Neighborhood Howl

On Sunday, the weather was once again dark gloomy and it rained yet again.

Weather being better come Monday, I headed out for the market to replenish my stock of potatoes — which high carb product the specialist said was better for my stomach condition than the no carbs no calories cauliflower I had been eating. Go figure.

Once the shutdown is lifted and the office reopens, I’ll be rushing to the scale in the Game Room to see how much weight this not working out and eating potatoes is going to put on me.

At any rate, walking to the car I captured a shot of a tie dye rainbow in a wet spot in the asphalt parking area.

How unusual and how perfectly shaped

At the market, as the grocery worker was sterilizing my cart, I said “You guys were probably closed yesterday (Easter)”.

“No, we were open”, she bitterly said. “And they didn’t even give us holiday pay. It’s crazy”.

She’s right … that is crazy, and enormously unfair under the current circumstances — as I’m sure the market is doing better than ever, financially speaking, and can easily afford to give workers either a holiday off or holiday pay.

Don’t these grocery workers have a Union? And, if they do, why isn’t the Union weighing in on this. Wish I’d thought to ask her.

I can’t express how grateful I am to be out of the workforce, retired, no longer at the mercy of corporate america.

Later that night, I received an invitation, from my friend Q, to participate in an 8 p.m. Neighborhood Howl.

Have you heard about the Howls?

Neighbors step out of their homes, onto lawns or balconies, scream and howl at a specific time as a way of coping with coronavirus-induced isolation.

Accustomed to being indoors, I’m not particularly stressed and don’t need to howl. Besides, Q lives in Los Angeles. No one around here has gotten into Howling so, had I stepped outside, screamed, howled in solidarity, neighbors would have thought me in distress, rush to my aid or called the police.

It would have been a spectacle.

Waking up to sunshine today, I decided to work off some of those potatoes with a walk around the complex.

Didn’t get very far, because the wind gust (14 mph per the weather site I later checked) was so strong that I could barely keep my footing.

Wind so strong that it chased me back inside because I couldn’t keep my footing, but that penny didn’t move an inch.

I’m just so fascinated by the resilience of that penny. I won’t pick it up. It’s just too much fun to see how long it’ll last — let’s set the clock at 4 weeks and counting starting now.

In the short distance around the complex I did make, I saw Activity Director has brought back Pizza Tuesday.

Bless her heart. She’s sitting outside, making sure the seniors are serviced.