Miscellanea

A collection of things that have been going on around here of late:

We lost my Mom in early May. She was 93, and had a stroke last August which she recovered from relatively well. She had some weakness, although she was walking a little. Her speech was slurred at times and she had trouble finding words even though she knew what she wanted to say. She had moved in with one of my sisters and was doing well, considering. Unfortunately, she had another stroke and that one she just couldn’t fight. But she had a good, long life, and was mentally alert and her own self right up to that last one. We went to PA for the wake and service. The wake was on Mother’s Day, which I thought might have been kind of hard. It was, but there were so many people who came and talked about how many memories they have of her, and what a wonderful person she was. It made the day easier.

The weather has definitely warmed. All the trees seem to have leafed out overnight and there is a host of green outside the windows. It’s nice to be able to go out without a jacket!

I am nearly done with the drafts of the flash/short short story set. And starting to think about a title for the whole thing. I can’t seem to come up with that one that stands out to me. Maybe, as we get closer to needing it, I’ll pick a few and do a poll? Anyway, the first drafts are just about done, and then I will do first edits. Then, it will be on to some readers for critique. I am about half done with the read through of an older project, taking notes and generating ideas for a revision.

Lambeau has been enjoying time on the deck again. He sleeps out there in the sun until he gets too warm, and then he wants to come in. And then out again. And in. And out. I wish I could convince him to just move to the shaded part when the sun gets too much. He’s enjoying it, so I can deal with the in and out. Amber loves to go out there, too. At 16, I guess a bit of a nap in the warm sun probably feels really good.

The CDC here in the US has relaxed its stance on COVID-19 masking. They are now saying that for fully vaccinated people, masks are unnecessary outdoors, and at most indoor activities as well, as long as it is not a closely crowded situation. Many states are relaxing their mask mandates to follow the new guides. Of course individual businesses and other places can determine their own policies. We are all fully vaccinated here, and so are most of our families, so for me, when outdoors, I will likely go maskless in most places. Indoors, I will follow the mandates of each place: if they want masks, I will wear one. And, of course, if a person I am interacting with asks me to wear a mask, I will. It’s going to be hard because there is no way to know it that other person without a mask is vaccinated, or just being an idiot. And, sorry, not sorry, but if you are refusing to mask and/or get vaccinated without a good (medically necessary) reason, you are an idiot. It not a “statement”. It’s not “exercising your rights”. It’s not “refusing to be a sheep”. It’s putting others at risk without reason, and the reason we still don’t have this thing fully under control. Get vaccinated if you are able. Period.

I’m thinking of running a bit of a contest here and on my social media. Still working out some ideas, so stay tuned.

One or two other things in the pipeline but nothing set in stone, so I won’t say anything specific for now. Let’s all make this a good week! Smile, even under that mask- people can tell. Be nice. Be polite. Be a good person.

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