Random Ramblings

I wanted to get a quick post in, mostly so I could upload a picture of our "Good Things" box that I referenced in my last post. So far, I have managed to find at least one positive thing to put in every day, and some days I have had more than one. Truth be told, I could come up with at least a half dozen if I really wanted to, but I am going for quality, not quantity.

A few other things:

I wish hockey season would start. I have a glimmer of hope, but it is tiny. Regardless, it was nice to see Team USA beat the Swedes today in the world junior hockey championships. I had never watched a hockey game at 8 a.m. but glad that today changed that. Worth noting is that four of Team USA's members hail from western PA. Equally as nice for me was watching those guys (kids, to me) enthusiastically sing the National Anthem after they had been awarded their gold medals. You just don't see that often.
Today we "de-decorated." I feel a little bad about this because not only did we do this a day early (tomorrow is Epiphany, which is the end of the Christmas season in the church), but also because it means the holidays are really over. At least our house still smells of pine needles, because we vacuumed hundreds of them. This also means that for the next few times we vacuum, we will continue to smell pine needles, rather than (hopefully!) dog. It's the little things.
It was kind of nice when a couple of the kids from school said to me that they wished I was their new Spanish teacher. I reminded them that I know very little Spanish, but they said that it was more important that I could teach.
I know I should drop the four pounds I gained in the last four to six weeks, but, alas, we still have two boxes of candy left plus Girl Scout cookies have just gone on sale. If only I had some self-control.
I don't want to talk too much about politics, but I will say these things: I am glad that taxes were not raised on the middle income people. I know we all have to make sacrifices, but considering the cost of everything has gone up in the past few years and the hubby has not had a raise in more years than that, I don't know how much more we can do. I also don't like that the payroll tax has gone back up for the same reason, but it was supposed to be a temporary thing, so I can accept it. Those things notwithstanding, spending cuts need to be made. I don't know in which areas, but the country cannot continue down this same path.
Finally, here is the picture of the "Good Things" box. Jordan decided on the color scheme (the sides, which you cannot see, are orange) and doodads. Here's hoping we can continue to put good/positive things in there. Glass half full!

What a year 2021 has been (Day 7)

I have almost no words for what happened yesterday at the Capitol. Protesting is one thing (though I truly think it is and has been time to move on). But to storm the Capitol? A friend on Facebook said, quite simply, " Almost 20 years ago a group of people on an airplane sacrificed themselves to protect the Capitol. How far we have fallen!" Indeed. And, yes, it IS storming the Capitol. I have seen numerous videos of people knocking down barricades/fences, pushing police officers, and breaking windows and climbing through them. That is beyond protesting. And even if a protestor did not do those things, if they followed those seditionists past those barricades and into the building, they are just as guilty. I did not support the violent protests this summer that resulted in damages to businesses and public property (I was in full support of the actual protests). But I also acknowledged as a white person, I cannot truly put myself in the position of a black person who is angry a

Melancholy and Gratitude

A few days ago, I decided to do gratitude posts on FB. I was good the first two days. Day 3 I got a little snarky as I posted about "doing the right thing" in regards to Covid. The Covid cases in Allegheny County have been on the rise. For a while, we had daily counts between 50 and 100. After July 4, we saw a spike for a few weeks, and then cases were back below 100. Unfortunately, other than one "low" day this week, where "only" 288 cases were reported, we have had between 500 and 620 daily cases. Fortunately, only a few people have died this week. But of course, any death is too many. I started to keep track of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations on 6/12/20. On that day, since 3/12, Allegheny County had had 2,034 cases, 352 people had been hospitalized, and 172 people had died. On 11/19/20, the county has seen a total of 22,042 cases, 1,724 people have been hospitalized, and 465 people have died from Covid since 3/12. In just over 8 months, we have had

Hug your loved ones!

I hate to say that I am still working through my grief. I mean, in some ways I can imagine I will always be grieving. But I feel pretty confident it will get easier, and I will cry less and less. But, yeah, I guess I am still working through it. Yesterday, a thought occurred to me: I had not hugged my dad since the end of February, and that will now be the last time I ever did. I did not see him for almost three months because of COVID, and then at the end of May, he started his series of hospital visits with skilled nursing stints in between. I was always afraid to hug him then. What if I gave him COVID? And yet when my dad had really bad ICU delirium during a few different hospital stays, I fed him. If I could do that, why not hug him? So I cried a bit last night thinking about that. I am not necessarily a big hugger; I used to hate it, and then probably before Jordan was born, I got back to doing it again. Before COVID, I hugged my friends goodbye (and sometimes hello). I always wou

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