This and that (including a bus story)

I just cannot seem to come up with a coherent blog post. It is just easier to post pictures, tell a story, or do a bulleted list. Here goes my bulleted list (and why is it that blogger thinks that "bulleted" is not a word?)

Last week when I got on the bus, I sat down next to a guy. Said guy had a can of something between his legs. My first guess was beer, particularly since he reeked of alcohol, but then I decided it could have been one of those canned energy drinks. When he turned towards the window (and away from me) to take a sip, that was a pretty good indication he was drinking a brew. Upon further review, I confirmed it. Miller Ice, I believe. As my bus driver friend said, "As long as the bus driver is not drinking, you are golden."
After my third trip to my mechanic in five months, I told him that, no offense, I hoped that I would not see him until January 2015, when my next inspection is due. I don't even want to add up what I spent on the car in 2013, which also includes my inspection repairs in January 2013. Pretty sure it all adds up to a year's worth of (low) car payments. You read it here first: I will never buy another GM (I have a 2007 Saturn Vue).
I sang in my church choir's cabaret night a week and a half ago. For about a minute, I was back in high school, when all the world was my stage. It felt pretty good, and reminded me of how much I missed it. For most of the song, I really feel as if I knocked it out of the park. I was pitchy in a few places, but I am trying not to let that diminish what I did. Next year I plan to tap dance. I am serious. And, if you stop by again, I am actually going to put the video up.
I found out one of my (young) coworkers has the same birthday as me. I asked her what year she was born. She replied, "1989." Which means when she was born, I was a freshman at college. Sigh.
My kid does not like school. And that is putting it nicely. I have no idea what to do about this; she loved it the first five years (K at a different school and 1-4 in this school). I think a big part of it is homework. Most nights, the kid has 1-1.5 hours of HW. Some nights, it is 2 hours. This past weekend was the first one in over 2.5 months of school that she had no HW. That is right; she gets HW every single weekend. Sigh.
But I went with my kid's class on their field trip to RiverQuest. I had a great time. The kids got to launch things in the water, retrieve them, and then study organisms from the water under microscopes and macroscopes. Well worth the day I took off. And best of all, when one of the educators on the boat asked the students what their teacher's name was (meaning their science teacher), they replied, "Ms. (my last name)." They still think of me as their/a teacher!
Still quite sure the Steelers will not make the playoffs and will probably have a losing season. But maybe, just maybe, they can end up at .500. Stranger things have happened. Just glad I made it to a game this year (and a winning one at that). Unfortunately, I don't think the Pens are Cup bound this year, but I feel just as sure that they will be in the playoffs.

And how are you doing?

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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