DREAMING OF FREEDOM

Yesterday, I read that 44% of Americans are afraid to get the Covid-19 vaccine. It’s not surprising, when the media publishes reports of all the seniors in Norway and USA who’ve died after getting their first shot. Nevertheless, when you consider all the side effects of prolonged lockdown, it seems that we really don’t have a choice. We got our first dose last week, and now we’re dreaming of freedom.

First of all, we’re finally free from fear of catching the virus. That’s a dark cloud that’s hung over our head after every trip to the grocery store, or visit from a loved one. It’s always lurking—every time you cough or sneeze, little prickles of anxiety arise. Am I coming down with covid-19? When you wake up the next day, feeling just fine, you begin to relax. That is–until the next time, when you have a headache, or maybe get a dizzy spell(caused by anxiety). You do a pretty good job of keeping your spirits up and staying busy—but the fear is always there, ready to resurface from the depths of your subconscious mind.

As one who’s often experienced side effects after flu shots, I can totally understand the fear of vaccines. My husband is one of the lucky ones who never has any reaction. But I usually had aches and pains, along with fatigue that lasted sometimes a week. Because of that, I skipped the flu shots for several years. But when I finally came down with a very bad case of the flu, I went back to getting the shots, bracing my self for the side effects. So yes, I was worried about what would happen after receiving the covid-19 vaccine.

I did have some mild side effects. I woke up the next day feeling very groggy. My back and arm ached. But it didn’t get any worse. In fact, within 24 hours, I felt better. I slept fairly well the next few nights but had some wild dreams, and still didn’t have much energy. Today, I’m feeling like my old self.

DREAMING OF FREEDOM. After getting the vaccine, you maybe able to get your old life back.

In another month or so, We’ll get pieces of our old life back. We can go to restaurants. I will start swimming again, which should greatly ease the arthritis pain in my knees and shoulders. Some things will not change. We won’t be able to visit with out-of-town relatives until they, too, have been vaccinated. But I’m dreaming of freedom in the days that lie ahead.

January 18, 2021January 18, 2021

CELEBRATE MIRACULOUS RASPBERRIES

One of the advantages of being an octogenarian is that you appreciate what others may take for granted. When my husband I were children, any fruit for dessert came from jars stored in the basement. Women didn’t work outside the home unless they had to. However, they did plenty of work at home. Both of us remember our mothers sweating over a pressure cooker on hot summer days. Most everyone drove to the farmer’s market, and bought peaches and pears by the bushel. Consequently , any self-respecting house wife did their share of “canning”–especially during World War II. Fast forward to 2021. Our frig is sight to behold—full of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables. We’re grateful for the truck drivers who deliver them, and celebrate the miraculous raspberries available in the winter.

The highlight of our days during this pandemic has been grocery shopping. Especially during these dull winter days. The produce section of any supermarket is bound to give you a lift. Isn’t it amazing that we can still purchase so much fresh fruit? Big, juicy strawberries that come from California. Pretty pink raspberries grown in Washington & California. Pineapple from Hawaii. They say we’re “at war,” with the virus. But I can’t think of any modern war zone where you could buy fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world, any day of the week.

The covid-19 lockdown has been long, dreary and stressful. However, compared to other plagues that have occurred through the centuries, we are blessed here in the good old USA. You can download e-books from the library. Watch television. Listen to the radio. Stream movies. . E-mail, text, and zoom your friends and family. And yes, you can have a dessert of ice cream topped with fresh raspberries and whipped topping.

Let’s celebrate miraculous winter raspberries.

January 13, 2021January 13, 2021

FACING A POST PANDEMIC WORLD

We’re getting our vaccines this week. After the second booster shot, we’ll be good to go. But where? How soon will we get our lives back? If you visited East Germany decades after the end of WWII, you could still see the effects of that devastating event. Shattered windows, bombed buildings. The post war period was a time of hard-sharp and suffering that lasted for years. This covid-19 pandemic has been compared to a world wide war. How can anyone believe that everything will be the same when it’s finally over?

About a month after being vaccinated, we should feel a bit less apprehensive about shopping, socializing, and visiting relatives. But we octogenarians comprise only 4% of the population. Which means that 96% of the people we see every day are still vulnerable. Yes, we can feel safe eating in restaurants and visiting relatives, but we’ll still have to wear masks and social distance.

The stock market is booming. People who kept their jobs now have bulging bank accounts, because they haven’t had anywhere to spend their money. Investors are betting that a huge buying spree is on the horizon. But is it? Will you ever feel the same in a crowded theatre with the sounds of people coughing and sneezing? Remember all those conferences you attended for work? You got to see cities and visit places you’d never been before, and it was all paid for. But do you really want to sit in stuffy conference rooms listening to presentations, while seated next to strangers from all over the world? And what about indoor sporting events? Remember the first cases of Covid in this country came from the gymnasium of a basketball game.

I grew up in the era of the big department stores. Even in our small town, we had a couple of them. You could spend half a day smelling the perfume, trying on clothes, going from department to department just to dream about all the dazzling merchandise. Guess what, most of those stores are gone. Shopping online isn’t half as much fun. And often you have to go to the bother of dealing with returns.

Are we ever going to feel perfectly safe without masks during the flu season? Will we shake hands when introduced to someone? A cougher or a sneezer will not be welcome anywhere. We all know too much about the way viruses are spread.

Millions of people have lost jobs or closed their small businesses. Their lives will never be the same. After climbing out of debt, they’ll have to re invent themselves and start all over again.

Are you ready to face a post pandemic world?

December 23, 2020December 23, 2020

DID TRUMP DODGE A BULLET?

Did you ever experience a broken engagement or get turned down for a job? It was upsetting at the time, and it took awhile to stop mourning your dashed hopes. But then later–maybe much later– the lost lover turned out to be a bummer, and the company that refused to hire you went bust. Or, with a more positive outcome, you found a better job, or met the love of your life. Looking back, you realize that the loss you mourned was actually a blessing in disguise. You dodged a bullet. Now, Trump supporters are grieving the Biden win during the 2020 election. But maybe it’s not a bad thing, after all. Did Trump dodge a bullet?

The stock market is climbing on good news of the vaccine. . But at least one financial advisor is predicting a once in a lifetime crash. During this pandemic, millions of jobs were eliminated in retail, restaurant and other business. Many of these jobs aren’t coming back. How long can the government keep on printing money before we have massive inflation and higher taxes?

Instead of the robust economy everyone is looking forward to, we could have stagflation–slow economic growth, high inflation and high unemployment. They say inflation is under control, but I’m not sure what indicators they’re using. Right now, the cost of food and housing is skyrocketing.

The cyber attack last March may lead to something disastrous for the country. Who knows what a hostile power is going to do with all the information they have now. We could experience massive power outages. Suddenly, you have no telephone, internet, heat, light or running water. Nothing works. Most large organizations have generators that tide them over until the power goes back on. But what if it doesn’t? Generators can’t run indefinitely. Imagine being the president of the United States during such a disaster.

Those are just two scenarios that the next President could face. We avoided foreign wars under Trump. But the luck may run out with Biden, with so many countries desperate after being ravaged by Covid-19. Only time will tell if Trump dodged a bullet.

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020

HOW ABOUT THOSE EYEBROWS?

Anyone who been to a mall has seen the eyebrow threaders. They work in a small kiosk, and are typically staffed by young women from India. Since I am a cold-weather mall walker, I’ve watched them at work for the past several years. And I’m always amazed at the number of women who use this service. How about those eyebrows? Why would you go through such a painful process to remove a few stray hairs?

When the Covid-19 pandemic began, these places were shut down in some states. But that didn’t last long. When you’re wearing a mask, the eyes are all anyone sees of your face. Wearing makeup doesn’t help; no one sees foundation, rouge, or lipstick, but you must have beautiful eyebrows

How About Those Eyebrows? Should you pay to have them threaded? — How About Those Eyebrows? The eyebrow threading business is booming.

Eyebrow threading has become more than just a “want.” The need has become intense. Churches, bars , banks and libraries may close, but not the threaders.

I look at old pictures taken in college and later years. My eyebrows looked just fine, as most young women’s do. We did a bit of plucking with tweezers just to even things out, but the idea of going to a public place and having someone use a piece of thread to shape my brows would have seemed bizarre.

Up until last year, the clients at the kiosks were not what you would expect. Mostly, they were middle aged women who didn’t seem overly stylish in the way they dressed or wore makeup. But when they left the kiosk, they had a glow about them. The threading made them feel better about their looks. Lately, the clientele appears younger. And the business is booming. Teens and twenty-somethings stand in lines or wait in chairs to get threaded every few weeks.

You have to wonder if it’s risky during the pandemic. The technician can’t thread your eyebrows from a distance. She has to get very close to your face. Yes, you’re both wearing masks. But masks aren’t keeping doctors and nurses from getting sick. Besides that, threading can cause herpes and spread staph infections.

They say the pandemic has lots of people in bad financial straits, fearing eviction and hunger. But that doesn’t seem to affect the eye threading business. How bad can the economy be when hordes of women are incurring this needless expense? How about those eyebrows?

December 16, 2020December 16, 2020

WARNING! THEFT AT THE CHECKOUT

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected some supermarket employees. A family member may have lost a job. It seems the situation has become so desperate that a few cashiers & baggers have started filching our stuff at the checkout. For me, it began two weeks ago. Among other things, I bought a bag of noodles for $4.95, with a plan to make chicken and noodles. But when I arrived home, I didn’t have the noodles. I chalked it up to a mistake. They were on my store receipt, so I must have dropped them in the parking lot. Today, I came home from another supermarket, lacking a bottle of white wine that was on my receipt. What happened to it? Warning! Theft at the checkout.

It wasn’t the money that bothered me. Yes, I had the chicken, but I didn’t have the noodles. The bottle of cheap white wine was for a recipe I’d clipped from the newspaper. No one wants to go to the store more often than usual during this pandemic. But these missing items meant I had to go back outside.

Warning! Theft at the Checkout. While your back is turned, someone can stash one of your items under the counter.

After researching it, this is what I’ve learned. Your back is turned while you’re checking the computer about your purchases, or watching the bagger. This is when he/she takes something from your jumbled up purchases, and stashes them in a bag or place underneath the counter. Theft is more apt to occur when the checkout involves two people. In places like Aldi’s or Walmart, it’s less likely because the cashier does the bagging while you watch the entire operation.

When you get home, you might attribute the missing item to senior confusion.. But you’re still functioning well. Paying bills. Driving. Shopping. Cooking. They think you’re senile, don’t know what you’re doing. But they know what they’re doing. They stole your merchandise, thinking you will never know the difference. But you do. Just another example of senior abuse. Warning! Theft at the checkout could happen to you.

December 7, 2020December 7, 2020

WARNING! VOTER RAGE IS DANGEROUS

The contested election of 2020 between Biden and Trump has reached the boiling point. And it couldn’t come at a worse time. People are already feeling that they’ve lost control during this Covid-19 pandemic. And now, all of a sudden, many fear that their vote has been compromised by a rigged election. It’s like being caught in a tornado following a hurricane. That helpless feeling that our lives are veering out of control. Warning! Voter rage is dangerous.

Most people can’t remember another supposedly rigged election, but I do. The Kennedy-Nixon election in 1960 was so close that it only took the votes in the states of Illinois and Texas to throw it to Kennedy. Historians believe that John’s wealthy father, Joe Kennedy, had the money and political power to somehow rig the votes. I was living in Chicago at that time, in a northern suburb that was strongly Republican. People were furious, but they didn’t contest the election. I’m not sure why. They say Nixon thought about it, but in the end, he decided to concede. He was young enough to know he could run again. And he did.

Kennedy’s election was fraught with controversy, and it didn’t get any better after the Bay of Pigs fiasco when 98 Cuban American’s lost their lives. But John redeemed himself with the triumph of the Cuban Missile crisis. For awhile, the Kennedy era was like Camelot. These young beautiful people were America’s version of royalty. And then it all went South. Kennedy’s assassination was soon followed by the killing of his brother, Bobby. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who many thought had helped rigged the election in Texas, then took over. But that didn’t end well, either. The Vietnam War caused him to resign from politics, and not run for re-election.

So that’s why this contested election has me worried. Whether it’s Biden or Trump, the winner won’t have won in a landslide, like other popular presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. Voter rage will always be simmering beneath the surface of the political landscape. It won’t take much to make it erupt into something very ominous. In contrast to Kennedy and Nixon, we now have two old men with nothing to lose but the election. Warning! Voter rage is dangerous.