  Opening day today in the retail world and it was fun just to have the doors open and have customers. It has been over three months would shops shuttered and we all had to get start over getting reacquainted with our computer system. Techie was very busy, imagine he had a lot of people like me who couldn’t remember their passwords and had new machines that weren’t always being cooperative. I think he is saying it is going to be a long day tomorrow, so I better cut this short, as he also has to publish for me every night, as I haven’t learned how to do the posting part yet.  I mean I really don’t want to and I have such a good assistant why mess with success. Please stay safe everyone and please follow the rules…

Just sayin…….

Good Evening my Corona friends and hope everyone had a nice weekend and stayed healthy. I am planning on going to bed before midnight and try and get some sleep as it is OPENING DAY tomorrow, June 8^th, and no I am not talking baseball. Has baseball even opened yet? Tomorrow we open retail in our state and we are not limited to Target, Costco, or Walmart, we can go into any store we want and not just curbside, but the real deal.  Everyone seems to be concerned as to what it will be like, but probably similar to what we have been doing these past few months. I doubt there will be a line at Tiffany’s or Saks with someone counting and directing the traffic, while spraying your cart, but who knows.  It’s Corona time and anything is possible and reinvention is the name of the game. Time to get off the couch and your computer, and spend some $$$$ in your local businesses. If I may be so shallow how about a new sofa? Surely that tired looking piece you have been parking your ass on for the past few months needs an upgrade. I know I am going to need a wardrobe upgrade and may have to actually get dressed. Some of these outfits leaving the house I can’t believe. I used to wonder what were these people thinking going out in yoga pants with that rear end, but I shamelessly stuffed myself into them and paid no heed, I was comfortable, and no time for body shaming, we are under a pandemic siege, who cares about a few extra rolls.  I hope this attitude will remain as we start to come out of it and I am not going to look back at any pictures, well not true, so many memories.  I am sure I am not alone but now as it seems our time under quarantine is getting lifted and I am discovering, I really didn’t do  a lot of things I thought I might accomplish with all that time. I still can only speak one language, I was going to be fluent in Spanish by now, but laying on the couch watching Law and Order got in the way. I now can say that I have watched every episode at least 8 times and can tell you how many well-known actors had at one time or another had a guest appearance. I was talking with my daughter earlier this evening and she said at dinner tonight, Charlie my favorite grandson, started opening up about his trip to Disney that Techie and I took him on for his birthday. Apparently he gave a very detailed report about the trip, pools open very late, Splash Mountain, a Mickey cake that we had delivered to our room, things he never talked about much after the trip. Sure he said it was great when he first got home but like all kids not much more to say.  So thinking about what I was told was a long dialogue about his trip I felt that even for a six year old, referencing those happier times was a kind of therapy that happier times, would come again, and that is how we are going to get through this blip in the road. We will all be sitting around this time next year on a beach talking about a time when we all had to stay inside, had to wear masks when we went out of the house. We will talk about those who may have gained a few pounds, who learned to cook, sew or knit, hell we may be wearing some of those pieces our friends made for us. We could have a post Corona party and everyone bring all the masks they have acquired during that time, with maybe a big bonfire. After all they will need to go to the crematorium to be safe.  We will laugh about how when we all started to feel a bit braver that we brought our own lawn chairs , food and silverware to our friends house for a socially distant party.  I know we will look back and poke a bit of fun at some who were overzealous, and those who were bad about the rules. But today when we are with our friends and family, we will more likely bring up a memory of a happier time, and laugh and talk about how much fun it all was, and can’t wait to do it again, unlike the usual complaining we do, about familial obligations. Because that will give us hope that yes our lives may be normal, or what we perceive as normal, will happen again, and that is how we can get on with our lives. Besides the corona virus, we have to face the unrest in our country today, and vow to take it seriously and work for a change. I want to create new memories where not just my kids and grand kids can feel the joy about a trip to Disney world but everyone’s kids and grand kids could share the same joy without any fear of discrimination in any form. Now is our time to truly make a difference and create those memories for all to share equally. I am going to try and not complain to techie about minor things that bug me and try and concentrate on the bigger picture. Namaste!!

Who says you can’t have fun at the beach when it may be a bit wet? Find the JOY

Just sayin….

Hello my Corona friends. I hope everyone is happy and healthy enjoying their weekend. I actually woke up today and knew it was Saturday, even before I could turn on MSNBC and find no Morning Joe. I knew it was Saturday because was departure day for my beautiful granddaughter. Tilda was going to leave us and go back to Philadelphia, and yes her parents were going to be leaving as well. I wish I could have hijacked her for another week but this past week was an unexpected gift. I am taking advice from my roommate/lover and thinking of five things every day that I can be grateful for, and do some deep breathing. I am extremely grateful that my daughter who lives nearby was away in Maine with her family, which made her home available for her brother and his family. Trust me, I even have a crib in the corner next to my desk, and a sleep sofa, but five of is in this open space, we would never last a week, but for Tilda I would have tried very hard.  I know I have mentioned it a lot before, but I don’t know how these young families do it, working from home, schooling from home and just minding the kids. I and most of my friends are at a stage in our life, where they have retired and have their own routines and it doesn’t include the home schooling. Most of my friends have not gotten to spend time with their grandchildren, like I have, and just became part of the household. I tried really hard in the beginning to stay away but the need was just too strong and I am grateful for my incredible wonderful family, who let me break a few rules. It was a very rough week, and not going to lie, it was a bit scary, when the protests turned violent, but after many more days and nights of peaceful protests, I feel real change is going to happen and I hope we don’t lose this momentum. These protests are happening all over the country and all over the world. I have driven through small towns in our state and witnessed young people demonstrating for racial equality, and they were all white. Our hope for a better future is definitely going to lie with all these young people, and there is no way they are going to stand for all these old white men to decide their future. I hope we keep up the momentum and the teaching to make real change. I want that for my grandchildren and everyone’s children. I was stunned to see that guy that heads football, speaking from his basement or wherever, saying he made a big mistake when he didn’t understand taking the knee was a peaceful protest. No shit Sherlock. It wasn’t about the flag just because certain people wanted it to be about disrespecting the flag and never really trying to find out more about it. Well now they want to know, and I may be sarcastic enough to think they are trying to save football from total disaster and miss out on all the fat paychecks, but willing to give them a benefit of a doubt to effect change. I am sure tonight a certain person in the White house must be very happy as he finally has bigger crowds than Obama on the Washington mall, except the big brand new fence is really not that eye catching for photo ops. No matter, shoot it from a different angle. I am pleased to see so many of the protesters are mask compliant and most of the police are allowing peaceful protests to continue. One of my intentions I recite at night is that they remain peaceful, but persistent, for everyone’s sake.

Well it is all quiet in the loft tonight, back to just the two of us and we ordered take out. Techie insisted that his job is still to do the dishes, so I let him have his pleasure.  Tomorrow we get our dinner box delivered with our three meals, so back to being chef on duty. My kids really like the food and recipes out of the box, so they are trying it out in Philadelphia next week. Makes perfect sense for two working parents, more so than us. There is that convenience factor, and basically I am lazy and would rather dine out several times a week. Does anyone else feel like their life is about eating, and when you are having a meal, you are already thinking about what is going to be next?  I wish it wasn’t’ the case but it is totally true for me, and helps me get through the day. My friend Rozzie almost never thinks about food, and when I visit her I feel like a little piggy.  I practiced last time not to be the one to mention it when last visiting. We got up had coffee and went on with our day. 10 or 11 maybe little nosh a bagel, muffin a piece of fruit, nothing, zippo, nada. I was not going to cave. Finally at almost 2pm I said what about lunch, and she said I could eat, I was ready to gnaw her arm. Lets’ not forget she is married to Ed an incredibly talented chef with the best restaurant in the Myrtle Beach area and she could eat whenever she wants. Well maybe that is the key. If techie was a world renowned chef and he was at my beck and call it would be different with my salivating, but I don’t think so. But he is welcome to try.  I haven’t checked it out yet but I heard Ben and Jerry’s was reopening in our neighborhood this weekend and then my needs will be complete. I can kiss those little nutty buddy cones from Trader Joes good bye and get right to the Cherries Garcia. Oh happy days. Monday is opening day for retail in this state and it has been a long three months, so please everyone go out and spread some money around your local businesses and stop with all this online shopping. Save that for diapers and paper goods that take up too much space in the cart. Of course if you went to some place like Target you already had the run of the store available to you. I took my granddaughter there the other day to stock up on supplies and snacks for the long car ride. Of course we had to stash it out of sight form Momma. Tilda knows I have been delivering the goods all along to Maisie and Charlie, she can’t be left out.

Just sayin..

Good evening my Corona friends. I hope you all had a very good day today. I am sorry if I was a Debby Downer yesterday but considering what we are living through every day I consider myself one of the upbeat. Some days you wake up and you can’t believe it could get any worse but we soldier on and just make mine a double and we will get through it. Before the protests I was actually thinking we were kind of back to normal. Of course that means always wearing a mask and never asking to use a public restroom.  I know I can be obsessed about the bathroom issues but honestly when you get to a certain age you always want to know where all the rest stops are located and you may plan your night around them. A few months ago it was nothing for techie and I to walk to the North End for dinner and I had my pit stops all mapped out on the way home. Now they are closed and so are the dining spots. The past few summers what I thought was a really great thing were these beer gardens that had sprung up along the Greenway, city Hall plaza and down in the Seaport.  They made the city a fun place to hang out after work and sometimes a bit longer. I believe they won’t even be opening this year, but we will have to wait and see. I am positive it will be a really fun and exciting place again real soon. I hear the rumor of the North End of Boston may close a road and allow people to serve on the sidewalk and I will be the first to reserve a table. I realize it may be a bit weird to enjoy the time out as we have to be mask compliant.  Today I was taking a walk to with my granddaughter and fifteen minutes in I realized I wasn’t wearing my mask and it was a bit strange. I mean we have become programmed to do a mental checklist when you leave the house, keys, and phone and mask all checked. It must have been because I was in Medford or the fact that I hadn’t seen anyone on my walk till we got to crossing at the light.  The thing that upset me the most about my missing mask was now I wouldn’t be allowed into the ice cream shop. Thank goodness my daughter in law had hers because how was I going to explain that to Tilda?  Grandma screwed up and there will be no ice cream. I don’t think so. Anyway we were able to get our ice cream and even find a spot where we could enjoy it. No hanging out in the shop. I am grateful for these little forms of entertainment and I hear there may be even more fun on the horizon.  There may be a few more drive in movie theaters opening soon and as long as there is a car hop service, I am game. I am sure they will have to be G rated movies and I hope they can find more than a few that will satisfy the masses. There are after all only so many times we can watch Ferris Bueler’s day off. Who am I kidding anyway if I put a movie on at home I am asleep in the first fifteen minutes, but it is always the idea of the adventure that brings you out in the first place.

Techie and I have has a truly great week having our granddaughter visit this past week, and the parents were an added benefit. Kind of a bummer that they are going back to their home tomorrow, but again                    once again grateful for the extra week of Tilda time, thank you Coronavirus.  We will go back to our routine of just the two of us in this one room apartment and will have to find our groove again. Depending on how it goes next week we may be opening up a bit and that will mean a bit more venturing out into the world.  We have been preparing for months and I think we are ready. We wash our hands more than ever and sometimes just for practice. We have accumulated a wide assortment of masks, paper and fabric, some you can breathe out of and some will slowly suck out all your oxygen. We have taken many walks with our friends and kept six feet apart, at least most of the time.  I believe we are ready for the next step a little retail therapy and I don’t mean Costco or Target because recently I have been enjoying those outings. In the beginning it was just for the food sources but the distraction can happen very quickly. In fact tonight I am wearing my favorite designer Kirkland, and a pair of seersucker stretch type pants for 10 bucks. Seriously a few wears and you got your monies worth. Today we went into target for diapers but quickly became distracted and filled our cart very easily.  Just want you all to know I didn’t see anyone following me and was sure to wipe down all surfaces that we may have touched but that is apparently in the new regulations for retail opening next week. I am not sure what retail opening will be like next week but I hope people will want to visit live and in person. I know it has been three months and I could have made an appointment for my hair last week but I was just too lazy and kind of like being able to tie it up in a ponytail, it has been a long time since I could that and super slobby the way I like it. I can tell you one thing what I am most looking forward to is getting a pedicure. I have a really hard time reaching my toes and quite frankly they have become kind of Frankenstein looking. I caught my son the other day taking a picture of one of my renegade toes and sending it out to the universe.   How gross is that?  What is the first thing you all want to do when the opportunity comes up?

Just sayin….

Good evening my Corona friends. I hope everyone is healthy and I won’t even mention anything about being sane, as by now I am sure it is eluding us all. Here we are 75 days in which in and of itself seems ridiculous as you think back to day one and we were thinking a few weeks, few months, now we have no freaking idea when and where it will end.  Imagine you were writing a novel about a killer pandemic and then when you are getting to the end of it, throw in national protests that led to wide spread looting. Seriously you can’t make this shit up. I walk around downtown of our beautiful city and we are all boarded up. Just when we were going to get the go ahead to reopen, not sure what that looks like now. Have to go through plywood and barbed wire.  No matter there won’t be any retail left, some won’t make it, some will give up, and it will just go to Amazon. We won’t be able to leave our homes, but for exercise and groceries, everything else will be delivered.  Work will be done online and endless zoom meetings. Uber eats will deliver all the take out, no more dining experiences, all social visits with friends will be on Zoom.  My walls are starting to cave in on me and I was getting better as the weather improved, it is hard not to fall down a dark hole. We were visiting our kids in Philadelphia last weekend and after a night of wilding  we convinced them to come here for a change of venue.  There was unfortunately no change. I don’t think there is any escaping it as it is happening all over the country. What I can I hope is that we all pay attention to why this is happening and try and understand and learn from it. Please people, study hard, or we are never going to get out of our houses and feel safe again. 

I have decided that the dinner in a box that you have to prepare is not for me, as I have grown bored with it. The food generally has been very good, and techie likes following the directions and doing some cooking, but it has almost become a chore. We get three meals delivered a week and honestly it feels like homework. Now I have those bags staring at me in the fridge and have to done in a timely manner. The pressure is getting to me.  Another thing about them is I brought them over to my kid’s house to cook a few times this week, and found that you could feed four, when my roommate and I have eaten it all at every meal. Granted they were small portions that we could make work, like the fishes and the loaves. The problem for me is a sign up for these things on the internet and I am not sure even what I committed to, and how I can shut it off. I am going to have to ask Techie to look into for me, but first I have to try and remember my password. I have already reset it twice. I know it really is a first world problem when the biggest issue I have today, is who is feeding me. I was getting in the groove for a bit in the first month or so, preparing every meal for me and my lover but that got old and I think my place in heaven has been secured as I have already cooked more meals for Techie in the past few months, as my forty plus years of marriage. It makes you wonder how many of us could have made it this long, had we had the Pandemic 30-40 years ago, or ended up in rehab. Well there would have been no Hello Fresh getting delivered that is for sure. The closest thing we had was the milkman. In our time out in the suburbs there was about five years that we had the Milkman do deliveries. One of the best things was the iced tea in the summer. I would get several half gallons, as those teenage boys loved it and cheaper than orange juice. I hear the dairy deliveries are making a comeback and if we have the coronavirus to thank for it. We will take that as a win. I guess we have to start keeping a list of what we are thankful for as a result of this virus, my son said he got to spend a lot more time with his baby daughter that would not have had. Thankfully she is a baby with no siblings because that could have been a different story. I am one of eleven children and I can’t imagine what it would have been like for us if we had to quarantine for so long together. Let me just say only the strong survive, joking but not really. I know there would have been a ration on the toilet paper and we may have had to build an outhouse. I remember an old outhouse behind my Grandmas house as part of the shed and it had a row of three seats, small, medium and large. My mom said they always kept a sears catalogue so they never ran out of toilet paper. Well we can ‘t count on the good old Sears catalogue but wait I think we can count on an upgrade of the toilet paper with all those RH catalogues that come in the mail, finally something useful to do with them.

Just sayin

Good evening my Corona friends and hope all is well with you all tonight. Hopefully all have been safe and sound these last few nights and have not suffered any damage. It has been really tough these last few days and we hope to find the good in all of us, as we wake up each morning and try to live a better life. I absolutely support the protesters and want a better and just world for all of us, and most importantly the    future of our kids and grandkids. I found tonight that yes the future is now and judging by the amount of the Corona Puppies, people feel strongly about the security of what is next in life. On our daily walks around the city my roommate and I run into people with a new puppy.  Often it is a young couple who probably live together and are thinking someday they may want to have children, so why not pretend with a puppy. Sadly what they don’t realize that all this togetherness may be coming to an end soon and who is going to take care of puppy when you are able to go to brunch once again? The love on a puppy can wear off pretty quickly when you are the one that has to take him out first thing in the morning. Unless you live in one of these fancy high rise buildings that has these special doggie floors, where they have a secret way they change the puppy turf. Or better yet the latest scam are these diaper pads that you lay around the house and the dog pees on them. I am telling you they are absolutely gross, and how really smart people can fall for this BS.  We have had guests that use these and this is not even after potty training, but of course I forget that a different generation doesn’t read a newspaper so how else would they know about paper training?  They fall into the diaper trap and then they just can’t find their way out of it, destined for a stinky house.

I have to confess that Techie and I have had a few dogs during out time and they were both the most awesome dogs and pets one could ever ask for. When we had Garp it was an urban neighborhood and   he should have definitely been on a leash always, but sometimes it just didn’t work out that way. We would get a call from a neighbor saying if we were looking for Garp, he was up at their house and he already had a dinner of roast beef and mashed potatoes. My roommate used to say he was going to go there on all fours so he could get a free meal. He lived a great life until he was sixteen years old and suffered an accident with Auntie Judy, and was laid to rest in my Mothers back yard.  A few years later at the insistence and pleading of my son we decided to get another dog. First thing we did was go the same animal shelter where we had adopted Garp, figuring we were good parents and he did live a charmed life for sixteen years. But sadly we were mistaken, rules had changed and didn’t want to give us a puppy because we had full time jobs.  I said I could bring her to work, but since didn’t mention on my application, they weren’t buying it.  If only they spent more time approving people to have children, we may be in a better place.  Sadly we had to take a very sad Max home that night without that little sheep dog mix puppy. The next day I looked in the local paper and found we could get a puppy that day just had to pay about $50 for the shots that had already been given to the brood born on the farm.  We went out there promptly and picked up our sweet mutt Lucy, she had another name first, but I can’t remember, as Max named her but his sister was very upset that she wasn’t involved in the getting of the puppy, she was away at school.  Being the incredible brother that he was he let her name the puppy, as he was just so happy to have one, he didn’t care what we called her as long as he got to keep her. Lucy was just about the best dog ever and she had a long and happy life living with us in the suburbs. One of the absolute great things about living in the burbs is having a yard that you could have an electric fence. Couple that with a dog door and you have the perfect set up for lazy parents. Lucy had the run of the house and the yard and we never worried about accidents as she was always able to get in and out on her own time, hence we never had to worry about getting home to let the dog out and only used that excuse for extreme excuses. Lucy enjoyed the run of her domain and really only took the hit of getting zapped when Max and his friends were making their way down to the pond for that adventure she would gladly take the hit. When we ended up as empty nesters , my husband just always love coming home to have her bound out of that door and jump and lick him as so happy to see him. He often asked why I couldn’t be as excited as Lucy.  Sadly it was after Lucy   passed that I finally got him to agree to a move into the city and we never got another pet. I know he misses a dog but he vowed he would never have a dog if he to pick up their poop on the street.  Now they make all kinds of leashes and wrist bands that keep the little poop bags handy for you to clean it up, no Thank You.  I wonder how many of these Corona puppies have the kids begged and pleaded for actually have the kids getting up in the early morning to take them out and clean up after them.  I think I am pretty safe in guessing that Mom or Dad are doing the heavy lifting and why not they are at home, not going to work every day like in days past. I can’t remember exactly where I read this but a story of David Sedaris when he was living in France. I believe he was getting a haircut at his barber and all these old dudes were talking about how much they loved Jodi Foster and were admiring a picture of her.  They couldn’t figure out what she was doing in the picture as she was seen with this little bag and what was she picking up, imagine their disappointment when he spilled the beans that she was picking up dog poop……………

Just sayin

Good evening my Corona friends and I hope it is or was a better evening for everyone than it was last night. Once we all had time to process the nightmare that unfolded and realized it wasn’t a bad dream but really happened, we could look for the recovery. I know I went out before 5am this morning to view the damage and report to friends the outcome. Yes there was significant damage. Our city was suffering from a wild night, but also there were glimmers of hope, in the form of all the people that were out and about so early in the morning and getting right to the cleanup. There were crews out early on putting up the plywood on all the broken glass, Home Depot must have opened at midnight to accommodate the run on supplies. I went back out again around noontime and already the Pubic garden was tidied up and saw several women walking with their strollers. There was a lot of community support for the damaged businesses that I visited. People were scrubbing and cleaning away. I am only going to try and look for the positives tonight, as I don’t want to slide back down into that dark hole of rage, which I was in last night. I understand the hopelessness and rage but I can never agree or understand the destruction.

Today was an absolute beautiful day and the sun was shining and the air was crisp and clean. At least it wasn’t raining and you could easily set up your sawhorse to cut your plywood to cover the business windows up and down Newbury and Boylston streets. Have to be grateful for these little moments, better than being soggy in the pouring rain, running power tools. The important thing is where are we going to go from here? I hope we all work toward a positive change and not just file last night’s event as a onetime happening. I really don’t want to have to witness another night like last night, although I know there are some conflicts tonight. I am going to try and take some tips from my roommate and try and do some meditation, seems to work for him. I have to have my nightly cocktail and then yell and swear at the TV, and apologize for my bad language last night. I wish I could say that it is rare for me to use the F word, but I would be lying and don’t want to get called out by all my friends and foes. Anyone who knows me, will vouch for my full-fledged putty mouth and would be surprised if I tried to clean it up. Namaste, that is my new curse word and pretty sure that is not the use it is intended, but I am going with it, as a certain evil one puts me over the edge. I am sitting here and I can hear helicopters buzzing and I hope there isn’t going to be another night of wilding, Namaste.

Techie is over in the corner with his headphones on so he hasn’t responded to my yelling over asking if it was happening again tonight. Honestly I am just too darn beat tonight to even make complete sentences and I can attest tonight it is not from an overabundance of vodka. It is just sheer exhaustion from living through a pandemic, with a business shuttered and then a city being ravaged and burned and no one knows how to end it. We should be celebrating Space X and those really cool new space suits those guys were wearing, I haven’t heard much about that fashion statement, got lost in the wildings. I am celebrating as I managed to hijack my granddaughter Tilda yesterday and bring her back from Philadelphia, snuck her out when the parents weren’t looking and drove back to Boston. Well Ok they followed a bit later in their own car and we are carrying on a bit more family time this week. I hope I can keep her entertained so she won’t want to go back home anytime soon. We did discover a nice new installation today that gave us all a smile. A field of windsocks blowing in the breeze and they looked like sunflowers or daffodils when the wind filled them, not very good on the plant identification. I am dubbing it a field of hope, and the wind is blowing the coronavirus right out of here, if it was only that easy…..

Just sayin