With the case counts coming down, and the hospitalizations, too...
With the mask mandate lifted early (a week ago, it was supposed to end last night, anyway)... the risk dial was dropped a couple of notches this week. People are dropping the masks, sniffing the air, and hoping that with the lessening of risk, this trend will continue. We're hoping for a couple of months like last May and June, when it's "safer".
So of course the world starts going totally nuts.
This morning my niece started up a family chat pondering how her older aunties might have felt about the world when we were HER age... OMG did that start my memories down a rabbit hole. I'm sure my contemporary readers could also go down that kind of rabbit hole. We lived through so much by the time we were in our mid-30's. And the 30-40 year olds today? Same same!
It had not dawned on me until this morning that my niece was young enough to NOT remember the crisis that was Chernoble... but so many things that were "current events" for me and my sister and brother in the first two decades of our lives... yeah, they are in the history books for my son and my niece. And it's their turn to take care of the world.
I remember there was a time in my life, probably between 35 and 40 when I realized that for my mother, World War II was during a time in her life when she was the age I was early in the Viet Nam conflict. Methinks my niece just hit that point of realization vis a vis her dad's sisters!
Saturday morning adventures
I had four goals for my errand run this morning.
- Put gas into Dexter's tank, and find out how far the prices have jumped since the last time I had to do this (about two months ago). He was down to nearly a quarter tank, took nearly 7 gallons. Price, you ask? OMG... honestly, not the most I've ever paid for a gallon. $3.449. Not as bad as what I paid in Italy in the 1980's. But it's time for itty bitty cars that sip. Seriously. If the world stays crazy (and I expect it will), it's not going down soon. Plan accordingly.
- Mail the doctor bill that I don't pay online. Easy peasy, mailbox on the way to the gas station.
- Find my medical transportee's apartment house. Her surgery isn't until the 24th of March, but I had never been to her new place. Found it! Now confident that I can find it in the pre-dawn when I have to.
- Drop off my ballot request at the election commission. Primaries are coming up, you know. I am on the list to have my request sent to me every election, all I have to do is fill it out and send it in or drop it off. You must, of course, request one, each and every election, around here.
Remember to take care of YOU!
Because you're worth it! Nourish that body with foods that support your immune system. Take your meds (if you have any prescribed) and supplements you've been instructed to do. Drink your water. Remember to breathe. And come end of the day, let go and rest well. Sleep while you can, so you'll be ready to be up and do what's needed tomorrow!
Life is good. Spark on!
My Mom kept a diary during WWII which we found in her cedar chest when cleaning out the family home in 2002. When she wrote daily in her diary, she was single, in her mid-20's, living with her parents on their 50-acre farm purchased by her German immigrant grandparents in 1896. No modern convenience. She worked in town on the main avenue at a S&H Kress store as the Floor Superintendent (female title for management duties without the salary). Some siblings felt we should not read this but as the family genealogist and sibling that helped folks A LOT when Dad's dementia set in I felt it would be fine to learn what Mom's world was like in that time frame. What a wealth of information -- Victory gardens, ration stamps, worries, faith, daily flying the U.S. flag in front of the isolated farm house to declare this German's family's allegiance to their country of birth, being lonely for contact with people her age, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteVoted by mail here this past week. Each year we sign up for the elections for that year.
I had similar misgivings in reading from my own mother's journal, following her passing and my father's. Not so many reading the letters to and from my grandmother and grandfather during 1918 and 1919, when he went off to WWI, and later when he came home and they married and moved into their own first home after renting and moving around the first couple of years. I remember from being a grand child visiting that home (they installed the indoor plumbing), but got a whole new perspective in seeing Grandma as a newlywed and new mother, in her letters to a girlfriend back in Michigan.
DeleteI think being a generation removed makes a difference. So does the difference between a diary or journal, which is more private and letters to another person! Either way, such a glimpse into another person in a role quite different from what you may have known them in!
Since our surname was German, there were some prejudices to deal with during both world wars. But since most of our genetic heritage was English and Scottish... Cooks and Butlers as surnames kind of gives a glimpse into that level... and on the other side Smiths and Bakers, and Clarks and Kelloggs... the German surname on a veteran returning from the war with a US Uniform was much more easily accepted.
Having this in our own backgrounds does make us consider how we should think about and treat others who have come to this country more recently... they can be as "American" as our own forbearers. We all came from somewhere else!
Oh, yes, and Grandma's thrill about new technology in her first married home? The oven! You could leave a roast in the oven while you went to do the marketing!
And there I go, down another memory lane, spurred by your comment!
We've been doing mail-in ballots for over ten years and I love it. They started it here because the lines were so long and people were in them until midnight once. As long as they were in line when the polls closed they could vote. So, they came up with the mail-in ballots for the next few elections and it works like a breeze.
ReplyDeleteOnce I tried it (granted, pushed on by the pandemic), I think I shall never go back. I used to love going to the polls, but when I realize how hard up they are for poll workers and that most of them are retired like me, the pandemic made it too much to ask of them. I don't think keeping the polls open 'til midnight as happened in your state would be doing them any favors, either!
DeleteThe only mail-in ballots we can get are absentee ballots, which defeats the purpose. We are a red state for sure. Josh Hawley is living proof of that.
ReplyDeleteGas prices here have gone up 24 cents since last weekend. This will be another reason to stay home. "Big Sigh!"
It seems there is a big part of war history for every generation. Like you, mine was Viet Nam. For my kids, it was Iraq and Afghanistan, now for the grands it's the pandemic and the Ukraine and Russia, with a big bit of climate change thrown in for good measure. So sad...for all the generations, past, present, and future.
Our trip out today was a trip to the recycle center. Not a soul there but us. The longer this continues, the more introverted I become. I can see the label "recluse" in the not too distant future.
Thanks for the thought provoking posts. They usually provide an avenue for self-reflection.
Have a marvelous weekend. Stay safe. Be well.
Putting those thoughts down helps the brain organize the self-reflection, I find. Sorry about Josh Hawley. We have Jeff Fortenberry here, who is under Federal indictment for lying to the FBI about illegal campaign contribution from foreigners... trial to come, meanwhile he's being primaried, and is running an awful smear campaign. I like his opponent, who is campaigning on being a nerd. "Nerds get things done."
DeleteI agree... every generation seems to fall into its own set of conflicts and woes that it must deal with. My son had Iraq and Afghanistan. I have no grandchildren, only a grand-dog... so...
You have a fine Sunday and week ahead, doing the same: staying safe and well!
We own a Chev Spark and love that it takes only about $30 to fill it completely, I try not to gloat too much when the truck beside my little Sparky is pinging over the $100 mark and still going. You got me thinking that we hear JFK on the TV and saw him shot. We watched the walk on the moon as it happened. We saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. They could only read about that in history class. Wow, that is a big thought to ponder.
ReplyDeleteIt helps to keep things in perspective, and that is easier at "our" age. Our parents also talked about their youth as current events, the times they lived through and WE read about in the history books. For Grandma and Grandpa it was WWI on one side, WWII on the other. The great depression for both, at different phases of their lives.
DeleteThey saw different versions of evil than we see today... my paternal grandfather watched a lynching in Omaha from a safe distance, and wrote home about it (I've seen the transcription of the letter). Today we have live phone images of the modern version.
The time of information transmission has changed. From the Civil War (US) to WWI it was long after the battles by the time the letters home arrived and printed newspapers gave the results.
By the time of Viet Nam there was video coverage on the nightly news. In Iraq, with embedded reporters we had video from inside the tanks speeding across the desert! During the US involvement in Afghanistan I had internet conversations with my son.
Now we have live coverage AND faked images on the internet. I saw a very interesting video debunking other videos of the Ukraine/Russia, showing how a reverse image search revealed the origin of the images being years ago and in a different place. It's hard to tell what's real and what's doctored, so we are exposed to "misinformation" or as they used to call it during earlier times, propaganda.
When you and I saw JFK and the Beatles, the technology was much clunkier... nowadays news and music show up on line first, before it hits the curated news, even the 24/7 cycles.
Doctored footage can appear in near real-time. We have to be careful in our consumption. Don't look at "only one side", and be skeptical of what we see. Seeing is no longer believing, as depending on your point of view, you can look at the same images and draw different conclusions!
That may sound alarmist, but I find it comforting and encouraging me to patience. An advantage of being old-er. I am keeping the faith that in the end, good will prevail.
Yes, I feel the very same way. Hugs
DeleteI know! When the pandemic shows signs of lessening, the world goes bonkers. **Sigh**
ReplyDeleteOh my. . . Feel like so much has happened in my lifetime. BUT, we’re still standing. That’s the good thing. I feel like my parents went through a lot . . . depression, WWII, and all that went with that. In my lifetime, so much craziness! Assassinations, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, The Viet Nam conflict, the war in the Middle East, the pandemic, and now this. It’s tough!
Oh definitely the price of gas is NOT going to go down anytime soon, and that’s going to affect LOTS of other prices too.
Hope it’s an accomplished, peaceful Sunday!
Hugs
Barb
1crazydog
Wishing you a peaceful Sunday, too. Stay safe.
DeleteLots accomplished! Great! Yep, as soon as Covid goes down, then there comes #$@ Putin with a war. He probably needed to put in use all the weapons factories to keep economy activated, darn.
ReplyDeleteHappy weekend and lovely Sunday.
One day at a time, one foot in front of another. Remembering to breathe. And hoping for restful sleeping times!
DeleteHope the same for you!