Beauty

[just bee]

---

@Brisky wrote:
Hey ladies, I met most of you last year around this time! I think a few months before just bee had her Great fire destroy her home. I remember you had named your home Jack? I hope that name is close.

Been staying with my mother a lot. She tends to wander at night. She is a Vampire with dementia? Anyway, I am finding I can't win with these cards. I will just carry on.... Doing my best. I've learned to just go with the flow, sort of.😌 Every day is quite odd but becoming normal to me.

Everything here is so far so WIERD😳 Crazy for real.

Spending the night at my house tonight. That is good.

I'm so glad everyone is doing 👌 Hope your headaches go away Geezerette!

I've been hanging with the dogs today. Playing ball. Now, I have black capris on and they are really hairy.
I know what it feels like to be a dog. I have become one of them.☺ I kind of like that....

Brisk out and take care everybody.....
I will check in to make sure all is ok.☺
Hang loose everybody....

---

@Brisky 

Uh, that would be the Not-so-Great Fire of 2019.

Yes, Jack -- named after the voice of the Chicago Cubs, Jack Brickhouse -- is back.  But I have to say I like the new brick.

I can't believe you've only been around here a year.  It feels like you've been part of the Pact a lot longer.  Either way, we're happy to have you.

As for mom, her schedule's upside down.  She'll be prowling all night and if she can get outside she'll wander off.  She won't know where she's going but she'll know that she has to get there.

I remember putting my mother in the car and driving her around Albuquerque, Rio Rancho and Corrales so she could see the houses.  She should have been an architect.  She was fascinated by the local architecture.  Of course she thought she was in Arizona, but close enough.  I'd play Glenn Miller for her and we'd just go for a ride.

Is there any favorite music you can play for your mom?  Any favorite movies you can watch together?

Yup, everything is weird.  But dogs can make things feel a little more normal.

How's the cat?

[just bee]

---

@KaySD wrote:

@geezerette Know what you mean--it's getting harder to decide whether I want more to be free from my house or free from the virus! However.

I've been feeling very cut off with only phone, email, occasional facetime contacts with my fellow human beings, and feeling sort of fiddly from spending most of my time doing routine things. Life has become rather shapeless, I think because it's been so long and continues to be so indefinite. Can I continue this way for another 2 months? 6 months? longer? Do I want to? Not sure.

And then I consider that 150 years ago, many people lived in relative isolation--perhaps seldom leaving their farms, never going farther than a few miles away in their lives, relying on mail that took a long time to keep in touch with anyone not in their immediate vicinity (assuming they even knew anyone not in their immediate vicinity), and having extremely limited sources of information and entertainment. So I guess it's just the sudden change that's hard to navigate. 

Sigh.

---

@KaySD 

Yeah, but a lot of those people were dead by age 40.

I don't like the feeling of being in limbo.  I'd fantasized about moving back into the house, buying new scrubs for work, wearing different pairs of Alegrias and different pieces of jewelry.  

Instead, I'm in a rut.  I can't see the point of buying new scrubs -- I don't even know if the scrub store is open for business.  Don't want to wear different pairs of shoes during a pandemic, so I have one pair I've designated for work.  Keeping jewelry and makeup to an absolute minimum since the PPE is going to become more of a fashion statement.  We're actually having to swab our patients now and we have to be covered head-to-toe.  Talk about invasive.  The swab goes up your nose and practically through your brain.  Giving people IM antipsychotics and putting them in restraints is invasive enough, thank you. 

This can't end soon enough.

[just bee]

---

@KaySD wrote:

@just bee  Everything you took for granted, you now long for.

---

@KaySD 

You mean freedom?

Freedom from standing in lines.  I swear it feels like we're back in elementary school.

[just bee]

---

@Brisky wrote:
PS, Ive decided I should start drinking.. If I make it to my 80s, I want a stiff one every day😁

---

@Brisky 

Most of the country is right there with you. 

[Brisky]

Eros is great. He is a happy cat and loves to talk. When he does wake up, he has plenty of stories to tell.
He acts like he has been here forever.
He is a cool 🐱! We will be keeping him...😄

[just bee]

---

@Brisky wrote:
Eros is great. He is a happy cat and loves to talk. When he does wake up, he has plenty of stories to tell.
He acts like he has been here forever.
He is a cool 🐱! We will be keeping him...😄

---

@Brisky 

Good to hear! 

Sometimes those chance encounters are meant to be.

[geezerette]

---

@Brisky wrote:
Hey ladies, I met most of you last year around this time! I think a few months before just bee had her Great fire destroy her home. I remember you had named your home Jack? I hope that name is close.

Been staying with my mother a lot. She tends to wander at night. She is a Vampire with dementia? Anyway, I am finding I can't win with these cards. I will just carry on.... Doing my best. I've learned to just go with the flow, sort of.😌 Every day is quite odd but becoming normal to me.

Everything here is so far so WIERD😳 Crazy for real.

Spending the night at my house tonight. That is good.

I'm so glad everyone is doing 👌 Hope your headaches go away Geezerette!

I've been hanging with the dogs today. Playing ball. Now, I have black capris on and they are really hairy.
I know what it feels like to be a dog. I have become one of them.☺ I kind of like that....

Brisk out and take care everybody.....
I will check in to make sure all is ok.☺
Hang loose everybody....

---

@Brisky 

Yay!👏  You're back!🎉  I also was sure you'd been around here for a lot longer than a year.

I've been wondering how you've been doing and was going to give you a shout out in case you were just lurking, but I had a feeling you might be hunkering down with mom during these crazy days.

And yours sound a bit more crazy than the rest of ours.  Sorry to hear it.  Things do get kind of wonky as they progress.  Not only is it draining emotionally, but physically, especially if you have to be on watch all night.  Where do they get all that energy?  

I was lucky that my mother's dementia never reached the extreme.  And she readily took the little happy pills nightly that her doctor had given her after my father died so that she relaxed enough to sleep all night.

Glad to hear that kitty is still doing well too.  At least that one family member you don't have to worry about!  😸

[geezerette]

---

@just bee wrote:

---

@KaySD wrote:

@geezerette Know what you mean--it's getting harder to decide whether I want more to be free from my house or free from the virus! However.

I've been feeling very cut off with only phone, email, occasional facetime contacts with my fellow human beings, and feeling sort of fiddly from spending most of my time doing routine things. Life has become rather shapeless, I think because it's been so long and continues to be so indefinite. Can I continue this way for another 2 months? 6 months? longer? Do I want to? Not sure.

And then I consider that 150 years ago, many people lived in relative isolation--perhaps seldom leaving their farms, never going farther than a few miles away in their lives, relying on mail that took a long time to keep in touch with anyone not in their immediate vicinity (assuming they even knew anyone not in their immediate vicinity), and having extremely limited sources of information and entertainment. So I guess it's just the sudden change that's hard to navigate. 

Sigh.

---

@KaySD 

Yeah, but a lot of those people were dead by age 40.

I don't like the feeling of being in limbo.  I'd fantasized about moving back into the house, buying new scrubs for work, wearing different pairs of Alegrias and different pieces of jewelry.  

Instead, I'm in a rut.  I can't see the point of buying new scrubs -- I don't even know if the scrub store is open for business.  Don't want to wear different pairs of shoes during a pandemic, so I have one pair I've designated for work.  Keeping jewelry and makeup to an absolute minimum since the PPE is going to become more of a fashion statement.  We're actually having to swab our patients now and we have to be covered head-to-toe.  Talk about invasive.  The swab goes up your nose and practically through your brain.  Giving people IM antipsychotics and putting them in restraints is invasive enough, thank you. 

This can't end soon enough.

---

@just bee 

@KaySD 

Along with the fact that they didn't live much longer than 40, they didn't suffer from the main problem that we seem to today: boredom.  They were too busy trying to survive to be bored.  Well, maybe the Scarlett O'Hara types had that luxury.  But even their lives were harsh compared to ours.

And if this had been around in those days, it would have been considered a minor disease, when comparing it to what was commonplace then: smallpox, scarlet fever, TB, even plague, and on and on. And they had almost no effective treatments for any, let alone vaccines.  People just dealt with it.  And that doesn't even include death and serious injury from daily accidents, which were rampant compared to what we have now.

But you're right about the suddenness of it being the biggest challenge.  It's been said that species can adapt to almost any environment, if the change is gradual.  The suddenness is what is most difficult to deal with and often fatal.  That, and the feeling of loss of control is what drives people nuts.  Years ago people didn't suffer from feeling that they'd lost control.  They knew they never had any.  I think that's why they were more accepting of what life brought.  

[geezerette]

---

@just bee wrote:

---

@KaySD wrote:

@just bee  Everything you took for granted, you now long for.

---

@KaySD 

You mean freedom?

Freedom from standing in lines.  I swear it feels like we're back in elementary school.

---

@just bee 

Except nobody here is standing in line.  Or wearing masks anymore.  It seems like as soon as the Gov said things could open up as long as people followed some rules, they all streamed out of their houses and stopped following those very rules.  Granted, we have one of the lowest positivity rates in the country, but it won't stay that way if everyone is breathing on each other.

That's another clue to your question about how our elected officials can get elected if we seem to be agreeing with each other.  The people voting for them are hearing totally different things than I am.

But it also comes down to another point I made--the media.  If I only had time to listen to the normal news shows at night after I got home from work, I would have a different outlook too.  What I hear on those is totally edited and manipulated into a different narrative than the straight and more detailed numbers I hear each afternoon during the briefing.

I'm all for opening up.  We have to or we won't survive, which will have a worse effect than just letting the virus run rampant.  But Geez Louise, how about using some caution until we can figure out how this is going to work out?  Wearing a face mask and being considerate of others isn't going to make you weak and vulnerable.  But laying in a hospital bed on a ventilator sure will.

[just bee]

---

@geezerette wrote:

---

@just bee wrote:

---

@KaySD wrote:

@geezerette Know what you mean--it's getting harder to decide whether I want more to be free from my house or free from the virus! However.

I've been feeling very cut off with only phone, email, occasional facetime contacts with my fellow human beings, and feeling sort of fiddly from spending most of my time doing routine things. Life has become rather shapeless, I think because it's been so long and continues to be so indefinite. Can I continue this way for another 2 months? 6 months? longer? Do I want to? Not sure.

And then I consider that 150 years ago, many people lived in relative isolation--perhaps seldom leaving their farms, never going farther than a few miles away in their lives, relying on mail that took a long time to keep in touch with anyone not in their immediate vicinity (assuming they even knew anyone not in their immediate vicinity), and having extremely limited sources of information and entertainment. So I guess it's just the sudden change that's hard to navigate. 

Sigh.

---

@KaySD 

Yeah, but a lot of those people were dead by age 40.

I don't like the feeling of being in limbo.  I'd fantasized about moving back into the house, buying new scrubs for work, wearing different pairs of Alegrias and different pieces of jewelry.  

Instead, I'm in a rut.  I can't see the point of buying new scrubs -- I don't even know if the scrub store is open for business.  Don't want to wear different pairs of shoes during a pandemic, so I have one pair I've designated for work.  Keeping jewelry and makeup to an absolute minimum since the PPE is going to become more of a fashion statement.  We're actually having to swab our patients now and we have to be covered head-to-toe.  Talk about invasive.  The swab goes up your nose and practically through your brain.  Giving people IM antipsychotics and putting them in restraints is invasive enough, thank you. 

This can't end soon enough.

---

@just bee 

@KaySD 

Along with the fact that they didn't live much longer than 40, they didn't suffer from the main problem that we seem to today: boredom.  They were too busy trying to survive to be bored.  Well, maybe the Scarlett O'Hara types had that luxury.  But even their lives were harsh compared to ours.

And if this had been around in those days, it would have been considered a minor disease, when comparing it to what was commonplace then: smallpox, scarlet fever, TB, even plague, and on and on. And they had almost no effective treatments for any, let alone vaccines.  People just dealt with it.  And that doesn't even include death and serious injury from daily accidents, which were rampant compared to what we have now.

But you're right about the suddenness of it being the biggest challenge.  It's been said that species can adapt to almost any environment, if the change is gradual.  The suddenness is what is most difficult to deal with and often fatal.  That, and the feeling of loss of control is what drives people nuts.  Years ago people didn't suffer from feeling that they'd lost control.  They knew they never had any.  I think that's why they were more accepting of what life brought.  

---

@geezerette 

That always reminds me of the frog in the boiling water.  The water has been simmering for some time and we're the frog.  Now they've turned up the heat.