Meanderings and Muses

 On this Thanksgiving Eve, I do give thanks.

I do feel grateful for oh so much.

But I can also feel angry.

It IS possible to have conflicting feelings.

It's a normal human reaction to so many things we're all living through right now.

In the past two days I've learned about an employee in a local restaurant who has died from COVID. Her place of employment was madly anti-mask.

I've learned about a relative of a friend who, at the age of 92, is hospitalized and alone with COVID. This after being diagnosed twice with, not COVID, but pneumonia, and then with COVID.

I've learned of a local merchant who is hospitalized and in his seventh week of COVID. We pray he'll make it.

Donald and I have just come back from a ride into town.

We picked up pizza (takeout).

We picked up groceries (curbside).

We picked up the mail from our post office box (after hours because the employees there - as sweet as they all are - refuse to wear masks).

We stopped by the ABC store where there's a sign on the door which says "No Mask, No Service." Pffffft. Sad then that there are so many people shopping for their holiday cheer who can't read.

We drove by one of the fitness centers, parking lot full, to see a woman huffing away on the treadmill with no mask.

Drove by one of the nail salons to see some people masked, some not.

I'm gonna tell you - I am SICK AND TIRED of people saying to me and to Donald "It's easier for you guys."

Why?

Why is it any easier for US to wear a mask than it is for anyone else?

Oh - I get it.

Because we're retired and don't have to go to work every day we don't need to worry about putting on a mask.

Well.

Here's the thing.

We worked hard for a whole lotta years to reach this age of retirement.

Retirement plans did not include staying at home all day every day to keep ourselves, and others, safe during a global pandemic.

But we're doing our share.

Doing what's right.

So yeah - I AM PISSED at those who aren't.

If some more people would do their fair share it would make it a whole lot easier for ALL of us.

I'd love to be sitting in a restaurant right now with my husband having a nice meal celebrating my birthday which is tomorrow. But we don't feel comfortable doing that.

I'd love to pop into our little Boone Mall to browse around and visit with some of the folks I know who work there - or at least did back before last March. That's how long it's been since I was there. But I don't feel comfortable doing that.

I'd love to go see Ellie Miller, give her a hug, catch up with how she is and get my hair cut and colored. But I don't feel comfortable doing that.

I'd love to visit Top Nails and have a manicure and a pedicure. But I don't feel comfortable doing that.

We would have loved our annual trip to the beach this year, but stayed home because it didn't feel comfortable.

Travel is something we're both missing. A lot.

And here we are. Thanksgiving Eve, and I'm weary.

But Michael Flynn is now free as a bird.

Pardoned by the person responsible for turning masks into a political joke instead of trying to keep people safe.

I am grateful as all fuck that donald trump will soon be out of the white house and I pray REALLY hard he'll be spending a long long time in prison where he deserves to be.

Grateful. Weary. Sad. Angry.

I'm a veritable human hodge-podge of emotion just hoping for a little normal in my life.