COVID SCHMOVID

 I do not want to talk about Covid any more.  Now that I have my vaccine I just don't care.  I know I miss my kids and grandkids and no matter how much I read the science and watch the extreme whiners on the news, it won't affect my day to day.  I am covided out.

  I just don't care who dies, who gets sick, who sneaks into the country bringing covid with them, who gets their shots when they want them, and who doesn't, whose restaurant is going out of business, who can't travel where they want to, if kids are having mental issues cuz parents aren't calming and explaining enough, if teachers are never getting enough, if the earth is going to hell in a hand basket, if bears are being shot, if beaches and oceans are submerged in plastic, if red dresses are having to be replaced, if forests are being cut down, if we waste water blah blah blah blah blah!!!!!  I DON'T CARE RIGHT NOW.  I am going to pull a Scarlett O'hara...I will worry about everything and start caring again tomorrow.  (or the day after)

Other than being sick for a day, I had a great week.  Mont Man and I have been out and about going to post offices, starbuckses, Walmart curb, riverside and a lovely park with sea views.  We also made a stop at a local butcher/deli.  Oh Lordy!!!!  

They actually had fontina!!  And the salami selections were insane.  Plus they had alligator, camel, bison, kangaroo, venison, haggis (yum yum), liver and all the usual meat selections.  And then they had two walls full of pickle choices, olive choices,  saurkraut, beet pickle, hot sauces, mustards etc....And then we discovered a freezer full of ten different types of pirogies.  We bought little amounts of a bunch of things, took it down to the park and had a picnic whilst we watched kite surfers.  Sigh!!!!  Perfect time.

I wrote all that yesterday.  And just for the record I still don't give a rat's ass about....anything.  The closer I get to May 10th, my two week post vaccine date, the less I care.  About anything.  I must admit it will be a relief not to be scared for the first time in one and almost a half years. I know I am suppose to worry about ME passing it to others now, but, I  don't, not really.

  It's like at the beginning they asked us to wear masks to protect the other guy.  People didn't really start until they were told it protected themselves too.  Then you saw the masks!  Well, I kind of feel that way right now about infecting other people without even knowing I am.  Right now, right here, at this moment, I don't care unless it's someone I know and love.  Tomorrow. I will try to care again.

Hahaha!!!  I just got a message from April.  They are camping just north of Whistler.  They are having a lovely relaxing time but she said that she found out one new thing.  Pomeranians are flammable.  hahaha!!!!

Well that's it for today.  I apologize for my less than stellar attitude.  At the moment, temporarily (I hope) I have covid fatigue.  I will hopefully be over it by this time next week.  In the meantime I am going to languish and probably get frig all done.  TTYL

"The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet."  Ann Landers (again...I love her)

MINI COVID

Good for you Sharri!!!  That is kind of the point of the challenges.  Cherry pick what you want to do and have fun with it.

This is going to be short today.  I have mini Covid.  I had a Moderna shot yesterday and everything was fine, til the middle of the night.  My arm hurt like a son of gun!  It actually woke me up.  Man it hurt!  Way worse than the shingrix shot and I thought that one was bad.

But now it is 11 in the morning and I am sick.  If this is a taste of what covid is well I DON'T WANT COVID!!!!  Nausea, headache, sore eyes, achy, waaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

More importantly April graduated yesterday!!!!  All the students made a grad book, an online animated one, that displayed their work.  And in spite of all the drawbacks, the endless problems with the computer equipment, no hands on teacher, everything by zoom, no camaraderie with fellow students, no in house help, many many many hours at home alone trying to be motivated, seriously, endless difficulties....they still managed to get it done.  This course was NOT supposed to be a correspondence course.  There were tears.  And not just from the students.

  I am so proud.  And yesterday I watched her reel, her animations, and they were set to music, songs Monte has written in the past.  It was too much for me.  To watch and hear my talented kids art right in front of me.  Holy Hannah!  I just cried.  I am tearing up now thinking about it.

And speaking of my kids, I just got a phone call from my notary's office.  Mortgage investment papers are ready to sign, thanks to my hugely amazing other daughter Aryn, who if she vaporized tomorrow I would be completely and utterly screwed.  She takes care of all my business in the most amazing way and I would be so completely hooped if it weren't for her.  I am sooooo lucky.  And my other one, Kevin, gave me grand children.  Sigh.  I am one lucky person. 

I didn't get my picture exchanged yet.  I haven't gotten into the shed outside.  All my pictures that aren't hung are out there.  I am going to take down my great big blue picture I have hanging over the fireplace and we are going to hang it over Monte's bed.  His whole room, including his carpet, is blue so it will suit it down there.  I am going to hang my old standbys I bought many years ago in Kamloops in a store near where my Mom was living.  They are wooden framed and painted on wood  poppies, three different red poppy pictures.  I am missing them.  I think they will look great over the fireplace in my fairly red living room.

And I am proud to say that my under the sink cupboards were pretty good.  There wasn't a whole lot to weed out and organize.  So that was a quick one.

I shall go and have a look at what 27 and 28 are.  Back in a mo.

27.  Make a memory book.  Hmmmmm.....not so easily done.  I am trying to think of a substitute activity.  Nope, can't think of one.  Never mind.

28.  Start a journal.  This is a really good idea, if an old one.  Lots of you probably already have one going and I just have a feeling that if there are any men reading this, they will NOT be starting a journal.  But really, I treat this blog like a journal and it is hugely cathartic and really handy.  And if you have kids they will appreciate it one day.  Mom wrote journals (which I can't read because her writing was soooooo tiny, paper was dear back in the day) and we love reading them.  Kathy actually read out of them to her near the end.  It was amazing to see her reactions to that.

Well thats it til Thursday or Friday.  Stay safe, don't get covid, noodle and talk to older folks.  They have wonderful stories to tell.  TTYL

"The best way to find something is to buy a replacement."       Ann Landers

PESKY LITTLE RULES

 I heard some anti masker freedom fighters on 4/20.  They were using the constitution as their grounds for declaring the rules in contravention of the constitution.  Really?  These people are probably the biggest hypocrites on the planet.

What about seat belts?  What about no smoking inside a workplace?  What about kids having to be in car seats of some sort until they are in college?  What about not parking in no parking zones?  What about no propane tanks on ferries?  I could go on and on and on.  There are laws.  We have to comply.

One thing most of those laws have in common is the reason those laws were formed.  And that thing is reducing harm to others than yourself.  Seat belts keep you and your passenger from going through a windshield.  No smoking saves you and the people that have no choice but to be there from damaging second hand smoke.  Car seats save babies' and toddlers' lives. Not parking where you shouldn't creates smooth logistics so the world can function.  No propane tanks on ferries.....well thats obvious.

But I think one of the big driving forces behind these types of laws is money...which is okay.  That money comes directly out of our income tax payers' pockets.  If one directly died from all those laws, then fine. They don't cost us.  But they don't all die.  They end up in hospitals being cared for by expensive doctors, nurses, meds and equipment, sometimes into the millions per individual.  Thus we make laws to mitigate the possible pain and expense.

And so it is with health decisions.  Wear a mask.  Social distance.  Stay in your home group.  Don't travel.  Stay out of closed areas.  And if you choose not to comply with those simple rules and get covid, stay out of hospitals.  You do not deserve to be looked after by front line workers or by my money.

I remember years ago, many years ago when hot dog skiing was popular.  It basically involved you throwing yourself willy nilly down a ski slope.  People got hurt.

I lived in North Van at the time one intrepid idiot chucked himself down Grouse Mountain and....paralyzed himself.  Dumbass.  But a month or so later his buddies and family were in the local mall taking up a collection for him.  This was before go fund me (shovel list).  They approached me, which was a BIG mistake!  In no uncertain terms I said it was his choice to take the risk, I already fork out a huge amount out of my taxes to just keep him alive and if he has any other expenses well boo hoo to him.  May sound harsh but this isn't a nanny state...yet.  Enough genuine accidents and legitimate things happen, we don't need to add stupid ones to it.

  Which is exactly where I categorize those 'freedom' fighters. Actually I categorize them along with flat earthers.  No way does even a very limited intelligence person believe the earth is flat.  It's all grandstanding and attention getting.  One step worse than being a covidiot is being an AGM'er in my book.

Today is a Millie day.  Consequently my house is all neat and organized!  Wednesday is always a very busy physical day for us.  Plus she missed last week so its been three weeks since she was here.  And this place showed it.  Now its just surfaces, counters, floors, turrlets, etc... She does an amazing job.  but not as good as Alice was,....I feel guilty saying that so I am whispering. 

Monte and I did the laundry room last night.  How is it laundry rooms end up being dumping grounds.  Everything I am putting off to deal with later ends up down there.  Poor Millie has to walk through there to get to Monte's turrlet...poor woman.  So Monte and I dug in and cleaned it right up.  Now it looks fantastic.  You can see clearly right down the stairs into the laundry room from the front door so its nice to have it all clean.

There was a holler at the front door yesterday, which I keep wide open now with the good weather.  What the heck?  It was Pat and in his hands was a lovely offering.  He bought us a blueberry bush!  So thoughtful.  So I am you tubing to see how to plant it.  I know one must mound
the dirt around it but other than that I have no idea.  I thought that was so thoughtful.

Well this week I have a number of big projects on the LIST.  But I am going to make room in all that for hooking.  I have not hooked since the last picture I posted.  For shame!!!!  So I am going to get on it this week.  Plus I am working on Serenade by Schubert.  Love that piece.  I will get Monte to video me playing the beginning and I will try to post it here.  Keepin' myself accountable!

four days and counting!

Have a great weekend, stay safe, noodle and talk to an oldster...make their day!  TTYL

MY SISTER ON OUR BAMFIELD DECK BACK IN THE DAY.....SO GOOOOOD!

 

WELL NOW FIRST HAND YOU CAN SEE HOW EFFING STUPID BLOGSPOT IS.  I CAN'T DELETE OR MOVE THAT FREAKING PICTURE OF PAT AND MONTE.  SO FED UP WITH THIS SITE.

GUILTY!!!!! ON ALL COUNTS!!!!!

I watched the end of the trial of What's His Name, the cop that killed George Floyd.  Good thing they found him guilty!  I think there would be a total civil war down south if they hadn't!  

I wish I had interesting, titillating things to report here.  I just don't.  Nothing ever happens.  We have no life anymore.  Too early to swim.  No place to golf.  Shopping is a no no.  Theatres aren't open.  Restaurants are closed. Sigh.  Other than swimming, I never did those things anyway.  LOL!!!  But at least it was by choice back then.

We are actually dieting.  I made that oh so freaking yummy cabbage soup, a massive amount, which equals a massive commitment.  I dumped a huge amount of sombal olek into it and boy is it ever spicy!  I also put in shiratake or miracle noodles which helps.  But jeez.....it gets pretty tiresome pretty quickly!  

Last night we had a family zoom.  And as I looked at everybody they all looked so good.  Then I looked at me and honestly it was probably the best motivation I could have received!  Fat face.  Just call me fat face.  Grrrrrrr.....that needs to change.  So cabbage it is.  The soup is actually pretty good.  Very full of vegetables.

We did have one bit of excitement.  There was a rumble in our back alley.  We have a druggie type house down the lane and another one across from us.  I do believe people from both houses met in the middle...at the end of our back yard driveway.  There was a lot of hooping and hollering which then reduced to shoving and yelling.  I have a feeling two dealers are competing.  Anyway the cops showed up and they stayed out there forever talking with them all.  Eventually everyone dissipated and went home.  And that's the exciting highlight of my life!

I didn't watch the anime.  I just couldn't get into it.  My brain has been covidized and anything that requires interpretation, symbolic interpretations, meaningful interpretations, I just can't get into.  So I watched one episode of the Simpsons and one episode of Sponge Bob.  I must admit that Sponge Bob was really funny!  I hadn't seen it before.  Simpsons is always funny.

And I watched a long episode of Backpack.  We went to India.  I like this show.  It isn't the usual.  Actually there are a number of really interesting good travel shows out there.

So, challenges for this week.  Some of them don't work because of covid:

25. Clean out and reorganize the cupboards under any sinks you have in your whole house.  Who knows you might find some treasure!!!!

26.  Exchange one picture for another somewhere in your house.  Try to be brave and change a bigger one in an obvious spot.  I know what I am going to do.  I will take a couple pics and post it here next week.

"There is little success where there is little laughter."  Andrew Carnegie

Stay safe, noodle and oldster time...TTYL

THIS ONE IS FOR YOU ARNIE

THIS ONE IS FOR EVERYONE

 

TAKING FOREVER

 I must not go out much.  It still isn't automatic for me to slap a mask on as soon as I head to the store.  I hardly ever go into a store.  We order everything from Walmart and do the curbside pickup.

  This morning I headed out the door to walk to QF and just as I got there realized I had not brought a mask. Had to turn around and head back.  Several times now I have gone into a store and been told to put one on.  You would think I would know by now.  I don't ever use a purse, or almost never, so keeping one in there isn't an option.

A quick note here:  the company that supports the email section of this blog is quitting.  So if you get my posts by email, you won't after July.  Sorry about that.  So far blogspot has not offered an alternative.  If they do between now and then I will attempt to set it up.

It is suddenly so beautiful out that it's hard to think here.  I love it when the sky is blue, the sun is hot, but the air is still fresh and cool.  Perfect!

I was headed to QF this morning for one purpose.  I really try to stay out of all stores, especially now with the evil variants out there, but Monte and I popped in there on the way home last nite to see if they had crispy chilli oil...they didn't, after all this is Port Alberni...the land of nothing. (reminds me of being on Maui, very limited choices in everything)  But as we entered we passed a tower of containers of Nanaimo bars!  They were super on sale but a huge no no at the moment and Monte hates them.  Can you imagine that?  Who can hate Nanaimo bars?  Anyway, they freeze super well so I am heading back there to buy several packs, freeze them properly, and take them on the family camping trip on Canada Day weekend.  Going to head over there again soon!....with a mask this time.

Now its evening, a beautiful evening.  Monte and I head out the door at around three.  We went to Starbucks then the drive in, old school drive in.  I wasn't getting anything but he got some sandwiches and we headed out to Paper Mill Dam, the swimming hole we always swim in.  It was beautiful out there.  A wonderful place for a picnic. A perfect ending to a pretty perfect day.

I have pretty much stopped watching all the Covid news.  It's bad.  We know it's bad.  It isn't going to stop.  There are just too many covidiots out there that don't give a crap for human beings. Monte and I have decided we won't be entering another establishment of any sort until the middle of May.  By then we should be as immune as we will be.  We will still be wearing masks though.

My only fear right now is that I have ten days to wait for my shot.  I am worried that between now and then the vaccines will either be delayed yet again or redirected to areas where so many people aren't careful and are flooding the hospital system.  I literally have a big old brick in my stomach and it is going to sit there until I feel that piece of steel go into my arm.  I simply do NOT trust the antiquated system canada is using to get the shots out.  Something went wrong somewhere...it is just too slow to be doing any good.  They had better be better prepared for the next pandemic.

I also heard, read, that there is a new variant coming out of India, and this one the vaccine doesn't work on.  And again, even though even little old me in Port Alberni knows about this, the powers that be have not made any mention of shutting the international flights down.  Until this is over, people coming to this country needs to stop.  If they don't, well then we know whose door to lay it on.

I agree with all those folks out there that it is time to shut things down...everything.  Travel, stores, ferries, airlines, everything except groceries...and that be completely controlled.  Yes the economy would take a big hit, but better that than everyone dead.

So now I am signing off....and if between now and next week I get an email or call cancelling my shot, I won't be doing a covid report next week.  I will be so upset and pissed off I don't trust myself to keep it decent.  For the first time I am completely in disagreement with B. Henry.  But of course there are so many people out there that hero worship her, she could personally kill people and it would be okay with them.  I'm done now.

Be safe, noodle, and look an oldster in the eye and see them.  TTYL

quote:

X never ever marks the spot

Indiana Jones

AN ADDITION

 I am adding a little unimportant thing to my posts.  My dear friend Pat gave me a massive book of quotes.  Some are short and wise, some are long and boring.  I love quotes, even the long and boring ones.  So I am going to stick with the shorter ones and put one on my post each time.  But I will put it very last just before any pics so you can totally skip it if you prefer.  How can you tell I have waaaaaaay too much time on my hands these days?  LOL!!!!!

Pat came over yesterday and completely dealt with our garbage and recycling.  He flattened a ton of amazon boxes, he washed out fuzzy pots (fuzzy cuz I left them too long with food in them), he packaged up all the pop cans to take with him, he cleaned the drain in the corner of the deck so the lake of water would drain.  So amazing!  Meanwhile Monte and I got all the planters that need to be dumped off the deck and into the truck.  A trip to the forest is in the works.  We are getting the deck ready to power wash.  Our neighbour actually works at a place that rents all that stuff.  It will be so nice to get all the green slime and black crap off everything back there.  It isn't like nice dry Kamloops where that doesn't happen.  At least not as bad!

I have a list a mile long of stuff to do, stuff we have been putting off and putting off.  It's amazing how when its cold and raining and you live in fear of being killed by some little invisible asshole out to get you, you tend to lose your motivation.  But the sun is out now, its warm out and it's time!!!

  First on the list is the laundry room.  It looked so clean and wonderful when we bought the laundry units.  But now....somehow it ended up full of frigging furniture.  There are two couches in there!  And a huge red chair.  And a ton of other stuff.  So furniture is being removed, either back into the rec room or out into the shed.  It can't stay in the laundry room!  Plus there are many mysterious laundry piles lying around.  Methinks they migrated out of Mister Man's room.  Sigh.  (shovel list)

And it is time to do that one springtime job I hate the most.  BBQ cleaning time.  I will be enlisting Monte for that job but it means going back fifty times to get him to do it more thoroughly.  And he will be adding his smoker to the mix out there.  And there goes the deck!

I have also decided to get the van going.  We will be cleaning it out (I figure there are at least five garbage bags of stuff to toss in the van),  wash the inside down and I am going to convert it, my way, (which means cheap) to a camping and Costco run van.  The inside of that van is huge when the seats aren't in there.  So I can put down a thick foamy and bedding and there is still room for a cooler and a rubber maid full of camping stuff.  Oh and my little privacy tent and necessity bucket.  No Johnson bars for me, in the middle of the night especially.  I am excited to make a getaway van!  When I go visit rellies now I can just sleep in my G-Mobile instead of making people make up beds and wash sheets etc...  

This is something I have always wanted!!!!  Sometimes its just plain awesome to be single and free!  No mom, no dad, no husband, no kids, telling me what to do, just little old me doing what I want, the way I want.  Pretty selfish way to live but I figure thats the reward for making it to almost 70 serving everybody else.  Don't get me wrong!  I loved every single minute of it but I intend to love my G-Mobiling  just as much!

I have a video chat with a surgeon this morning.  Another cursed colonoscopy.  I guess the thing they found 3 or 4 years ago was cancer.  (I should have guessed...they took out half my colon for Pete's sake) But I never claimed to be the sharpest knife in the drawer.  But my gp here told me all about it and it was scary.  If you are over 50, get checking.  If my doc in Kamloops hadn't insisted I would probably be in a world of hurt or dead right now.  But it does mean a colonoscopy every two years.  And somehow I have to make myself presentable from the neck up for this call.  (bucket list times a thousand)

Well as you can see I am back into Haiku. Bad ones but Haiku all the same.  I will keep the challenge part here short.  It's getting too long.

23.  Watch an anime movie.  Thats easy for me!  Monte has one downloaded he's been bugging me to watch for a long time.  So I guess this week it is!!!  If you can't get anime, watch animation.  Now that April has educated me its really interesting to watch. The one Monte has is Airbender: The Last Avatar.

As usual this stupid blogspot put everything out of order.  The other challenge and quote is after the pictures.

THE SALT CHUCK AND DOCK

THE NEW MARINA SPOT WE PARK AT, THE OTHER WAY FROM THE SALT CHUCK. THATS WHERE I PURLOINED ROCKS

THIS IS WHAT I SEE OUT MY FRONT WINDOW...LOTS OF TELEPHONE WIRES

OUR EASTER DINNER

THE VIEW UP THE STREET FROM THE MARINA

24.  Watch a travel show.  Another easy one.  We all probably do that anyway.  Rick Steves here we come!

So that's it for today.  Sorry it's so long.  I shall put my quote next which you can skip.  Have a great week this week.  The weather is the best we can have.  Sunny, blue sky, warm, not hot or cold.  Stay safe, noodle and do an oldster if you can.  TTYL

Quote:  There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in it's hands. You seek problems because you need their gifts.   -Richard Bach-

A LITTLE LATE.....SORRY

 Thanks Shedunto (teehee) for setting me straight on Texas.  The guy I was talking to is a bit of a Trumpster and def spinning it.  What an ass that Governor is.

So, I have an appointment for my vaccine.  I phoned the instant my age group was announced and I still didn't get one for two and half weeks.  My friend phoned later than me by about an hour to an hour and a half got an appointment for three or four days later.  They keep us in the dark so much of the time. I know my sister doesn't think so but I still feel we really aren't hearing the nitty gritty stuff.  At least not the stuff I want to know.

Anyway I do have an appointment now.  So by the middle of May I will be immune...to a point.  Monte will be safe by April 21st.  So I am happy.

On the Wrangler front we have a new dog.  Monte took him to the vet and she said all his joints are super hurting.  She ran some blood tests.  And the good news is he has the organs of a teenager!  She said he is in amazingly good shape, it's just his joints.  He will have to be on pain meds forever now.  So we started a couple of days ago and he is happy and bouncy...like we haven't seen him in a long time.

Apparently though he has to lose ten pounds.  I hate it when the house dog is on a diet...they aren't happy, always looking for food, getting into the garbage, something they never normally do when they get lots of food. He constantly comes over to me in my chair and lays his head on my lap and gazes imploringly, or rather hungrily, up at me.  This is worse than Molly was!

Other than that he is bouncy and playing with his 'baby' running around.  And this is dangerous.  He is quite blind, is constantly tripping over stuff, banging his head on everything.  I see we are going to have to go into Molly mode and clear the place out for him. He still has trouble getting up from lying down and he still goes down with a hell of a thump.  He can't do it slowly.

So, covid.  I don't really feel like talking about it anymore.  I am so tired of all the ins and outs.  It all seems impossible.  We are getting up to approximately 1200 new cases per day now.  People are not obeying the rules.  All those hundreds of 'little' exceptions add up.  Makes Monte and I feel kind of stupid.  Here we are not even going into stores, certainly not going anywhere, not letting anyone into the house, just to see and hear of people just visiting their family over there, or heading to a ski resort for a little needed fun, or visiting the neighbour.....it's really annoying and disheartening.

Like I said I got through and made my appointment. It was easy peasy but it still took some time.  Everything seems to move in slow motion.  Now that pretty much all of the older generation is vaccinated, the deaths and sick have moved into the younger generation.  I guess the hospitals have filled up with whole families and a lot of twenty plus year olds.  Other than getting covid at work, shame on those that pick it up in the community.  Stay home people...Bonnie Henry has been saying this for some time now.  Just stay home.  It may not be that pleasant but it's what needs to be done.  It's just not that hard.  And stop making little exceptions here and there, no matter how tempting.  Okay this has turned into a lecture so I shall stop now.

This is a very lame post.  My apologies.  Things are happening in this house at the moment so I have to go.  I shall post about it next time.  I will leave a hint.  Stay safe, noodle and chat an oldster.  TTYL

a haiku....I will explain next post.

There's a man called Pat

came over but not to chat

stomped and flattened crap

WAIT WAIT WAIT

 It seems to be taking forever to get our vaccines.  Now we have to do it by internet, first register, wait for a code, go back on with the code and get an appointment then wait again for that appointment.

  Meanwhile in Texas, with a population of 29 million, they have vaccinated enough people for herd immunity and they are back to business as usual.  I don't understand why we are that far behind.  In the end the buck stops with Mr. Butterflies and Unicorns who keeps promising us that things are going to speed up now.  Thanks Justin, I would rather you would say nothing cuz its NOT HAPPENING.

  If I hear of one more shipment either being delayed or not coming at all I will stamp my feet and say a bad swear.  This whole pandemic was badly handled from before it started.  They stopped the funding for pandemic supplies, they shut down the factories that could make vaccines, the top structure for managing all things virus was fractured.....read Bonnie's book.  She unfortunately was working from a deficit right from the jump.  And that squarely lands on the PMO.  She has done a phenomenal job in spite of that I feel.

  Anyway, this isn't a covid blog so on to another subject. Monte and I shared an Easter dinner last night.  I made scalloped potatoes (Betty Crocker, the only kind to have, a buck at the dollar store, au gratin plus a bag of shredded old cheddar), steamed cauliflower, broccoli and celery and a salad.  For desert I made a chocolate banana pie, (dollar store graham wafer crust, Dr. Oeker instant pudding, way too many sliced bananas, piles and piles of whipping cream, chocolate syrup drizzled over the top). Pork schnitzel and applesauce....made at BuyLow and carefully fried by moi.  It was delish!

We have discovered a new place to go park and drink coffee.  Its kind of a hidden little lane down to the marina.  Everybody goes to the Quay but this marina parking area is delightfully quiet and peopleless.  There is a garbage can there where I can clean out the truck of all our coffee cups and snack papers.  There is a perfect view of the mountain one way and the marina and salt chuck the other.  Also there is a gardeny area that is covered with little rocks, rocks that I can purloin for my own use!  I snagged two yesterday.

I am wondering, did anyone go without social media for a week?  During a pandemic I think it's unreasonable to ask this.  Not only are we seeing absolutely no one due to sheltering in place, but to not see them virtually is not right.  I know I sure didn't do this one and I threw out five things...happily!  I can't believe the amount of unnecessary junk I moved here!  

I also absolutely did not drink that amount of water.  Jeez!!!!  I did become more conscious of the amount of liquid I did take in.  And surprisingly its quite a bit.  Between actual water, coffee, ginger tea and a specialty venti decaf later in the day, apples and veg it was a fair amount.  I noticed I do drink more if I put Mio tang in my water. MMMM.... I love tang, always did.

Now for this weeks challenges:

21.  Write an entertaining story or poem from your life experiences.  Pick one and just write it!  I wrote a poem a day for 100 days, they were awful but it was totally fun.  If you really hate writing do a haiku.  5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second and five in the last one.  And share it with me!!!!!  I would love to have some stories or poetry from you!  No judgement here...they couldn't possibly be worse than the hundred I wrote!

22.  Watch an Arthouse film.  And what the hell is an Arthouse film and how are we supposed to watch it? I sense another five things flinging out the door.  I will look it up and see what I can find out.

I took some pics I would like to put here.  But I used my Nikon so now I have to go and try to find my gadget that I use to down load the pics onto my lappy.  So here I go and whilst I am at I shall get five things to fling and buy myself the freedom to NOT watch an arthouse film.  It sounds foofoo and I am just not into foofoo anything.

Stay safe, get a shot, noodle and talk to an oldster.  Make someone's day if you can.  TTYL

ps. I can't put any pics on today.  I can't find my san disk reader anywhere. So I ordered one from Amazon and it will be here by April 13.  You shall be flooded with pics then!!

To encourage you:

OW

we went visiting

mom warned no asking for cake

I did...sore buttocks

CLARE

 I just hung up the phone from talking with Clare.  He is such a dear and important friend.  He meant so much to Bill and to our family.  And what was so wonderful was in the last few years Bill would meet Clare and their friend Dave at a nearby pub for lunch every Thursday.  We tagged along on occasion.  After Bill died us kids would meet up with Clare now and again and what was super wonderful is he would bring his wife along, Tish. And this gave us the opportunity to get to know her even better.

She was just about the sweetest woman you would want to meet.  And not just sweet...she was sharp as a tack and really funny.  And even though she was nigh ninety, she was truly beautiful.  She had soft beautiful white hair and a lovely face and she was tiny.  I would sit beside her at the table and she would entertain me through the lunch.  I was so pleased that my kids got to know her.  I know Clare misses her so so much.

Well, I am not sure if I mentioned before but Monte had an appointment yesterday at a local food banky type place to get a vaccine.  It was set for 11:30 to 1:00 and open to mental health people.  We drove by the place at about 11:15 and there was no line up so we went and got coffee and came back around 11:40.  Monte went to the locked door and they opened it and said that they were out of vaccine.  He goes 'What?  How is that possible?"  And she said that there had been a line up and they went through all the doses.  And that was a flat out spin.  There wasn't one person inside waiting out the post shot fifteen minutes.  Monte told me that there was a nasty looking man telling her what to say before she opened the door.  We know her. She is Monte's mental health nurse and a straight dye.  Boy was Monte pissed off!!!  Whew!!!  Anyway he goes back on the 7th for it.  I think my turn to make an appointment is on Sunday or Monday.

I am not sure what is going on in our world.  It seems like people are getting more and more raucous every day.  There sure are a lot of angry people out there and I think covid isn't helping.  It's almost like covid is a license to misbehave to some.

Another thing I have noticed is the disrespect and lack of understanding of our intrepid leaders, both political and medical by a huge portion of the public.  They choose to not understand (they aren't stupid) that this is the first pandemic for them and it is a huge learning curve.  They just aren't going to get everything perfectly correct every time.  And there is so so much behind the scenes we are not privy to or understand.

I mentioned that I was reading Bonnie Henry's book.  I suggest you read it if you can.  Nothing will make you understand the logistics and the massive amplitude a pandemic is and all the immense history and work and data that is collected to help make decisions.

Vaccines!!!!!  Now that it's happening you can feel the mood of the people lifting.  There have been some serious hitches though.  A huge shipment of Moderna didn't get delivered this week.  That is probably why Monte et al didn't get a shot.  There was no way they could phone them all because it was walk in.  There has been some serious whining by groups that weren't singled out for advanced shots because of their vulnerability one way or the other to covid.  For example dentists.  Even though there has not been even one covid case happen due to dentistry, they want the advance shot.  A lot of whining by groups.

Another group that isn't happy are restauranteurs. Even though they can do take out and patios, they are freaking out that they can't do inside dining or liquor service.  And people are saying why not when stores are still allowed to be open.  They just don't seem to get it that the Bonnie Henry's make the decisions based on contact tracking and where the virus is most easily spread.  Makes sense to me.  And look whats happened to hockey teams?  Canucks are shut down for the next few games because of covid.  And that hockey team isn't the only one. Come on now!  This is Canada and the NHL is MONEY...they wouldn't shut down unless covid was a serious issue.  Those conspiracy attention getting theorists just don't get it.  When NHL is affected...it is real!!!

Well, I am hungry.  We went to Buy Low for the first time yesterday and it was fantastic!  I bought a couple of cheese pepperoni bread sticks.  I just ate one this morning and it was unbelievably delicious!  I am now going to eat the second one.  Can't help it! Monte will be mad but we will have to go there as soon as he gets up and get more.  Soooo yummy!!!

Stay safe people, noodle and phone an elder.  TTYL 

SOFT AND GOOEY AND CHEESY AND SPICY