We had our first snow of the season this week! It was terribly exciting (for me). I love snow. I love everything about it: the fact that no two snowflakes are the same, how slowly the flakes waft to the ground, watching how it slowly covers the ground – first, wetting the grass, then a soft, icy layer and then how it slowly builds in thickness. Very few people go out in it while it is falling, and that first crunch under your feet just enthralls me.
We only got 2 ½”, but it still felt like our first real snowfall. We usually have had a lot more snow by this time of year, but I think winter only really started a week ago! Then, there’s the rush of kids to the slopes! Any slope will do! Our local park has a great small slope for kids to slide their plastic sleds down and there are snow angels dotted around the area too.
It was the first time I had to sweep and scrape ice and snow off my car. It took quite a while, but I layered up and wore gloves. My car started first time (YES!) and I put all the heaters on to help defrost it while I scraped. Once the car was cleared, Greg brought the snow shovel and salt upstairs for me and I tackled the driveway, sidewalk, and path. Luckily, it was fluffy snow so not heavy.
Greg had to go to the office and even though I asked him many times if I could take him, he declined, saying that he had his YakTrax and would be fine. I’ve learnt to stop feeling guilty when he walks to work in snow, ice, rain because he tells me that he needs the exercise and enjoys his walk. I’m certain that all the neighbour’s think I’m THE most awful wife “making my poor blind husband walk to his office”. I’m not, it’s at his request. He’s quite a sight to behold, layered up like the marshmallow character with a huge laundry backpack strapped to his back.
I love the immediate quiet after the snow has fallen. The trees are beautifully covered with icicles and the mix of white on green and brown is startling. The slight breeze causing the fluffiness to blow off, usually onto my nicely cleaned off sidewalk, and instantly freezing to ice. I must keep reminding myself that even though the paths look clear, there’s usually a great deal of undetected ice making it look like glass and as slippery as, well, ice! Seldom a winter season passes without me skating on the path by mistake.
Today we are getting a lot of rain which will wash all the snow away. Hopefully, we are not finished with the snow for the season and we’ll get a good dumping before spring. For now, today I will watch the last dredges of snow melt while sipping my hot chocolate and playing with my cats.
Category: Lisa’s Updates
Inauguration Day – January 20, 2021
It’s an extraordinary feeling! It has been such a tumultuous previous four years and I can almost feel the global relief as the world finally lets out their breath that they’ve been holding onto for 4 years. Colour is returning to our faces and I have a sense of peace and calm.
I always wonder why anyone would want the job of president. Who would want that kind of power, distinction and responsibility? I know that on a global scale, it’s just far too big for me to deal with, but locally I’ve been involved in community things and that’s the scale that suits me. Sometimes even on that scale it can be very overwhelming and infuriating too.
I’ve developed a newfound admiration for VP Kamala Harris. She strikes me as a very real person, and I look forward to seeing how she handles this new position. We all know that President Joe Biden is everyone’s friend. They have their work cut out for them undoing all of Trump’s ridiculous work. Restoring the nation’s trust is going to be a 24/7 job.
I do wish people (media) would stop referring to Kamala Harris as the first of everything. Yes, we all know that and we’re all as pleased as punch about it, but let’s focus on her accomplishments and her ideas going forward and not about her race, colour, creed etc. That is not the focus of who she is.
Joe Biden’s speech was a refreshing, positive and uplifting call for peace and unity. At the end of it I just wanted to leap up and hug him and then follow him around the White House all day. The poem by Amanda Gordan was exceptionally inspiring and she oozed meaning and hope. Thinking about the inauguration, the word that springs to mind is “refreshing”. Under the previous administration everything seemed to be so abrupt and uncertain and left people hating one another. Rational people have been perpetually aghast and disgusted and its finally a thrill to see a light at the end of the tunnel, that is not an on-coming train!
Today is the beginning of restoration. It will not be easy and it’s not as if a magic wand has been waved, but it’s a start and I’m embracing it! Are you?
A Look Back at 2020
I’ve been pondering for a few days what to think of 2020. Off the bat all the rotten things come to mind: virus, pandemic, death, sickness, heartache, depression, grief and everything that goes with it. I must admit that I’m battling to find sparks of good. Believe it or not, but I’ve mostly kept rather quiet about our personal lives this year. It’s hard to believe when you see me so active on Facebook. Here are my musings:
January: It started with me being very ill with pneumonia (3rd time in a year). I was at the urgent care clinic twice and on a load of medications to keep me going. I recovered, slowly. My container from South Africa arrived with all my most prized treasures from my parents’ house. There weren’t a lot of items, but everything had meaning and was very special to me. I still haven’t decided on the best places for the paintings. We had a quick visit from an old school friend of mine and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. Another friend moved in with us for a few months while she got her life on track. I believe it was as healing for her as it was for me. My job started to get a little peculiar and we started going through evaluations which turned out to be very positive and we even got a small increase.
February: Rumours of a virus in China were floating around, but we carried on as if it would never get here and cause us any issues. How truly ignorant we were! I continued with book club meetings, socials and the usual scheduled events. Bear had a birthday, followed the next day by Greg’s birthday. We went out to a brewery to celebrate with Greg. Our neighbourhood happy hour group had our last in-person Tweetup of the year, unbeknownst to us! My job carried on as if nothing weird was happening although we knew something was up. We had an early Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday so I made pancakes as per usual. Lent started.
March: I went to a lovely exhibition at the St. Louis Art Museum – Art in Bloom, where various florists displayed an arrangement according to a theme. It was a lovely, refreshing day. I mailed off my application to get my British passport renewed. The virus is here in all its glory and my work closed down for the last 2 weeks of the month. We worked from home and I collected mail from the post office and took care of business at the office once or twice a week. We attended a work board meeting conference call and from that, we knew the proverbial brown stuff was about to be flung against the fan.
April: Work was open for the first few days while we tried to figure out what to do. We were told to apply for unemployment and continue to work from home until further notice. Greg closed his business for 2 1/2 months as required by the Health Department, and was able to apply for unemployment (of sorts) during this time. I filed for unemployment on April 5th. Easter happened and we had a lovely Easter Sunday with good food and a nice relaxing day. I started to prepare the garden for planting. We had our first Zoom Happy Hour for our neighbourhood association – took a little getting used to, but it was nice to see people.
May: Things were getting weirder with work. We weren’t getting any straight answers, calls were short and vague. We continued to keep the business running and made plans for the eventual reopening, whenever that would be. Our neighbourhood flea market was cancelled (darn it, I have lots of items set aside for that, now taking up space in the basement!). Our Neighbourhood Association Board meetings are all now virtual, as are the Board Orientation meetings that I run and our neighbourhood library book club. I’m starting to get used to Zoom. I started planting my gardens, but we had a late frost which killed it, so I replanted it. Twice!
June: Work was now in high motion weirdness and on June 17th when I was halfway to the post office to collect the mail, I got a phone call from the boss telling me “you’ve been terminated with immediate effect, come in on Friday to hand in your keys.” Just like that! Exactly like that. It was handled exceptionally badly, and I could spend hours telling you JUST how badly we were treated. We received no severance, no notice period, no thank you for your 11+ years. One thing I learned from that experience is that I will never, ever trust a non-profit organization that doesn’t have any business people on their board. They are a giant “bless-me” club and I want nothing to do with them. They have no idea how to run a business and can’t even write a simple business letter. Enough said about that. I guess it’s still a little raw. There were only 2 staff members, so we went in on the Friday and handed in keys and various visa and shopping cards that we used to keep the business functioning, handed over passwords and logins and left. Walking out was actually quite a relief. Now we knew where we stood, and the world was our oyster. I was angry for a few days about it but there was nothing I could do. Missouri is an “at will” state which basically means that an employer can fire you for no reason at all and doesn’t have to offer you any severance. Basically, employees are worthless nothings. I was mostly angry about the way it was handled than the actual firing. The office is still closed, and they still have no staff, but they are officially “operating.”
Still June: To take my mind off the work nonsense I decided to throw my talents elsewhere. I’ve always fancied myself as a bit of a writer and my dad was a great storyteller. When I was little, he used to make up bedtime stories to tell me, so I decided it was time to write them down. It took me 2 weeks, but I finally got the jist of the story down and started tweaking it. By the time it was finished, it had changed a bit and definitely improved. It’s a children’s book about a purple penguin called Percy who lives in Antarctica and is just starting his first day of being a postman. I’m hoping to self-publish on Amazon.
July: Usually in early July we travel up to Greg’s mom to spend July 4th with family, but this year we decided to stay home. The small town they live in wasn’t being very proactive about the virus and we didn’t want to take any chances. So, we spent a quiet time at home in our garden with me putzing around, writing and doing job searches, and Greg back at work. One of the things that was in the container that arrived from South Africa in January, was my mom’s collection of knitting needles. I had been looking for them for years and had found them shoved in a cupboard in the garage when I was clearing the house out. My mom was a great knitter, so I just imagined that if I knitted something with her needles, that I’d be just as good, right? Well, sort of… I found a knitting pattern for a small penguin and I tried my hand at making one. He turned out pretty well, and I will keep trying to perfect him – he’s purple, naturally! I feel like I’m paying a tribute to both my parents by documenting my dad’s story and making a penguin with my mom’s talents to honour them both.
August: I finally ventured out properly for the first time since mid-March and found a hairdresser I like and got my hair cut! I looked after a friend’s dogs and another friend’s cat for several days, going to their houses a couple of times a day looking after them and feeding them. I have a Segway Scooter and I got lots of rides in during that time. It’s nice to fly around the neighbourhood with no worries and I enjoyed that. More Happy Hours, and book club meetings all via Zoom. Aggie celebrated a birthday and Greg and I celebrated 17 years of remarkably interesting, wedded bliss! By this time, my garden was doing pretty well and producing some decent veggies. Every year I say I’m going to do things a little differently in the garden and each year I forget because I’m so eager to get everything planted. Maybe next year…
September: Greg and I both reminisced about our dad’s who both died in September 2019. I celebrated a birthday quietly (as I prefer) and Greg and I both got flu shots! That was a first for both of us. We also bought a new fire pit and hoped for lots of evenings outside around it. More Zoom stuff…
October: Everyone is getting very tired of the virus and many people are doing stupid things and taking big risks. Our new cases are spiking off the charts and our leaders are not taking control. The looming election is making people angry, bitter, rude, and hateful. I totally despise election years as it makes people totally irrational. October is usually festival time. Most festivals were cancelled, although there were one or two who managed to hold something. People flocked to them, new Covid cases rose out of them. I felt almost frantic about people who refused to wear masks. Masks = good. Covid = bad. It’s not rocket science. I also went back to my new favourite hairdresser and got a perm. Woo hoo, curls! Later in the month I coloured my hair, but I do that myself. We had a dentist appointment that had been postponed from March and escaped with no ill effects. We had our furnace looked at in preparation for winter and yes, more Zoom stuff. I also got the pneumonia vaccine.
November: Finally, the election! Greg and I got there early and the line was already out the door. It was a nice sunny day and thankfully no rain or snow. The line moved pretty quickly, and we were home in an hour. Then then nail biting began until we heard that Biden had won (Thank the Lord). Naturally, the losers were BAD losers and are still contesting it even though there’s no proof of any tampering. It really is like watching kindergarteners stamp their feet and hold their breath in a tantrum. I started baking cookies. Lots and lot of cookies – each batch was a different type. I usually send or take cookies up to Greg’s mom for Thanksgiving and Christmas for when we’re all up there, but seeing as most of us were staying home, I didn’t need to send so many, although I sent plenty. Thanksgiving was at the end of the month and we had one friend over to join us. We ate a lot, chatted with family on Zoom and watched a movie on TV. It was nice and quiet.
December: And here we are at the end of the year. I guess our biggest news of December was that we had a little Covid exposure experience. We went and got tested on Christmas Day, did the rapid test and we were negative, but the doctor was concerned that we may have tested too early and recommended that we do it again and that we do the regular test. So, 3 days later we went back to redo it. Luckily, we got the results the next day and again, we tested negative. Between Christmas and getting the final results, we were very stressed and anxious. Our brains made us feel like we had every symptom. I was convinced we were positive, and Greg was convinced we were negative. I need to learn to trust Greg! As soon as we got those results all our “symptoms” vanished. We Zoomed with Greg’s family again on Christmas Eve. It’s not the same as being there, but it was lovely to see everyone and hear all the familiar bantering that goes on. Our weather has been unusually warm and sunny, and we are yet to have snow. I was able to go into the garden and do some weeding. In December!! I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. Aaaand, more Zoomy stuff! Yesterday I cleaned the house thoroughly to get rid of all lurking germs, dirt and disease. It was symbolic too, as I felt I was sweeping out all the anger, frustration and heartache of 2020 in preparation for a calmer and more civilized 2021. I’m really hoping that 2021 isn’t getting ready to say “hey, hold my beer…!”
Just like everyone else, we missed out on being with friends, family, going to our usual haunts, feeling like we can go outside and go anywhere we like, missed vacations, birthday’s, holiday, festivals etc. BUT I’m so thankful to still HAVE my friends who are safe and healthy and ALIVE. I wouldn’t give that up for anything. Staying safe, being careful, wearing a mask, washing hands, sanitizing and socially distancing will continue to play a huge part in our lives, and I’m thrilled to be able to do that. It will get better. This will pass. We will move on and find new and different ways to entertain ourselves. I’m thinking that we might see a surge of new inventions come out of these various lockdowns. I am grateful to be alive and to have survived this dreaded year. I feel like 2020 was just an enhanced continuance of 2019 and I think we’re well due for a break of this new norm.
This is a very long blog, but I wanted to document it. I wish you all the happiest of New Years. You may not have the big moments you are used to for this New Year’s Eve, but make the moments you have special, intense, and meaningful. Make memories – good ones. You are responsible for yourself, so take responsibility and be responsible! God’s richest blessings to you all. Happy New Year!
Wind!
Jumping Jiminy Crickets!
It’s a beautiful Autumn day today and I decided to go for a walk around my neighbourhood. Sweatpants and t-shirt were all that was needed although I kind of wish I had worn shorts instead.
I set off up our block towards the park, thinking I’d stop and sit under a tree and think about stuff, but it was so windy that I was genuinely concerned that the tree may fall on my head! So, I kept on trucking. Up the hill, down the hill, up again and back down.
What I did discover was that every leaf in St. Louis deposited itself under my feet. All, that is, except for the leaves on the tree in front of my house. That tree is hanging on dearly to its leaves and waiting for a time when, just as I think I’ve finished raking everything up, it’s going to let go of a hundred million of those little darlings all over the front yard!
I also forgot to tie my hair up. Big mistake! My hair flew from the one side of my head, to the other side and ended up sticking straight up. Even my eyebrows and eyelashes blew around. It wasn’t the Cape Town type of wind where you have to lean into it to be able to walk forward, but rather huge gusts that take you by surprise and cause you to lose your balance a little.
Today is trash day too, so all the recycle bins have been blown over and are starting to be blown down the street. That should cause some interesting moments when everyone comes home from work and tries to figure out which bin is theirs. I’m sneaky – I’ve painted our house number inside ours.
The pretty season is over! I’m sad to see it go, but we had a good run and Autumn has been lovely. I think we’re on the bottom end of it now and heading towards winter – my favourite season. It means the holidays are around the corner. Thanksgiving next week (wait, what??) and 6 weeks later, Christmas! In just over a week’s time I will be hauling all our Christmas decorations out and plopping them all over the house. Maybe even a few things for outside too this year, seeing as we will be home.
In the meantime I’m going to enjoy this lovely weather and take my cuppa tea outside!
Cover Letters
Is it just me or does everyone hate writing cover letters to accompany their resumes?
I’ve been on Unemployment since April 2020 and have been applying for jobs since June 2020. The job market really is saturated right now and if you are in the medical profession (especially a nurse) you can pretty much name your price. St. Louis has several great hospitals so the need for good medical professionals is high. I, on the other hand, have not an ounce of medical experience in my body, so that’s out!
When applying online for many jobs, employers sometimes make it mandatory for you to include a cover letter. This is basically a precis of your resume and bragging rights for you to tell them why they need you. I’m seriously lousy at that, because, for one, I have no idea what to brag about and two, I always underestimate myself and consider myself to be terrible at what I do (I’m not, I’m brilliant).
When I left South Africa, I left a great job with a great company who looked after me, appreciated me for what I did, and I felt safe and secure there. Since arriving in the US and getting into the work environment I have never found my niche. I felt like I took a giant step backwards and since then, my skills have been forgotten and my confidence is at rock bottom. I’m also 15 years older!
The last time I was on Unemployment was after Hurricane Katrina. We’d bounced around a bit and finally found ourselves feeling more at home in St. Louis. I started volunteering at a non-profit and out of the blue they offered me a job. It suited my needs, was convenient and close to home, but in hindsight I should have moved on years ago. I wasn’t stimulated, I was disgusted with the overall management of the business and there was no scope for me at all. That job was the downfall of my skills, confidence and abilities. I should have known better.
Unemployment is a little different this time round. COVID-19 has dictated new aspects to be considered. This time round I’m actually getting rejection letters! Who knew that I’d be delighted to get a rejection letter? I’m sure they are automatically sent out by the respective websites, but still! Some letters tell me how many applicants applied for the job – it’s seldom less than 100.
Then there’s the cover letter. I hate the cover letter. Why send a cover letter when all the information you need is in my resume? Isn’t that why we have a resume? What happened to “look at my experience”, “look at my qualifications”, “check out my volunteer stuff”, “look at my accreditations and accolades”! Why do I need to spill it out again in a letter? Did you just read my resume and instantly forget everything in it, and need a letter to remind yourself? I have worked for an employment agency in South Africa and in the USA and they are pretty similar. The only main difference being the cover letter. In South Africa we don’t care about it. In the USA, YOU MUST HAVE IT, otherwise we just don’t know who you are and we cannot possibly consider you for a position because no cover letter means that you’re really not interested in the job.
Let’s scrap the cover letter and polish our resumes, include everything that is needed so that we cut down on paper. I have no idea who I am in the workplace. My skills, and lack thereof, are undefined and don’t fit into what I know. Most jobs here have fancy titles that really mean nothing. Everyone is a director of something or a research something or an executive whatever. Call a spade, a spade. Pay people what they are worth and give applicants an opportunity.
Reflections
A year ago today Greg and I left for South Africa to take care of my dad’s affairs, attend his funeral and pack up the house. It seems surreal that a whole year has passed, and:
a) My dad’s house is still no closer to being sold (although we’ve had a buyer for 11 months);
b) His estate, which is totally uncomplicated with no debt etc., has barely been started to be worked on; and
c) I haven’t been able to speak to my dad in over a year.
I’m a “daddy’s girl”. Always was. I look like my dad, sound like my dad, have the same sense of humour, wit and sarcasm that my dad had, and I’m constantly hearing “you’re just like your dad”, which is fine for me to hear. In fact, it’s a compliment.
When I was a little girl, I would always be following my dad around. If he had a hammer in his hand, I had one too. In fact, I loved hammering nails into things. Sometimes (ok, most times) not the right nails, and not hammering them into the right places either.
As I grew older, we butted heads – because we were so alike. I remember him yelling at me and trying to teach me trigonometry, while I was yelling back at him telling him that I can’t do it. Turned out I was right! He was a tool maker and used maths all the time. For me, once they introduced the alphabet into maths, they lost me, and I zoned out and never found a loophole to zone back in.
So, exactly a year has passed. Greg and I boarded a plane from St. Louis, to Atlanta to Johannesburg where friends met us at OR Tambo and took us back to the house. Dad’s house. My childhood house. As we arrived, we realized that there was load shedding going on and there was no electricity. We threw our bags down and exhaustedly just fell into bed. It was Spring in South Africa, still chilly in the morning’s and evening’s but beautiful during the day. I had 4 days to put a funeral together and then 3 more weeks to pack up the house, donate everything inside the house, decide what I wanted to keep and figure out a way to get it home. I kept having that feeling that it’s the last time I’ll be on South African soil. I grew up here, in this house, in this neighbourhood, in this province. It’s my home. My soul is here. My heart will always be here. I had a great childhood here, made wonderful, timeless friends who I still miss desperately. It’s so hard to emigrate. Every time we go back to Joburg I’m reminded about how hard it is to not be there. My lifeline to South Africa was cut when my dad died and it scares me that this could truly be “IT”.
We have a nice life in St. Louis. We are a happy couple and lucky enough to own a house and be owned by three cats. Our little family is complete. Memories are a funny thing. The good, the bad and the ugly can mess with your mind and sway you from happy to sad in a nanosecond.
We’ve been through a lot. More than most couples will ever endure (hopefully), but God doesn’t test you with more than you can handle, right? Hey God, I’m on the thin line here. Can you back off a bit and let me catch my breath? Sure would be great! Major catastrophes really are a great way to measure your faith, reflect on your relationship and test your decision-making talents and we’ve experienced most of them! I’m quite happy to forego the ones we’ve missed!
Stay strong, stay healthy, wash your hands, wear a mask!
The Squash Bug Fiasco
‘Tis the season! Autumn is approaching and the garden is starting to wind down. It’s been a bit of an odd gardening year, but we did reap the benefits of some veggies. From a long, cool spring, to a hot and wet early summer and then a very hot rest of the summer, to an approaching Autumn which, fingers crossed, will result in an abundance of cool weather veggies. Right now, part of the garden looks lush and the other part is dying.
• The first crop we were able to reap was potatoes. We dug up 25 lbs of them this year. I planted 4 different types (can’t remember the names), 3 were yellow spuds and 1 type was red.
• I did manage to get 3 zucchinis from the mystery plant. All 3 of them were as big as baseball bats! I have 2 of them still in the fridge.
• Gem squash (a South African squash, similar taste and texture to spaghetti squash, but look totally different) are doing very well. I’ve given a bunch away and should be ready to pick them all off the vine soon and then clear out that space. Right now, that area is looking badly kept because the 2 plants are dying off. The vines are huge and have burst out through the chain link fence into 2 of my neighbors’ yards. It’s fair game! If they grow on their side, they’re theirs! Not sure they know what to do with it though. There will be lessons, and maybe a test! A taste test, perhaps!!
• My 3 tomato plants are still producing but not many of the tomatoes are turning red. I may have to just pick them and let them ripen on the windowsill (if the cats will allow it). It’s still a bit early to be doing that though, so I’ll leave it a couple more weeks.
• The bell peppers are doing fairly well and are turning red. One plant is tired and ready to be put out of its misery while the other one is bursting with peppers.
• I have 2 hot pepper plants, which are exploding with peppers. PSA: I’m a little afraid of it! Last time I picked some, my hands were burning for a full 24 hours!
• The 2 eggplant trees are doing well and producing well, but I’m concerned that the butternut vines will overpower it.
• Then there’s the butternut…! I planted one seed! ONE! This “trifid” has grown so huge, so quickly that I suspect the vines are larger than 20 ft. I’ve trained the vines around the bed it’s in, but it’s still growing. There are tons of baby butternuts forming, which really excites me, but there are also hundreds of squash bugs that want to race me to the finish line! Every year I fight the battle of the squash bugs. Last year they beat me to it, and I reaped nothing. This year I’ve tried to keep on top of their production and even resorted to using chemicals, which I hate to do. I don’t think it helped in the slightest. I think it just annoyed them and made them bionic! I shall prevail! This year I’ve been at home, so have more time to beat them to the finish line.
• I also have asparagus growing, and it seems to be doing wonderfully. It’s a 3-year asparagus and this is the 2nd year, so one more summer and then hopefully in the summer of 2022, we will be eating it!
• My herbs are also wilting, so I really do need to get out and pick some of it and turn it into something wonderful. Lots of basil for pesto, and other herbs for Italian seasonings that I can freeze.
This past week (maybe a little late) I planted some Fall veggies. I have garlic, various types of lettuce, spinach, radishes, and a lot of beetroot. Some of it is already starting to poke its head out of the dirt, so I’m hopeful.
It’s been horribly hot and humid the past couple of weeks with very little rain, so I’ve been watering the garden and dealing with mosquitoes and chiggers feasting on me. Seasonal allergies are no fun either, so I’ve limited my time outside.
I’d say it’s been a fairly successful gardening year. It’s a lot of work to maintain a garden and yard. Awful temperatures don’t make it easy either. I’d enjoy it more on my terms, but Mother Nature does what she wants.
Time for me to prepare my little rain dance outside. It’s cloudy, so I’m hopeful!
Happy gardening!
Blog, Bloggity, Blog-Blog
So, what do you write about when you really have nothing to write about? I think you just yammer on about nonsensical stuff that you’re familiar with and maybe a little bit bored with.
Greg got me a kick scooter for my birthday last year (nearly a year ago)! I’ve only just started riding it recently, not due to any dislike of it at all. In fact, I love it and I had so many plans of where I’d ride it and how far (and fast) I’d go, but life got in the way. He gave it to me the day before we left for Wisconsin to attend his dad’s funeral. When we got back, we left immediately for my dad’s funeral in South Africa. When we got back from that I had a lot of catching up to do, then it was winter with ice and snow and freezing temps not conducive to scootering. Spring came around and I got busy with the garden, at the same time trying to figure out how to activate the app for the scooter (long story, but my iPhone wouldn’t download the new firmware so I couldn’t activate it – finally got it working by having Greg download it on his iPhone and then voila!). Then COVID-19 hit and there were so many uncertainties about how you could contract the virus, so I stayed home.
After a while it seemed safe to try it out, so after a few practice rides up and down my road and figuring out how to avoid bumps and holes in the sidewalks, I think I finally have it figured out. And I love it. It battles quite a bit going up even moderately slight incline’s, but I have a way to nudge it along, even though I can probably walk faster. On flat surfaces and downhill’s, it’s awesome. It is battery operated so as long as I keep it charged up when I’m home, it’s great.
So far, I’ve had it up to 17mph (for literally a second on a downhill run) and the furthest I’ve taken it on one ride was nearly 9 miles so far. My average speed is around 10-11mph. It’s been nice to take it out in the mornings when no one is around and before the cyclists get out. Cyclists are pretty dangerous, never stop at stop signs or traffic lights, don’t adhere to any rules and just plunge ahead expecting everyone to get out of their way (in my experience). I’m learning to relax my shoulders and neck and breathe deeply and enjoy the views.
Right now it’s stinking hot outside, so I won’t be taking it out. I will wait until the temperature and humidity lessens (a lot) before I venture out again, but I’m looking forward to that day. Hopefully we will have a nice long, cool Autumn so that I can make the most of it. In the meantime I will be going for my daily early morning walks to clear my head of daily nonsense.
Quarantining
Who’s tired of quarantining?
Actually, not me! Quarantining has become my new normal and I’m ok with it. In fact, I like it. I no longer have to deal with people! I’m happy in my house – much happier, and less stressed and no longer constantly annoyed and frustrated by work issues. I no longer feel like I’m dealing with recalcitrant children. I can breathe, I can appreciate the fruits of my very hard labour and truth be told, I like it! Naturally it would be nice to have a pay cheque, but I’ll get there.
So what am I up to? I’m working on becoming the next JK Rowling! Ha! Well, I have no illusions of grandeur about the competitive art of writing children’s books, but it has been a great release and helped me escape the world of reality and immerse myself in a fictional town in Antarctica!
When I was a little girl, my dad used to tell me bedtime stories. He was great at making them up on a whim and kept me enthralled with the adventures of Percy the Purple Penguin. So, as a tribute to him, I decided to write them down and develop them into a book for kids. I’m no author, I have no training in writing (except for attending school because it was the law!), but I was a kid once with a very vivid imagination that blossomed into an adult-like vivid imagination. My mum once yelled at me saying “there are no bloody snow faeries in crocuses, so stop messing with the buds” but I still check them – just in case…
Percy’s story has been completed and I’m in the process now of tightening it up and re-reading it, and re-reading it again and again and again. I’m enjoying channeling Percy to see what he will be up to in the next chapter of his life. I’m sure that every person who’s attempted to write a story hopes for publication, but not everyone is that fortunate. I’m going to give it a shot. If it goes nowhere, at least I tried and at the end of the day, I have a cool little story written down.
I’ve been furiously reading a bunch of children’s books to try and gauge where my story would fit in and to see what age group the story would appeal to. My local library, Machacek Library, has been immensely helpful and recommended several books per school grade. I’m not trying to teach anything in my story, it’s not PC-related, it is just pure escapism. I don’t have kids and am not around kids, so I don’t feel I’m qualified to be the “heavy” and dictate anything to anyone. It’s just a story, pure and simple. It has British undertones, because my dad was British and that’s how he told me the stories and that’s how it is written. You will find that the letter “u” is used a lot!
It’s been 4 weeks today since I lost my job and despite the anger and disappointment towards those who helped make that happen, it’s given me a sense of freedom and the chance to do something I’ve always secretly wanted to do. In the meantime, I’m going to read more children’s books because, let’s face it, they’re so much more fun to read than a lot of adult books!
Sylvester and the Vet
It’s funny, but not really funny (but actually hilarious) when you see a cat recovering from the side effects of having been under anesthesia.
I took Sylvester, our 10-year-old tuxedo cat, to his vet at the St. Louis Cat Clinic to have his teeth cleaned. I had clear instructions not to let him eat anything after 10pm the previous night and that I could drop him off between 8am and 8.30am the next morning.
We nonchalantly went about our business in the morning ignoring his pitiful wails and arrogant mischief-making leading up to his normal breakfast time. That time came and went and that caused the other 2 cats to become antsy about no food. Suffice it to say I was waiting outside the vets office at 8.02am with a very “hangry” Sylvester.
A little later that morning I got a call from the vet to tell me about the procedure and to tell me that he was close enough to his annual visit and would I like them to take care of the annual shots, exam, blood work and urinalysis too. ANYTHING to not have to catch him again and get him in the carrier, so YES, do it all! She then said “well, he’s a little angry right now so I’m going to wait until he’s a bit sleepy before I look in his mouth because I don’t want to get bitten!”
Anyone who knows Sylvester knows that he is the friendliest, most social, charming, playful cat there is, so when the vet tells you “he’s angry” it’s a bit of an embarrassing surprise. I told her he’s not really angry, he’s hungry! She said she had 2 dental’s that day and he will be the 2nd one and she’ll call me when he’s starting to wake up and when she has all the blood results.
So, I went about my day. Aggie and Bear distanced themselves from each other, as usual and had a nice long nap.
Around 3pm I got the call from the vet saying that Sylvester was just starting to wake up and was very drowsy but doing very well. He didn’t have any teeth troubles, so just a cleaning, polishing and scaling was done. All his blood work came back purrfectly, as did the urinalysis results. His weight is also purrfect! Yay, we’ve been working on that for a couple of years. There was one little thing that happened under anesthetic and that was that he developed a heart murmur. It only occurred when they gave him the IV fluids and as soon as they stopped the fluids, the murmur disappeared. She wants to see him in a couple of months to check on his weight and listen to his heart again. I could collect him at 5pm.
At 5pm I was outside the vet’s office waiting for the little darling. They have very strict rules about dropping off and collecting animals, so we conducted all business over the phone and then they brought him out to me. He was furious! Lock, stock and two smoking barrels furious!
I got him home and opened the carrier door and a very drunk black cat shot out of it, flopping around and bouncing off walls. First thing he did was make a bullseye to the food bowls. There was nothing in them, but he fell all over the bowls knocking them all over the place, so I decided to feed him a small amount of food to tide him over! Ha! Vet suggested that I give him about a third of a can of wet food in case he vomits from the anesthetic, so I gave him the food. He could barely stand upright to eat it and fell all over the place with his head in the bowl but inhaled the food and looked for more. I waited a while and gave him some more. Same thing. He lumbered from one room to the next licking and eating everything. He ended up eating 2 full cans of food and was still hungry. He constantly jumped up onto the counter to see what food Aggie had but we put her food away. He had zero sense of balance and threw himself off the counter landing with a splat each time on the floor. I just couldn’t calm him down for a second. This went on for about 4-5 hours! Next time I’ll board him overnight at the vet.
In the meantime, Aggie was horrified with me for bringing Sylvester back. She hissed, growled, yelled, wailed and was a nightmare. Bear only added to her woes. Neither Bear not Aggie ate any dinner. Aggie was making a point of her fury and Bear was a little scared of her so wouldn’t go into the kitchen. I think Sylvester freaked them both out too with his behaviour, as this was totally out of character for him.
Bedtime finally arrived and usually we’re surrounded by cats on the bed, but none of them joined us. I suspect that Sylvester injured his back hip or leg from all the clumsy jumping he did because he now has a bit of a limp. I will be watching that and if it doesn’t improve, back he goes!
This morning is “the morning after” and it was still a bit bumpy as Aggie was still refusing to eat and Bear appeared for a quick snack, so Sylvester ate his and Bear’s food. Sylvester is still limping but not as much as last night. I was able to keep him quiet today and there hasn’t been any jumping. The anesthesia has worn off and his eye size has returned to normal. He is a bit off balance from the limping though.
Aggie settled down around lunch time. I finally had my purry little girl back and she let me stroke her again. She jumped up on the back of the couch and went to sleep. Bear has been sleeping in the closet all day which is mostly normal for him. Sylvester has joined me in the spare room to supervise my activities.
That was quite a 24 hours! We’ve had all 3 cats dealing with anesthesia at some stage and none of them had a reaction anything like Sylvester. I followed him around like a crazy person last night and yet he still managed to do too much jumping. Hopefully 24 hours of having a quiet day of napping will fix him right up. I’m just glad that Aggie stopped yelling at me.