One Wacky Week...

This week we are preparing to travel to Utah at a moments notice. Our sister-in-law, Julie, is close to passing away with pancreatic cancer. When we get word of her passing and the funeral arrangements, we will pack up and hit the road. This all depends on the current restrictions based on Covid-19 for funerals. We believe we are safer from the virus driving in our own vehicle and eating at drive-thru places. So we determined we would prepare and be ready to go if and whenever.

Monday, July 20, 2020
This day I spent being very busy in my own home. I did all the laundry and ironing, watered plants, cleaned the four bathrooms and finished my Southern Caribbean Cruise scrapbook. Claude had things in Lexington that took his day.

Claude received a phone call updating him on how Julie was doing. Hospice was in and confirmed that it will likely be only a few days until Julie passes. We talked about it and determined for sure we wanted to drive. Then we started to think of things that we needed to have in place to leave on this trip. One thing I did was check the oil in my car and determined I should get an oil change as quickly as possible. I set up an appointment for Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Tuesday morning we got up and prepared to be at Dan Cummins by 10:20am for the oil change. We decided Claude would also drive in. I would check in my car and then join him in his Jeep. We did our walk, took Papa a treat, got something for lunch and went to the park to eat it. We also called and were able to get another Covid-19 test. We felt this was best before going to visit family. It took all morning to get these things accomplished. Then we were home to finish accomplishing more on our to do lists in preparation for the trip.

On Monday, while trying to finish the Southern Caribbean Scrapbook, I wanted a couple of pictures to fill out the cover page and the second page of the PowerPoint I was making. I went to the Carnival webpage to get a map of the islands we visited. They don't lay out the page like that anymore. I tried logging in to Carnival to see if that might show a different layout. It did not. I finally found one using Goggle. While we were driving around on Tuesday, I received a phone call from Carrie Nipper. She is the sales person I worked with on that cruise and others. My logging in to Carnival must have sent an alert to her and she responded with a phone call to me to see if she could help. Ah, the world in which we live.

I wanted to get letters ready to mail to Papa each day while we were gone as well as letters to the young missionaries that I send each Sunday. I went to the basement and pressed the button on my laptop to turn it on. NOTHING!! Claude was taking a quick nap so I tried everything I could think of to get it to work. Different outlets. Holding the on button for 60 seconds. Nothing worked. When Claude woke up, he and I checked the charging cable on his laptop and it worked so we knew it wasn't the charging cable. I found a number for Toshiba service. I called it and they referred me to Dynabook. I tried them and they only wanted you to check on the Internet. I read several things on the Internet and learned they don't make Toshiba computers anymore and they don't make parts to replace broken ones on the laptops that are still being used. This was not a good thing. I called Best Buy in Lexington and spoke with a man in the Geek Squad. After explaining what was going on with my laptop, he felt it was a problem with the mother board and he didn't have and could not get a replacement. No fixing this laptop. I asked if they could get the data off the old laptop. He felt there was probably no damage to the hard drive. He said if I came into Best Buy and purchased a laptop they would transfer the files from the old to the new for a small fee of $100. I type that with tongue in cheek. I explained this to Claude. His laptop is also a Toshiba. Now we know if it has a problem, it too will be a goner. I would use Claude's laptop in the evening to get letters ready for Papa. I had used my Kindle while Claude napped to get the letters ready for the missionaries. Ugh!!

Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Best Buy opened at 10am. We left the house in time to get to Georgetown, do some banking, do our walk and get me a biscuit at Bojangles. Then off to Lexington to search for a new laptop at Best Buy. Just for the record, they had precious few laptops on their shelves for sale. The also have fewer sales people. All this is a result of the virus. Wearing our masks we made it to the back of the store and we each started looking at all the laptops to begin comparing what they had, what I really felt I needed, etc. A nice man who worked in another department came to help us. By this time we found one that might work that they actually had on the shelf under the display. He was able to find someone who really knew the computer end of the business to help us. Turns out the one we had picked does not use Goggle Chrome. This is my browser of choice. I put my old laptop on the counter and opened it. I told him this was what I was used to using and asked what he had that was close. He took us to two that might work. We weighed the pros and cons of each and chose the one we would purchase. It has a number pad. The other did not. We took that purchase to the Geek Squad with my old laptop and they took it to set it up and transfer the files. We left understanding they might have it done that day but probably not till Thursday morning.

I learned that Claude and I are way behind in the digital world already. I knew our cell phones, which are Galaxy 7's, have an older version of charging cables. They now do something called a "C". It seems this is also the move with USB cables. So, when I was seeing two USB ports on the laptops and thinking there would be two, it turns out one of them was the old version of USB and the other was the new "C" version. All of my things are the old version and I need two. I needed an adapter. Ugh again.

The other thing I learned was that most people are going to keeping things on the cloud. So they don't put as much resident memory on laptops as they used to. I haven't really embraced the cloud. I may have to move forward with my technology abilities and usage in the future.

I received a text on my cell phone about 5pm stating my new laptop was ready for pickup. Claude and I determined we should go back to Lexington and get it as we don't know what timing will be for us and we want to be ready for whatever we need to do. We did that.

I spent Wednesday evening making sure I have the things on my new laptop like I was used to seeing them on the old laptop.

This day Cordell posted this wonderful picture of him and Julie. His comment with the picture was: "Real life love stories seldom end the way we may have planned or hoped for. But consider yourself bless if your love story is cut short suddenly. Live so you can look back over the years you spent  together as companions with no regrets." This was very tender to Claude and me. Love these two people so much.

I also received a phone call from where we had out Covid-19 tests. My results were in and I was negative. Claude's weren't back quite yet. He will get his tomorrow. Whew, I feel better.

Thursday, July 23, 2020
I could not believe it. I woke up at 8:30am and realized I didn't get up once during the night. Oh I tossed and turned to get comfortable, but I didn't get out of bed one time. When one gets to this point in life...that is a miracle!!

Claude and I ate breakfast on the front porch again. We were having a gentle misting rain. It was delightful to listen to the birds chattering to each other and watch the hazy sky with rain. Nice start to our day.

I found a cute cartoon on Facebook and sent it to Jake to get a chuckle for his morning.

I showered and then pulled some things together for Papa for while we are gone. I got the birdseed ready to fill his birdfeeder and I made two bags with treats that someone can leave at the nursing home for him while I am gone. 

This morning I also managed to get another haircut. My hair had grown again to ponytail length. Time to get a haircut. I was not sure if Tyra could do that but she got me right in. Now I am sporting a much shorter cut and it feels so good. I enjoyed visiting with Tyra. I was the only customer she had the entire time I was there. She has been watching the Covid-19 positives going up and she said she wouldn't be surprised to see them close down hair salons again. So grateful for Tyra and her being right here in Sadieville.

This photo popped up on Facebook as a memory of past posts. We made a trip to New Hampshire to visit Julie and Cordell who were serving a service mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a Church owned campground. We went to the ocean and booked a whale watching trip. Julie helped us get a selfie with all of us in the picture. Well, Cordell is only half in the picture. This was such a fun time on the water together. Saw whales even. Great day. It was July 2014. 

Claude picked up the mail and surprised me with a package from our oldest daughter for my birthday. I sent her a text to tell her it arrived and that I would wait for my birthday in a week to open it. She suggested I might go ahead and open it or at least put it in the fridge. Hmmmm.... I opened the box and found two packages of molasses crinkle cookie from the Amish store near their home. We stopped there when in Michigan in June but they were out of my favorite cookie. Nissa knows I loved these cookies and she got me some for my birthday. I suggested to my Nissa that this would be a good tradition. Nissa also included a pair of socks that have turtles all over them. Be still my turtle lovin' heart!

Masks were next on my to do list for this day. Claude is really struggling to get the right mask for his needs. He wears hearing aids and glasses. Adding a third thing behind his ears just does not work. His hearing aids tend to pop out! This is not good. When I picked up my new laptop the night before, the man in the Geek Squad had one of these holding his mask on. The loops on the mask are held on by the buttons on the crocheted strip. Then the mask doesn't have to go over the ears. I knew I could crochet this. I Googled and found the pattern and made one this afternoon for Claude. It was a little tight so I made another one that was a little longer. It seems to work for him. We'll give it a try. 

Then I went down and repaired the three masks for me that the elastic broke. We are now ready to travel with plenty of face masks to get the job done.

Our youngest grandmonster sent me a picture of a nightcrawler she wanted. Today I found what possible fabrics I had that might work and took this picture for her to pick out the one that would work best for her. She picked the silvery colored fabric. Now I can create this thing for her and she can stuff it and I'll show her how to hand stitch the seem.

Friday, July 24, 2020
Claude made an appointment to have the oil changed in the Jeep. We did the same type of thing we did on Tuesday when I had the oil changed in my car. I drove in and Claude got in my car after he checked his Jeep in for service. We went to Chick-fil-A for breakfast. Then we went to the park for a walk. Then we went to the nursing home to leave a treat for Papa. I took the three extra bags and gave them to Glen, the chaplain for the nursing home. He will hold on to them and give them to Papa for me. I also left plenty of birdseed for the birdseed feeder. 

Well, Bailey picked the silvery stretchy velvet material. I cut it out and then sewed it and stuffed it. This fabric was not for the novice seamstress at all. She will have to glue the eyes on it. Bailey was very happy with this picture I sent her. She said it 'looks so creepy and that's what I wanted!!'  I wonder if I should be concerned? Will give it to her next time I see her. 

I did a little more sewing this day. It was fun to be back at that again. I have left it alone for the most part for quite a while. I have a blouse to make for Bailey and I might try making one for me before I cut the smaller size. 

Saturday, July 25, 2020
Breakfast on the porch to begin our day. A call to Utah confirmed that Julie is still hanging in there. Bless her and Cordell's heart. How hard this must be I cannot even imagine. So we have devoted this day to finishing up any preparations for a trip. I am doing the end bit of laundry, Claude is cutting the grass. We are gathering things to take and generally getting things in final order. What an experience. Traveling in the midst of a pandemic for a funeral of a loved one is an emotional roller coaster. We believe we have done everything we could to make it a safe experience.

This week has felt wacky. Trying to be ready and think of all that should be done and could be done ahead of times. Waiting for a phone to ring with news you really don't want to hear. Laptops breaking in the midst of all of this. It just feels strange. The corona virus in on the rise. Friday there were 767 confirmed cases added to the total. They have a percentage formula that helps compare apples to apples from the first surge we had of the virus. When that percentage gets to 5% you state is in the danger zone and needs to cut back on what has been allowed to open up. Yesterday, Kentucky was at 5.28%. Governor Beshear had already issued an advisory warning for several states stating 'if you visit them, please come back and self-quarantine for 14 days. If this magic percentage stays over 5% for the weekend, there may be more restrictions given to get it under control. Lexington has already states that Fayette County will begin the school year with on-line instruction only, no in-class learning to start the school year. We'll watch and see and continue to be personally vigilant. Interesting time in which to live. Very interesting.