Day #279...

[shadowkat]

The sun was playing peek-a-boo during my walk around the cemetery today. The snow is slowly melting and with the rain predicted on Thursday, will most likely be gone by the weekend, if not before.

Yesterday's walk resulted in two blisters, so this round - I went back to wearing a more comfortable pair of booties. They aren't really boots - booties is a far better description.

I'm feeling kind of...blah. Or sluggish. I wouldn't say I'm depressed exactly, just...blah. Kind of like the sky outside my window, with the sun playing a game of peek-a-boo. Saw a little sign today on my walk, I'd seen it before of course - "come inside my home, rainbow".

Mother: Maybe you're just lonely?
Me: Is that what this is? It doesn't feel right? Perhaps so..
Mother: a lot people are feeling the same way. It's hard. You're being told to isolate, and yet at the same time
Me: Not.

I see people congregating in small ways. Last night I watched a video of people from church, about fifteen people all congregated in a small little garden in front of the church and on the street - during a winter solistice celebration. Everyone wore masks. It seemed relatively harmless, but made me cringe all the same. Yet, I see it all the time. Five women walked out of my apartment complex together - the other day, with their dog, then came back lugging something large. One said it was the first time she'd been outside in days.

The gal on FB who was whinging about not seeing her significant other - father sent her cousin over with traditional cakes. I told my mother about this.

Mother: And you thought, poor baby -
Me: No. I thought -
Mother: Wanted someone to bring you stuff?
ME: No, I've got stuff. I wanted someone to visit me.
Mother: No one can.
ME: I don't know - I saw a delivery person today who delivered a food order. I wished her a merry christmas and happy new year. (I'm becoming starved for human contact. I've become a recluse in a city, it's bizarre.)

I live in a city - I see people. It's kind of impossible not to. I also listen to sirens whenever I venture outside. There's a hospital near the cemetery - hence the sirens. Whenever I venture outside my apartment, I hear Christmas Mall acoustical music (the songs are "I Wish You a Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells, First Noel, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing on repeat...and something else, I think).



Mother: Well I've something that may make you laugh.
Me: Okay...
Mother: Your father had issues using the bathroom last night because of all the cats that were in it.
Me: Cats?

Mother: Yes, he told me that he couldn't use our bathroom because there were too many cats inside it and they wouldn't let him through.
Me: How many cats exactly?
Mother: He thinks there were six, I told him there were four.
Me: So you argued over how many non-existent cats were in your bathroom?
Mother: At 2 am in the morning no less.
Me: Did he sneeze? I mean he's allergic -
Mother: No. He just kept kicking at the cats, and asked me to help him, they kept attaching themselves to his legs. Just what I need to deal with in the middle of the night - cats.
Me: So what did you do?
Mother: I told him he should stay there, and I picked up the cats and took them out in the hall and shut the door, so he could use the bathroom.
Me: Uh...so the non-existent cats are in the hallway now?
Mother: he brought them up again in the morning, so I told him that I'd put them in the garage. This seemed to satisfy him.

Later, he informed my brother that they were all Siamese cats. I told mother she should buy a cat or get a few - that way they'd actually have cats instead of pretend cats. Or better yet, have my brother send his two decrepit and aging cats to them. My brother apparently checked the ages of his cats in human years - and they are about 72 years of age respectively.

[If I ever retire, and get a house with a yard, I'm getting cats.]

Yes, my father is seeing non-existent cats now. I'll give him credit - he has interesting and somewhat creative delusions.

I suppose I should be grateful that I'm not down there with them watching all of this unfold?



Biden came on television today - to tell everyone that darker days lie ahead. Then the news commentators felt the need to analyze what he said for fifteen to twenty minutes. I don't know why they feel the need to do that.
Job security?

Church is busy fighting a high rise development going up across from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens - which would block sun into the Gardens, and cause problems with planting, etc. The Mayor's Office was in support of the project - allegedly - to bring in more revenue and affordable housing.
But that was "pre-COVID", now... news has come out that the developer is an unsavory MAGA maskless wonder, and the design called for high-rise not low rise as the Mayor originally thought...so Church may win, along with Brooklyn Botanical and stop the development in its tracks.

The mayor’s office says the mayor was “confused” when he said he supported building last February. He thought they were low-rise. He now understands that high rise would be bad for Garden. Report says his opposition effectively kills the project. - per church member's email.

I was amused by the Mayor's confusion. Nice cover DeBlasio. I think he's back-pedaling on a few things. This crisis has really caused him to do an about face. A year ago, at this time - he was running for President. Now, he's just trying to keep the city afloat and get as many New Yorkers as he can vaccinated. What a huge difference a year makes.



Anyhow, hanging in there for the most part. I just feel tired a lot of the time...like I'm running a very long marathon and I just want to take a break from it for a bit.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Biden came on television today - to tell everyone that darker days lie ahead. Then the news commentators felt the need to analyze what he said for fifteen to twenty minutes. I don't know why they feel the need to do that.
Job security?

A need to fill airtime and cheap content. It costs little to have people already on salary or being on air for free sit there talking at one another. It takes money and effort to fill that time with actual reporting.

[shadowkat]

Except in this case they were pre-empting a show that I was watching, they'd paid for, and had commercials/sponsors that were also pre-empted.

So...it cost more money having them chat then cutting back to the pre-empted show.

[yourlibrarian]

You're right, that doesn't make any sense.

[shadowkat]

I think they feel the need to show their own importance. Look, I'm a journalist! I know stuff! I'm doing something!

And I'm just thinking, yeah, yeah, can you do it on CNN or NY1 instead.

[tellshannon815]

That cat thing sounds like something my grandad would have said. He once got convinced that the hospital he was in at the time was trying to save money by making all its patients share beds, and kept telling this imaginary stranger to move over.

I think I prefer the cats. There's a Siamese I often see on my street.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, I honestly thought of it as one of my father's more pleasant delusions. Much better than seeing the little girl in the bathroom or all the people in there. (He gets those too.)

[trepkos]

I love that your mother argued about the number of non-existent cats!

[shadowkat]

LOL!

Apparently they debated it for a bit.