Why?

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I am trying to get back to writing daily but it’s not going well. I’ve been Covid-free for a couple of weeks now, but I’m having a hard time getting my routine back, such as it was. Some days, I want to write but can’t think of anything to say. This morning, the subject of “why” came up a few times. So, here goes:

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Why can’t they make packaging easy to open? Some people have arthritis in their hands, like me. It’s not terribly bad – yet – but I still struggle to get things open. And then I lose my patience and want to chuck it out the window!

Why aren’t public restroom doors automatic? It defeats the purpose of hand washing if you have to touch the nasty dirty door handle. I always use the paper towel I dried my hands with to open the door, but then I’m stuck with the paper towel because the trash can is rarely close to the door. Ugh.

Speaking of paper towels… Why are the paper towel dispensers so far from the sink? I am disabled and I use 2 crutches. I cannot walk without them. I have to be extra cautious about wet floors because if one of my crutch tips hits a wet spot, then I’m down for the count. I don’t especially want to fall on my face. So if the dispenser isn’t close to the sink, people drip water across the floor, making a mess for me to fall in. Surely I am not the only one who worries about this.

Why do people give God credit for everything good that happens? If a person passes a difficult test, for example, they give God credit for it. Why? God didn’t do the work. He didn’t study for the test. Why does God get credit for the good things but doesn’t get the blame when someone is killed in an accident or when someone is the victim of murder?

Why do people get so worked up about stupid memes? I mean, I know that people have different perspectives; perspectives that are based on their own life experiences. But why get so worked up? If you don’t like something you see, then keep scrolling, delete it, unfollow it, or whatever works. Don’t comment, just move on because the person who posted it has a different perspective based on his or her own life experiences.

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What are your thoughts? Let’s discuss…but in a friendly manner. Any rude or nasty comments will be deleted because…this is my blog, not yours.

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Never Again…

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It’s been a rough week. Physically and mentally. Draining. Not that busy mind you, but for my pain-laden body it’s been a bit too much.

On Tuesday, I had a curbside order to pick up and they must’ve had troubles that day because after I checked in, I had to wait for 20 minutes before they even acknowledged I was there. Then it was another 10 minutes before my groceries came out. No big deal really. I know shit happens. It’s just the waiting. I’ve never been good at waiting. On the way home I must have got behind every slow driver in the county! Good grief. I’m sure most of those people think it’s safer to drive slow – FOR THEM maybe, but not for other drivers. Other drivers, like me, will sometimes get impatient and pass in the wrong places. I have passed where it is not advisable but I only pass if can see far enough ahead that there is no oncoming traffic. I just hate getting behind someone doing 25-30 in a 55!! Anyway, I finally made it home only to have to unload the groceries I just picked up. Now my knees were killing me.

Wednesday began with me trying to figure out how I was going to get Alice to the vet for her yearly check-up and vaccinations without her hiding from me. Last month, she knew something was up because the carrier was out and she saw that I was getting ready to go somewhere. She hid under my bed so I took Jack to the vet instead. No big deal, but she had to go eventually. So, in order to trick her, I wore my sweatpants and I didn’t style my hair. Boy, did I feel like a slob! The carrier has been sitting out since last month so she was used to seeing it. She didn’t have a clue what was going on and she came right to me and I picked her up and put her in the carrier. Of course, she put up a little bit of a fight but I got her in there! She weighs 16 lbs. now and Dr. Missy gave her the dewormer I brought because I could never get pills down her throat. She would always gag them back up. Too expensive to waste them! I was able to deworm Jack and BobCat with no trouble. Anyway, that was the end of that but by the time I got home, I was exhausted.

Thursday was by far, the MOST aggravating day of the week! Dad and I had our appointment at the Health Department for the newest COVID-19 vaccine. That went pretty smoothly but then Dad saw the sign that read “Get Your Shingles Vaccine Today” and we both needed to get the shingles vaccine so I inquired at the window and a nurse took our insurance cards so we could set up an appointment, but my insurance won’t cover it and they are out of the state-provided vaccine (that would be free for me) so I have to go somewhere else. Dad has an appointment next month because his insurance covers the vaccine. After an hour of waiting and being informed of this and that, we were finally done and left. That’s when the fun started. Ha. I decided I wanted to pop into Walmart to pick up ONE thing and get some cash back. I haven’t been to Walmart in a couple of years! And maybe only twice since COVID-19 began. Luckily they had scooters available and I grabbed one with 100% power, if you can believe that! But the POS kept stopping as I was moving along. Do you know how irritating that is? Then as I was headed to the front of the store, some guy walked out in front of me as if I wasn’t even there! He didn’t even acknowledge what he did. I should have just ran into him instead of being the “nice guy” and stopping abruptly. After picking up more things than I really wanted, I was ready to check out and Dad was tired as hell. Check-out went smoothly. Afterward, we headed out the door but the fucking scooter decided to STOP again just as I was going through the doors. I had people behind me wanting out the door but the scooter wouldn’t budge. I was furious! And then to make me nearly come unhinged, a Walmart employee yells at me very loudly, “You have to use the controls!” I just about lost my shit! I yelled back, “I AM using the controls! How the hell do you think I got to this point? You moron!” I know. It was rude of me but geez, do these people think that disabled people are stupid or something? He could have assisted me since he was aware that I was having a problem but no, he just yelled at me. I was so painfully aware of people behind me wanting out the door and I was extremely frustrated. I told Dad to give me a push to see if the damn scooter would move and it still wouldn’t budge. Somehow, I did get out of the door and to the edge of the parking lot. I knew that if I tried to cross the lot to get to the car it was just going to stop again and I didn’t want to be stranded in the middle of the parking lot waiting to be run over! I asked Dad to grab the shopping basket that someone abandoned parked to my right. I got off of the scooter, loaded my stuff into the shopping basket, and Dad pushed the cart while I hobbled on my crutches to the car. I hope to never HAVE to go inside a Walmart again as long as I live!

I am so worn out today and in pain, too. My arm is sore as hell from the COVID-19 vaccine. I can barely walk and I still had to fix lunch. I also have laundry and other chores to do but you know what? It can all just sit and wait until I feel like doing it. On the bright side, I managed to finish my latest grandbaby’s baby blanket so I can send it home with my son today when he’s done working on the new house. I actually finished the blanket last night but I had to wash and dry it before giving it away! I’m adding a couple photos to this post. I don’t know how good they are since the lighting is shit in my house. The colors are Light Sage, Blue Spruce, Gray Mist, and Antique White, and are much brighter than the photos show! The lower left-hand corner looks a bit wonky but I just didn’t have it spread out properly.

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What’s Eating Aunt Debbie?

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War in Ukraine and Israel

Such hatred and evil in the hearts of men. I often wonder how things would be if women ruled the world. I’d like to think that women would find a better way to solve problems than killing and holding hostages.

Covid Sucks

Dad and I made it through Covid. Guess we’re back to masking. We also need our updated vaccine. We hadn’t been sick since before Covid and after going through it, I’d rather not go through it again. Next time, Dad may not be so lucky as to have a mild case. I was miserable but I’m guessing it was also pretty mild considering I didn’t have trouble breathing and I didn’t end up in the hospital. Hell, maybe I won’t be so lucky next time, either. Protect yourselves, folks. It’s no fun.

Let It Be

This song hit me in the feels this morning. Not only did it bring back memories from my childhood but it also made me think about the sad state of the world today. War, hatred, poverty, disease…

I hope you’re having a good week. Stay safe and healthy.

Until next time,

aunt-debbie

Sick of Being Sick!

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This will be short and sweet… Well, maybe not so short and surely not sweet.

Earlier this week, I mentioned being sick. It never occurred to me that Dad and I might have Covid. Ugh. After a friend of mine told me she had it I figured I’d better pull out the home tests. Sure enough, we both tested positive.

Trust me, you don’t want to get this. Dad and I are vaccinated and get boosted every 6 months. We still got Covid. We rarely go anywhere, except maybe Walmart curbside service and occasionally out to eat. This is NOT like the flu. I don’t care what anyone tells you.

The worst part has been the sore throat. It feels like someone forced me to drink gravel or asphalt. I’m sure the coughing for 24 hours straight didn’t help. My ears are plugged up. I had a fever of 103.4 for about 6 hours, then it went down to normal. I get the chills off and on and the next thing I know, I feel like someone has put electric blankets on me at the highest setting when all I had on was a hoodie. I can’t concentrate for very long. My voice went out yesterday and I still can’t talk worth a crap. I can’t even sing to my furbabies all the made-up songs I always sing! If I can’t talk how the heck would I call the doctor? I have heard people say to stay hydrated but I can’t drink much of anything without choking. I even choke on soup so I haven’t eaten in 3 days. I drink coffee in the morning to stave off the caffeine withdrawal headache but it’s not easy. Small, slow sips…and I still choke. Same thing with hot tea. It soothes the throat IF I can manage to swallow without choking. I’ve gone through 3 boxes of tissues just since Tuesday. That isn’t counting what Dad has used. My nose looks redder than Rudolph’s! I’m achy from head to foot, but my back aches more than anything else. I literally have no energy and I am exhausted not long after waking up. I’m so damn weak! I’ve been trying to manage the symptoms of this crud with OTC meds like Mucinex, Nyquil, Mucinex pain relieving cough drops, honey-lemon cough drops, and a few other things that didn’t seem to do anything at all. I’ve had to make sure nothing interacts with my pain meds. Musinex is what’s working the best so far.

The good news is that I have just drank a whole cup of coffee while writing this and only choked twice, so maybe I’m on the mend. Dad is doing much better than I am, most likely because he got sick first. He said his symptoms weren’t nearly as bad as mine so that’s a big plus!

Hopefully, this won’t last much longer! I hate being sick but I’ve never been a big baby about it. This crud they call Covid will knock you on your ass IF you’ve been lucky enough to not end up in the hospital.

Until next time,

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A Long Post About Procrastination, Being Sick, and Me Not Knowing Anything Because I’m A Woman! Ugh!

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Well, I was on an 18-day streak until yesterday. I just didn’t have time to write, but there’s a perfectly good explanation for that.

Many, many months ago I told Dad that we needed to get the brakes on the car looked at because when it’s coming to a stop, you can feel the brakes jerking. I know nothing about it but it was like it would catch and then slip, catch and then slip, until the car finally stopped. Now, I have had the brakes go out on me back in 2008 at an intersection and it was scary as hell! I didn’t especially want that to happen again! Anyway, I kept telling him, week after week, for months that this needed to be taken care of before it got worse. Months and months before that I was reminding him that the car was due for an oil change, according to the sticker they put in the window. If procrastination was a sport, Dad would get a gold medal.

He finally decided to make an appointment. Well, that was last week and they changed the oil and wiper blades as we requested but the brakes were so messed up that we had to bring the car back in…yesterday morning at 8 a.m. Which meant we had to get up at 6 a.m. to be ready to leave by 7 a.m. I am not much of a morning person, especially that early!

So, we sat there in the Ford place and while sitting there I started feeling really crappy. I had been having sinus issues for a week or so but yesterday, it turned into more. More on that later. They finally finished the car around 2 p.m. They replaced the wiper fluid mechanism that was damaged during a hail storm a few months back and there was an issue with the fuel injectors and some other shit I know nothing about. Anyway, the cost of everything that had to be done was $2,273!! The brakes are what did it. I asked Dad if perhaps if they had been looked at months ago, would it not have cost so much? He agreed, and then to my surprise, he admitted that it was his own damn fault.

This whole “cost too much money” episode reminds me of several times in the past when Dad procrastinated to the point that it cost him more in the end to fix the problem. Like the slow leak under the kitchen sink… I told him I thought it was the porcelain sink rusting around the drain. Of course, being a woman I don’t know a Goddam thing and he said that just because there’s rust doesn’t mean it’s leaking. Duh, right?

Ok, fast forward, the leak got worse and it became obvious that the leak was indeed due to the rust around the drain because we could now see the damn hole! It cost him over $400 to replace the sink, the plumbing, and the bottom of the cabinet underneath the sink. He and my son did the work so there were no labor costs involved. That was a long time ago so you can imagine the cost these days! Another time, and this will blow your freaking mind, we had a small hairline crack in the bottom of our fiberglass tub/shower unit. I told Dad we needed to find some kind of glue or epoxy or something before the crack got worse. In Walmart, I happened to find a glue made especially for fiberglass tubs. It was $10 and Dad said, “That’s too much money for glue and it probably won’t work anyway.” Okay….so let’s not do anything at all, right? Well, that’s what we did and that crack turned into a little dime-sized hole. Then it grew into a 3-inch hole!

Dad told us all (my kids were not yet out on their own) to just straddle the hole when we take a shower. Holy crap! What about all the water draining out of that 3-inch hole and going under the tub? I don’t even remember how long we showered like that but it was a long time before Dad decided to replace the tub. He also had to replace the flooring under the tub, for obvious reasons. That whole project cost him around $700 and it was he and my son doing the work. That was back in the 90s, so that’s cheap compared to what it would cost now! But that glue would have been a cheaper solution if used right away! About a year after he replaced the tub/shower unit, it got a tiny crack in the bottom AGAIN! I told him it was probably caused by not being level but of course, what the fuck do I know? Anyway, I went out and got that damn glue that cost a little more than it did when I pointed it out to him before, and I brought it home. I followed the instructions and sealed that crack! It’s been years now and it hasn’t changed. No leaks.

Back to the Ford place now. By the time we left, I was exhausted and felt like “pounded pig shit” as we say in my house. We stopped for some Mexican food because we hadn’t eaten all day but I didn’t enjoy it at all. I just wanted to sleep because I felt so awful. Dad just got over the worst part a couple of days prior from the same thing and now I had it. When we got home, I fed my furbabies, changed my clothes, and hit my lift chair. I tried to sleep but I had the chills. I was so cold! For 2 hours I tried to sleep it off but I never did get warm enough to sleep. I tried to work on my jigsaw puzzle later but I just couldn’t concentrate. My head was throbbing. I ached from head to foot, especially my shoulders from tensing up while I was trying to get warm, I think. I laid back down in my chair and took my temperature. It was 103.4 – no wonder I was feeling so crappy! I finally got my fever down to normal around 10pm but I still had that damn headache! I got to thinking it was probably from caffeine withdrawal because I hadn’t had but a glass of iced tea with lunch. I didn’t dare drink any coffee before we left the house or even on the drive. My bladder isn’t very cooperative these days.

So here I sit with coffee in hand, hoping the caffeine takes the headache away! It has helped but I still feel like crap. Dad says he has a sore throat and that he’s on the mend and I’m glad for that because he’s 86 years old and doesn’t need to end up in the hospital. I don’t want to be in the hospital, either but I’ll be back to normal, whatever that is, in a few days.