Day #173 of Self-Isolation
Sep. 4th, 2020 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatI'm betting I skipped a day in there. I skip over numbers - this is why I can't follow a knitting or crochet pattern, struggle with any exercise or dance that requires counting, and struggle with standardized testing (among other reasons.) Numbers don't tend to make sense to me - there's no logical pattern to them. You just memorize and there it is. I need a logical pattern or connection to remember it.
That's one theory anyhow. Possibly wrong. But there you go.
I take a mental health day off work - actually taking a four day weekend, one vacation day, with labor day. (I have 16 vacation days left and three personal days. So kind of need to burn a few off - particularly since it's highly unlikely I'm going anywhere anytime soon. Our government has lost its mind.)
Anyhow - didn't just take the day off work - also took it off from the news, the computer, politics, etc. At least to the extent that is possible in this crazy world.
I slept late. I made pancakes. I talked to my father and mother. I watched an episode of Lucifer. I had lunch. And I spent the entire afternoon walking around Greenwood Cemetery. This is a magical place. An oasis of sorts, in the heart of Brooklyn. I walked for hours seeing scarcely a soul. I think I maybe saw five to ten people and all at a distance, and none close. Talked to one - from ten feet away. She thought she recognized me. But how can you really with masks, glasses and hats? I can't recognize people without them.
I walked through wildflowers...
And watched a butterfly.
And saw a turtle, more than one...
Also saw a red tailed hawk, a snowy white egret, and a family of geese - but they were impossible to take decent photos - won't stay still and can't get close enough. This is the best I could do...
I also sat for a while on a park bench, secluded beneath some trees, listening and breathing in the warm summer air. No one was nearby. So I could do it without a mask. The beauty of Greenwood Cemetery - is you can go without a mask for a bit, and be completely alone with nature, and tombstones.
And stared out this lovely lake...with a chapel in the distance. On a clear and sunny summer day.
Another view of the lake..
I'm grateful that I live close to this Cemetery. It's a mere twenty minute walk from my home. And along the way I pass flowers and gardens, and houses.
Less maskless wonders today - but it was early in the day, not late. I think the maskless wonders are usually out later or on weekends. Most are probably working in the city or running errand during the weekdays. I've noticed the postal workers are no longer wearing masks on their routes, which is kind of alarming.
But I didn't run into them today.
I stopped off for some groceries, then came home, took a cool shower to get rid of the sweat, and hand washed a few clothes in my sink - these are hand washables. I've been doing that to limit unnecessary trips to the laundry room.
All in all a rather pleasant day.
Oh, and my father was released to the rehab facility this afternoon. He's still on antibiotics for the UTI, and they thankfully caught a problem in time - due to the urinologists refusal to see my father earlier and correctly diagnose an issue - my father almost ended up with kidney failure.
But the rehab sent him to the hospital, and the doctors there, corrected the problem. He had a blood clot in the urinary tract. My mother explained all of this over the phone tonight. All she told the family was - he'd been released. I can't write any of this over there - because she doesn't want them to know and she's on FB with me. And yes, she sees my photos, because they are posted on FB first. She likes the sky and the flowers. Doesn't look at the angles. Visual metaphors are often lost on my mother.
Good news though - the rehab facility has moved my father into a room that can be charged to their membership fees, and will cost them less. They are working with her. My mother is more diplomatic than I am, and insanely patient with people. But she also doesn't deal with contractors and project managers all week long. So that may be why? I thought today that I want to run off to the mountains or somewhere with just trees and lakes and hills. I want my brothers life - although...I know it wouldn't work well long term.
Plus skunks. (BTW - apparently tomato juice isn't as useful as hydroxine peroxide, soap and baking soda with skunks.)
I ignored work. Even though it made it's pesky way into my thoughts due to pesky emails popping up on my phone - which I was blatantly ignoring. I also
ignored politics - even though mother brought it up, and it likes to raise its ugly head on DW and FB. I told mother that I'm praying for a miracle come November. I'm praying that the entire US will turn blue. She doesn't believe this can happen. But I'm praying for that miracle. We need a few miracles right now..I think. We need good news. We need to see flowers, and turtles and hawks and trees, and sunshine, and lakes...and blue sky.
But for now...I think a few flowers will do...
That's one theory anyhow. Possibly wrong. But there you go.
I take a mental health day off work - actually taking a four day weekend, one vacation day, with labor day. (I have 16 vacation days left and three personal days. So kind of need to burn a few off - particularly since it's highly unlikely I'm going anywhere anytime soon. Our government has lost its mind.)
Anyhow - didn't just take the day off work - also took it off from the news, the computer, politics, etc. At least to the extent that is possible in this crazy world.
I slept late. I made pancakes. I talked to my father and mother. I watched an episode of Lucifer. I had lunch. And I spent the entire afternoon walking around Greenwood Cemetery. This is a magical place. An oasis of sorts, in the heart of Brooklyn. I walked for hours seeing scarcely a soul. I think I maybe saw five to ten people and all at a distance, and none close. Talked to one - from ten feet away. She thought she recognized me. But how can you really with masks, glasses and hats? I can't recognize people without them.
I walked through wildflowers...
And watched a butterfly.
And saw a turtle, more than one...
Also saw a red tailed hawk, a snowy white egret, and a family of geese - but they were impossible to take decent photos - won't stay still and can't get close enough. This is the best I could do...
I also sat for a while on a park bench, secluded beneath some trees, listening and breathing in the warm summer air. No one was nearby. So I could do it without a mask. The beauty of Greenwood Cemetery - is you can go without a mask for a bit, and be completely alone with nature, and tombstones.
And stared out this lovely lake...with a chapel in the distance. On a clear and sunny summer day.
Another view of the lake..
I'm grateful that I live close to this Cemetery. It's a mere twenty minute walk from my home. And along the way I pass flowers and gardens, and houses.
Less maskless wonders today - but it was early in the day, not late. I think the maskless wonders are usually out later or on weekends. Most are probably working in the city or running errand during the weekdays. I've noticed the postal workers are no longer wearing masks on their routes, which is kind of alarming.
But I didn't run into them today.
I stopped off for some groceries, then came home, took a cool shower to get rid of the sweat, and hand washed a few clothes in my sink - these are hand washables. I've been doing that to limit unnecessary trips to the laundry room.
All in all a rather pleasant day.
Oh, and my father was released to the rehab facility this afternoon. He's still on antibiotics for the UTI, and they thankfully caught a problem in time - due to the urinologists refusal to see my father earlier and correctly diagnose an issue - my father almost ended up with kidney failure.
But the rehab sent him to the hospital, and the doctors there, corrected the problem. He had a blood clot in the urinary tract. My mother explained all of this over the phone tonight. All she told the family was - he'd been released. I can't write any of this over there - because she doesn't want them to know and she's on FB with me. And yes, she sees my photos, because they are posted on FB first. She likes the sky and the flowers. Doesn't look at the angles. Visual metaphors are often lost on my mother.
Good news though - the rehab facility has moved my father into a room that can be charged to their membership fees, and will cost them less. They are working with her. My mother is more diplomatic than I am, and insanely patient with people. But she also doesn't deal with contractors and project managers all week long. So that may be why? I thought today that I want to run off to the mountains or somewhere with just trees and lakes and hills. I want my brothers life - although...I know it wouldn't work well long term.
Plus skunks. (BTW - apparently tomato juice isn't as useful as hydroxine peroxide, soap and baking soda with skunks.)
I ignored work. Even though it made it's pesky way into my thoughts due to pesky emails popping up on my phone - which I was blatantly ignoring. I also
ignored politics - even though mother brought it up, and it likes to raise its ugly head on DW and FB. I told mother that I'm praying for a miracle come November. I'm praying that the entire US will turn blue. She doesn't believe this can happen. But I'm praying for that miracle. We need a few miracles right now..I think. We need good news. We need to see flowers, and turtles and hawks and trees, and sunshine, and lakes...and blue sky.
But for now...I think a few flowers will do...
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 02:08 am (UTC)Hooray for your father improving. And for a mother who's able to negotiate the medical system.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 12:03 pm (UTC)And thank you! I love tall wildflowers as well - my brother has planted a meadow full of them. But, I'm rather impressed with Greenwood Cemetery for planting them. Greenwood has gone out of its way to build a natural environment.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 05:12 am (UTC)Nice pix, as usual. Especially like the butterfly, and the "another view of the lake". Reflections make for lots of visual possibilities, verily.
My mother is more diplomatic than I am, and insanely patient with people.
My mom was like that too, it was just her nature. I try to emulate her as much as possible, which admittedly has gotten a bit more challenging as I've aged-- I am notably more short-tempered than I used to be. Fortunately, decades of having to deal directly with the general public (and scarier yet-- hard core audiophile types!) usually allow me to use those skill sets to mitigate my darker urges.
Doesn't always work, but... ;-)
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 12:17 pm (UTC)Also thanks on the pics. I think the butterfly one may be the best. It was hard to get.
Anything that refuses to stay still is hard to get.
I've admittedly been short-tempered lately - mostly due to my workplace, which has been driving me crazy the last few weeks. It goes in stages, and is project dependent. (Add COVID - and well, kind of makes things that were difficult to begin with - far worse.)
But my mother is dealing with an increasingly difficult health care system, made even more so with COVID, and on an island in South Carolina. That said - the retirement community has helped in a lot of ways. My brother told her to take the next three days off...there's nothing she can do for my father at the moment anyhow - since she's now under quarantine again.
I think dealing with the general public on a continuous basis is really hard. I truly feel for those in customer service jobs. The General Public can be well...demanding.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-09-05 10:37 pm (UTC)