Merry Covid Christmas

 

We had three shifts of Christmas guests: Christmas Eve Mya, Mid day Christmas Josh's family and later, Shanna's family. Naomi who would be all alone was there the whole time. Yes it would have been more fun to have everyone at once..Next year. I guess. I had the kids smile in their photos before they could open presents

Josh and Allie

A pensive Naomi. Finally her hair is near to its original color

Hannah and Allie

tree with snowflake ceiling

Yes I am a sucker for various lights. I like the pattern these lanterns make

Maya and Nala

Our 43rd wedding anniversary came and went

more lights

Its turned cold and snowy so luckily we have a treadmill. With the heat off, the fan full blast and my music full blast, it is almost tolerable. Warm now is defined by me at least at 35 for bicycling

As in most of the world, I feel like I am in a holding pattern until we can get those vaccines. Also cannot wait until Trump leaves. I keep being afraid one of his dastardly plans might work. Now I can see why he wants to stay in office at all costs but why anyone else would.

And each day now gets ligher

Awaiting the vaccine

Went to an art show down the street

the first snow that stuck with weird evening light

looking through my various art glass to the snow

Regal Kaya. I get to see her but not the kids

Josh's family

our bedroom. Facebook showed this when the previous owners had only a mirror on the wall

I've been putting up Xmas lights

the white tree

the big tree

 This covid crap is getting old. It is more or less under control in our county but we are surrounded by maskholes. And the rate is going through the roof in the red states.

The vaccine won't come soon enough. Now there are debates who will get it first. I would like to suggest those who had refused to wear a mask will be at the end of the line but they probably have no interest in the vaccine anyway as they don't believe in science or already had covid.

Naomi's workplace was shut down and she has only 4 weeks of unemployment left. On top of it all, Maya's insurance was taken away. Technically low income families in Michigan can get free insurance for their children. She has received this since she was born but as of last week, it disappeared because her father who lives 130 miles away signed up for health insurance at his new job and was told he had to include her. Nevermind it is in a different region of the state and doesn't cover anything until a huge deductable has been met.  She is not even his dependent by IRS rules. The insurance costs his employer nothing and I am sure they get some sort of tax break . We are encouraging him to look for a new job. So frustrating. Very upsetting.

Trump still is spreading disease with his rallies insisting he won the election. I am hoping he knows he didn't but is just using this as an excuse to fleece his supporters who have sending him money for his defense. Rumor has it that he just pockets it. Now his slimeball lawyer is in the hospital with covid which of course serves him right.

Why decorate for Xmas when noone will see it? Just trying not to sink into despair.

Wine advent calendars

 

From the web: where I run there are few people to observe me and no thanks to the cold, not much is exposed but I've run in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in NYC during the summer where even my exposed hair is taboo much less my legs which attract dirty looks

A nice sunset through a screen as I was too lazy to go outside

How to amuse myself when Covid continues to rise (thanks to trump and his superspreader events and those who worship him by steadfastedly refusing to mask up)? Family dinners are out Meetings with friends are out except by zoom which I really don't find satisfying. I continue to learn languages, two thirds through Spanish. Netflix and its ilk at night. Just finished The Queens' Gambit, Biohackers and The Crown during the past two weeks. I have been buying wine advent calendars where you are given 24 bottles of different wines to open up each day. I missed out on the best calendar, the Costco2 which features obscure wines from around the world so I settled for the Aldi one, which are all California ones. This is by no means a cost effective way of buying wine, costs at least twice as much per ounce as the 'good' wines I usually buy but you can try stuff you normally do not and if you limit oneself to one little bottle per day, portion control.

We had our first snow Sunday which part of it is still on the ground. I tried to run in it but too slippery. True we now have a treadmill but they make me dizzy. I ran for more than 90 minutes the next day up and down very muddy hills to make up for my sloth. Once it gets above freezing, maybe at noon, I will bike. My toes are the most vulnerable. I have thick wool sox covered with baggies but still they are numb if I am out for more than an hour

I did get my covid hair chomped off. It hadn't been so long since Shanna was a baby and it was tangling too easily. I hadn't got a haircut since my stylist died. I tried a student from a high end school. She was nice and the hair looks ok.

How fast can we get those vaccines? At least Trump seems like he is conceding especially after his lawyer ranted like a crazy man in a press conference with his do it yourself dye job on his sideburns melted under the lights leaving black rivelets down his face. And then he blew his nose into a handkerchief and then wiped the snot all over his forehead. Trump's wining and dining of our top officials didn't buy him anything as our state certified the results yesterday.

So things are looking a bit brighter

covid continues

 

A covid activity of a friend copying Monet. Never knew my friend could paint

the girls out for a ride

Woodpeckers are back. This red breasted nuthatch is much smaller than the its white breasted cousin

still get nice sunsets and sunrises during these otherwise gloomy times

cow poop sculpture

mums are the last to die

Cases go up and up. Our governor just announced more restrictions for the next few weeks. Trump's 'medical' advisor urged Michiganders to protest (with their assault rifles and definitely no masks). What a crazy world we live in!!!!

If only we had a true leader back in February who was capable of understanding science. Of course he demanded the best medical care for himself. And he still won't concede the election, just encourages his cult followers to take up arms.

One of his ardent supporters did die recently, an old boyfriend of mine. Talk about the road not taken! He was one of the most intelligent people I ever met ( in understanding quantum mechanics and very advanced math) and has numerous degrees yet he loved Trump. I would read his diatribes and shake my head. What happened? He did think Covid was a hoax and less deadly than the flu (not true) I don't know how he died. I did know he had bad lungs and a few other comorbidities. He was so irritating, I was considering defriending him but recently I wondered how he felt about the election. He must have died the week before the election.

I recently had a physical and had one of those annoying dementia screens consisting of memorizing three words and then being distracted by having to draw 10:45 on a clock. Didn't want to forget those words and then being classified as dumber than you know who who actually bragged about acing his Alzheimer's test. Should have just drawn a digital clock. At some point, we will have a population that has no idea how to read an analog clock. I did get my flu shot, which my insurance company actually paid me to get though theoretically, if everyone is social distancing, how is it going to be spread.

So there is a vaccine that should start being used in a few weeks for at least health care workers and maybe the elderly. We shall see.

Meanwhile it is a bleak November. Not having the whole family over for Thanksgiving.

Hate the maskholes.

Hate the stupidity and blind loyalty to that tyrant

Happy Zoom Halloween

 

Cat faced Naomi

Maya Bo Peep

Josh's family

Steve's cousin"s granddaughter as Malala

Oliver

Tessa and Daniel

Halloween graveyard on my bike ride

Real graveyard adjacent to our subdivison

New sculpture over my 'bar' area

aster

skull cookies by Maya and Naomi

Who are these characters that my grandchildren were for Halloween  Just had heard of Bo Beep which I  am surprised that any kid knows about these days. I reread the nursey rhyme recently. It has a part about Bo Peep finding the missing sheep tails bloody hanging in a tree. Sweet dreams children

Little Bo peep fell fast asleep
And dreamt she heard them bleating,
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were all still fleeting.
Then up she took her little crook
Determined for to find them.
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they left their tails behind them.
It happened one day, as Bo peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side
All hung on a tree to dry.

Speaking of nightmares. The elections are very close. Again the polls were wrong. Trump called the election for himself late last night saying no more need to count the ballots. But Biden could still win the electorate. Trump will try to seize control any way he could. Why did anyone vote for him?

We have Indian summer for the next week but most of my flowers are dead to a killing frost last weekend. Not a fan of November with its drabness but at least I will be able to bike comfortably a few more times

Why we bob for apples and not pears

The lake near our house early morning

new house going up a quarter mile away

Miss Maya on our walk

In the nature preserve a mile away

our house and a sugar maple starting to change You a see one of my three Crimson Kings on the other side of the house

My first cauliflower that I grew  It is actually orange

the peanut mobile visited our small local market

They recently converted a farm into a park a mile away in a different direction

Another sugar maple

part of the farm park

Another pond on my running route

With covid on the rise again no thanks to covidiots fueled by trump, the moms no longer want to meet inside. It was 50 degrees when I hosted the other night, thus the fire and blankets  I made butter shrimp

No social distancing with my Granddog Kaya

Fall colors are especially nice this year though maybe they peaked last year while we were in Europe.

I start my run in semidarkness headed east for 2.5 miles trying to get to where I turn before the sun comes up to blind me. I run through a tunnel of trees that are especially pretty as the sun comes up. As it is no longer hot here, I've been able to run more but the increased winds and cold make biking not so fun.

When I Have Maya, I take her out for walks. Sadly the turkey flocks I come across early morning aren't around though we did see a dead snake on the road. She is still in Zoom school with no end in sight. Allie started her 2nd grade in person a few days ago only to be sent home because she had the sniffles. She wasn't allowed back until she had a negative covid test in hand. Shanna's 3rd and 5th grader go to school in person next week. No time line for the seventh grader. The university of Michigan students have been ordered to shelter in place as they are super spreaders. People are becoming more belligerent about their 'right' not to wear a mask and spread their germs around. Trump continues to have his packed maskless rallies. Does he win converts with these? I think not but he has an overriding desire to hear them cheering him on with every stupid statement and lie he spews. Until we get that vaccine, I see no end. Too bad, it could have been over in June if we weren't run by Idiots. And our mom meetings will go back to being zoomed which makes me sad.

Bobbing for apples. As some sort of camp prank I was blindfolded and asked to bob for apples, which I did. Then I was asked to do it again, and I put my face in a bowl of flour inside which stuck to my wet face. But why not bob for pears? I assume apples are cheaper due to their long shelf life though in many parts there are as many pear trees as apple trees. A perfectly ripe pear is the best fruit but rare. Apples and pears are in the same family (pomes) but one sinks and the other floats. Same gross structure inside, same amount of seed and seed arrangement, same number of cells but under an electron microscope, apples contain very thin arteries of air making them 25% air versus 8% for a pear.

Frost has killed two thirds of my annuals. I filled up 8 large bags with their carcasses, sad. But underneath the corpses, I found asters that I had planted but I didn't think they grew. Well they did. My mums are started to bloom so it won't be completely flowerless here. Petunias and snapdragons are more frosthardy

We do watch more TV now. We have been watching Babylon Berlin which takes place in 1928-29 Berlin, a very turbulent time with various political groups vying for power. Well we know which group ultimately came on top though that started in Munich. But they spared no expensive for the sets including extremely well choreographed cabaret scenes. One feature that particularly  interested us was in their huge police station, they had a continuously running loop of no door elevators connecting the maybe eight floors in a device called a Pater noster, so called as it resembles rosary beads. One starts the rosary prayer with Pater Noster. This thing is also called 'the elevator of death'. It moves quite quickly giving you little time to decide when to hop off or on. Do they still have pater nosters? Well yes, especially in Eastern Europe. One is in Prague City Hall which we were actually in but I didn't notice it or knew to look. Steve remembers as a child panicking about when to get on a descending escalator. His mom had gone ahead. He just stood on the top crying. So falling down an escalator would be no fall but being crushed in between floors would be worse. I do remember being at the top of the Dupont circle subway station escalator in Washington DC thinking it wouldn't be good to trip now. It might be the country's longest escalator.