Should I be ashamed? Nah, I’m positive that we’re not the only empty-nesting family that isn’t struggling with social distancing.
Some of us folks don’t mind simple moments alone with our thoughts.
Occasionally, I let the thoughts drift in that ruffle my feathers.
For the most part, Mr. and I are enjoying hanging out with our on the fence thoughts of … shall I say, simply put it as,
“Um … you’re getting too close to us, back off buddy.”
Mr. and I are a couple of introverts, and we’re okay with hanging out on our own. Individually or together. We’re mostly just fine. Thank you.
Mr. has been the brave soul in our family to venture off to the store to get food. To compete with the crowds who flock there to get the frozen foods.
Fresh food is preferred for us, so we don’t buy much at a time. But you gotta take what you can get. Before the next flock of people come to the store and clear the shelves.
This week though, there have been new announcements about restricting visitors to stores so that they can single file through the store. And not congregate. Fitting on Palm Sunday?
Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings. – Hodding Carter
A glance here and there at all the reminders available, how we hope to avoid repeating Swine Flu history, brings about another perspective. I can control where I go and what I do, it’s the actions of others I can’t control. I hope our adult kids remain smart and safe and well. And the same for all my friends and my family. And for you, too!
My dad and his sweetheart are at home keeping each other company and safe. As best two people with cognitive decline and health can do. Familiar routines help. This week my brother was injured at work – the hospital turned him away until June for treatment. The injury wasn’t life-threatening enough, so he’s back to work and trying to stay free from re-injury. And on a mission to heal himself if he can.
I can’t imagine being a doctor now and having to turn people away from care. Especially those that they’d normally treat. In anticipation, the hospital will need the beds for those with a virus.
“I had a little bird, its name was Enza. I opened the window and in-flu-enza.” – Children’s jump roping song, 1918
I’ve wondered about many things this week, like always. Deep thoughts about things that are within my control, or not.
Like taking a nap when I should could be dusting. Or dreaming about sunbathing when I feel like it. Timing depends upon sun availability and floor space.
About how keeping distance at home isn’t necessary for Mr. and I. At least we don’t have to worry in our empty-nest about bringing more youngins into the world. We’ll leave that stuff to the animals.
And how it’s been a damn long time since I did a selfie session.
Wait – that’s Dessy. She loves to pose. Me, on the other hand, well … (Stay tuned – I’m going to fill my day with researching how to cut my own hair again, and next week you’ll see how well that plan played out!)
I took quite a few selfies to look at how long my hair has gotten.
All those weeks on end without wearing make-up and sporting a winter’s hat each morning for our chilly walks outside make me look like a Wildside hoodlum instead of an Ava Gardner model …
Post inspiration – Stream of Consciousness Saturday Deep and Lens-Artists #91 Simplicity
PS – What crazy things are you doing to keep your sanity? Are you cutting your own hair yet? What music do you like to listen to to relax?
Thanks for posting an update, Shelley. It’s good to know you’re getting on well.
I was going to add that I enjoyed the pictures of the birds at the feeder. But, I pressed ‘post’ instead 🙁
LOL – no worries, your comments are always welcomed no matter what the technique :-)!
Thanks!
Thanks, Dan – we’re plugging away. I enjoyed your post – Cheers to you, well done!
🙂
Nice photos Shelley, your hair looks great. Maybe let it grow, I have been buzzing my own hair off for a long time now. I miss your posting more frequently!
Thanks, John! I’m torn, and the warm sunshine in the yard might take me away from a hair cutting session today. It is kind of fun to feel hair blowing in the wind, makes me want to sing … the answer my friend may be blowing in the wind …
Thanks for missing my posts, I’m only feeling up for writing once a week for now. I’ll keep watching your photos on Instagram!!! 🙂
Fun post Shelley – that little bluebird on the fence is fabulous! And good for you for sharing the hairdo – look forward to seeing how well you fare with the self cut. personally I’ve very happy I decided to let my natural color grow in not long ago! All my friends are beginning to look like skunks LOL. And nothing makes me happier than not even thinking about makeup 🙂
Thank you, Tina! I’m with you on being thankful I ditched the coloring years ago. I hope we see a revolution of gals embracing their natural beauty. I have noticed more hats showing up in pictures. I’m loving the no make up more and more too. I may be a convert on that as well, we’ll see. Thank you for your encouragement. PS – I love your sepia photos, very nice!!
It’s just the two of us here too, though my husband has been going daily to see his own brother who lives alone and is not healthy. I worry about him being out and bringing the virus back here, or to his brother, as he is the one doing the shopping for his brother. Anyway. One of the things I’m grateful at the moment is that I started letting my hair go grey last October….and that I never found time to go in for a pedicure. I know. First world problems, right? I have been painting little postcards and mailing one a day to people I know. That’s been keeping me busy. I’m cooking more too. But also being very mindful not to waste anything, not the water color paper I have, nor the meat in my fridge. It’s going to be a longer siege than we thought, I think.
I’m with you on worrying about Mr. going out and bringing the virus back to the house. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.
Yes, you’re well on your way to not being bothered about going gray 6 months was a turning point for me, there was no turning back – it’s a great feeling despite all the other challenging feelings we’re going through. I’m like you too – trying not to be wasteful. I think you’re right – this is going to take longer than we hoped it would. Your postcard idea sounds delightful. Nice job! Take care, stay safe, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
PS: Love your bluebird and the lovely cat in the beautiful light!
Thank you!!!!
Have missed seeing you and chatting with you. My computer would not accept me liking your post or commenting. Looks like today may work. I went through the email instead or directly through WP. Hope you are safe and well. Enjoy your pictures as well.
Hi Anita – I’ve missed you too. I heard that from someone else – sometimes it is a timing issue with WordPress? Thank you for taking extra time to find a way to say hi! I hope you’re well and safe and keeping your faith and sharing kindness wherever you go – I appreciate you!! Take care xxxxxxx!
Glad to see you are doing okay. I totally understand how you don’t mind the social distancing. Four people constantly in this house can get a little much for me sometimes too and they are family!
Thanks, Janet. If I was you, I’d be in my studio too. In fact, it’s sunny enough here today I may just head out to our TeaHouse to see if it has survived the winter!! Take care – stay well and enjoy the A-Z challenge. I just didn’t have the energy to join in this year. 🙂 You’re off to a great start!
Love the photos Shelley the birds mimicking the people. And you hair has grown hasnt it. Mind you when this lockdown is done everybody will have long hair, rather like the hippies of the 60s and 70s 🤣🤣
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Yes, my hair has grown – I’ve even cut it a few times over the past 6 months. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of the procedure, so I’m going to give it a try again soon. LOL – it’ll be interesting to see how many hippies keep the look or not?! Stay well and stay safe!
I haven’t had the back of my hair cut for 6 months so I will be joining you lol . I daren’t cut the back my hairdresser will not be pleased. My fringe grows fast so at this rate I will be pinning it back, not a good look it doesnt suit. Check out you tube videos some horrendous cuts Lol .Stay well and stay safe Xx
The good thing about hair is it grows back 🙂
Not cutting my own hair yet–or ever. I can wait. My husband on the other hand–we’ll see if I end up having to give him a trim at some point. I hope your brother’s injury heals. Take care–and keeping getting those wonderful shots of your birds. Love it!
LOL – as they say, never say never. I said that about my own hair at one time in my life. I’ve been cutting Mr.’s hair for 30 years. He did cut mine when we first got engaged, maybe I’ll have to give him the scissors?!
My brother is giving his self-care research his best effort, so hopefully by June he won’t need the surgery.
Take care – keep singing and writing and creating and enduring the stay-at-home schooling. And keep smiling!!
Simplicity is beautifully expressed here, Shelley. Lovely bird capture. I love the cute little blue bird.
Thank you for the words of encouragement, Amy. I agree, bluebirds are so darn cute!
What a great idea, comparing the people out and about to birds. Love the pictures of the birds.
Thank you, Sue!! I’m glad you enjoyed the birds. I’m still smiling at your idea of blaming a co-worker for items left out in the home office. LOL! PS – your dog is so adorable!
What a lovely series of bird photos (good to see you back!) – that blue one especially! Is Dessy eyeing any of them? LOL 🙂 It is going to be a long siege of distancing. It can make it hard to concentrate on important projects that one would think would get done – like cleaning out closets. However anxiety can short circuit clear thinking. We are working on a jigsaw puzzle – it’s interesting how calming that can be. For relaxing, I always listen to Bill Withers and “Lean On Me” as well as his other hits. So sad he passed a few days ago.
Good luck with your hair. Maybe a ponytail? I am trying to avoid a mullet by trimming the back by myself. Mixed results so far.
Thank you! The blue birds are my favorite too – next to the Cardinals. They’re so busy flying around it’s hard to catch a photo of them. Yes, you bet, both Dessy and Tizzie are busy being bird watchers.
We haven’t tried a puzzle yet, the cats tend to carry off the pieces. They’re not helpful to say the least.
Ah, yes, Bill’s songs are great. We listened to 80’s music yesterday and it was nice and relaxing.
It’ll be the 4th or 5th time I’ve cut my own hair. You’d think I’d have it down to a science. Except I keep experimenting. I’m in the mixed results club too! LOL The pony tail look reveals the unevenness well 😉
You’re most welcome! Too bad a puzzle wouldn’t work – way too frustrating if pieces walk away LOL. Music can be the soothing relief we can all use these days. Sometimes I’ll listen when I am out on a walk. It helps.
Interesting challenge on the haircut topic – maybe a bun instead of a ponytail. I could never master that when I had long hair as it was stick straight wouldn’t stay put. 🙂
Yes, missing puzzle pieces aren’t fun – we seem to have enough of that going on in the world as it is.
Hair … well, I’m opting for the Don King Rastafarian look this week instead. I might get the cut done on Saturday though. We’ll see. 😉
Oh my! That would be quite the look 😁
Yeah, and after the cut, there’s a new look going on. Soon to be revealed … 😉
Hubby and I have been retired (me for 3 years and him for 1 year) so we don’t mind the social distancing too much either. I DO miss seeing my grandkids!
Crazy story about your poor brother! I hope he’s OK!
I’m OK with letting my hair grow. For now.
I bet you miss seeing the grandkids. Are you doing Facetime or Skype or Zoom with them?
Yes, my brother isn’t happy. He’s essential – truck driver – so his employer made sure that he didn’t get time off. He’s trying a self-care-healing method since he can’t have surgery until mid-June, hopefully he’ll heal without re-injury.
Hair grows at about 1/4 inch every 4 weeks. 🙂
Great to see you again, Shelley. 🙂 Love the photos!
Thank you for the warm welcome back to your fun SoCS prompts! 🙂
Great to see a post from you Shelley! I’m glad you’re doing ok and are healthy. We’ve been hunkered down for the past 3 weeks, for the most part. I’m an introvert too so the social distancing isn’t a stretch for me. Worrying about the virus is definitely new though. Sure wish it was over.
Thank you, it’s great to hear from you! I’m glad you’re doing well too. It’s hard not to worry about the virus. I wish it was over too.
Pretty bird! Pretty bird! Love that bluebird. Great post, great photos, great quotes (Hippocrates, in-flu-enza, Hodding Carter). Love the Ava Gardner reminder of WWII pinups, which I googled to remember Veronica Lake and many others.
BTW, I AM cutting my own hair yet, but I’ve been doing that for over ten years. I mow it, actually, every 3 weeks or so. I don’t recommend it for EVERYone.
LOL – that’s the same manner in which I cut Mr.’s hair. I haven’t let him reciprocate it on my hair 🙂
😱
Thank you, John, I appreciate your feedback! I had to Google Veronica Lake – wow, she was short and very petite!
Many Hollywood women stars in those days had great ‘gams’ and decorated the sides of quite a few bomber aircraft. 😱
Yes, they did indeed! 🙂
“Every store is the same.”. Made me chuckle with that observation. Your photo of the bluebird is a positive jolt of color that makes me happy. I have a curly mess of uneven hair going on now, but haven’t quite got to the point of cutting it myself. However…
I’m always happy to read when my quirky thoughts make you chuckle :-)! I love pops of color, and blue birds are one of my favorite birds in the spring.
Hair is just hair and despite my previous efforts to control the length on my own, it does seem to grow back so I can try cutting it better again. 😉
I had no idea that Ava Gardner was that good-looking…
That pretty bluebird is kind of cute.
LOL – I didn’t know she was that good looking either! Thank you – glad you enjoyed the bluebird photo. I hope you and Mary are safe and well!!
Wonderful birds and words Shelley 🙂
Thank you, Brian. I hope you’re doing well!
You have a lot of birds that posed just for you to be the subject of your post – at least if we have nothing else these days, nature still prevails and the birds still sing without a care in the world. I had a hair appointment for April 18th for a cut and highlights – I don’t get it cut/highlighted in mid-Winter, so it’s been since last October. I don’t see anyone, but myself in the mirror. I’m still in a hat – we have chilly weather later this week – wish it would have stayed chilly, as it spiked to 65 and we have severe weather rolling in – I’m trying to catch up here on Reader while bopping over to Twitter every few minutes.
LOL – it did seem like the birds are posing for me. I’m with you in wearing a hat out in public, just because it’s been so darn cold. We’re due for a winter storm today – 6″ of snow. SIGH!
Way to stay caught up – I don’t know how you do it. And you do Twitter too?! You’re a superhuman!! Thank you for sharing your thoughts – I so appreciate hearing from you. Take care and stay well!
I do Twitter, but just read – I posted there the other day for the Chalkyourwalk. I am not superhuman these days – behind in e-mail and a few days behind in Reader … I aim to catch up today, but I am baffled, not to mention mad – I did a long and funny post yesterday and it did not go to Reader … I just did another post including the link as I spent a lot of time on it. I hate you’re getting snow – and that much! We have a bad wind storm tomorrow, up to 60 mph winds and expected power outages. Happy Easter to you and your family – I am going to see if this post went to Reader or not.
I was able to read your post – with the link you had in the short post from today. WordPress can be funky, that’s for sure. I love all the cute photos you captured – such sweet details!
The storm is hitting us now – we already have an inch on the ground, the Robins are shaking in their feathers. We’re preparing in case the power goes out due to the heavy snow. We had the nasty winds on Friday. I hope this snow storm wears out before it gets to your state.
Happy Easter to you too!
Yes, WordPress has been wonky since December – I’ve done everything they suggest and they recently did some tweaks to Gutenberg, so don’t know if that is the issue. It is disheartening to be sure. I’m glad you liked the photos – I had to go out again as I knew if I got even one to munch on a cookie, it would be good. So thankfully they cooperated.
The winds were bad on Friday but tomorrow 50 to 60 mph is worrisome – losing power is bad enough but I worry about the old trees toppling over, especially since we’ve had a lot of rain lately so the ground is very soggy.
I hope you got the WP issues figured out! I had issues with it today too. And I’m not using “G”. The weather remains crazy – it’s sunny but so windy we can’t even sit out in it to enjoy it. Yeah, we’ve had a lot of trees that have toppled over. We’re due for rain this week.
I’ll be back here soon to see what your next post are about! Take care and stay safe!
I’ll see if this post goes thru; one did, but I tried to post where I had the fail last night and it still did not go thru. As to the WP issues – it turned out it was user error! (Not that I’m exempt from user error, but ….) It was because I set the time for the post, and then may decide to make it earlier, or wanted to add something – I went into the draft and pressed publish. However, at one time I was prompted with “do you want to revert to draft mode?” I bypassed it – that was my issue; I needed to return to draft and go from there.
Hi. Fun analogies about the birds. Not so much social distancing in your state’s election lines today. What a horrible choice to make – stay safe or vote. I hope you stayed safe and voted absentee.
Hi Theresa! Thank you for the feedback. Yeah, that was pathetic in Milwaukee – the area with one of the highest outbreaks. In our area, from what I heard, we did very well at social distancing. I voted absentee so I can’t vouch for how well we did. I guess we’ll see in a couple of weeks if there was herd immunity going on or not? Stay well!
Your heading photo is exquisite, Shelley. All of your photos are beautiful. Very creative with the birds and the prose. Around here “for the most part, people around these parts get the distancing routine” too. Yes, “flock” of people. My husband and I are Day 24 zero family, friends, stores. One of these days I should head out to a store for some fresh food, yet I read pages and pages of notes what to do with the food when you get home. I also love your quote on roots and wings. I will say it again, Shelley, your photos are exceptional! What type of camera did you use? I haven’t cut my hair………yet. A great post for a challenging time. Take care.💕
Thank you, Erica, I appreciate your words of encouragement.
Wow – 24 days without going out. That’s impressive. I haven’t researched much about what to do with the food when we bring it home. My husband does most of the shopping and I do the nagging to remind him to wash his hands again and to wash the food before eating. CDC doesn’t recommend washing food with soap. From what I remember reading. It’s so hard to keep all the advice straight.
I have a Canon Rebel Xsi. It was my youngest’s camera when she was in high school. It fits like a glove, so I keep on using it.
Thank you again for your feedback – I hope you stay safe and well and that your trip to get groceries was a success! Take care xx
A lovely post on simplicity, Shelley! Welcome back! And I love the little blue bird – such an intense colour! Your hair is gorgeous, why not keep it like that – I miss my long hair. I used to set it in a knot with some strings hanging down. Looks casual but fine. And Dessy girl – not spying too much on the birds, is she…?
Aw, thank you, I appreciate your encouragement. I did end up cutting some of my hair yesterday. I think I’ll write a post about what not to do. I enjoy the casual look too. No mess no fuss is my motto now.
Yes, Dessy makes her way around all the windows. She doesn’t move too awfully fast though. I think she puts on pounds just watching the birds. 🙂
Ah, looking forward to the “what not to do” post then! I put on weight too these days I think…Dessy and I…
🙂 I have to get brave to show the results! My sneaking a few too extra ‘low carb cookies’ this past weekend. Dessy was encouraging me!
;-D
What a wonderful piece, so essential in times like these. I think that you are a beautiful writer.
I gave you a follow and like and all I ask is that you swing by my page and let me know what you think.
Thank you
Thank you, Bailey, I appreciate your words of encouragement. I took the time to stop by your blog briefly and enjoyed checking out a couple of your posts. Your writing is very playful, keep up the great work!
Thank you so much
You’re welcome!
Hi Shelly, You sound a lot like me. Husband and I are both perfectly content to hang out together alone. We read books, play cards, watch Netflix and and enjoy the peace and quiet until . . . . Tuesday when we babysit grandkids that have been abandoned by their daycare provider due to Corona. It is very shocking after all that quiet.
I too am having hair issues – Yes, I cut my own bangs, but don’t dare do much else. I love your blue bird pic. Nice post all around. Hang in there!
Hi Geanie! You’re lucky like me to have a guy that we enjoy hanging around the house with!
Wow – I bet it is quite different with kiddos around.
I think we’re not alone with hair issues. I did give mine an overall cut yesterday – jury is out if I like it or now.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts – hang in there too, stay well and stay safe. PS – I love your post about how to travel safely from home!