Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

So this happened.


I’ve been dealing with tremendous guilt for freaking out at being coughed on, frightening my little stalker. Pretty sure she was now too scared to knock on my door, but equally sure I’d see her around, I felt so guilty that I planned to apologize for scaring her and, when I popped into the market after yesterday’s workout, I picked up a little sumthin sumthin to go along with the apology.


Didn’t take long for me to "see her around" because, returning from the market, just as I pulled into my parking spot, she and Grandma Talker pulled into their spot next to mine.

Talker said they were returning from the doctor’s office, where granddaughter had gotten her allergy shot.

I guess this was Talker’s way of letting me know the coughing wasn’t cooties, but allergies, nothing I needed to worry about.

But tell me this … Are allergy sufferers given shots? I may have misunderstood, she may  have said "medicine" instead.

At any rate, granddaughter looked afraid of me, was kind of hiding behind a pillar, but came out when I said I was sorry I freaked out and asked, "Do you forgive me?"

She said yes, LOL.

I then asked that she follow me upstairs because I had something in one of the grocery bags for her.

Grandma Talker made her mask up (so I wouldn't freak out if she started coughing again???) and she followed me up the stairs where she seemed pleased, said "No way" and gave me a hug when she saw what I had for her.

I’m back to being hugged again.

Two steps forward, one step back, but at least my guilt has abated, my conscious is clear, and I think she does now understand, or at least will be hesitate, to continue with the knock knock knocking at my door.

Dressed for warm weather today, because that’s how the sunny weather made the day appear, I was halfway down the stairs, on my way to the college campus to test out the crazy glued trekking poles, when I realized I’d been duped. It was actually chilly and a little too windy to be out walking.

Since I was outside, I decided, though it’s nowhere near Easter, to go hunting for eggs because, when I’d popped into the market after yesterday’s workout, I’d found tons of eggs at the reasonable price of $4.99, but they were the cage free store brand and I’m spoiled. I prefer Eggland’s Best Organic.

First stop was the market in the opposite direction — the one I’ve been avoiding because the kid that works there, who doesn’t even know my name, refers to me as "The nice one" had gotten a little too friendly and invited me to a party at his house.

I lucked up. He wasn’t there … in fact, it didn’t look like any of the cashiers were there. I only saw one and the other stations had been converted to those self-checkouts.

Did they fire everyone else … lay them off?

I keep seeing on the news that there’s a hiring surge "U.S. adds 517,000 jobs, Unemployment Drops to 3.4%". I’m calling B.S. on that because, how can it be true when so many are being replaced by self-checkouts and even tech companies are laying off.

So, anyway, I did find Eggland’s Best. They only had 3 dozen at $8.99 in stock. That’s twice as much as the store brand at the other store, but the heart wants what the heart wants, so I took two of the three dozen.

Back at the complex, I spent the afternoon working on that needlepoint project while catching up on recorded TV programs.

I’d seen the finale of Worst Cooks in America, missed a few episodes in between, but this season had been the best season ever, the group of contestants so stupid hilarious that I watched the recorded episodes I’d missed.

While doing so, I noticed a shirt one of the contestants was wearing matched a 12x12 sheet of scrapbook paper I had in storage.



What do ya say?

I say it's a dead ringer.

If by some odd set of circumstances our paths should ever cross, I'll give him the sheet. He can use it as background and frame the photo of himself wearing that shirt.

22 comments:

  1. LMAO!!!! You're making all kinds of friends for life I think!!!!!!

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  2. No, not every one who has allergies gets allergy shots. It's best to have insurance that pays for them. Some folks get them for 2-3 years in dwindling frequency. 500 people a day are still dying from COVID, mostly older like us. Let the kid wear her mask. Assuming she goes to school, she's bringing cooties from classmates too. Such is happening with lots of families in the midwest. Yep, keep wearing your's when you open the door or go out cuz we want to keep hearing adventures about YOU. I used to grab animal crackers, but then it increased in price too much. Hope your eggs dance for you and are entertaining at least. Un-organic "dangerous" large eggs are down to $4.11 a dozen in KC. Cheers, Linda in Kansas

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    1. She's in kindergarten. Just the right age group to carry and spread cooties amongst each other and out into the community. Eggs are gonna end up the new currency. We'll be exchanging them for goods and services.

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  3. I heard on the news last night that egg prices are on their way back down.

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    1. Oh sure, just like the job market has supposedly improved when, in actuality, people are getting laid off. I'm beginning to not believe anything I hear on the news unless there's video evidence.

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  4. The shirt and scrapbook paper are great. Yeah, sure, your little stalker knows now how things work: You're a lot more kind-hearted than you admit and there'll always be something for her — even if it's just a warm hug. My sister-in-law should go on Worst Cooks. She thinks to make a vanilla cake, you just buy chocolate cake mix and leave out the packet of cocoa powder.

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    1. Bless her heart, LOL. You should talk sis into signing up for next season.

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  5. You were much better with that Germy Kid than I might have been.

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    1. What can I say? I'm a woosie where kids are involved.

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  6. I'm sure someone else has said this so I apologize for being repetitive but you have your little stalker because you're a nice person. So I guess you'll just have to live with it.

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  7. Some allergies require shots. My sister had an allergy shot every week when she was a kid. Of course, that was 50 years ago. You'd think medicine would have progressed by now.

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    1. Shots every week sounds like torture and yes, toots, one would think by now there'd been some progress.

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  8. Back in the stalkers good graces!
    And yes, allergy shots are a thing. I got them regularly, both arms, for 3 years. I think they helped a little, but when the allergist tried to get me to do a 4th year, I declared myself done.
    Our store had an 18-pack of eggs at nearly $9 earlier this week. I'd say you got a bargain!

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    1. Maybe I didn't phrase the cost of the eggs correctly. They were $8.99 per dozen, 12. Seems you were the one to get the bargain with an 18 pack for $9. But at least I was able to get my precious organics.

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  9. It struck me that perhaps the Talker thinks the granddaughter is doing you a favor by visiting. She sees you live alone, like children and have none stopping by. Just a thought. JF

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    1. If so, she has a warped sense of how she views me and how I live my life.

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  10. That was a good apology to your little Stalker and I'm hopeful she'll be learning Boundaries better, seems like a Sweet Kid who just needed direction and training that Gramma is reluctant to train her for appropriate Socialization. Yes, you do get shots for severe Allergies or Respiratory chronic conditions, The Granddaughter gets them and every Winter is a mess with her Respiratory frailties. She says people think she's contagious and it's embarrassing becoz we know she's not, but it's not evident and often makes her miss a lot of School as it is. Eggs here are easier to come by and are back to pretty much reasonable prices again, whew.

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    1. The pandemic has me so paranoid that I didn't even think a cough could be an allergy. But cooties are cooties, some less dangerous than others.

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  11. The self check outs are everywhere. Some of the McDonalds even have Kiosks where you order your food and then someone will bring it to the front. No cashiers in sight. Crazy.

    Yes, some people do have to get allergy shots. My mom did. My daughter did a few times when she was a kid because her allergies to cats and dogs and bunnies was so bad.

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    1. I've seen so many stories about shoppers being accused of theft when using self-checkout, that I prefer waiting in line for the live checker. The little stalker asked if I had a cat last time she was here. Maybe she thought that's what set off her coughing that time, but I don't have a cat, a dog or a bunny.

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