Today is a "Normal" Wednesday in My Life of "New Normal"

Today is a "normal" Wednesday, and I'm glad for it. I need to get cooking in the kitchen - I need food for dinners for the next week. I'm just about out of all leftovers, and my shelving only has my baked fruit for breakfast filling it. I think I might make a favorite of mine - Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup. It's a bit finicky to make - you have to broil the veggies to be able to easily skin them and to get a wonderful undertone of charcoal in the soup base. But once you've done that, everything goes into the blender (you need an excellent blender, and mine is top-shelf) and the rest of it basically makes itself on high speed. 

I really love this soup. It's a bit fussy to make (only 
because you're broiling the veggies in the oven, so 
need to keep an eye on them), but it's really easy to 
make if you've got a good blender. I've got an excellent 
blender and it hasn't been used for a couple of weeks 
while I've been "busy" with other things - LOL. Time 
to return to my kitchen. 

It's also a laundry day. Load #1 is already in the washer, with loads #2 and #3 to follow. I might also make my Roast Pork with Maple and Mustard Glaze, and I should make a new batch of my Bar-B-Que sauce, I noticed I'm almost out. That requires not only making the barbecue sauce, but also my Worcester sauce, since I make both of them from scratch and one is needed for the other. I might hold off on these until Friday, though. I'm not out of them yet, and I don't use them constantly. 

I'm tempted to make a roast pork, or buy a couple of pork 
chops for my pork chop recipe which is super easy to make. 
I'll probably wait on this decision until Friday, though. 
It's going to be busy enough today. 

I figure if I can get the soup made, plus the chicken tenders for tonight's dinner (which basically make themselves), I'll have a successful day. I might do pork too, either tenderloin or chops, but it's not necessary - I won't starve if I have soup and chicken. And it's also a Wednesday, so that means a nice long chat with Aearwen in the late afternoon. Something I look forward to every week, and something we've been doing for years and years now. I'll be busy today, but busier tomorrow and Friday, so I'll enjoy my "day off" as a "normal" day off and be grateful for the experience. 

Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Back to the Pool - Is Life Returning to "Normal"?

Normal - a word used often and rarely correctly, because what actually IS normal? Well, you can easily say what's NOT normal. Having surgery is NOT normal. It's a disruption in your life, and a change in your body or the body of another close to you. We all know change - we live with it every day. But some changes require outside intervention - that's what surgery is. Still, life eventually does start to return to normal. And after a month filled with surgeries and check-ups, I'm finally returning to normal. 

My life is returning to normal - my new normal. I'm 
very much looking forward to a new, lighter 
prescription for my eyeglasses. I'll know more about 
that when I have my two-week checkup next week. 

I still have my two-week checkup coming up next week. That's when I will finally get a prescription to order a new set of eyeglasses. That will be a wonderful thing, because I need vision - LOL. But, today I return to swimming, so my life is starting to settle into a Summer normal. I'm delighted. 

I got a new pattern this time - a 
Whale Shark. It's really dark with 
white spots, I'll be almost invisible 
in the early morning swims - LOL. 

I'm wearing a new skin suit. After the self-destruction of my sea turtle skin suit (so pretty, but now a mere memory), I immediately ordered two new ones. Today I'm wearing my whale shark one, tomorrow I'll wear my mermaid scales one. I had a mermaid scales suit from last year, but it was a Medium, and I'm wearing Small now, so I ordered a new one so that I now have three suits I can revolve through. Happy me. 

Life is change. Without the ability to change the 
course of your actions and decisions, there is no 
life at all. When that decision is taken away from 
you, there is only stagnation, and finally, death. 

But life is change - either making changes of your own volition, or having the choices taken out of your hands and placed into the hands of others. My eye surgeries were my own choice, but also absolutely necessary for me to be able to function in my job and my life going forward. Fortunately my eye doctor agreed after my eye exam, so we were able to get something done that will make a huge difference. How much difference? 

I need glasses to see close, although I don't use 
them to drive or do other things where I'm looking 
at any distance. I need my glasses for computer 
work and close work. When I lost the set I've been 
using, I was devastated! 

Yesterday I was shopping at Target with the only set of old eyeglasses I own that has a portion that works for my close vision. It's a very old set of tri-focals that had been too weak for me for more than a decade, but I adore the frames and will have them re-lensed when I get my new prescription. However ... I was shopping at Target and using my glasses for my list, etc. I checked out, got into my car and realized I was missing my glasses! Panic!! I went back in, retraced my steps and didn't find them, and I checked with Customer Service. No eyeglasses. Saddened, I continued my errands. 

Thinking that I would still have a month without a set 
of prescription glasses, I decided to buy an inexpensive 
set of "cheaters" to get me through the hump. I'm down 
to a 1.5 magnification, which is awesome! 

Later in the day, I had a bit of time and decided to return to Target once more. At the least, I could pick up a set of magnifiers even if I couldn't find my glasses. I found and purchased a set of 1.5 magnifiers (I almost picked the 1.25 version, but decided I wanted that little bit more strength). On my way out, I decided to check with Customer Service once more, and VOILA! There they were - my eyeglasses! I wish only seriously positive things to whomever turned them in, and I'm happy once more. 

On that note, I'm off to the pool. Have a glorious Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow before once again heading out to the pool for an early morning swim as the sun rises over the pool. I adore my outdoor pool in the summer months! Slava Ukraini. 

Not Normal - A New Normal

On Saturday I said that life was returning to normal. I probably should have said that it's returning to a new normal, because the "normal" of two weeks ago is not the "normal" of today, nor should it be. It was insensitive of me to not take into account that we need a NEW normal - a normal of patience, a normal of kindness, a normal of true equality. We're a young country, as has been pointed out in a few posts that I've read. We're young, and we're still finding our balance. We'll get there, and these uprisings and new portions of history are part of that new balance. 

We're moving into a New Normal and it's time for some
changes for all of us. Change is part of the human
condition and status societies are dead societies. 

It's never easy to make changes that shake foundations. It wasn't easy when men suddenly met women at the polls after women finally won the right to vote. It wasn't easy when the first black children were escorted to school under the new laws of equality in education. It wasn't easy when an acknowledgement of right to live without persecution finally began to be uttered and legalized after Stonewall. Each of the quintessential moments began with a single person saying "No". Each of the movements those moments evolved into were rocky, difficult, and sometimes violent. 

We're shaking the foundations, but from the rubble,
we'll be building something stronger and more
inclusive. Is this the last shaking we'll need? It's
doubtful. Change takes time and lots of effort. 

As a nation, we can't turn out back on our populace - ALL of our populace. We need to talk, and we need to act, but act in supportive ways as well as the occasional confrontational way. We need to understand the vast variety of our populace, their heritage and history, and their vast contributions to our society and our world. We interact with a variety of people every day, but do we really know them? Do we know their history? Their families? Their accomplishments and occasional failures? 

I don't see the world coming together for a huge sing-a-long
of Kumbaya, and would think I had been slipped some
drug if it ever did happen. Humanity isn't that united or
unanimous, and I'm not sure we should be. But we do need
to all work with each other to allow individual expression
and individual safety for all. 

I'm not saying we all need to gather together into one huge sing-a-long of Kumbaya. I am saying that each person has a right to have their own story and that their story enhances yours. Maybe today is the day to make a new friend, to smile a bit more and to listen to someone's story. Maybe today is the day when someone else's history will intersect with your own. It can happen. We can forge this new normal into a stronger, better and more well rounded society. 

Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Life is Returning to Normal - Step by Step

Next Wednesday, the 10th of June, indoor dining and various other businesses, including gyms, are allowed to re-open. I, unfortunately, won't be there. At least, not until I get the go-ahead from my podiatrist on Friday. Then, hopefully, I'll be able to return to my YMCA and use the outdoor Olympic-sized pool. After being away from exercise since mid-March, and away from much of any exercise since I broke my foot on May 1st, I'll be lucky to get a single lap in without difficulty. But to get into the water again ... I'm really focused on it. So if I can finally return to the gym in less than two weeks, I'll have to fine tune once again and do my best to think fast on my feet to post my daily blog. 

Our outdoor pool usually opens Memorial Day weekend and stays open
through Labor Day and sometimes a few weeks longer. It's Olympic
sized for length, so sixteen laps will give me a mile instead of the 36 laps
I need to do in the indoor pool. Of course, I haven't been able to swim
for quite a while, so I'm nowhere near being able to do my mile any more. 

The shop is hanging in there. Business is down, but I had expected that, and it's not horrible, just not at pre-Covid levels. Still, it's getting me out of the house every day, and I suppose that's a good thing. We treated ourselves to take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant last night. Walking into their little restaurant was quite the change. It used to have a small waiting area for take-out and a larger seating area for dine-in. When I picked up my phone-in meals yesterday, a large plexiglass panel cut all of that off, leaving a table where I could sign my credit card statement and where my bagged meal could be placed. Still, it was nice to see everyone again. I've missed them. 

I love China Restaurant's Kung Pao Chicken combo plate. I always
get enough food for 2-3 meals and they're a neighborhood
business which also makes me happy. It gets home nice and
hot and is oh, so good! 

I ordered several colorful masks a couple of weeks ago and they arrived yesterday. I think they'll be fun to wear - a change from my tie-dyed mask that Chickie made for me. Chickie is also making me one or two Minion masks - I purchased a yard of Minion fabric on-line and after washing, gave it to her for sewing. I can't wait until I have my Minion masks to add to my collection. Since I think masks will be with us for a long time to come, it's nice to have pretty and fun ones to wear. 

So, on that "fashion" note, I'm out of here. Time for breakfast and then on to work. Have an excellent day and a good weekend, I'll be back on Monday. 

Our New Normal - Day 1

So here we are ... Day 1 of my "new normal" and it's going stumblingly. I did, however, manage 1-1/4 mile on the treadmill (yippee), I used to do two miles on the indoor track. I'm not much of a treadmill fan, but having one in the room next to me is convenient and means I'm not "fast walking" in the dark since I like exercising before the sun comes up. I'll still have to tweak my settings and get a bit faster, but I'm pleased for a first time try. 

Today's photos will all be photos about watching the sun rise. It's my
favorite time of the day and so I'm sharing it with all of you. 

DH said he's going to brave the grocery store this morning, I wish him luck. I spent a good three hours yesterday doing a "deep clean" of my kitchen - stovetop, countertop, microwave and sink area. Everything got moved, scrubbed, disinfected, and degreased. I was pretty happy with myself when I had it finished. The microwave hasn't been this clean since I first picked it up years ago. I'd love to keep things this clean, but I know better. Life gets in the way. 

Dawn was always my favorite time of the day. I loved that feeling of
potential and the fresh breeze as I waited for the school bus with my
friends. Later, in high school, I'd walk the mile+ to school and it was
still early enough that I caught the sunrise almost every morning. 

DH and I spent a good portion of yesterday at our computers, playing computer games and listening to the news (DH is a news-feed junkie - I tend to just block it out as if it was white noise). All in all, it was a good Sunday, but today returns to our new normal - work, then home. It's not exciting, but that's OK. Sometimes exciting is the last thing we want in our lives. 

Stay safe, stay healthy, and be kind to one another. I'll be back tomorrow.