I think President Trump was trying to be upbeat and make people feel more positive about this whole "isolation" when he spoke of being "open" by Easter Sunday.  Most of us knew that wasn't going to happen and of course, the Doctors Fauci and Brix knew that wasn't going to happen.  This whole crisis is just getting underway to my way of thinking.

So we have another month of "Stay Home. Stay safe.  Save lives".

I'm afraid some people I know are going to be worn thin emotionally.  Poor Dar.  Cooped up in her house with her 96 year old Dad,  She is used to going somewhere almost every day.

I think to myself, this is the way I've lived for the last 8 years.  There is something to be said for being a semi-hermit.  Each day feels pretty normal to me...except knowing that the Pestilence is just outside the door and right around the corner.

===================

I did have a lovely weekend however.  I got e-mails from both my Grand Girls with photos of their babies.  I got an e-mail from Jennifer!  They are in New Jersey and her husband's office is just 12 miles from New York City.  Her daughter, Elise, my youngest Granddaughter sent me a lovely thank you e-mail for her birthday card and money.  Elise was 16, so I took a 10,5 and 1, laid them on a towel and sprayed them with Lysol and let them dry.  When I got her card made, I cut out a strip of paper like the ones that come around a stack of money and wrote, "Clean Cash.  This money has been disinfected."  She got a kick out of that.

I called my sister and we talked until both our phones were needing a charge.  We understand each other so well and each have a---I don't want to say dark humor--maybe a gray humor.  We were laughing hysterically until we both started coughing and then kidded, "Oh no!  We've got the bad buggies!"  Her birthday was yesterday.  68!  I never thought I'd live long enough to see her get that old.

One of my nearby Face Book friends had posted that she couldn't find any flour on the store shelves and she was baking home made bread and cookies and rolls to keep from going insane.  I was kidding when I commented, "I have a 5# bag of Gold Medal flour.  I will barter for 2 jugs of Diet Pepsi and......she took me up on it and brought the Pepsi over this afternoon.  She was so happy to get the flour I thought she was going to cry.  Plus, she gave me half a loaf of home made bread.  Yummy.

Yesterday Karen e-mailed me that she needed to make a shopping run and for me to send her my list---which I did.  She came by at 10:30 and brought my groceries in and put them just inside the front door.  I was teary and wanted to hug her so much, so---she said, "Mom you and I have both been quarantined for 10 days.  You aren't sick and I'm not either," and she grabbed me in a big hug--we made sure our faces were turned the other way.  No kisses, but lots of I love you's.

It was very special of her because we shop at different stores, but she went to the store where I normally shop so she could put in my "number" and got  $3.00 off my amount.

Dar came over and brought me the largest container of Clorox wipes I have ever seen.  They will last me the rest of my natural life.  I wiped down my counter tops, my phones, keyboard, my purse, wallet, car keys and the bottom of my shoes.

The groceries that Karen dropped off this morning--I wiped down the Pepsi jugs and put them away, put the items that needed refrigeration in the freezer--that ought kill any bad buggies and the rest will sit in their sacks for 72 hours before I put them away.  

I'm not a real germaphobe, but every time I watch the News, I get scared and think I should be more careful.

I have managed to find my two favorite Pastors that I normally watch on TV on Sunday morning, on a live stream on my computer.  It seems difficult for them to preach to an empty church.

Now, every time the cuckoo clock sings, I say, "Dear God, please help us", and now, while I wash my hands, I say the "Lord's Prayer".  I try to remain cognizant of the fact that God is the only one who can keep us safe in times like this.

=========================
This baby looks like no one on either side of the family!  Only 3 weeks old.

Laying on the quilt I made for him.

He looks so little

Gotta have him in a Spartan onesie.

He has this blonde hair that if they don't

keep it wet down, springs up in little spikes

all over his head!

He was baptized on St. Benedicts Day because

his first name is Benedikt--and then 6 more names.

Look at that hair and those bright blue eyes

peeking out.

Harrison and Della

Harrison is 7 1/2 months old and already

pulling himself up to stand by furniture.

His big sister adores him!

Until next Sunday--Stay Home.  Stay Safe,.  and wash your hands and don't touch your face!!!

Everything just feels so strange now.
Just a week ago I was having lunch with friends--all 80 years old or over--sitting close enough to touch shoulders, all hugging and kissing went we left.

Then all heck broke loose.

We have 800 cases of The Virus in our state--6 deaths.  Detroit area and the large cities having the most cases, of course.  The rest of us are generally spread out and the towns we live near aren't all that large, but still..................

You have no idea if the person you just passed in the store aisle is a carrier.  I'm sure they wouldn't be out shopping if they were ill because This Virus makes you really sick feeling.

Now the main grocery stores are opening early on certain days for the "most vulnerable" to shop.  7:00-8:00am are the hours.  Why does the world think that all old people are early risers?  I get up at 9:00 every morning.  What am I supposed to do?

Well, I have two prescriptions that I have to pick up tomorrow at Walmart.  Also I am out of cat food and bread.  The pharmacy doesn't open until 9:00am.  So...I set my alarm for 7:00 and hopefully, I will be awake and alert enough to drive on up at 8:30--get what I need and be at the pharmacy when they open.

Cat food and bread are not all the things I am out of.  I bought a good supply of groceries last month the day my SS hit my checking about--March 3rd, so I am just about out of everything--which means, the 3rd of April I will have to make another trip for groceries.

Now, even though I am 80, I have a strong immune system and no real bad underlying health risks.  High blood pressure, which is controlled and pretty low most of the time.  That's it!  But--I could still die if I caught This Virus.  

I will wear my gloves to handle anything and everything.  If I get any cash back, when I get home, I will lay it out on a towel and spray it with Lysol, both front and back, and let it dry.  Paper money is the dirtiest thing in this world!  I will bring in the groceries--still wearing my gloves. I will empty out the bag of cat food and throw the bag away.  Then I will throw my gloves into the washer and wash my hands.  I will wash off every can of cat food with hot water and detergent.  I will wash my hands again.

Since I live alone I don't worry about my own germs, but whenever I bring anything into this house--I will clean it off good and wash my hands.

I have been in this house since the 14th.  It doesn't bother me at all.  My car sits in the driveway for days on end in my normal life, so this quarantine doesn't bother me.  Dar, is going nuts!!!  She is used to going somewhere every day, but now she is worried she might bring a bad buggie home to her 98 year old Dad.

I don't mind, but sometimes just knowing I can't go out, makes me want to go out more.  I still have a bit of rebel that has always been there.  Tell me NOT to do something and I just might.

I still hear of women baby sitting their grandchildren.  Visiting their kids.  No way that is happening here!  The grandchildren are just the age of the carriers.  Even young children are getting it now.  So...I haven't seen my newest great grandbabe yet.  My grandson is getting married June 6th--who knows.  His fiance's shower is end of April.  I may have to miss both as I think this self quarantine is going to last longer than 15 days.

I think the President and his Task Force have done a good job, but who could ever be prepared enough for something like this.  It would have been nice if China had notified the world earlier, but with their closed government...they probably thought they had  a crisis they could contain.

Just think.  One man in Wuhan province decided he wanted to fry up a couple of bats for supper.  One man--a couple bats and here we are with a world pandemic.  Unreal.  

I always thought it would be a terrorist walking through Times Square releasing drops of Anthrax or opening a vial of Smallpox.  I never thought it could be a bat!

So, onward and upward we go.  I pray daily, often times a day, for God to intervene.   

But--it still kind of scares me.    

We're in for quite a ride, aren't we?

The stores around here have empty shelves.  This must be what it is like to prepare for a Hurricane.  But why the hoarding of toilet paper?

I understand the psychology behind "panic buying", but toilet paper?  Six packages of 12 rolls of toilet paper?  If you caught the virus and had to quarantine in your home for 14 days, would you need that much toilet paper?

When I stopped up at Walmart the other day to pick up a prescription, I got 3 Giant Hershey Chocolate bars with Almonds and a box of Little Debbies.  If I have to be quarantined, I'm going to enjoy myself.

Well--it is kind of scary to me.  I am at that age that if I got it, I'd probably die, however I have no underlying health issues.  Still in all, although I'd love to see my new great grandson, I wouldn't contaminate him, but all those 20-35 year old grand kids, of mine who would be there too, could be carriers and well...I'd hate for them to feel guilty because they killed off their Gramma.  LOL

=============

As you can imagine, my week and weekend have not been a bit of fun.  They canceled the B1G Ten tournament and then the NCAA Tournament, which nearly gave me a stroke, because I had my whole weekend planned around those games. 

I figured, well, heck...I'll watch the golf tournament and no sooner got that idea when they canceled that AND postponed the Master's Golf tournament?

What else is there to watch on a weekend?  The News programs?  Egad!  All they do is make me more anxious.

Today I watched 2 live streaming church services from my favorite preachers and 1 from my home church--that I haven't attended for 4 years.  My pastor has grown a beard, for some reason.  He's about to retire.

Well, those services lessened my anxiety.  There is nothing we can control about this Plague.  Worrying sure isn't going to help, just make us feel more scared.  I cross stitched and tried to find something to watch--HGTV--reruns.  American Pickers--reruns.  I couldn't find a decent movie and too lazy to pull out one of my won DVD's.

Today is the 50th anniversary of my Mother's death.  Beware the Ides of March.  She was only 53. I had written a tribute to her on Face Book and of course that brought back a lot of memories, good memories, but still--I was with her when she died--it was a hard death and, 50 years later, I can still see all of it as plain as day.  So, I've been a bit misty today.

=================

This next week I had all my yearly doc appointment and lab tests scheduled, but canceled them.  I don't think it would be smart to go into a germy hospital, just to get routine tests that can wait until end of April or May.

"They" are telling us old people to stay home.  That's not a problem for me.  My car sits out front for days and days, without me using it.  But of course, now that I've been told I shouldn't go anywhere, I am itching to do just that!!!

========================

I wish people would quit with the political knit-picking.  As if that does any good.  Why can't we all come together like we did after 9/11?

Wash your hands and cover your sneezes and no need to get tested unless you have symptoms.  Fever, dry cough, shortness of breath.

Stay calm and carry on.

Onward and Upward.

Yesterday morning, I got a call from Karen.
"He's here, Mom.  You oughta see him.  A full head of blonde hair!  and he has your cleft in his chin!"

Born in the hospital where Maddie is a nurse.  She had Catholic  mid-wives deliver the baby.  He was born 9 months and 6 days after his Momma and Daddy's wedding.

All those years of ballet training must have made strong pelvic and stomach muscles because...6 hours labor, no drugs and Karen said, "she said once, 'oh--that kind of hurts.' "

One of the Mid-wives stated, "Madeleine, you were made to have babies."

Karen said it was like a birth in the olden days.

When he was born, they cut and tied the cord and put him up on Maddie's chest, skin-to-skin, and left him there for two hours.

No checking him out in an isolete, cleaning him up or putting drops into his eyes.

Just Momma, Daddy and baby.

They didn't even weigh or measure him until two hours later.

Grandma and Grandpa.  Look at my Karen.  Isn't she beautiful?  59 years old and looks like a young woman.

Then the whole family showed up.

Most of my grands and my 3 greats. 

Born only 7 months apart, he and other great grandson 

Harrison will no doubt be the best of pals.

Then in the evening, Daddy's showed up.  I don't have a photo, but there was about 10 of them.

8#  6oz.  21" tall

First blonde born in either family.

Of course, his great gramma was blonde, HAH!

His Daddy's family are pure, beautiful German's and devout (traditional) Catholics..the women always wear a head covering in church and the services are done in Latin.

There are 7 children in the family, all boys.  Each has 7 names--Saints names or Catholic names.  It is their family tradition.

So let me introduce:

Benedikt Leonel Lourdes Aquinas Anton Dominic Athanasius

I have no idea what we are supposed to call him!  Maybe Ben?

My second grand child Susanna, Mark & Karen's second child, has been a runner most of her life.

She was on the Cross Country team in High School and got an athletic scholarship to Grand Valley State University, a college over on the Western side of our State, where she also ran Cross Country.

Now to my way of thinking, why anyone would want to put their body through that kind of stress and pain--running miles and miles, is beyond me.  I was more of a sprinter.  I could run really fast for a short distance.  She is just the opposite.  It takes her a few miles to get warmed up and then she is off like a Greyhound.

She got hired by New Balance shoes out in Portland, Oregon, as their Marketing Director.  She went to many States, setting up the New Balance display and running in the 10K races.  She's also been to England and France to do the same thing.

About five years ago she was telling me that she wanted someday to run the Marathon for the Olympic Trials.  That was her goal, knowing full well she wouldn't win, but just wanted to run and finish.

Well a Marathon is a lot different than a 10K.  She did run a half Marathon in Chicago and then last year, ran in the Boston Marathon and finished.  26.2 miles.

Can you imagine?  What would you think about while running?  Over two hours.  Wouldn't you get bored and just want to quit?  Wouldn't your back, legs and feet start hurting?

By running in the Boston Marathon and finishing with a decent time, she was qualified to run in the Olympic Marathon trials.

New Balance was planning their early spring conference and going to Boston, as usual.  She asked if they could have the conference in Atlanta, so she could run the Marathon.

..and so she did. 

Mom and Dad were at the start line, halfway point and the finish line.

Because of an injury three weeks ago, her time wasn't all that great, but she did have 31 women left behind her.

All that really matters, she accomplished her goal!