What Crazy TIMES WE Are Living, In A Covid-19 Virus World

Lord have mercy. I have not even WANTED to write at all. If anyone would have told me that the United States would be in the shape it's in right now, 3 years ago, I'd of said..."yer lyin me".  Well it's a new world now for awhile.

We will get through it. This Covid-19 virus is a bad one but I don't think it's the one that produces zombies is it? Though some folks out of work may look that way these days. It's the uncertainty, the bills piling up and the wonder what the hell is going to happen next on people faces I see. Kind of a tense fear. Hard not to be fearful but like my mother told me, the blood that runs through you has survived every war, every plague, every calamity on this old earth. The fact we are sitting here today IS the miracle!!  Plagues on this old planet have happened before. They are as old as time.

Everyone knows now about the 1918 Influenza pandemic. But there was also polio epidemic that crippled and killed mostly children. If folks stopped in Wytheville, VA during the quarantine they were not allowed to leave.

There was also typhoid fever came through here in 1896. It's how my great grand daddy Burress and his brothers lost the farm.  His mother, father and 2 kids passed away, leaving 4 brothers under the age of 12 to fend for themselves.  It also is a reminder of what Native Americans went through when Europeans came here with diseases they had NO immunity to and entire villages were wiped out.

One would hope we are wiser now, on how to handle this in the modern day...but the handling of this virus in this country...I think we missed the brain train somewhere and are on the stupid cart. This is NUTS!  It should have never gotten this far. Being on lock down to slow the virus progress seems to have worked. Now they are wanting to open back up and that would not be so bad if there was a real working plan to get testing, materials to prevent the spread and put policies in place so we can at least save a few more lives.

I get so aggravated that folks are calling it the "will of God" and they will trust God not to get it. Well maybe it is, but that doesn't mean we don't try to save our lives and others from getting it!  If you are going to pass illness and disease off as the will of God, and one is so against modern medicine, then most of us would already be dead. If it's God's will you have high blood pressure or diabetes or cancer, then you should  let the "will of God" take over and do away with modern medicine completely, by that idiotic way of thinking. Reminds me of tempting God like our Appalachian snake handlers do. It's a viral deadly disease and we should tackle it for humanity's sake, not to try to prove our faith and do stupid stuff for the sake of money.

But my time is not much different than before. I'm one of those "compromised" people so I'm limited going out anyway.  Have been for about 7 years now. But it's not like my weeks are boring.

Last week, started with my neighbor's bull getting out in my yard, eating all my tulips and spring flowers...sigh...and chasing me into my house. I hate bulls...they are SO unpredictable and this one just didn't like being yelled at or shooed.  Called animal control or as we say, "I lawed em". But before they arrived, my grand daughter and her father came. He helped me chase it away with some firecrackers to get it back to the road and then took his vehicle and herded it back to where it belonged...it butting his car the entire way. I think it was down here again because I had like 3 tulips left and they are now gone with hoof marks in the dirt.  I told animal control I will be calling them next time, but they better hurry, this bull chases me up the ramp to my porch again...the owner will be coming to get their steaks instead of a bull.

I guess I'm going to have to fence my property when I get rich to keep the neighbor's animals out of it. Hate to do that, last survey showed my property line is right in their front yard and they know it is because they were raising cane about it. Gave them permission to mow it. Country living...has it's cons.

Then I got stung by a bee the next day. Came in on my clothes. I took my shoes off at the door and it stung me on the side of my foot right through my sock. I took that sock off and threw it bee and all across the room, knocking the bee off at my feet. I was hopping around, man it hurt!! The bee was still alive and I was trying to find something to stop it from crawling off, while hopping in pain. Some bees die when they sting you once and others can sting multiple times. In my pain, I was just thinking catch it. I had my coffee cup and hopped over the sink poured it out and set it on top of the bee!

 It was a carpenter bee! I didn't think they stung!!! I swat at them all the time when I see them but I learned something new. The females DO sting! Love the internet for looking stuff up. One of the WORST stings I've ever had and it swelled my foot up for about a day.  I've been stung by just about every kind of bee there is in these parts. Mostly wasps. I hate wasps!! And yellow jackets in the ground. Yep Carpenter bees Sting

It started swelling immediately and itching up to my ankle. I treated it with a compress of tobacco and ice. When the swelling didn't go down to my satisfaction I took some Benydryl. By morning it was gone. Now we have to worry about murder bees from Japan?  Saw it on the news and a murder bee is a scary looking BEE!

Oh but wait...there is more!  The next day, Appalachian Power came to change out the meter to a newer meter that will tell them when my power is out and has bells and whistles. I was on the phone when he came and didn't hear him knock. I really need some kind of light or something because I can't hear half the time with this Meneires disease.  I have a land line and a cell phone. I have to keep the land line because most times the cell doesn't work. There are times to use the cell you have to go outside on the hill and play like it's a Lion King and search for a signal. That's living in a "holler".

But this day I was on the phone to my sister and my daughter calls and says, Appco is out here and I have a problem.  Oh Boy, did I have a problem!  The meter base was corroded on one side and arching power.  They would not be able to change the meter and would have to turn my power off until I could get it fixed!!  On a FRIDAY! Talk about panicking. Didn't have much but I had just put two weeks of food in the freezer and NO power, no generator? I was panicking. And NO money either to hire an electrician. AND winter had not let go...we were expecting 3 inches of snow that night.

Calling around and trying to find a meter base was crazy! No one north of us had one! They had been finding bad meter bases all week it seems changing out these meters and everyone was sold out. South of us State Electric had one and they GAVE it to me free of charge when I explained the story! THEN my brother in law is a state licensed electrician and he traveled 50 miles to put it in. When he took the old one off, it literally fell apart and it's a wonder the house hadn't caught fire. So from the time Appco came to change a meter and getting a new base in, was approved in about 6 hours. TALK about blessings THAT day. Appalachian Power I bitch about all the time, (the bills mostly) but let me tell ya, they came through for us and probably saved my house!!! It snowed and I wasn't in the dark for the weekend because of their actions!!

In between all this excitement, I've been making masks for the family. Made some for a local hospital and sent them by a friend over there. But now that everyone should be wearing a mask, been making them for family and friends.  Using scraps from old craft projects.

Ironed and ready to sew.

What was so hard about that is I have inherited and acquired 3 sewing machines over the years. One is a table top 1938 white, one a 1950's Montgomery Ward portable machine and one a 60s Kenmore table top.   When I went to find one to sew on, NONE of them were really in working order. All of them needed cleaning and oiling. I don't think any of them had been used since I've been ill.

Took me 3 days of tinkering to get one cleaned, oiled and the tension correct. Then the other needed a new electric pressure foot, a bobbin tire and some bobbins that actually fit it. About 30 bucks but I got 2 working and will get the timing on the other fixed this week.  THANK you YouTube and the internet and Sewing Parts Online! I got the time, and when I go to feeling bad, I can stop and I do. I'm learning to STOP when my body says STOP.  Everything can be left to be fixed another day.  It's aggravating but better than being down for a week.

Well...that is my update. We are staying safe at home as much as possible, wearing masks, doing all we can to keep us and others safe.  YA'LL stay safe!!!