...why, you'd have to get up!

Don't ask what show that's from, but I'm going to guess The Simpsons. Paul says it all the time. And today, yes, I have to get up. Don't get me wrong, I got up yesterday, too! After the girls finished their schoolwork, we went on a grand outing: Dunkin, for $2 iced coffees, then...to Lowe's! There's nothing like a huge home improvement store to give me more ideas for more projects, and make me just plain discontent with our house, ha. But we didn't go there just to wander willy-nilly up and down the aisles, dreaming of new bathroom cabinets or choosing what flooring we'll get SOMEDAY, and shh, yes, we have done this in the past. We went to get deck supplies, stripper to remove the peeling deck stain, and new deck stain. People don't social distance much in Lowe's, and it was crowded. Smaller construction has opened up here in NY state, in central NY anyway, so there was a lot of supply purchasing going on.


After we got our somewhat boring supplies, over a hundred dollars worth, I asked the girls what THEY wanted to do. Now, there aren't so many options around here. They chose Wendy's, so off we went to wait in the line at the drive-through. They were going to get a few things and share, I was content with my iced coffee. Then one of them noticed that Moe's looked open! (Mexican, like Chipotle). It had been closed, but sure enough, it was open again! They absolutely love Moe's, and heck, Mexican food is healthy, so no fasting until dinner for me, yesterday! I was having some too!

Being in the little shopping plaza where Moe's is located was creepy, according to the girls. Creepy because the parking lot is mostly empty. The Army/Navy store is open, the Harbor Freight tool store open, but not Marshalls, not Bed/Bath/Beyond. How come tools are essential but new shoes aren't? harrumph.

Anyway, we stopped at the dollar store, Sonja and I went in, and got brushes and scrubbers, to get the deck job done. It's just cheaper than Lowe's.


Home, ah home. We took everything off the deck...well, the kids did, while I started dinner. Dinner: rice, steamed broccoli, sliced red and orange peppers, leftover steak sliced up, browned in olive oil with lots of onions and peppers, some flour and some corn tortillas, browned up in some more olive oil...mmm.

So now the deck stripper is sitting there on the deck, which is all cleaned off, and all hosed down, waiting for a certain lazybones to get up out of her comfy chair, and get to work. It has to dry for a day before applying the new stain. I hope I do it right this time.

Here in NY, one cannot make a campground reservation for this summer. If you already have one, you can change it to 2021, free of charge, or keep it, and hope the parks open for camping. We hadn't gotten around to making reservations yet, and who knows if we'll be able to, or if they'll open. The beaches will be open, but with 50% occupancy, which will make it so if you aren't there first thing, you won't get a parking spot. Masks will be required if you are too close to others, but dang it, I don't want wear a mask on the beach. Can you just imagine the tan lines of the new normal?! I told the girls we should protest, and take off all our bikini tops and wear them as masks. (as IF I wear a bikini ha)

The great and wonderful mayor of NYC, has declared that beaches in his jurisdiction will NOT be opening this summer. People can walk on the beaches, but he threatened, if they go in the water, they WILL be taken right back out of the water. He says he will open some big arenas as cooling centers. Now, if you are a small child, and it's hot out, would you rather go play in the water at the beach, or go to a cooling center, where you would have to wear a mask, and...what would you do there? If you were a teenager, and you were hot and wanted to go play in the waves, would you be just as happy to go to a cooling center and sit there and get cool? And these cooling centers, if people can gather in them, why can't they just watch a basketball game while they're there? Does it make sense to anyone? Am I just extremely obtuse?

I can't drop it. Salt water, beach, swimming...how can it be worse than being allowed to walk on the beach?

The thing is, this lockdown happened because there were horrible things happening in Italy, in China, and we didn't want our hospitals over run. It was science, and guess work, and we emptied out our hospitals. Our brilliant governor here in NY did a very very bad thing: he emptied the hospitals, executive orders, and those old people went to nursing homes, and: the nursing homes were FORBIDDEN to test those old people for Covid-19. They HAD to accept them, without testing them. Now, I don't know about nursing homes in the rest of the country or world, but here in NY, they are generally understaffed. They rely on patient's families to come in and help...maybe not exactly "rely on", but welcome them to visit and help with feedings, bathroom breaks, ect. These visits came to a screeching halt, as new patients were brought in, bringing more virus to the already understaffed facilities.

This was bad. So many old people got sick and died, now he has reversed his order. He said last week that now nursing home employees have to get tested twice a week, or ELSE: he would shut them down! Mr. Bossypants. As if he wasn't the very one, with his list of mandates, who caused most of this in the first place!

Emptying out hospitals, they did it because they thought they would need the beds. Well, here in central NY, that hasn't been the case at ALL. My nurse practitioner daughter had her hours and pay cut in half, because no one wanted to go to their doctor's office anymore. Nurses on regular floors had their hours cut, or were laid off. This happened all over the country. Dentist offices: closed. Eye doctors: closed. (Jonny's glasses broke, and we paid extra for the breakage plan, but was the vision center open? We had to order new glasses online from a different place). Anyway. All this was done to FLATTEN the CURVE.

Now it's flattened, and the rules have changed! The list of things that has to happen before the different phases of reopening are...well, numerous.

And, religious services are in the LAST PHASE. Our great and powerful governor, the wizard himself, has already proclaimed that the curve was flattened because of what WE did, not because of God. ouch. I flinched for him, when he declared that one. I was waiting for a lightening bolt.

Anyway. I don't know the answers, but I don't like how people are just so...so unquestioning. And if you DO question authority, you are automatically lumped in with the wife-beater wearing, gun-totin', Don't-Tread-On-Me, crazies.

There is a middle ground. I believe this virus is real, and it is horrific. But we also have to live our lives, and people can't hole up at home and wait for a vaccine which will in all likelihood, never materialize. If they want to, they can, I suppose. But we have another problem here: some getting unemployment don't want to go back to work because they make MORE, with the newly added bonuses, than they did when they were working. So they say they're scared and feel unprotected, and stay at home and make more money. Most of the people DO want to go back to work though, I think.

Have you noticed that when I have something I don't really want to do, I find all sorts of things to write about? Prolong the procrastination? The deck needs to be done. Sonja is signing up for fall college classes, mostly online, she hopes....

I have other things to work on today too: making cookies for the night shift nurses on Molly's floor. She works on a Covid-19 floor, and it's not fun, at all. She said the day-shift nurses get all sorts of goodies from the community, restaurants, ect. But the night-shift, not so much. So I volunteered cookies. Then Emily messaged me last night and asked me to make some surgical caps. ( Okay, I guess. I do have a new machine....so I do have things to do, darn it.