Zooming takes on a new meaning

We have been indoors so long. Bored. Lack of stimuli. Same old TV shows. We had the urge to get out and take a drive. The sunshine was deceiving, the weather freezing, but a perfect day to lollygag and take a lesiurely drive.

Didn't happen. There was no slowing down to see sites, as traffic was speeding at excessive rates, drivers changing lanes and breaking all rules of the road. It was like being on the Autobahn.

As we were zipping down the highway I told Bill to look up! He couldn't. I saw what appeared to be a large drone in the sky over downtown. We lost sight of it. Few minutes later this aircraft crossed our path again, flying at high altitude. Its gray wings blended into the sky and all I could see was the black body. 

It wasn't a drone afterall but a fighter jet. The pilot flew the aircraft sideways with one wing up and one down. It was an amazing aerial maneuver. 

That was my excitement for the day. 

Someone told us to check out an app called Flight Tracker to see what is flying in the skies above you. I went on line and browsed. I saw so many images of planes in the air, it looked like mass chaos. Some things are better left unknown.

 

Someone got their wires crossed

 Our next door neighbors have been foster parents for years. We have babysat in emergency situations, such as when the kids arrive home from school a few minutes before the adults do from their doctor's appointments.

When the phone rang as we were driving to the store, we did not recognize the phone number. Bill answered on speaker phone.

"Hello."

"Hey there man, how you doing on this fine day?" The deep, gravelly African-American voice  sounded older than our  neighbor. 

"Doing just fine. What can I do for you?"

"Well that is exactly what I was going to ask you. You called ME, so I hit redial. What can I do for YOU?"

"Well I've been driving. I haven't used this phone. I didn't call you, Jesse. You called ME."

"This is John, not Jesse. Who are you?"

They got to talking. The man lived clear across town, was two years older than Bill, and both had retired the same year. They discussed everything under the sun. When I came out of the store, they were still gabbing about the world situation, the repercussions of telling the wife her cooking was bad. They agreed if they ordered out, the wife would appreciate it ... 

My husband is a joker and has never met a stranger. You'd have thought these guys were best friends.

When I came out of the SECOND store, they were still yucking it up, laughing, and telling life stories.

I shook my head, smiled, and thought, "This is exactly what the world needs, friendly people forced by a pandemic to limit their in person interactions, making the most out of a random phone call." 

In the back of my mind I wondered just how random that accidental dial was. 

Are your ears and eyes working?

My jagged ripped-in-half heart aches. My thoughts, your thoughts, our thoughts  all filtered through the same dust mote filled air ...
unsettling. 

This morning I heard audio and saw video of the barricades being removed from our state capitol because they were installed "only" for the governor's inauguration. Yet, there are verified threats of violence predicted for the next week. So what?

And in the nation's capitol, after a domestic terrorist attack, officials are refusing to go through metal detectors?! The Capitol Police are standing by looking helpless as to what to do?! Metal detectors? SO WHAT!

I said this a long time ago when I taught preschool. My room was housed in a middle school. I witnessed inconsistent accounatblity, lack of consequences, and infractions overlooked when students AND teachers broke rules.

Someone passed out handbooks on conduct. The whole attitude was a huge collective shrug. SO WHAT!  

When many federal, state, and local officials neglected to impose a mask mandate, and a few mayors broke rank and did insist, opposers refused. Mandate? So what?!

So covid deaths are rampant. That is what!

Arrogance, apathy, helplessness.  Rules? So what?!  

Until there are consequences to actions and words, and enforcement of rules and laws ... 

I pray for peace.

Thank you for your comments. I am a firm believer and know this is out of my control and God is in charge. I just needed to sound off.

  

When my head hit the pillow

The world is in such a mess.
Still I have faith and hope that
tomorrow will bring brighter days;
calmer heads will prevail;
compassion and peace
will lead to positive changes. 

I can be an instrument of peace.
I can spread a little sunshine instead
of focusing on the gloom and doom
that seems to envelope us.

I can offer a helping hand,
speak with a softer voice... use 
inspiring words that offer comfort or
provoke a thought that leads to empathy.  

I can meet eye to eye, offer a smile, incite laughter
because we all need to turn our frown upside down a while.

Wednesday, near midnight, after an entire day of constant TV viewing, observing unbelievable, unspeakable behaviors, gut-wrenching, nerve-wracking real time scenes playing out on the screen as the US Capitol was taken over, I went to bed angry-red and broken-hearted blue from the pandemic statistics.

Sometimes when I have too much screen time, my left eye goes wonky and I see a bright wall of flashing white lights for a few minutes. If I cover my eye, it subsides shortly. I have been examined by two opthalmologists who say it is not a retina tear, just eye strain or ocular migranes. My head does not hurt.

With a heavy heart and sigh, I climbed into bed, thankful for the snorer and the creeper. My honey rumbles like a motor and the purr boy inches his way from the foot of the bed and scrunches himself right NEXT to my legs or any curve he can find.

When my head hit the pillow, my eye started flashing bright white. I laid still and prayed 

for my family whom I miss so much, for peace, a friend's daughter battling cancer, and our back door neighbor who just lost her husband of 50 years. I covered my eyes with my palms. I breathed deeply. I opened my eyes and holy macaroni! I saw bright RED flashing lights.

Well this was a first. I squeezed my eyes shut. Opened wide. Those red lights were spinning back and forth, dancing left and right every where I looked. I played with them a little bit, open, close, flash-flash, gazed up, looked down. They were persistent.

Then I heard a thud, got up, looked out the window

at an ambulance in the next door neighbor's driveway.

Relieved for me and concerned for her, I added another person to my prayer list,
closed my eyes and went to sleep.  

If you can't laugh at yourself, laugh at ME.