Monday, January 18, 2021 Claude said to me, "Did you put a letter out for your father?" I responded in the affirmative. Claude quietly said, "You know it is Martin Luther King's birthday and there will be no mail service?" Oops. I completely forgot about it being a holiday. I had prepared two packages to take to the post office in the morning. Clearly that would not happen either.
Monday would also find me driving on my own. This has not happened a lot and it now feels a little strange to be behind the wheel. I have a friend, Velvett, who had cancer. I drove her to her radiation appointments. Now she goes to see her doctor in Frankfort, Kentucky every six months. She usually calls to see if I can drive her there. It gives us a chance to visit again. We were both concerned about that this time because of the virus. She is very compromised because of all the chemo and radiation she had to deal with her cancer. This makes her extremely high risk. We both wore our masks the entire time. I did not go into her doctor's office but waited in my car for her, and we didn't give each other our usual parting hug. It was good to catch up with a dear friend.
After finishing with Velvett, I took Papa his treat bag and filled the birdfeeder. Then stopped at Wendy's to get dinner for Claude and me. I spent my evening crocheting.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 Claude and I spent our morning doing something different. We both really enjoy two trivia games: Jeopardy and The Chase. I pulled out our 1981 version of Trivial Pursuit and we split the deck of cards with questions and answers on them. We took turns asking each other a question and trying to guess the answer. We didn't use the board or play to win. We just played to exercise our brains a bit. It was great fun. As we played the game, we came across questions that would lead us to say one of kids could really help us with that answer. The light went on and I recorded some of these questions and their answers and started posting one each day to our family Facebook page. At the end of each day I post the answer to that question. Gives us little chance to play as a family. The question for Tuesday was in the History category: What color was Judas Iscariot's hair? (Answer: Red)
While we played Trivial Pursuit, I did the laundry.
I learned that Claude had downloaded to his Kindle a book he thought was by Dan Brown about the Templars. It was time for me to learn how to do the Family version so we could share that book. I love Dan Brown books. In the evening I researched, or tried to research, how to do this. I couldn't keep my Kindle on-line to do this. Ugh!! I gave up and determined I would work on my laptop to see about this feature and filled my evening with crocheting.
Katelyn had her ultrasound and it was confirmed she is having a little boy in June. He will be named Joel.
And you know the sun's settin' fast,
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts.
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye,
But hold on to your lover,
'Cause your heart's bound to die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town.
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town,
Goodnight.Up the street beside that red neon light,
That's where I met my baby on one hot summer night.
He was the tender and I ordered a beer,
It's been forty years and I'm still sitting here.
But you know the sun's settin' fast,
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts.
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye,
But hold on to your lover,
'Cause your heart's bound to die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town.
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town,
Goodnight.It's here I had my babies and I had my first kiss.
I've walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist.
Over there is where I bought my first car.
It turned over once but then it never went far.
And I can see the sun's settin' fast,
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts.
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye,
But hold on to your lover,
'Cause your heart's bound to die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town.
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town,
Goodnight.I buried my Mama and I buried my Pa.
They sleep up the street beside that pretty brick wall.
I bring them flowers about every day,
but I just gotta cry when I think what they'd say.If they could see how the sun's settin' fast,
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts.
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye,
But hold on to your lover,
'Cause your heart's bound to die.
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town.
Can't you see the sun's settin' down on our town, on our town,
Goodnight.
Now I sit on the porch and watch the lightning-bugs fly.
But I can't see too good, I got tears in my eyes.
I'm leaving tomorrow but I don't wanna go.
I love you, my town, you'll always live in my soul.But I can see the sun's settin' fast,
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts.
Well, go on, I gotta kiss you goodbye,
But I'll hold to my lover,
'Cause my heart's 'bout to die.
Go on now and say goodbye to my town, to my town.
I can see the sun has gone down on my town, on my town,
Goodnight.
Goodnight.
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 was Inauguration Day. Claude went to Lexington to do his errands. I stayed home and curled up on our sofa and watched this Inauguration. I felt it was a piece of the history of the United States that I wanted to see. Such upheaval our country is in. Such a good country but we are way off track, divided, and in a bad way. After the siege of the Capitol a few weeks ago, security was at an all time level in Washington, DC. It looked like other countries that are under military rule, not like my beloved United States of America. Having lived in Maryland for 20 years while Claude worked in Washington, DC, I have a tender place in my heart for the city and those hallowed buildings there. In addition, because of Covid-19, everyone was wearing masks. I told Velvett on Monday that I never knew I would live in a time where seeing people in a mask was not a cause for alarm in the United States. Because of social distancing, the audience was fewer in number by a huge margin. I took these pictures off the Internet so I could write to Papa about the Inauguration and keep him a little up-to-date on current events. This is Joe Biden our new President and Kamala Harris our new Vice President. The second picture is Joe Biden being sworn in as President with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, holding the Bible for him.
I can't tell you how many times I have walked down the Mall in Washington, DC or we have driven down it. It was strictly cordoned off with temporary walls and military personnel. But on the grass were hundreds of flags of the United States. There was a good breeze and they were gorgeous blowing in the breeze. So I also sent these two pictures of those flags for Papa to enjoy.
Then I quit watching and headed to the basement to accomplish some of the things I needed to do that day. Claude came home with groceries and I helped him put them away. We would spend our evening watching the Great Courses that I purchased for us. We have four of these courses. They are Founding Fathers, Mediterranean Cooking, Hebrew in the Bible, and Spanish. We watched the first lesson in each of these courses. I purchased the DVD version. We will watch them again and again to get them in our heads. We will not write in the workbooks but will use the workbooks and write in spiral notebooks instead. There are no tests. There are no grades. This is simply to get a few more wrinkles in our brains (as my mother used to say when we learned something new).
Wednesday's Trivial Pursuit questions was in the category of Science & Nature. I assured everyone they had a 50/50 chance of getting this questions right. The question: Do mosquitoes have teeth? (Answer: yes)
Thursday, January 21, 2021 I started my day making brownies. Lots and lots of brownies. Our congregation provides one meal each month to The Gathering Place in Georgetown. This is a men's shelter. I volunteered to bring 50 brownies. They seemed to cook slowly. Then I had to let them cool before cutting and then cool again before putting them in individual snack bags. It was a nice things to do and it felt good to help others. It also provided my treat for Papa on Friday!
While waiting on brownies to cook and cool, I finished reading my Simple Abundance Book. Oh how I enjoy this book. Reading it lifts my spirits and I feel good about how I have chosen to live my life. I feel again that Sarah Ban Breathnach is a friend. I reaffirm that the things I do for my family are gifts to them. This includes putting clean sheets on that bed when they come to visit. Even something that mundane is really a gift you give to those you love. When you think of that act as a gift, it truly makes the process of getting your 'work' done a joy, not a drudgery. I loved this thought at the end of the book "Never forget that all you have is all you need." Learn to be content and recognize the blessings you have in life instead of the constant yearning to get more and compare yourself to the have's so that you feel like a have not. I have traveled to countries where people live with dirt floors and no electricity and they are happy. Sarah is not saying to not strive to improve your life. She is saying recognize what you have and what a blessing it is to have that. And, Sarah uses this book to help us find our 'authentic self'. Not the face you put on for others, not the person who doesn't speak up because others dominate, but the person you really are at your core. You will love that person when you know them. They are real. This was such a good read for me at this time with the virus keeping us indoors and away from others as much as possible. I close the book feeling good about myself and where I am at in this life of mine.
Katelyn posted this picture of Raelyn having her upcoming birthday recognized at school. She is a cutie. Her birthday would be Friday. She does not go to school on Friday so they celebrated on Thursday.
On Thursday our Andie, who teaches first grade, was given the first dose of the vaccine.
Friday, January 22, 2021 would be an out and about day. I got up and worked on the downloads I needed to do with my Kindle. Then we left to get the brownies to The Gathering Place by 11:15. After that we walked at Moss Park. It was very cold for this walk. Usually 40 degrees is our cut off for walking. The temperature this morning was in the 30's. We did it though. Then we went to the nursing home and left a treat bag for Papa and filled his birdfeeder. He was sitting on the edge of his bed eating his lunch. I had to wave my hands so it made shadows to get his attention. He can't hear me knocking on the window. He looked up and grinned really big. Then he looked to his side where the treat bag was laying and said, "Thank you!" It did me good to see him looking that good, glasses on, enjoying his lunch, and aware enough to remember a treat bag was left for him. I took a picture of him and sent it to my family. I could also tell them he had received the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19.
This day was Raelyn's birthday. I posted this on Facebook for her 5th birthday. "Score!! Raelyn turns 5 years old today. Happy Birthday young Lady. We Love Ya Bunches!!"
Saturday, January 23, 2021 our 51st anniversary is coming up soon. We usually make a little trip. With the corona virus out there, one has to pause and consider if one should go or of one should stay at home. My impression was we traveled a lot in 2020 and we stayed healthy. That was a huge blessing. Now I felt strongly we should not make this trip. Claude really wanted to go. We went back and forth in our conversations. We picked possible places we would like to travel to and still feel we were being safe. Claude wanted somewhere warm. That wasn't as important to me but I didn't want to be in snow either. Saturday we talked about it one last time and then decided a route we might drive that would afford us some measure of safety from others. Saturday I spent the rest of my day researching, starting a grid of the trip and beginning to make arrangements.
There is a thing going around now. Bernie Sanders is a U.S. Senator who has run for president twice now. Some lady made him a pair of mittens. He sat alone in a folding chair wearing these mittens during the Inauguration. Someone got a picture of him sitting there bundled up in his coat with his mittens on his hands in his lap. This picture has 'gone viral'. People are superimposing Bernie in all kids of pictures. I received this picture from our daughter, Andie. We always take a picture on the stair of whoever is in our home of Christmas morning. This year we posed like we were on a roller coaster. Very symbolic of getting through 2020. Andie used that picture and added Bernie. So this is clearly my favorite of Bernie Sanders. Andie also posted one of him coming down a slide feet first and made comment in her role as a first grade teacher that proper slide etiquette was being observed by Bernie Sanders. There was even one where Sheldon from Big Bang Theory is complaining to Leonard that Bernie is sitting in his spot on the couch. Hysterical. I also loved the one at Hogwarts where Professor McGonagall is placing the sorting hat on Bernie Sanders head. Every Harry Potter fan will find that one amusing.
Saturday's Trivial Pursuit question was in the category of Science & Nature: How many letters appear with the numbers 2 thru 9 on the old rotary dial telephone? Hint: Looking at your cellphone number pad will not help. (Answer: 24 letters)
Sunday, January 24, 2021 we enjoyed Sacrament Meeting via Zoom followed by Gospel study at home. When I cleaned our my music, I found a couple of books for children with Primary songs in them. I sent a text to Katie to see if she would like that music. She did want it. She plays the piano and teaches her kids to play. Sunday Katie came by on her way home for Church and picked up the books. The most fun thing was she rang our new Ring doorbell. It worked!! Claude and I were both over the moon about that. Katie could hear our rejoicing and was laughing with us when we opened the door. We don't get many visitors anyway. With the pandemic absolutely no one comes to our door. So, it was great to share some music I was finished with to a home that will really use it AND it was great to hear that doorbell ring.
Sunday afternoon I spent working on trip research. Sunday evening we watched television and we worked on our various craft projects.
Sunday's Trivial Pursuit question was one I called a truly irreverent Trivial Pursuit question for a Sabbath morning. The category was History: Whose first presidential order was: "Let's get this goddamn thing airborne"? (Answer: Lyndon Johnson)
Monday, January 25, 2021 was a rainy, rainy day. As in...it rained solid for 24 hours. At one point I heard rolls of thunder that shook the house a bit. I haven't heard thunder like that in a long time. Monday is also the day I take a treat bag to Papa. Claude drove in that pouring rain on I-75 to get us to Georgetown. I shall tell you now that we did not take I-75 in the rain home, Claude opted for Hwy 25. Even it had rain coming off the hill on one side of the road and flooding across the road. It was still better that dealing with 50,000,000 truckers spraying water in a downpour in heavy traffic on the Interstate.
While in Georgetown we drove through Sonic and got a burger for dinner. Pulled into the old Kroger parking lot and enjoyed a nice meal. We were going to pull up under Sonic's covered parking and place our order there. I suggested we do the drive thru so the worker didn't have to go out in the rain. Claude obliged my request. Funny thing. We placed our order and they said, move forward to Stop 2 and we will bring your order out!! Goodness. We tried to be kind to them. We were both happy to get home where it was warm and we were safe. I just love being home.
Monday's Trivial Pursuit question was in the category of Science & Nature: What's the hog's largest living relative? (Answer: Hippotamus)
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 we actually had a little sunshine today. Not a ton but a little was nice. It is laundry day and all those kinds of chores day. No big events this day.
I feel grateful today. Grateful for a good husband. Grateful for having all the things we need in this life and a lot of the wants. Grateful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ and the Gift of the Holy Ghost in my life all the time. Grateful for the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It touches every aspect of my life. So much to be grateful for in uncertain times. This is what I focus on when all the silliness of a pandemic wears on me. Gratitude is a marvelous source of comfort and strength.
Tuesday's Trivial Pursuit question was in the category of Geography: What is the Red Cross called in Arab countries? (Red Crescent)
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