Douglas MacArthur
Well, a few things have occurred since last I posted. Ya think???? This Coronavirus thingy is something that I never dreamed would happen during my lifetime. This is big stuff, People. Dang. Hope you are all hunkered down in your homes, with plenty of food and things to do during this hiatus of living. It is do-able, remember that. This too shall pass. We may not like what's going on, but we are tough, we are Americans, and we can do this.
I have always joked that I don't have a lot of everything, but I do have a little of everything. What?, you ask. Well, I'll tell ya.
There has been a shortage of face masks to wear if you dare to venture out. I had none . . . I thought. Then, I was cleaning a shelf in my laundry room and I noticed a box marked 3M. Looked in it and was amazed to see several new N95 masks left over from Hubby's years as a bridge contractor. He used them for protection whenever they sandblasted things. Then I looked in my personal tool box and discovered a new package of a dust masks that I had picked up on my of my scrounging trips to Stuff Etc. Whoo hoo. THEN, I remembered that I had a stack of blue surgical masks that I had saved whenever I went to the oncologist's office. They had me put one on each time they drew blood. I kept them and took them home to use when I was out mowing the yard and the pollen was flying around. When Hubby saw the surgical masks, he said, "Hey, we've got a new box of those up in the cupboard where we keep all the aspirin and medications." Wowser!!! I . . . am . . . a . . . rich . . . woman. And lucky!!!! What a find.
I am so tickled to find these things. Can't believe that I actually can look around this house and fine something of importance! Lots of things have happened. Unfortunately, a few people had to cancel their events planned at The Woodbridge Building, but most are being optimistic and scheduling a date later in the Spring and Summer months. When you can only have five or less people together at one time, that doesn't make for much of a party. I had one little gal ask to have her wedding there (the wedding dinner had already been planned to be held there). The really cool library where they were going to exchange their wedding vows told them they weren't allowing any events until this mess gets over. So they wanted to do it at my building and then have their dinner right after. Of course, they had to cancel this Plan B and the sweet couple ended up getting married with just their parents in attendance (Plan C), since they had already arranged to move to Colorado and needed to get going. Couldn't postpone it with that happening! That would have been my third wedding in my little building. I do have another one scheduled this fall. How fun! I look forward to that one. My friend, the caterer, and I had our Dine Before Dance 2020 Prom dinner all planned. What a great menu Sheryl had planned (fancy, too). and we had gathered our good linens, and black cloth table napkins, china and glasses and were experimenting with the table settings, and then it all went to crap! No Prom since there is no more school. We were so looking forward to a great night for the prom goers. Darn! I am really feeling it for kids who will be missing out on Prom and graduation. Those are some of those really important events in a person's life. Our Alec will be having his graduation party sometime in the future. We will definitely make sure of that. I stocked up on plenty of food several weeks ago. Thank goodness I have a freezer. The only thing I had to get since is a bag of potatoes and a gallon of milk. I made sure I had plenty of medications, detergent, and even make up, hair spray, and stuff you don't normally think about. Here's a small example of stuff I have on stand-by. NOTE: PICTURE IS AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS POST. IT WON'T MOVE DOWN WHERE I WANT IT. SIGH As for trying to keep busy, I admit that I have planted my fanny in my chair and watched waaayyy too much TV. Unfortunately, I have gained about seven pounds doing this. Now that the weather is getting warmer, I did go out and rake up twigs and dead leaves, which took two days. I have cleaned The Woodbridge Building thoroughly, and even cleaned my oven! That's right! For the last two years, I would think to myself every time I opened the door, "I sure need to clean this oven.". Well, it's done. I looked on YouTube to watch tutorials about the best way to clean an oven and oven racks. The oven racks worked like a charm, but was a bunch of work. I put them in the bathtub, sprayed them with vinegar, waited ten minutes, then covered them with hot hot water. Let them soak and then wiped with a cloth and steel wool to get rid of baked on crud. However, the bathtub was a son of a gun to clean afterward. Yuk! The oven got a coating of baking soda and water paste that I let sit overnight. The next morning, I sprayed it all with vinegar and waited. Then wiped everything out. Not too bad. Just time consuming. I ended up by putting one of those silicone oven sheets in the bottom of the stove to protect the floor of the oven. Ahhhh, I've accomplished something I wanted to do for a long time. A few days ago I went and changed out the flowers from Mother and Dad's grave at the cemetery. Below is the picture of the change, that I always post, so sisters Karen and Sandy can see. They live far enough away, that they aren't in the area very often. I went with a variety of pink roses. Mom always liked pink. Now I will give you the latest report on the tumbling, stumbling Paul sisters. Yup, it happened again. Sister Judy fell and broke her leg. Yipes. She was dog-sitting her daughter's blind and deaf dog, and was carrying it outside at 1 AM for it to go potty, slipped on her deck and landed with legs going separate directions! Can you imagine . . . middle of the night, in very cold weather, in your nightgown???? Fortunately, a neighbor's bedroom window was on the right side of her house and heard Judy calling for help. A true miracle. It could have turned out really horrible. After having to go to the University of Iowa hospital to get fixed up, she is now in a local nursing home for a few weeks, for rehab. However, no one can go visit her because of the virus. But she is staying cheerful and strong. I had to send her a snarky get well card, telling her, "Please stop being such a copy cat! I get breast cancer, you get breast cancer. I break my leg, you break your leg." She had better pray that I keep in good health if she is gonna repeat everything that I do. hahahaha P.S. she has decided to get one of those Great Call button alarm necklaces that I have. To all you older . . . I mean, more mature women and men, it's the latest fashion statement must-have. Really, consider it. It could save your life. |

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I wish you all good health and a safe future. Please use common sense, and we will all get through this miserable period in history.
GOD BLESS YOU ALL AND GOD BLESS THE ENTIRE WORLD