Happy ?? Holidays 2020

           

We can only hope that the holiday season in 2021 will be more joyful. 

These little snails are kissing? making whoopee? talking? WITHOUT masks!

One reason you don't see many blog entries anymore is that my Blog Wrangler is totally frustrated by the way Blogger positions and spaces stuff, totally out of her control. Life used to be simpler. And safer. 

Have a happy holiday season by (temporarily) thinking of the good old days. And wear your masks for us old people, not for your young self. It's not politics, it's not science, it's just good manners.

Postcards 4

 

Our mail carrier, Lanelle, gets worried if I don't have a weekly postcard for Susan.

Postcards 3

                                

I like to think I can put nature on a postcard. But sometimes nature is perfect just the way it is.

Post Cards for Thanksgiving, 2020

 

Be careful and think of others when you mask up.  

It's ok to take your mask off to eat but put it back on when you finish!

Give thanks to everyone working in a hospital or nursing home or doing caregiving today. 

And to those store employees who are stocking the shelves you see, especially in the toilet paper section.

Image, MD Anderson Hospital

Post Cards 2

 

Remembering, Veterans Day, November 11, 2020

 

To our oldest generation:

Thank you for believing that freedom was worth fighting for.

To our youngest generation:

Thank you for volunteering to serve to protect our freedom. 

Don Madden, Da Nang, Vietnam, 1969

James Clifford McKittrick

Edward Joseph Guillory

William Ellsworth Lemmons

On an observation helicopter, South Vietnam, June 1967.

Originally designated as "Missing in Action".

Also designated as "MIA: Declared Dead While Missing."

But now designated by our government as 

"Unaccounted For" and "Non-recoverable."

Could we please just designate them as 

"Veterans We'd Like to Have Had the Chance to Thank"?

Postcards 1

 

We usually do big road trips or fly somewhere. We used to make a big Thanksgiving trip to New York City and Washington DC, a big trip to ArtUnraveled in Phoenix in August, and so on. Nope, not going anywhere this year. Nope, not been anywhere this year. Just about the time we planned to make a spring trip to the northeast, things got ....iffy...not normal. 

So the New Normal is that I ride my bike on the week-ends and mail Susan a postcard, as if I'd been somewhere other than just to my Sorrento's coffee shop. She has reminded me that she is a Blog Wrangler, not a Blog Handler.

Late edit: I mailed a postcard (not this one) to Susan early on Saturday morning, well before the scheduled pick-up time, from Austin, to Austin, via an official Post Office drop box located in front of an office building. It arrived on Wednesday. Hope your mail-in ballot had better luck.

Please vote.

 

There is no reason the image above is on the left but this text is centered. And the text at the bottom is at the left. There are definite reasons why my Blog Handler refuses to handle my blog. 

After you vote, make art. This is from Mary Beth Shaw's blog. I really like the color combinations here.

Finally, just breathe.

Day 222

 I made this piece when it was Day 200, whenever that was, maybe August, maybe June, maybe September. Is this October????

Austin graffiti/street artists are incredibly talented. I ride my bike early in the mornings now, easy to do when traffic is much less of a problem. At night, I'm a streaming, binge fanatic on Netflix, currently watching Narcos, next up will be The Trial of the Chicago 7. 

Again

 Just another day.

Once a Day, Once Upon a Time

 

Once Upon a Time I was making one journal-like page a day. I'm not really writing anything so I don't exactly consider it a "journal" but you get the idea. The count reflects the number of days since we were supposed to be self-isolated or quarantined or solitary confinement or whatever, since our building includes a Skilled Nursing floor and we (Independent Living) use the same elevators as nursing staff. 

"Skilled Nursing" is a euphemism for "Nursing Home". The media fixates on the number of victims in nursing homes but the reality is that you are not in a nursing home unless you already have health issues or are too fragile to care for yourself. Sad fact. We are fortunate that our facility is very careful and very cautious so our number of residents who have unfortunately passed away this year is not much different from the time when we didn't have a pandemic. The very, very sad fact is that we still aren't allowed to visit our friends in Skilled Nursing. Again, we are being very careful, being very cautious...

September 2020. Or is it?

 

Or is it July? Or are we still stuck in 2020? Whatever. Again.

Labor Day Weekend, September 2020

 

Costco sold chocolate lava cakes that came in these little ceramic cups. (The cakes were great! I hope they bring them back soon.) I didn't want to throw the cups away - after all, we ate about 40 of the lava cakes over the 2 months they were sold - so I've been painting them and leaving them in places on my bike route. We have a mask mandate here in Austin so my bird is obeying.

Mask on!

 Birds do it, bees do it.

I Would, If I was an Alien

 To compound all the crazy things going on, my local H.E.B grocery store has produced a new Product Purchasing Limit list.

Here's the good news: Toilet paper no longer has a purchase limit.              Here's the bad news: Brisket - Limit 2.

You can't be a Texan and not be able to cook/grill brisket all day long, all week long, whenever. What were they thinking?!?!

----------------

Note: My Blog Wrangler is furious with Blogger. They've changed the format and one change they made was eliminating the user's ability to control line spacing. See above where the good/bad news lines are right next to each other?  No, Blogger didn't want them to be together, they forced a break, just like right above this note where she wanted no line space. But she did find via Help comments (where she wasn't the only pissed off user) that you can put two lines close together by faking blank spaces at the end of the first line and then pretending the second line is a continuation of the first line. So that's how she got those 2 lines together. Barely, by guessing and going to Preview several times. And she's mad she can't center images and see it as she's editing. No, I won't go to Facebook... don't even mention that to her!

Here's Extra

The New Normal, again.

The New Normal

OK, what day do we want it to be?

Oh yeah, the New Normal.

I'm still out riding my bike and was able to finally see a stopped train so I could add this painted ceramic lizard to it. He's not wearing a mask - Bad boy!

Stay safe! 😷

Remembering, Memorial Day, 2020: Barry Lynn Brown and James Clifford McKittrick

I first posted the information on Barry Lynn Brown and James Clifford McKittrick in 2009 (link below). This is a later Memorial Day post from 2011.  It hurts to know now that we use the number of Vietnam deaths (58,220+) as a reference to the increasing number of Americans (97,196+) who have died from Covid-19.

Arlington National Cemetery

Heart weeps.

Head tries to help heart.

Head tells heart how it is, again:

You will lose the ones you love.

They will all go.

But even the earth will go, someday.

Heart feels better, then.

But the words of head do not remain long in the ears of heart.

Heart is so new to this.

I want them back, says heart.

Head is all heart has.

Help, head. Help heart.

__________

Head, Heart, by Lydia Davis

_______________________________________________________

Memorial Day is a Federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May to honor U.S. soldiers who died while in military service. On this long Memorial Day weekend enjoy your picnic, your barbecue, your family gathering and maybe a long break from work.

But before you do, please go back here to see why it is so important for me that you take a few moments to remember two men who gave their lives defending our country and the freedoms we have.

 Captain Barry Lynn Brown, Killed In Action, Vietnam, 1968

Major James Clifford McKittrick, Missing In Action, Vietnam, 1967

Happy Valentine's Day, February 14, 2020

Susan hates fruit. So I try to trick her into eating it for breakfast. Usually works!

Happy New Year, 2020

My old-man's bike and my contribution to making your commute a little better.

The flowers come from a nearby cemetery. No, I don't take them off the grave sites! People will replace the older fake flowers they put there before with new, fresh fake flowers. They throw the old in the trash. I rescue the old flowers from the trash. The telephone poles have lots of staples on them from when people put up posters.  I can just slide the flower stem in the staple already there.