Month: May 2020

May is supposed to be a beautiful spring time month, but some folks have written that rain and cold and fear of infection abound. From my sofa or from our back yard and dock, the world looks pretty good if I don’t turn on the TV to news. I turn on the TV for prayer and Mass on EWTN, the Catholic channel, but the rest of TV is pretty grim. If people aren’t talking about "how we did it wrong," they are talking about death and joblessness. It is reality, isn’t i? A neighbor young man came yesterday and helped Chuck and me to do things we can’t do. Move a heavy stainless steel cabinet from the shed to the new extended dock, dig holes and help Chuck plant the flag pole and my directions sign. Carry the hundreds of shells and coral rocks down to the dock and paste them in with mortor. We ate pizza and chicken wings from Sammy’s restaurant (eating out on the dock in the fresh air, observing social distancing, wearing my mask at Sammy’s) . Then I took the young man, Sergio, over to a friend who also needs what I call "young muscle". They exchanged phone #s and he will help her too. Young people helping others, earning a little money, and … being hopeful. That’s what we need. Hire the young those of us who are retired and need help and have a few extra dollars. I’m also donating weekly to my church. We need to do that. Churches have mortgages, electric, and water bills too. Today, on TV, EWTN crowned Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven singing "O Mary we crown you with flowers today…. Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May…. " Please, if you can’t believe Mary is the Mother of God because you weren’t taught that, or you just refuse it, at least consider what it meant for Jesus to be human and the Son of God, come here to be born (surely we all celebrate Christmas…). Come here to be the final sacrifice so we could have life. Thank God for preparing a beautiful earth for us, and for promising to be with us, "at the hour of our death." God bless you dear friends and family. Have faith. Be joyful in our beauties. Angels with us.

This is the first time in history that we can save the human race by lying in front of the TV and doing nothing….  Let’s not screw this up!!!!!! OK dear readers! This is the time to take all the cushions off the sofas and lounge chairs, vaccume and sweep, and pick up all the quarters that have fallen out of people’s pockets! For me…. I found 53 cents! AND I found a LOT of dust bunnies hiding out! Today a shelf fell where Chuck had put 2 cases of coke when we moved in….The cans had leaked and now we have a sticky mess where shelf and cans used to be…. Clean up on aisle 7!!! (wait, that’s me)… The Coke is probably a hold over from "party days" and making mixed drinks. Now all we have on hand is old whiskey and wine.

I’m getting a little crazy waiting for our trip to Orlando on Sunday. I haven’t been out on Route 27 since March. What will "traffic" be like? When we moved from Miami we left I95, 836 and Bird Road behind us. Now I truly drive like an old lady. 35 miles an hour on the way to "town," windows all open, my hair blowing in the wind!!!! Singing Willie Nelson songs. Me and everybody else. If you see me…. I cut my hair as it was getting in my eyes! Don’t laugh. I just put gel on it and it stands up straight.

It’s time to place an order with Ace hardware. We don’t have Home Depot or Lowes (its a little like Big Pine Key…. You want the big box store it’s a drive to Sebring on route 27….). If you are feeling bored, write a few cards. I send get well cards, love you, thinking of you and birthday cards to people now. I was too busy to think of sending cards before Covid. Go figure. What was I doing???? Rethink, pray, and be at peace. The Lord is with us. He said so. God bless you. Angels with us!!!!

Today (Covid-19 day 81 give or take), I tore a kleenex in half to blow my nose. I looked at that and I started to laugh! I read on Facebook that, before Covid-19, a lady used "to play like a roulette wheel with toilet paper, and now she counts out 5 squares"… I do that too!!!! And then I thought about Mom and wondered if she taught us "how to work with toilet paper"? I guess she did, but I don’t remember, and no one has told me any stories of my potty training…, But I do remember something TOO funny. Mother would sit down and take up the daily Jumble. She had a pile of them in her bathroom. She would take off a wad of toilet paper (how many squares Mom?) and fold them up. (Dear reader, Do you wrap them around your hand?) and then Mom would tuck them into her underpants which were down around her thighs. Then when ready, the toilet paper was ready! Well, guess what? I do that today too. Now comes the too funny part. I drove Mom, my sister Sarah, and cousin Lois to the Keys and we stopped at maybe the key lime shop and went tinkle and bought some key lime juice and maybe a pie…. Back in the car, Sarah burst out laughing, BIG belly laughs. There sat Mom with kleenex tucked in her shorts. OH Mom…. too funny!

Mom, I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Your lovely small well-groomed hands and finger nails … In 1999 I had to have belly surgery and I called Mom, like we girls used to do. Mom was at every baby’s birth and several other major events for my sisters, but this was my big first one. So at age 52, I called Mom to "come" and she did! Mom walked into pre op with me and she was there when I was wheeled into my room. She spent the night in my room, and she was there when the doctor came in on the second day to pick out stitches. I guess it was the second day…. Did they put in stitches and pick them out two days later in 1999? Anyhow, there were Mom’s beautiful fingers on my belly, pointing the way to the doctor. A mother’s hands. A medical-surgical nurse’s hands. God’s gift. So, Mom, I might have to have surgery again. Big girl surgery. Maybe a surgeon might hold my heart in his hand. I don’t know the details and even if it will happen or when. I understand the aneurysm I have is behind my heart so I assume there has to be some heart moving and holding. Will you be there Mom? I know you will. Point out to the surgeon every little detail. He will be guided by the best, and by you. Thank God for my gift! Thank you Jesus for keeping my Mom close. God bless us. Angels with us.

Have you documented the Covid 19 pandemic for yourself? Like where I was when…. It’s hard to believe it’s been 80 days since Chuck and I "self quaranteened" at home. It was February 16, 3 days before my first cataract eye surgery and I stayed at home for 3 days before surgery to ensure I was germ free. I stayed home for about a week after that and then we had a church Lenten mission on March 8 through 10 and I went, but the real order "stay in a secure location" must have come right after March 8. I remember we tried to sit apart in church, but who can, in church with loving friends? I stayed away from people and I remember, my friend Diane returned a pen I lent to her, and she said, "I wiped it down." The second eye surgery was March 18. If you haven’t had cataracts done…. afterwards the recovery is pretty quick except if you are like me, a glasses wearer, you can’t see really well as prescriptions are changed by the clean lens. So March was "a blur". After that quaranteening, or sequestering, began in earnest…. The town of Lake Placid is a ghost town with all the little shops and restaurants closed except for "take out". Questions rattle around empty streets and houses: What day is it, what is the date? Is anyone telling the truth? Do I care? Fortunately, Chuck and I are on fixed income and I don’t have to worry about where the rent payment is coming from, but we do have renters with whom we have suffered.

Remember the day we watched the towers fall and the stock market plumet 10,000 points? It happened 2001, 2008, 2020. A book called The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn details God’s call to Israel through Isaiah 9:10 and the prophets of Israel … God ordered us to honor the Sabbath, to take care of the widow and the orphan, to honor God. Israel jerked her head around towards God for a while after they were released from Babylon, but it didn’t take long before new idols were raised on the mountain tops. Cahn details some facts about September 11, 2001, and I also found some similarities in Amos about "the towers coming down." But how in America in our new "world view" can we go back to the morality and life God expects? Churches are closed to keep us from being infected, but many are praying more now as we wonder if "we might be next," as people are dying horrible deaths on respirators with blood clots killing them. So we remain inside (I do anyway) as the nation opens up. Let us pray and be safe. God bless you. Angels with us.