MY DOG ADMIRE'S ME

 Now, I know I wasn't going to mention covid anymore but.....I was talking to my Sister yesterday and I was mentioning one thing to her that I have become aware of since the pandemic started.

Covid hit in January 2020.  Little did I know that the Christmas the month before would be the last time I saw my kids.  And the July 1st before that would be the last time I saw my extended family, including my grand children.  And the May before that would be the last time I would get my hair done.  And...when you are nearing 70 this has forced me to become aware that I only have so many years on this planet left.  Ten or twelve if I live to 80. I don't really want to spend any more time in my front window staring at the neighbours.  This has to end.

I do have to mention here that I am by far not the unluckiest of them all.  What about people that live alone?  I have always said I would love to live on a mountain top and be a hermit.  No I wouldn't. I really know that now.  And seriously Monte has saved me.  I can't imagine not having at least one of my chillins' living with me.

And I am not older with a loving spouse in an assisted living situation where I couldn't see them.  Honestly, that would be hell.  Can you imagine being in your nineties, which should be celebrated, and have a wife or husband in a place and you could not ever see them?  And at that age?  Our dearest friend Clare went through that with his beautiful wife Tish.  The agony was unbearable.

I do understand that in many ways I am blessed, and I do count those blessings now and then.  But right now I am pissed off.  I want to see my kids.  I want to see my grand kids.  I want to see my family.  I want to see something other than the stupid dogwood tree's flower progression across the street. And for God's sake I need my freaking hair done!!!!  And I know I have a lot of company out there feeling the same way.

So I cooked a corned beef yesterday.  I bought it already brined in a plastic bag.  Next step was to cook it.  Following a recipe, I put it in the crock pot, covered it with water (after washing the salt off it), threw in a small handful of pickling spice and cooked it on high for six hours until it was super tender.

And as the smell permeated the house as it cooked, I remembered that I hate that smell and that I hate corned beef.  How could I have forgotten?  I don't mind corned beef hash, but the cooking and the for real corned beef with no hash is overpowering.  Blech!!!!!!

Today I cut it into chunks and layered it with cabbage, sauerkraut, butter and topped it with a mix of smoked gruyere and Swiss cheeses and baked it in my toaster oven.  It looked fantastic and Monte loved it.  I didn't try it.  Not making it again.

Oh jeez...now I am talking about the food I have cooked...again.  Seriously!  Something has to happen!!!!  My life has become ridiculous.

Okay, now for the next two challenges.  I really like the next two challenges.

29.  Read a book you have always wanted to!  Yes!!!  I have just finished a book on Hemmingway's last years...so interesting.  But I have been saving a book to read for a time when I can just sit in total silence and read read read until it is done.  It is written by one of my fave authors.  She is a very very different type of writer...dark, nasty, unexpected, get even type, written in the first person.  So you are inside her head the whole time.  I love it!!!

30.  Read a travel book or a book that involves travel.  I have six I can pick from.  But I think I am going to re read The Canterbury Tales....or is that kind of fudging it.  It's about a trip...of sorts!  It has been a very long time since I read it.  And if I remember correctly, a very amusing pilgrimage to a place that Bill and I sat and ate paella.

Stay safe people, noodle and listen to an elder.  TTYL

"Know yourself.  Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful."

-Ann Landers. (why leave her quotes when they are so appropriate!)