President’s Day

That is all.

Out and About

Snow on the surrounding mountains made for a cold yesterday, but it was a dry day, the sun was shinning, so I headed out of the area to replenish my needlepoint floss stash.

I’ve been getting low on colors needed to complete the never-ending needlepoint project — a project now 3 years, 3,350 hours into the making with no end in sight, and couldn’t run to one of the local craft stores (Michaels or JoAnn’s) because they’d both surprisingly gone out of business.

The only craft store still in business, a few cities over but within driving distance, is the craft store with the mission "to honor God by operating in a way that follows Biblical principles". Translation: racist, homophobic, rethuglican Orange Menace supportive.

It’s the only game in town, so I drove over, got the colors needed, made it out alive.

Heading back to the car, hearing music and seeing the top of white tents off in the distance, I suddenly remembered this is the area where there’s a Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.

Sprouts has no eggs available to sell, none, not a one, and store management can't say when the shortage will end.

No such shortage at this farmer's market.

The 18-count at $17 comes to $0.67 per egg but one doesn't know where these eggs come from, what conditions the chicken that laid the eggs are being kept in, what feed they've been given.

The 12-count is $1 per egg, but same problem with not knowing whether the eggs will make one ill.

Plus, I don't care for diversity inclusion equity in my eggs ... prefer all brown or all white, not a mixture of the two.

These are supposedly Organic, but who knows, and I can't make out the price.

At any rate, I still have a few Eggland's Best Organic (12 count at $8.79 comes to something like $0.73 per egg), so looks like I'm getting the best and safest deal at my local supermarket ..... for now.

No thanks!

Empanadas and Oxtails WTF

I probably have food issues today due to what I ate as a child, because my mom was from the country, cooked slave food country like her mom, and I didn't know any better .... thought it was normal to eat, what I now see as horrendous concoctions, like brains and eggs for breakfast, oxtails, chitlins, hog head cheese.

The fact that I've not continued that tradition, have not eaten that way, may be why I, the oldest of my mother's children, am still alive while everyone else .... brothers, sister, all died long ago.

And p.s. ... I never fed my children any of that goop, but others seemed to enjoy it as the line was long for either the Empanadas, the Oxtails or both, so whatever.

The Farmer's Market was a good place to recharge — put in some walking steps, breath in fresh air, get some sunshine, listen to music.

It was a nice afternoon. Too bad the day did not end as well .....

Yep! We had another quake, but at least it was tiny one.

Bingo Friday

Yesterday was Bingo Friday, and I can’t tell you how good it felt to not have to rush down to the Community Room after the morning’s workout, hang with the old people.

According to the flyer the Baker had me put together, bingo included a "Special Treat for Valentine’s Day" …… "Probably strawberry shortcake" is what she told me.

However, looking at the photos the Talker sent for me to post to the group’s Facebook page, it doesn’t look like strawberry shortcake happened.

It actually looked like there was no special treat, period. Then, in the corner of one of the photos, I saw what looked like the edge of a container of cupcakes, iced pink for Valentine’s Day.

Can’t tell if the cupcakes are baked or store bought but, when the Baker bakes, she usually displays on a cupcake stand, not in a container. So my guess is store bought.

When last I saw the Baker, she’d looked worried. She’d been placed in that difficult position of having to tell her friend (Red Light) that, because one of the usual bingo suspects had a problem with Red Light attending bingo as a non-resident, that she (the Baker) was going to have to hurt her friend’s feelings, tell Red Light she could no longer attend.

Since then, the Baker has had to deal with Red Light’s Facebook meltdown and harassing phone calls.

Looking at the pictures of the Baker at yesterday’s bingo, she does not look well. You can tell something is weighing her down.

It’s not a stretch to assume no strawberry shortcake and store bought instead of baked is because the Baker just doesn’t have it in her right now to do more than the basics.

Last week’s lousy weather didn’t help anyone’s energy — first three earthquakes, followed by drab dreary days and then non-stop rain with constant flash flood warnings Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday was a dry day for us, but still drab/dreary and, from the photos, it appears not many were in the mood as attendance looked to be down.

All in all, I’m glad to be out of the bingo scene.

This was also the first bingo where Red Light was not in attendance.

No surprise there because, after her Facebook posts, the harassing telephone calls by she and her son, she can never show her face around here again.

In fact, I’d not be surprised to learn not only has she now been officially banned by Management, but that Manager has taken out a restraining order because Red Light yesterday did something I never thought she’d do …… she scrubbed her Facebook page of the three libelous and poor pitiful feel sorry for me posts, wherein she’d named those she felt had wronged her.

It’s giving too much credit to think she deleted the posts because she’d come to her senses. Nope. Not her style. More like something of a legal nature has occurred, which may be another reason why the Baker is walking around with an even heavier heart — she had to hurt her former friend’s feelings again by doing something she didn’t want to do but had no choice in order to stop the harassment.

The Baker did say her Deputy Sheriff son-in-law was looking into what could be done to stop Red Light and her son. So, for Red Light to retract her posts, something significant has happened …… someone of authority has contacted her, or she has been served with a restraining order.

Sooner or later, the Grapevine will get around to letting me know which it was.

Valentine's Day

Love is once again in the air.

Thank the Lord, I've been vaxxed and boosted.

Who Wants to Tell Her?

Popping into the market, after this morning’s workout, I ran into Next Door Neighbor.

We chatted for a bit about how we were going to survive, where we were going to live, when Elon takes away social security.

I said I’d probably be living in my car.

She said it would probably be the same for her.

We were both laughing, making jokes, but the humor was only to keep from crying …… if you know what I mean.

We moved on to the topic of the three earthquakes we’d experienced, her saying that, like myself, she’d been in bed the night the third earthquake hit.

Unlike me, who stayed in bed, she said she gotten up, run into the bathroom, sat in the tub until she felt it was safe.

I never left the comfort of my bed. Of course, I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I browsed TikTok until I felt sleepy again …… three or more hours later.

Heading back to the complex, I pondered the idea of the bathtub being a safe place to seek shelter in an earthquake.

Going over it in my head, it seemed to me that should the building come down, the floor give away, I’d have the mattress at my back, nice soft pillows and quilts surrounding me; whereas, if the floor gave away and the tub fell, broke into pieces, the sharp edges of the tub's broken bits and pieces could be injurious.

Arriving back at the complex, I posed the question to Google …… "Is getting in the bathtub during an earthquake better than staying in bed?"

Google answered …… "No, generally staying in bed and covering your head with a pillow is considered safer than getting into the bathtub during an earthquake; the primary reason being that the bathtub offers little added protection from falling debris while getting out of bed could expose you to further danger during the shaking …… If you are in bed when an earthquake hits, stay there, lie face down, and cover your head and neck with a pillow".

Who wants to tell Next Door Neighbor?

Not me.

Now disturbed by thoughts of Elon still in my head, I decided to do something about it.

I had cotton fabric, freezer paper, ironed the two together to make paper I could run through the printer.

I found an image I could work with, printed the image onto the fabric side, pulled away the freezer paper.

Now having an image on fabric, I cut around the image, fit cotton fabric as a backing, pulled out my sewing machine and VOILÀ …… a voodoo doll.

Stuffed and edges completely sewn together, pins in his vacuous eyes, a pin straight through his cold dead heart, and he was ready to join his sidekick.

I feel better now.

Ominous

That’s the word for how this week has started out ……… Ominous.

Yesterday was shake, rattle, roll with not one, not two, but three earthquakes.

Ominous.

Ain't no sunshine today. Outside is cold, dark, gloomy.

Ominous.

It’s only Tuesday, and I’m waiting for the other shoe to fall.