[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111364

Hi Everyone,
DD I am glad they are watching more carefully who is coming in and out of your building. Good idea. I love the beach pictures.
Colleen, if you talk everyone’s ear off at the dentist office they will probably get you in and out fast. lol That’s true-the dentist won’t have to worry as he will have your mouth open and full of stuff. lol
I saw a story yesterday about a 99 year old man who was getting out of the hospital after having Covid 19. It was amazing! All the doctor’s and nurses were cheering for him. It made my heart glad to see that.
I never thought I would see a time where 90,000 people would die in this country in a 2 1/2 month period. Those numbers are just astounding.
Illinois is opening up very cautiously though too. The county we are in will be one of the last ones as it is in the same zone as Cook county where Chicago is. Although we heard today that the sheriff’s police in our county are no longer enforcing stay at home laws so who knows who will be opening before they are given the all clear.
I just know that because of our age and certain health conditions we will probably be staying home and social distancing for the foreseeable future. probably through the summer as most of the places we go to in the summer have large groups of people. Concerts, restaurants, festivals.
I have thought about being allergic to the flu shot and what that might mean but I will certainly try getting the vaccine when it comes out as it will be a totally different thing than the flu shot. I will check with my doctor but I’ll bet she will say it’s okay to try. Here’s an example-I take a medicine that has a few different generics I took one generic for many years with no problems and then for some reason they switched generics on me and the different generic gave me hives-so I just called and said can I be switched back to the one I was taking before and all was fine again. So sometimes it’s not the actual active ingredient that one is allergic too but the other things they put in there for binders or color or something else.
Barbara, my parents lived in Louisiana and my Mom lived in Florida so I know what that southern humidity is like. Sometimes the air feels so heavy that you can hardly breathe. I guess a warmer place without the humidity would be some of the desert states like Arizona or Nevada but they have some sizzling hot temperatures there. I always hear that San Diego has a pretty perfect climate.
Adele, So sorry about the garbage disposal fiasco. It’s always something isn’t it. I know Greg just had to order a part for the sump pump but fortunately he can do the work himself. I will have to look for those Gorton’s fish filets. I miss going out for fish fries around here. It makes me think of Jeanne Bice and how she used to talk about them when she lived in Wisconsin. Speaking of Wisconsin they opened up last week and there are pictures of people crowded into bars shoulder to shoulder. I wonder what will happen there. We are staying home and waiting to see what happens when places start to open up. I still see the death toll going up and up and don’t know how places can open but I guess America does need to get back to work-people have to feed their families. I think it will be mainly us older retired people who are still staying home in another month.
I am hearing positive things about the vaccine. I am hoping that by next year there will be one.
Who would have thought that something that we cannot even see could devastate the world like it has. I hope there will be pressure to stop those live food markets in China if that is where this all actually started.
I’m sorry that your ducks couldn’t be resurrected. Maybe you will find something else cute to replace them.
Here’s something you don’t see every day. the other morning Greg was looking on the deck and he says there’s a cat out there just laying on the railing that he never saw before. So I got up and looked and I said that animal has an awfully short tail for a cat so I went and looked from a different angle and it was Mr.Groundhog sunning himself on the deck railing. lol We watched him for awhile and then he must have seen us moving around so he got up and got down. We think he lives under the deck as he was digging holes and messing up our rock flower garden walls and also messed up our rock stairs one year.
I like the rest of you miss seeing the grands. They are going to forget what we look like. I wonder what will be in store for them next year for the school year. I think Kendall is already done for the year now and Lachlan and Piper probably have another week. Jenny has a double problem teaching the kids at home as they are in bilingual classes so half the work is in English and half in Spanish. It’s easier for Kendall and Lachlan as they have had more years of it but Piper is just in the beginning stages. Jenny says she’s tired of doing the first grade Spanish homework. lol Fortunately Ricky speaks Spanish so he can help.
One of Jenny’s good friends owns a bar here in town-I wonder how they are doing during this shut down.
I know my hair stylist has been doing things in her home and maybe even going to some people’s houses so she is probably doing okay. I really would like to get my hair done as it was my one little indulgence(besides jewelry) but I just don’t know when I will feel comfortable going back again. I didn’t even try to rebook my appointments as when she opens she will be so busy and I’ll let the other’s who just can’t wait go first. Then in July she’s going out to Montana-so I’m thinking maybe if I am comfortable I can go in August-maybe. I wouldn’t go if it would freak Greg out. In the meantime I am getting to see what my natural color looks like-guess what it’s gray!!!! surprise! lol I bought some root touch up and I will have to have Greg do that for me as I can’t see the back of my head. It’s a good thing my hair was longer right now as all I really have to cut is my bangs. It’s long enough to put in a ponytail. I’m trying to learn to french braid. It’s very tedious. All I can say is thank goodness for Amazon, the Q and WalMart grocery pickup.
Stay safe, stay healthy-I love you all.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111240

Hi Adele,
I am sick of cooking too. It’s not just the cooking-it’s trying to plan meals for 2 to 3 weeks so we can limit grocery store visits even though we use WalMart pickup. I am sill trying to think of all eventualities during that time period foodwise. I think I will be breaking down soon and ordering carry out or delivery.
What is Italian flour? I wonder what makes it different.
Numbers here are still going up. I think yesterday there was 192 dead in just a 24 hour period. I don’t even pay attention to the numbers that come out of Washington. I listen to the numbers from the governor. We are one of the few states with a total lock down still in place. He is playing it very conservatively. I would rather be overly cautious than open everything and have the numbers jump. Wisconsin just opened everything up and we are about two miles from their border. Although I have read that some of the individual counties are continuing to lock down but other places they show people drinking in bars.
This has put the whole country at odds. I realize some places that are more isolated are not heavily impacted and they don’t see the necessity of a lockdown and I understand that. Sometimes the few have to sacrifice for the good of the many. Everyone seems to be getting so selfish.
On a more positive note Greg sent me a Facebook post this morning from Todd who was Brent’s best friend growing up. He talks about sacrificing for the good of the many and how he misses going out and about too but how he would feel terrible if he knew he got a family member or a friend sick and how he is willing to sacrifice his individual wants and desires for the sake of keeping other’s safe. It was a touching post and it made me proud of him as we were very close when he was growing up-he would spend days at our house. It made my faith in the millennials renewed.
Personally even after restrictions are lifted I think it will be a long time before we are out and about to restaurants and entertainment venues. Probably the most we will do is go see Jenny and the kids. And I’m not even sure when we will be comfortable doing that.
This morning they were saying people were already booking cruises for August when the cruises open up. Not me!
My SIL already has a flight for Florida booked in October. I still wouldn’t be getting on a plane then unless it was absolutely necessary. I don’t understand why they don’t drive as they are retired and are able bodied and have the time to drive there.
We are going to get storms today and tonight but the weather is slowly warming.
I’ll bet a lot of families are going to be putting in above ground pools this summer as I imagine community pools will be closed. Jenny is getting her kids a trampoline for a surprise. SSShhhhh-they don’t know about it. lol Did you see the people who put a plexiglass window in their fence so their little boy could visit with the little boy next door with social distancing. it was so cute. They could play together just side by side through the glass rather than physically next to each other.
I am so glad we all have each other to talk to during this. Coming here each day has gotten really more special during this time.
Stay safe-stay healthy.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111234

Hi Colleen,
You must be feeling bored if you are looking at a root canal as an excuse to get out of the house. lol Maybe that’s a good thing as you will look forward to it instead of dreading it. lol I have to admit I am never bored but maybe that’s because I’ve been home ever since the kids were born and just have learned to amuse myself at home. And when they started school I was home alone during the day and since they have grown up besides when my MIL lived here I have been home alone while Greg was at work-so I guess I am just used to it now. Sometimes there isn’t enough time in the day to do all that I want to do. I get on the computer, write emails, play games on my tablet, read a book, watch TV do laundry, if I get really desperate I do some cleaning. lol
I have taken up knitting and cross stitch again. And of course there are those never ending meals to plan and cook. Yuck! If it was just me I would eat popcorn and cookies for meals. lol Not very healthy but certainly easy.
Maybe you are not bored but just are missing social activities. Hopefully it will stop raining long enough to get that social distancing visit in with your daughters. We have rain today but are finally beginning to warm up a bit.
Thanks for the birthday wishes for Greg-He and Jenny have birthdays in May and Brent is the end of June. Jenny and Brent are the same age during May and June as her birthday is the first day of May and Brent’s is the last day of June. I used to love when they were little and people would ask me their ages during those two months and i would reply with the same age. They would get this baffled look in their faces like those two kids can’t be twins. Sometimes I would explain and sometimes I would just let them guess if I was feeling particularly naughty that day. lol Brent called last night and his closing is next week. I am keeping my fingers crossed that nothing else weird happens to cause more delays. We are so excited for him-it certainly has been a convoluted path to get there for him.
Stay safe-stay healthy. Give us a report on the root canal. Greg got so many of them from his previous doctor(who I think was a rip off artist) that he says they are a piece of cake.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111220

Hi DD,
Sounds like you and Critt had a nice dinner. Does he ever cook a dinner for you?
I don’t think we ever totally stop missing the pets we loved. I still miss our old pets-especially the last group of three dogs. I’m glad that you have Snowball now though-especially for company during the stay at home.
I love the picture of the colorful butterfly and the sea picture with the starfish.
I used to be a longtime devotee of The View from the very fist day that they were on. But about three years ago I found that I would watch it and it would make me so tense and really color my day in a negative way. It would make me so tense and even though I loved it for all those years I said to myself why am I still watching this if it is making me unhappy. So I stopped watching-I thought I would miss it terribly but I really haven’t and I have never looked back and find I don’t miss it at all. Funny because I was a fan for so long and I just cold turkied it. You know what I do think about though. We never see or hear anything from Barbara Walters anymore. She was such a ground breaker for women in journalism and now it’s like she’s dropped off the face of the earth. Her memory seemed to go in her latter years so it makes me wonder if she has dementia or something. I read the book about the View-I think it was Ladies Who Punch or something like that. It was interesting.
Stay safe.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111212

Hi Sue,
Yes, this country is really divided on when and how quickly we should open. We live about two miles from the Wisconsin border and now their Supreme Court has overturned their stay at home law so things are just going to open up willy nilly. I predict a mess there. We are stuck between Wisconsin turning into the wild wild west and being close enough to Chicago to be included in their zone for reopening which will be the last part of the state to reopen. I think even after things reopen we will be laying low for a long long time. I miss going out and doing things and seeing people but I would miss being alive a lot lot more. I realize that some of the more remote areas of the country don’t see any cases so they think they should open and maybe that’s okay for them but this is not a one size fits all situation. I read about a woman who has a relative who lives in an area that is open because it is remote and there are no cases but the problem is people are driving 2 and 3 hours to go there to shop and get haircuts and such and you know eventually someone will bring the virus to them from where ever they came from. We have a friend who lives in a remote area of Idaho and he says their life is no different than before. They are seeing family members-going out to restaurants etc. They have no feeling for what the rest of the country is like.
That is an awful remark about the people in the nursing homes. So many people have no respect for the elderly it’s so sad. Some day the people who say those kinds of things will be old themselves and I hope they remember and are appalled at the remarks their younger selves made.
I wonder where your mystery package had gotten to for all that time between April 30 and when you actually found it. You were lucky it wasn’t ruined.
The other thing that is in short supply right now are freezers. I guess when this started people bought them up like hot cakes and now they are hard to come by. I guess it was a blessing in disguise when ours broke a few months back and we had to get a new one then. It feels good right now to have that full freezer. We seem to have a shortage of both rice and pasta around here. Who ever knew that going to the grocery store would become like a treasure hunt to see if we can actually fill our list. Talk about the “new normal”. Which I feel is a silly expression as I don’t feel anything is normal at this point in time.
Good to hear from you and that you are safe.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111130

Hi Adele,
Greg’s birthday is the 9th-the day after Tillie. So they must both be Taurus’. I see she was dressed in Quacker Factory finery. Did you make that cake?
I didn’t even have to make a cake for Greg as a lady from work made him a key lime pie and they dropped it off over here.
We didn’t even feast this weekend. Saturday we had pizza and Sunday we had hamburgers. Just trying to keep it simple. I can’t remember the last time that we have eaten and cooked at home for this many days in a row. Not even any carry out. I am getting cooking fatigue-that’s a new side effect of the pandemic. lol I am not meaning to be flippant-just trying to lighten things up. I am forever grateful that our family and friends remain healthy and I will never take that for granted and I continue to offer prayers every day for the continued health of everyone.
Speaking of that I wish our fearless leader would just once say how sorry he is to the families who have lost loved ones. I have never heard him acknowledge that the dead are human beings with families not just numbers on a chart. He is just so desperate to be reelected that he has lost all humanity. I know he was putting his hopes for reelection on the strong economy and now that is gone so he is treading water. But I never feel he has the greater good of the American people as his main interest. I just shake my head and wonder what the rest of the world thinks of us. Okay-enough of this. One more thing. I have on the hearings right now and they are politicizing the pandemic-Democrats have one view and Republicans another-why can’t they get it into their heads that this is a people problem-not a party problem and work together for the greater good.
We had a snow shower on Sunday and had a fire in the fireplace. It was not a nice day weather wise. It was a good day for napping. lol
How did Amanda get poison ivy? Was she hiking?
Poor Aizen with the tic. I hate getting tics. One time I got one walking from the house to the mailbox. Go figure?
Did your poor little ducks fade over the winter? They are really cute. I hope Steph can fix them.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111125

Hi Barbara,
Glad you are enjoying the memes. I’m trying to make us smile a bit-even though there is not a lot to smile about.
I know what you mean about the internet. We really have become dependent on it for a lot of entertainment and for keeping in touch. Especially now. Plus Greg is working from home and is hooked up to his work computer. We had problems the other week and it would get better and then go back to being bad again and we couldn’t connect. After a million calls to Rise Broadband and hours spent on hold where they would tell you basically nothing Greg went to the basement and found a different modem and hooked that up and we are up and running again. Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. lol
I had to chuckle when you talked about moving someplace warmer. I guess everything’s relative as I was thinking Memphis seems pretty warm to me already. Just for fun where did you think you might move for more warmth?
I think we all had a quiet Mother’s Day. I hope and pray by next year this time there is a vaccine and we can all get together with loved ones without fear.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111092

Adele,
What happened to your poor ducks? Did they fade over the winter?
Well Saturday was Greg’s birthday and Sunday was Mother’s day so both kids called twice this weekend.
I’m hoping that the paperwork on the house will go forward and Brent can finally get moved.
Piper wanted to Facetime so she pressed the button on her Mom’s phone and Greg was down in the basement working on his guitar with music playing on his IPad and all of a sudden it rang like a phone. So we Face timed with Jenny and Piper. Lachlan was in the room but under a blanket. I think he wants to be around but doesn’t want to talk on the phone. I think he misses us in his own way. And Kendall just runs in and out and that’s about all we see of her. The new dog is working out well-she and Luke are buddies and play together. She is still young so she chews things.
It’s going to be a long summer for the kids with most of the summer things cancelled. I doubt the pool will open. I’ll bet they miss playing with their friends and having sleepovers too. They will surely always remember this time.
I have been slow on the uptake and have been dithering getting my summer decorations out. Maybe because it’s been so cold. So that will have to be my next project.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: Quacker Talk-May 2020 #111087

Hi Colleen,
Going to the dentist sounds like how they are scheduling vet visits. They come out to the car and take your dog and you wait for them in the parking lot. However, when Jenny had to put Callie to sleep they did let her come in with her then.
I wonder what it is like if you have to see a doctor. Probably the same way I would guess. I know they are trying to do as much as they can over the phone or with a Zoom conference. I know Greg did a check up with his cardiologist by phone last week. Hopefully he will be able to actually see her for his one year check in July.
Not too much going on here. I guess the biggest news in all of our lives now is a trip to the grocery store-and we don’t even go inside.
Gail

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