Living in the Time of Corona

Good evening my Corona friends. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and didn’t add to the spread. Santa is going to remember those who didn’t abide and there will be a lot of coal next year. Sure didn’t seem like it was a holiday this year. Just another day in the life of living in the time of Corona, where every day is groundhogs day. This would have been the best year to enjoy a nice long weekend, with Christmas falling on a Friday, so can we please have a do-over.  Funny I was talking to my friend Cher today who had been looking forward to celebrating with her son and daughter-in-law since it was “their turn” when the other mother said what a bummer it was your year. I said for sure this has to be a do-over year and not count since no one was traveling. I guess we will have to see where we are next Christmas but I can tell you, I won’t be here in my ever-shrinking loft with Techie, lover, MacGyver, and roommate because one of us won’t survive, don’t forget we also work together……

Just enjoyed another dinner from a box and tonight we actually cooked it together, why should he have all the fun?  One problem I read the ingredients wrong and as a result, an extra half cup of water made it a bit soupy. Got to improve on those reading glasses or the Chardonnay fog. I was remarking to Techie tonight that they should really bring back Sandra lee and her Semi-Homemade show. It is the perfect time for it. It was kind of like cooking from the box, add a few prepared ingredients, and doctored up the chicken and good to go. We would probably skip the tablescapes. She loved to decorate the table and they were great, just didn’t know where to stop. Reminded me of my cousin Janice who just loved to decorate, for every occasion. The best part of Sandra Lee’s show of course she always had a special cocktail at every table and believe me she had a nice heavy hand with the pour. She was the Vanna White to any of these TV chefs and I vote we bring her back.

This year we won’t be celebrating New Year’s at our place, well at least not with a dozen of the people we love the most. I have been hosting New Year’s dinner for more than twenty years and I actually do cook an amazing dinner, or at least by the time we all sit down at 10 pm, it is scrumptious. Lots of apps and drinks before we can get to dinner. I love this evening just with close friends and not having to get dressed up. Although this year I would have called for formal attire just to wear clothes other than our sweats or elastic waist pants. I swear I am not going to do a zoom. I know I might have a bit of a breakdown if I have to usher in the New Year on a device, yes we have officially gone to Plaid.  Do you think it was a harbinger of what was to come when last year after most of the guests had left during clean up I dropped a knife on my foot that was spurting blood like Mt Vesuvius?  It was a tiny cut but my Lover thought it could be serious and at the advice of the nurse hotline called 911.  Well after a visit from a policeman in charge and his two officers they brought in the two young EMT women and after pulling the bandage off my foot, she smiled and said “I think you are going to live”.  I may have to call them back this year so I can feel like it is a bit of normalcy, now who’s crazy? I actually turned into my mother and asked the Policemen, who were very cute, if they were single and tried to fix them up with the EMT gals. Apparently, I was not the first.

I was hoping there would be Fireworks, which usually happen over the harbor at midnight, but no, Covid has taken those as well. I mean it’s outside and freaking freezing, so fifteen minutes of lighting up the sky to Say F U 2020 is mildly appropriate but that’s out as well. Well, we will just have to make our own Fireworks and get Sandra Lee to do our tablescape and there you go, Happy New Year!!!

I am not going to go into any New Year’s resolutions as I have had nine months to make some changes and the only thing I did was rearrange some of my furniture. I didn’t even do the deepest purge like so many people in the beginning with all the cleaning and reorganizing, no pretty much laid on my ass watching Law and Order for the 37^th time, but 2021 is going to be very different, just now sure how. See you all next year.

Just saying…………………..

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DAY 271

Good Evening my Corona friends and I hope everyone is healthy and enjoying the lockdown. I know it has only been three days since my last rant but we had a snow day today, so I find myself with a little extra time.  Not that we need a snow day when you spend the whole day in your pajamas watching Hallmark Christmas and cleaning out your closets, right now that just feels like groundhogs day, but I will take it. You know what really bugs me about these big storms, is the dang local TV stations and their nonstop coverage by reporters as we have to watch as each inch falls. They preempt all the morning programs so I missed Gayle, Anthony, and Tony this morning on CBS, to get the blow by blow of falling snow. I could just sit back and enjoy a second cup of coffee, instead of running around getting ready for work and catch up on the latest and greatest, but no only more news that yes we got a boatload of snow, and really don’t care what is like past 128, because no one is going anywhere. We did get all geared up to venture out around noon and take a trip to the post office, and it was wonderful as there were no lines today. It really is beautiful walking in a foot of fresh snow. It’s what happens later that can ruin it fast. Today it was going to take a while longer to get all dirty, as there were really no cars on the road, just a lot of snow blowers. Walking along the channel the tide was so high that there was a river between us and the Barking Crab, just another reminder that you can’t eat out today. I remarked to my roommate that when we moved here five years ago, one of the best things about snow days, other than we no longer had to shovel snow all day, but we could walk down the street to our favorite spot and sit at the bar and enjoy a leisurely lunch while chatting it up with all the other snowbound people enjoying the bonus day. Well, Covid changed all that and I am pretty sure not much was even open for takeout today. I remember at the beginning of this whole Pandemic my daughter asked me what my plan was for stocking up for a possible shutdown and I said I live right down the street from plenty of hotels and they are always open so no worries.  Boy was I wrong about that and darn good thing that trader Joe’s opened here last fall or we would be without a lot of the time. Well signing up for that subscription of food boxes was genius, thank you, Sarah, because Techie has become quite adept at cooking, just wish he was as good at the cleanup, but I will take it. Speaking of which, we are pretty sure we have started a trend in our building because there are about 5 Hello Fresh deliveries in the lobby when there used to be only two.  I was getting pretty tired of it and have pared it down, but I love it when techie says I am cooking tonight, so I can sit back and have a cocktail while I research air streams to be ready to make our escape, as soon as it is safe to hit the road.

Tonight I got to live stream Susan Rice who was part of the speaker series at Symphony Hall and like everything else was put on hold during this pandemic. Celia, one of my besties, introduced me to this speaker series a few years back when one of the ticket holders had to bow out and I took her place and stayed on for the renewal.  It was a few years back when I met up for the first one and I arrived a bit more dressed up than usual, I figured Symphony hall, only to be met by Celia in jeans, she said I should have mentioned no one dresses up.  Ok then, my kind of people definitely the NPR crowd, in their LL Bean gear carrying the NPR tote bags, you know what I am talking about, the Intelligentsia Cambridge types who have crossed the river for the speakers. We had been thoroughly enjoying these evenings as a chance to meet for dinner and catch up, as she is still out in the burbs, and I am just like all my friends that I used to get mad when they wouldn’t drive out to Suburbia on a Saturday night.  I only like to go to places I can walk to or take the “T” public transportation, yes have become a bit of a curmudgeon in my old age, I own it. Tonight I watched the live streaming from my couch and at least I have Techie to set it up on the big screen so as not to have to watch it on my IPad.  Well, I did enjoy listening and watching Ambassador Rice, I just couldn’t stop looking at her background and those annoying doors. She just wasn’t set up properly for Zoom, no one properly did a perfectly styled bookcase with just the right amount of fiction and nonfiction, photos, and treasured mementos in her bookcase. Just a piece of art and then those annoying doors and it wasn’t even centered. Jared on the other hand had it going on, a really nice brown tone on the wall and a perfectly styled bookcase/wall unit behind him. Since I am a curmudgeon I will add that I just don’t care for that look with those white pods in his ears, I see them every day on people live streaming and have to say it’s kind of Star Trekky. Of course, I was longing for the company of my friend Celia when we could have a nice dinner and a few glasses of chardonnay and then get to the Hall and squeeze in one more before the start.  It is always a good thing that it never lasted a bit more than an hour, as there were no potty breaks. Just not the same sitting here with my roomie because he just doesn’t enjoy a good glass of chardonnay and we can’t catch up on the latest gossip or talk about our grandchildren. Great news vaccines are here and we will be some of the early ones, age does have its’ privilege, and we will be out and about in no time. Please get the Chardonnay on Ice, as we sure have a lot of catching up to do, and Celia just had another new grandson, Neil. She got me beat by five.

Just saying……………

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Good evening my Corona friends. I am almost afraid to ask, but I hope you are all doing well. It took me about ten minutes to do the math here on how many days since my last post and I haven’t even had a cocktail yet, well maybe a small one. I finder harder and harder to process. I know we are under full siege right now and cases and deaths are rising faster than 9/11, but thankfully the vaccine is rolling out, and I am getting a fake ID so I can be one of the first in line. My roommate qualifies and I am thinking we can designate the loft to be an assisted living of sorts to get in on the first doses. I mean we are having meals delivered in a box, does that count?  Seriously whatever it takes. We are all looking forward to some reassurance that it is safe to go back in the water. Jaws has nothing on this pandemic. I watched the news yesterday and today as the first trucks rolled out and I said to Techie they are making a huge deal of the delivery of this vaccine, and he said Ya think?  Duh, yes it is the reason we are stuck inside and I can’t go to the gym, when I just making headway with my trainer Khalil, so embarrassing if I ever get back there now that I am a bundle of blubber. Oh, my first world problems.

Speaking of first-world problems have you been to the supermarket lately? Who are all these robot people running around the store with their I-phones and badges? It can be kind of creepy. I first noticed it around Thanksgiving when I made one of my reluctant trips to Whole Foods, but hey I live in the city and it’s one of the only places with parking. These guys were running around the store filling up their carts and they acted like they were on supermarket sweep, driving a Corvette or something. I was chill didn’t go off on them about hogging the space in front of the Bells’ Seasoning, doing whatever they do with their phone to be sure it is the right one, because it was crunch time for Thanksgiving, NAMASTE.  Now they have invaded all the markets and I really don’t like it. It is like a bumper car ride with my grocery cart.  They are probably rewarded for how Fast they can fill each cart but seriously stopping in front of all the tea bags and scanning so many till you get to the right herbal essence healing sexually satisfying tea for that client can be really annoying. I can wait a bit, maybe even a minute, but now I am going to accidentally bump you so move along. The sexually satisfying was just to see if you were paying attention, it wouldn’t be in the tea aisle but maybe the Astroglide one.  Anyway, you get the picture now these robots inspired by that evildoer Amazon have taken over even one of the only pleasures we can still do during Covid. Yes going to the grocery store is now officially an outing and we have to plan accordingly to have the most efficient and comfortable experiences, but these supermarket sweepers are really cramping my style. I am going to have to go back to senior hours, those little buggers better not be there at the same time. It’s funny that this whole conversation came up because I was telling my roommate how annoying it was for me with the robots, then my daughter who is a millennial remarked on it the other day, and then last night I read in one of my favorite blogs from the Retail Dr (shout out to Jill Biden) he’s not a real Dr., that it’s not a good thing for Whole Foods.

I vote we have designated Robot hours.

Just sayin…………..

Good evening my Corona friends and excuse me if my math is off but I believe it was eight days since my last confession and “forgive me father for I have sinned”.  OMG, how many of us would say this in a weekly confession?  I really don’t want to go down that path, but for those of us who lived it, Twenty Hail Mary’s, 15 Our Fathers, and 16 Rosaries before Midnight.

Well, Holy Shit we are in for a wild ride, apparently, it is even worse than last spring, so stock up on the TP and Clorox, and don’t forget the mac and cheese. We are going into hibernation and I don’t have enough room in my freezer for all the Nutty buddies that I am going to need to survive this one. Luckily I am walking distance to Trader Joe’s and I can go at off hours and be home in fifteen minutes.  I have been avoiding them for a while because let’s face it, they have the crappiest junk food. I really crave a good potato chip. I would prefer Cape Cod chips but they have their own and they are heavy and greasy. Seriously I do have standards in chips and French fries. Today Lola burger is killing it with those truffle fries and they sure don’t break the bank.

Enough about food! I want to talk about visiting the post office not just during the time of Covid but also add the Christmas packages to be delivered. A lot is going on so if you go don’t plan on running in and out. Pull out your patience card and just breathe because it is going to be a long wait.  First of all, I noticed that most of the people in line were elderly women. Mind you I still think I am 35 so I have to wonder about them.  Everyone is quite patient and we are all standing on our designated spot, six feet apart and all that. Fully compliant. we are in Concord, first place in the nation to ban the sale of water in single-use bottles, so don’t mess with these elders, polite but fierce, surely what is lacking today. I love it they wait in line and then get up to the counter and pull out several packages and have to discuss the shipping of each package. My son nailed it tonight when he mentioned it was like a line full of “Auntie Judy’s’, and believe me she would have to tell the story about each and every package. This one is going to the UK and no I don’t need to rush it, yes this one should go out in two days, and this one for my Canadian family and so on and so on…. You get the picture but what you have to admire is the incredible patience of the postal employees and actually the people in line you never shouted out, who cares?  Seriously I wasn’t thinking that at all, Patience is my middle name, but you get the picture.  I really did get a special chuckle, when at the end of the transaction do you need any stamps and then so many said well yes I could use some and proceeded to peruse the stamp book and pick out some nice “Christmas Ones’ and again they were so patient discussing which would convey the best Christmas cheer.  But here is the kicker there were a couple of Millennials or Gen z hard to tell which but when they pulled out their 14 different packages they just handed over to the clerk and said Merry Christmas. Apparently, they did all their work on stamps.com and just needed to hand in their packages.   Well not to be outdone I put the postage on some of my packages, well Ok JB did it, for me, and I went to the really big GMF facility in Boston tonight, and sure enough at least a half-hour or more line, but the difference is they had a receptacle for small packages, and I just dumped them in there. Score one for the OLDS…………..

Just saying………………..

P. S. not to just toot my own horn but I cooked a delicious dinner courtesy of my hero Ina Garten tonight without a box and pretty sure it was excellent.  My roommate really enjoyed it, yes he is still my roommate and I am going to need my techie if we go into serious lockdown.

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