What day is it?

Day 8 of our staying at home.

Have I kept busy, yes, and I’m probably doing the same stuff you are doing. The closets are organized, all my fabric is color coded, masks have been sewn for grocery shopping, the attic looks the best it ever has, and we’ve shredded every old document. 🙂

So, what’s left to talk about except emotions.

The #1 thing that absolutely sends my blood pressure skyrocketing are the college kids on the beach ignoring recommendations for social distancing. Every one of us who have abided by state directives will now be asked to stay home longer because of their contracting it which has already started.

Will we learn from this experience?

• Be willing to pay a higher price for items to be produced in the US where we could have ready access to the supply chain?
• The environment is getting a break from all of our vehicles parked, but will that be a positive or a negative with current climate change. We’ll see.
• Will we all have a few extra rolls of TP just in case?
• After being told repeatedly that we’ll all expire if we don’t eat organic, we’re now reminded that we could expire if we don’t have some high sodium packaged and canned foods on the shelf.
• The realization that the food we eat is not produced by the grocery store but by a farmer, and s/he needs our native pollinators so stop using so many chemicals on your lawn just to make it green and weed free.
• The importance of over-the-road truckers and the role they play in our daily lives.
• Saying thank you to all the people working in our grocery stores.
• Veggie seeds are something we might want to have on hand especially since Johnny’s and Burpee are sold out of many. Can you say a lot of victory gardens in 2020?
• That rainy day fund everyone was suppose to set aside wasn’t just idle talk.
• Will brick and mortar stores survive after we all learn to shop online?
• Washing our hands with soap and water really was something we should have been doing all along.

I’m also grateful for…

• All the people who have pulled together and stayed home to try and bring a halt to this issue.
• The generous folks checking in on seniors who do not have family, and neighbors helping neighbors.
• Access to grocery stores for items I need even if some I want are not available.
• Enough food for three meals a day.
• The option to read, sew and garden.
• The blogging community that allows us all to stay in touch and keep a small piece of our normal life.
• Faith that we will be able to weather this storm, regroup, and learn to live again.

Sending each and every one of you best wishes for a safe week. ❤️Your plans for this week?

Home Sweet Home

We headed north over the weekend. We’ll miss the last two weeks with our winter friends and all the fun and laughter, but it was time because of the reality of the situation we are all in.

What we saw along the way was certainly different. There were a lot of trucks rolling which is not the normal case on a weekend. The Hampton Inn staff where we stayed were spraying and wiping down all surfaces. We saw people stopping at fast food restaurants to use restrooms and buy food, but they were voluntarily eating in their vehicles in the parking lot. At a rest stop, one family of five was eating their own food out of the back of their vehicle. It reminded me of the pre-fast food days.

Once home, one of the strangest things is the lack of traffic. It’s pretty eerie.

Have I been out? Yes, once to get groceries and seeds – food for the body and food for the soul. 🙂 Today, I’m going out to pick up a prescription but will be using the drive through option for the first time.

I went to our local Hannaford grocery store to avoid a larger crowd at Walmart. Many of the shelves were bare, but I was able to put together enough food for a couple of weeks.

I’ve survived growing up very poor, sat with a baby in the gas lines of the oil crisis of 1973, worked through the night of Y2K, grieved with the nation on 9/11, and lost money in the 2008 financial crisis. But, never, did I think the most wanted item in America in a flu pandemic and the topic of conversation would be toilet paper. I hope you have some because there definitely is not any out there to buy. 🙂

So, what now? Well, we’ll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and figure out how to use time productively. There will be no ‘books’ to read, but there are thousands to download from the closed library. There is an attic to reorganize so we can get insulation installed when this is over and a garage that could be painted. I have sewing and quilting projects, some seed starting and gardening webinars.

Is it weird knowing I ‘have’ to stay home for three weeks? Yes. But, I will survive. Besides, where would I go – everything, and I mean everything is closed. 🙂

So, I’ve put on my positive hat, hunkered down, and will do my share because we’re all depending upon each other to survive this and return to what we call normalcy. But before you go, let us know how you’re spending your time because we may pick up some good ideas.

Now, if Mother Nature would just stop the snow falling outside because she’s tending to tick me off. 🙂

News

I’ve deviated from my normal 30 minutes of local news with this virus situation, and I’ve been reminded why it is I don’t normally watch more than that.

You have to work to find real facts and statistics and when you do, sometimes they don’t add up or make any sense to me unless it is some kind of new age math.

For a little perspective, I want them to publicize that influenza has caused 291,000-646,000 deaths world wide and 12-61,000 deaths in the US annually since 2010.

The Governor of South Carolina this morning stated that “…each individual is responsible for their own actions and personal hygiene. If you feel sick, stay home, and contact your doctor.” In NH, a man who tested positive and was told to stay home decided to ignore that advice and headed out to a public event where he infected others. Too bad there isn’t an option available to protect ourselves from stupid people.

But, of all the stupid stuff I’ve read including the source of the virus is Corona beer, here is the topper.

“Those contemplating a cruise need to consider the prospect of a fellow passenger testing positive for COVID-19 and then being quarantined for several weeks on the vessel. 

If people die from an illness sooner, they are less likely to be walking on the deck, swimming in the pool, eating in the restaurants and, thus, less likely to spread the virus.”          MarketWatch, 3/7/20, Quentin Fottrell

I rest my case for normally not watching or reading the ‘news.’

Go forth and have a good week while exercising common sense precautions against catching anything including this virus and be grateful I didn’t even mention the difference between being prepared and the hoarding of supplies. 🙂

Thursday Doors

I grab a chuckle wherever I can. So, forgive my potty humor, but I couldn’t resist.

In this case, Elvis did literally leave the building. 🙂 Happy Thursday.

As always, this post is linked to the Door King, Norm Frampton’s
Thursday Doors – March 5, 2020.

Act of Kindness

I feel like a rant this morning about the so called news, but instead of adding to the noise in your life, I’ll show you some sights from my past week that made me smile.

Blue Moon and the Inlet

Container gardening

Azaleas are blooming

Muscovy duck?

Fish fry with hush puppies

Small, medium, and large turtles just for Joyce

#17 Walking Iris bloom

Gullah Geechee art exhibit

Fabric landscape

For your chuckle of the morning, I want to tell you about a burger and fries meal we were enjoying at River City when a monster of a meal came out of the kitchen. The couple grabbed their phones to take photos, so I asked if they minded if I took one. They laughed and invited me over. Never have I seen a burger like that. Could you eat that?

As we all head out to another pot-hole news filled week, remember one thing – if you’re looking for factual information about current events, dig for them yourself. The news shows are all about entertainment, ratings, and earnings.

Go forth, be safe, be happy, and by all means fact check. 🙂

Thursday Doors

Norm Frampton, our Thursday Doors Captain, leads us to churches, museums, and historic places of interest.

I’m, however, currently in the land of summer resorts where vying for family attendance and money is king.

While walking with friends at Broadway at the Beach this week, we saw these handsome doors and couldn’t resist taking a photo. In all honestly, though, I had to look up the definition of Escape Games because I didn’t have a clue.

“Escape rooms are the newest in live, interactive entertainment. “Locked” in a room with other participants, you will work together as a group to find clues, solve a series of puzzles, and ultimately escape before your time runs out.”

According to their website, for  $36 per person, you can attempt an escape from The Legend of Atlantis, a Dark Winters Night, or The Haunting of Hyde House.

I think I’ll just admire their doors, and buy more material. 🙂

Linked to Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors – February 27, 2020.

I spy

‘I spy with my little eye.’

Did you ever play that with your kids or grands? I did with my grands, and I was thinking about it this weekend while walking the beach and visiting Brookgreen Gardens.

What is the top right photo? Mistletoe, of course. 🙂 A MI friend spotted it and led me there to take a look. Never, in all my life, have I thought about where mistletoe grows, but grow it does on mostly pecan, hickory, oaks, red maple, and black gum trees. Mistletoe is considered a parasite and often kills its host tree. There are 36 species in the US and Canada, it is often called a witches’ broom, and can grow 5′ wide and weigh up to 50 lbs.

Those facts would make great trivia questions, but let’s not go there. I filled in for a friend on a trivia team last week, and let’s just say it was quite humbling.

This group is never far from food, so last week provided opportunities to participate in a ladies’ luncheon, pot luck supper, and a country club brunch.

I’m working on a fabric landscape piece right now at the sewing machine having finished gifts for the March ladies luncheon. When I complete the landscape, a Christmas tree to hang on the wall is up next.

What’s up for you this last week in February. By the way, where did February go?