Random 5 for May 10 – Mother’s Day, quarantine, crazies, event, upbeat

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Mother’s Day – This was a particularly difficult week here. I did what I often do during tough times, I channeled my mother. She’s been gone for over 30 years but I still miss her. She was born just before World War I, survived the death of her father when she as a child, the great depression, World War II, the early death of her husband and painful family dysfunction. She was a true survivor. She was supportive and always full of good advice (which I often didn’t take). She was almost always right. OK, maybe always. If I could choose any woman in the world to be my mother, I would choose her. It was the right fit for me. That’s the best tribute I can give her.

Extensions, extensions – Our quarantine has been extended another month for my area. I live in an area that’s been hard hit by covid19. The obituary section of the newspaper has blown up. It’s far larger than our sports section (which is just about non-existent)! Our nursing homes took the biggest hit but there are young people dying too.

Insanity – Despite all that there are people wanting to return to their own life. I even saw picket signs saying that the “weak” should be sacrificed. I wonder if they would sacrifice their parent, spouse, child or best friend. No wonder I like cats more than people. People be nuts.

Place markers – Some events mark time. In the old days it was the birth of Christ, BC and AD. Now it’s often before 9/11 and after 9/11. I have a feeling that this pandemic is going to be another time mark because life afterward will be different. There was normal time and afterward.

Ending on a cheery note – Despite all that, it’s very green and beautiful here. New life goes on and every day we wake up is a good day.

So how was your week?

 

 

72 thoughts on “Random 5 for May 10 – Mother’s Day, quarantine, crazies, event, upbeat”

  1. “She was supportive and always full of good advice (which I often didn’t take). She was almost always right.” That got a grin. Sounds like you had a great mom – she must of been, look at you. She’d be proud. Mother’s Day I would be just as glad to skip – mine was not quite Joan Crawford’s “Mommy Dearest” – she did her best, but she was often depressed, adored my older perfect (not) brother, and I didn’t fit her expectations/criteria and was constantly reminded of it. It was what it was. And this year the virus has kept us away from the new granddaughter.
    as you said 2020 is not such a joy.
    Our SB now has drive through…if we ever get out HAHA.
    Locals need to decide the opening process and speed. (and not with costumes including flags and guns – seriously people. Broadway is closed and too are the film sets. Dumb.)
    People have been scared to death overt this thing, so far it has not overwhelmed our Med Center/regional hospitals. Numbers of cases are up here since testing is more available. What I watch are the ICU capacity numbers and the deaths. One neighbor who is still working from home says at least one death in his office group. His wife is in social work and going in every day – we all worry as they have 2 young kids. The neighbor down the block with 3 kids is a nurse helping out in NYC. Fingers crossed there, too. We’ve lost a business partner. Our little city has had 2 nursing homes with virus. They have to screen the cleaning staff, too who tend to go from one to another – caused spread here. Oddly twice as many white people are dying in this county than Hispanic or Blacks – their numbers of deaths about equal. And the age groups most at risk is also oddly 31-60’s yrs. Of the 19 counties included in the metro area numbers, only the Big City has more minority/black deaths than whites. They have located from the beginning most of the testing sites in those areas hoping to catch sick people. This virus is color blind and attacking everyone pretty much equally here according to the local statistics.
    So yeah, people know the risk, I’m wiling to let those that want to slowly get back out there – with a few behavior changes: surgery masks instead of cloth that isn’t effective, even better those clear plastic shields over the masks (eyes are an entry point), distancing, and constantly washing hands/not touching face. It’s warm, sunny and we don’t have much mass transportation. People are outdoors a lot and there are patios. People know the risk and make their own choices.
    For us, we’re staying in, still doing food pick ups…but it is getting tiring – we may try to walk the Galveston beach during the week early. Beaches are closed pretty much on weekend. Oh, to be feel comfortable to buy some plants! But two little basil plants came up next to the winer defat battered stalks! Now that’s happiness.
    The world has totally changed. Take care and hang in there!

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    • We have cold weather with frost warnings this week. Very unusual for us. People who planted for Mother’s Day lost or covered. My tomatoes are still on my counter going out for some sun on warm days and staying in at night (just like the rest of us). I’d love sun and heat. I don’t know if that affects the virus in any way but it would make me feel better. Stay safe.

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      • Sun and outdoors always helps…whether it’s the additional Vitamin D or breeze disrupting particle spread/longevity, high humidity causing particles to drop to ground faster – who knows. This virus is one for the books and still unpredictable. Researchers say it’s better to be outside in sun than in enclosed rooms with recycled air,…(.probably because of the indoor going nuts factor? ) Apparently warm sunny weather is one reason the Spanish Flu disappeared. (fingers crossed now)
        And sun makes you sleepy – time passes faster that way? HAHA.
        We’re in spring tornado and flood season….as if it wasn’t boring enough – but hey the lawn and plants are really happy.
        We’re managing, but RC Cat is tired of the dog trying to play with her. Take care ( and sorry for the long responses)

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  2. It sounds like your mother and mine had similar life experiences and resilience. I’m sure, too, that she would love your tribute.
    I also think a lot about how the post-covid world will be and try to remain hopeful. It seems like this illness will make us face problems we have kept buried and unsolved for years. (or decades, or centuries). The scary part is that our futures will be determined by voters for the most part – and they aren’t exactly the most trustworthy bunch!

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  3. I hadn’t at all thought about the time reference this pandemic will leave, but you’re absolutely right in that it will replace 9/11 as the new timestamp. It’s on a scale that dwarfs nearly everything else. Yes, sports sections are all but one or two pages now. – Marty

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  6. Gosh Kate, I didn’t get to comments yesterday… sorry. I don’t know if I felt overwhelmed or I just felt joyless yesterday. Your Mother’s Day tribute to your Mom was a memory for me and my Mom. I still miss my Mom beyond belief. I am troubled by Florida just throwing the doors open again even though our cases of corona continue to rise. They closed the beaches in Naples yesterday. I don’t feel like the powers that be in Washington value our lives. I have been hanging on to the very thoughts that you mention at the end of your post.

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    • My mother is gone and I don’t have kids so we don’t celebrate it here. It was a very quiet weekend but with the worst weather! By next weekend we should see a change in weather patterns hopefully for the season.

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          • Well, I won’t say God put humans here just to serve us felines, but… Yeah, Sasha has cancer and that mean vet said there’s nothing we can do. She is okay as long as she takes her medicine for now. I’m trying not to cry in front of her, but I can’t help it. Salem cries when no one is looking. She’s only 9 so I think I will keep her in my blog so she can live on forever like she is supposed to.

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            • Whenever you think you have it bad, there is someone worse. Mollie was 16. She had a good long life (not that it’s any consolation to those she left behind). Nine is way too young. I lost Hazel at 12 and thought I was robbed. I keep all my cats, past and present in the rotating photo headers. Not yet but eventually I will be able to look at her picture and enjoy her beauty without crying. Hugs for Sasha and everyone else there.

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              • Yes, she was quite beautiful. Maybe she will help show Sasha around in Heaven when her time comes. It’s nice to think that she will have friends there. Hugs to you too. I have to go get a tissue. God bless you and thanks for the kind words.

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  8. It will definitely be interesting to see how things are different after this. It’s true that 9/11 changed things is quite a lot of ways. Sometimes its hard to remember how things used to be – this has the feel of an even that will change things fundamentally as well. Take care and be well!

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  9. Your mother sounds like an extraordinary person. My mom is on lock down in her senior facility. We all (2 kids and 3 grandkids) stood out in the rain and held up signs of “we love you” for her to see from her window. I haven’t seen her (other than through a window) in 3 months, and she has serious health issues. I do believe she needs to stay put to stay safe. I don’t believe we need to stay put where we live (only 227 out of 112,000 got the bug in our suburb), but we still wouldn’t be able to see our mom. The vulnerable and the sick do need to stay locked down. In the meantime, healthy people are struggling to feed their families. There are ways to protect ourselves when out and about, but we need to get back to work.

    I hope you’re still able to get your Starbucks. Thinking of you and Mollie. 💗

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    • All places are different. We have a lot of cases here, the highest in the state which is within the top 5 in the country. Most are in nursing homes but not all. The spouse of a friend died at 50. The governor has started to relax some rules. We can buy plants now at garden centers and most restaurants are open for take out. The realtors are fighting for an exemption too. They can certainly set up guidelines to open that up. There are people in a catch 22 of having put money down on a home but unable to sell theirs. Construction has resumed. What hasn’t gone away is the deep seated fear within people. I have neighbors who have not come out in 8 weeks. Through this all, I have gotten my SB every day. My store was the only one initially that stayed open and it was drive-through only. Some days I’d wait 20 minutes in line. I was hanging on to that last piece of normalcy. About 2 weeks about they opened mobile orders again. Pick up is outside but I can get my coffee in 5 minutes. Mollie was a very special cat. I still can’t believe she’s gone. She was very healthy and I was sure she’d be my first cat to hit 20 years but it was not meant to be. Hugs for your mom. My bro-in-law is in the same boat but with dementia so he doesn’t understand.

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  10. I like what you said about your mother Kate … we cannot choose our mothers, but mine was special too. Her influence will be felt for years to come. We just got our stay-at-home order extended to May 28th. Our state has been in the news too much, not just for our horrible stats, but the groups at the Capitol building where the Governor is – last week a group of 100 rushed the door bearing long guns and Confederate flags. They had to bring in the military police to calm them down. They were unmasked and got into the officers’ faces … social distancing … hah. The stats for the future and August projections are disheartening. Life will never be the same, no matter how experts try to sugar-coat it. Our weather is cold and it’s rained 4-5 times today and is pouring now, maybe morphing into snow showers – it goes with the rest of our life right now. I am dealing with an invasion of ants – no, the Terro is not working and I’ve killed at least 25 today and one is dancing around on my ceiling as I write this.

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    • The only good thing here is that the ants haven’t come yet. There have been some protests in our state. Our governor also extended our stay at home until June 4 but they are relaxing some rules. There are more exemptions. Can’t figure out what confederate flags are doing in Michigan. People be nuts. I understand the angst of losing your job (although all I see are people wailing about haircuts). Waving flags won’t fix that. In our area there are a lot of delivery jobs open. It may not be what you had but it can tide you over.

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      • Thank goodness you don’t have ants – you don’t need that right now. I think the worst of the wave was the weekend, though I was sitting here and felt something on my hand this afternoon and looked down – an ant. I don’t get the flags either and the long guns are hardly necessary to protest losing one’s non-essential rights. People be nuts – yes. South Carolina is having a similar protest tomorrow. I told my boss that once everything is up and running, there will be queries on what to do or how to handle situations. We have a lot of construction and maritime clients. I hope I am not laid off. It happened in 2008 due to the recession. My boss hopes to stay in business two more years and retire at 75 and 50 years in practice. I will be 66 and retire then. If he shuts down earlier, I’ll most likely retire too (fingers crossed).

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          • The ants have driven me crazy in the kitchen today. I work from the kitchen table on my laptop … I had four on the table over the course of the day. I’ve been looking up at the ceiling – they are not up there. Not on the countertop either … so that is a mystery to me, but don’t like them on the kitchen table any more than I like them on the counter-top or in my bed. Thank you – I know Robb does not want to retire. He would be bored. I would not be bored and will look forward to having more free time … just not yet.

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              • I’ve had two on the kitchen table today and none in the bedroom this morning before I left on my walk. I’ve not been back there except a minute to get dressed before I got to work. Maybe because I kept the light off before I went to bed thinking they might stay put? I have to find a better product. I asked my neighbor what he was using … he said he was going to buy Boric acid and honey. I’m not messing with that – honey will be messy and I don’t want sweet stuff sitting out.

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                  • We were sprayed in the basement and garage and perimeter of the house for years for spiders and centipedes. The smell was horrible and it was applied by a person wearing very heavy gloves. I could never take my bird downstairs to keep him cool if there was a power outage (canaries don’t do well in heat) because of the spray. I have not been sprayed for 10 years now.

                    I have less ants today which surprises me as we had an all-day torrential rain. I am going to document this because I am wondering if it is a week of sporadic appearances, then an onslaught, then it’s over by the end of two weeks’ time max. Then next year, I’ll tell myself to just be calm and it will run its course. I had all-house insulation put in in 2017 and was told every outside crack was totally sealed and I would never see any type of bug ever. Right. I did have a centipede upstairs in my room last night and I did not get it and I am beside myself about it. Last night I was a Nervous Nellie getting ready for bed. Of all the places to be at large, that is the one place I don’t want it. We have two of the next three days with heavy rain and likely his/her relatives will be coming in.

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  12. Happy Mother’s Day. Anyone with pets is a mum of sorts and deserves to be celebrated on this day. Other than a pet ER visit, life goes on as usual. We’re like a bottle of shampoo, wet, lather, rinse, repeat. Our shutdown is only slightly reduced but I’ll be continuing the same way. Like I said, wet, lather, rinse, repeat. Here’s to a better week.
    P.S. Your mum sounds like quite the inspiration. 💗

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  14. That was a lovely tribute to your mom. I think we appreciate more after they’re gone–more and more every year. My mom died in 2011. Sometimes I used to wish that she was a little bit different, maybe more outgoing or something. But then, she wouldn’t be my mom, would she? Now my sister and I talk about all the wonderful things she was and did and how lucky we were to be raised by her and my dad.

    I know we should concentrate on living in the present. Good advice. But I’m always interested in what the future holds. When intelligent, knowledgeable people talk about what the new normal will be, my ears perk up. No one knows. But we can make some guesses and we can have some hopes, especially about improving in some ways. I just heard about some city putting in more bike paths for now and for later. That sounds good.

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  16. Very interesting and thoughtful observation about time…and yes, it will now be …before the pandemic or BP and AP for afterwards. Or perhaps BQ (before the quarantine) and AQ for afterwards. But, there is one more…NN That is the new normal. I so wonder what that will be!

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  19. That is a great tribute to your mom. I’ve spent my life trying to be the opposite of my mom–with limited success! 🙂

    There was a fascinating/ horrifying article in The Atlantic about how Trump and his supporters pivoted to “the economy is worth dying for!” as soon as the numbers showed that Black Americans, Latinos, and poor Americans were doing most of the dying. I wish Trump’s valet had coughed on him a little more.

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  20. I agree with you that the Pandemic is going to be a place marker in history. There’ll be the before times and the after times. All we have to do is survive the during time. Stay safe, be well.

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    • Yes, the “during time” is’t fun. I did grocery shopping (the short run for milk) this a.m. We went early. Hardly any people and we got everything needed. Win! This is at a smaller store. We do that BIG shopping at another grocery store with a better selection of produce. That’s a wait in queue and try to distance trip that’s always nerve-wracking.

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  21. Loved the Mother’s Day tribute to your mom.

    To maintain my sanity, I am refraining (as much as possible) from judging COVID-19 things (actions, decisions, stats) as good or bad. Instead, I am watching what is happening with “alert curiosity” ~> and some actions & decisions are indeed “curious” . . . causing me to ask “what were they thinking?” 😛

    Hang in there, Kate. I know it’s been a tough couple of weeks for you, but your mom raised you right. So you’re resilient. AND you have common sense. Peace!

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  22. You had a tough week for sure! We’re waiting to see what the “slight relaxing” after May 15th will mean for us here in our area – but I’m anxious to see what that means and intend to keep doing what we’ve been doing until things are more CLEAR. I know the economy stinks because people aren’t working but I think losing lives is a far worse road to travel than making some changes for the greater good. Too bad we don’t have any REALISTIC guidance from the powers that be. Typical. Here’s to a better week ahead Kate!

    Hugs, Pam

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    • Like you, we will continue to do what makes us feel safe even if there are relaxations. This past week hit a little closer to home as the spouse of someone I know well died from it. It’s real.

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  24. Whereas we have Big Quarantine News at 7pm tonight. Don’t know what it will be but everyone has decided that lockdown will be lifted, which is quite the most insane thing ever apart from shaking hands with coronavirus patients with no protection and then bragging about it afterwards. Which our esteemed leader also did.

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    • We’ve been extended but they are relaxing some things with conditions. People are getting really crazy though. When they do a quarantine, it should come with a supply of Xanax or some tranquilizer for people.

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  25. With the President saying he is willing to sacrifice lives for the economy, it isn’t a surprise that others are echoing the statement. Very sad state of affairs.

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