I'm Thinking…No!

Answering machines and voice mail have been the new norm for long enough that, well, now they’re the old norm.  Do you remember when they were first developed, back when they were separate devices hooked up to the telephone?  We’d record the message about six times until it was just right. Now, of course, they are built right in, so if we don’t answer the phone after four rings, as we do in the age of screened calls, the system springs into action so the caller can record something excruciatingly long that often goes well beyond the allotted time.  Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has a great routine about people calling just to leave a message. “Oh, you’re there.  I thought you’d be out and I’d leave a message.” There are those, however, who still don’t know to wait for the “beep”, so we only get the last bit of their message, something like “call me when you get this”.  Great.  Who are you again? Continue reading “Please Leave A Message!”

We’re becoming more and more familiar with what prison life must be like.  Can’t, or shouldn’t go out when we so desire. Sitting in a coffee shop, or even going into one, is fast becoming just a memory.   We’re getting up at the crack of dawn to go grocery shopping, or for those that are city dwellers, waiting for it to be delivered. Leaving the mail in the box for a few days or weeks to make sure it’s not contaminated. Even filling the gas tank is a rare event.  “Curbside service” used to be something special, like valet parking.  Now, it’s a staple of life.  I even used it this past week to fill the barbeque grill tank.  I know – it ran dry last fall and I thought to myself, “I’ll leave it until spring. There’s plenty of time.”  Oops.  So many things that are now becoming fixtures in our lives – drive-up windows, deliveries on the front porch, stockpiling toilet paper.  I really can’t understand that last one.  Why are shoppers going nuts with toilet paper?  For all advisories, bladder failure isn’t one of the symptoms.  Perhaps if you’re taking the President at his word and drinking Windex, maybe.  For the rest of us, “business” as usual. Continue reading “Isolation Fatigue”

We all have, or claim to have famous persons dangling precariously from branches of our family trees.  My middle name, for example, is a family one – Hardy.  My grandmother, my father’s mother, was a Hardy that reputedly came over on the Mayflower.  Visiting the harbor in Plymouth, England some years ago, I found no Hardys on the manifest, so that’s probably a myth.  However, one distinct feature in the family is the beaky nose.  We’ve referred to it has the “Hardy” nose.  My father, grandmother, two great-uncles, great grandfather, and more cousins that I can count had it.  Looking up images of the famous author, Thomas Hardy, for which I should mention dramatically here, drum roll please, I’m NOT named, he too had the renowned Hardy nose.  Are we related?  Perhaps distantly, as the family goes back to the Norman Conquest.  So too in my mother’s family, the Doyles from southern Ireland, Arthur is a family name – my grandfather’s middle name and my great-grandfather’s first name.  Are we related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?  It’s possible, and family folklore has long claimed it. Continue reading “Tracing Her Roots”

Every so often, I reread material that I’ve previously posted. As I went out this morning to get my newspaper and white, fluffy rain was dropping from the sky, I thought this appropriate to repost.  If you’ve read it before, feel free to move on.

OK – I’m looking out the window and snow is again falling from the sky.  We’re getting on to late April, and apparently Global Warming is not fully doing its job. Last weekend, we endured freezing rain and lots of it – I considered leasing one of those big Duck Boats that conveniently come up behind you and quack loudly in city traffic.  The floodwaters had subsided after a few days, so I thought – “I’ll bring out the deck furniture”.  That would create the illusion of some open space in the basement, but no . . .  . . . Continue reading “It’s Snowing Again! Again”

We in America are now beginning a national debate.  Do we sacrifice health and safety – human lives – for the economy to reopen and get the country working again, or do we protect lives and continue with preventive measures by staying home and letting large segments of the economy continue to idle?  Here are a few thoughts. Continue reading “Health and the Economy”

So, what do we do now?  Sit home and wait for the government to send us checks?  While I really like that idea – I was a supporter of Andrew Yang’s guaranteed monthly income – I feel, as many Americans do, that I should be doing something.  I’ve done some inside painting, and put some wallpaper up in the bathroom.  (An accent wall – too much HGTV).  The last of the snow has finally gone, but not much is coming up in the gardens yet.  The clean-up crew came through with their blowers last week.  I’m not sure if it’s too early to see what’s still alive or if the blowers took out everything and I’ll have to replant.  Typically, I’d be making plans to hit the nurseries about now – it’s still a little early yet to plant or set out containers.  But we can dream.  Plants and planting are the opposite of social distancing – they want to be close, personal, and friendly.  A few sturdy daffodils and tulips came up a while ago, in the warm spell, and then were covered in snow.  Now, they’re out there looking terrified – “Do I keep going and bloom or don’t I?” Continue reading “Spring is Cancelled”

So much of our lives change overnight when pandemic strikes – from the small routines like stopping for coffee or going grocery shopping, to life events like weddings, funerals, and the upcoming Easter season.  Each night, local and national news is filled with statistics, updates on where the disease is hitting hardest, how people are coping, what new information is available that we should know.  I’m becoming overwhelmed. Continue reading “Adjusting, With Some Profiles in Courage”

The idea of keeping our distance from others really brings out the differences in our individual traits and personalities.  Nothing highlights the introverts and the extroverts more than a pandemic that requires us to isolate.  That’s why it is so difficult for some people to stay home, while for others it’s almost a welcome relief and a reason to continue their solitary lifestyles without looking, well, strange and reclusive.  My guess is that, during the Black Plague in the 14^th century, many nobles were anxious to get out and about, returning to normality with ambitious campaigns to pillage, and conquer, while others were quite content to pull up the drawbridge and wait for the whole pandemic thing to blow over. Continue reading “The Good and Bad of Social Distancing”

I recently blogged about Americans travelling to trouble spots in the world with only a passing thought that it might not be wise.  In that vein, I issue a follow-up that implies we as a people don’t always think things through before we do them, and in hindsight, perhaps we should be thinking . . . . . no. Continue reading “Don’t Go There II – Americans in Shutdown”

Several higher profile candidates have ended their quests for the White House in recent days, and weeks, ending much of the speculation about a crowded field and overlap.  For those that merely dabble in the political orbit, the new language is “suspending” rather than “dropping out”.  It’s virtually the same but sounds lighter and fluffier. In the interest of complete transparency, I ended my campaign quite some time ago, and my exploratory committee, in addition to my entire campaign apparatus is missing. (Should you see them someplace, please ask them to “phone home”.) Sadly, however, few of my followers noticed, and even fewer noted their despair at the void this would leave in the field.  (But thank you, Rebecca in Billings, Montana, for kind words of support.) Continue reading “Suspending My Campaign”