Old Stuff

Of course, when you clean and organize closets you come across old stuff.  

One of my favorites - my old bear called "Booby Bear".  I had passed him down to Madison many years ago and found him stuffed in a box in her closet.  

This picture shows up on my FB every year...a picture of Madison with the neighbor girls, Rosalee, Jenna and Katie.

A picture of my friend, Leslie (Hi Leslie!!), hamming it up in my old bedroom in Farmington.

Carrie's friend Sara and I hamming it up at Carrie's birthday party while she blows out candles.

Leslie and Laura at school.

Julie, Sue, Anne Marie and Pam sitting on the heater in front of the courtyard across from our lockers at OE. Dunkel Jr. High.

Mom and Dad - definitely in the 70's!

Dad cooking - he never cooked back then!  Macrame plant hanger by the window - must be the70's!

Madison's old baby doll. Her name is Baby Doll.  She's pretty thread bare now!

Austin with my friend Audine's daughter, Krista.  She has 3 of her own little boys now!

Me with Shadow and Madison.

New Years Eve 1999 - the world didn't end but I had Madison and Rosalee to worry about anyway!

One of my favorite pictures of Madison.

My two tough little kids!

Not sure anyone has ever seen this pic of me... about 27 years old!!!

And winter turned into spring...slowly but surely

Everyone was doing their best to social distance and get outside as much as possible since it was pretty much the only place that was safe without a mask.

My sister, Carrie, and niece, Olivia, even started hiking.

Some days didn't look so good for hiking but I went anyway.  And sometimes it was still beautiful.

I started to get Garry to go out with me - and he found that he actually liked it - except when he would get cold!

We started to see more wildlife as the weather got warmer and would actually walk up on quite a few deer and get fairly close.

Until they'd turn tail and head into the woods.

There was just that tiny hint of green giving faith that spring was coming.

Although some parts of the trail were still pretty bleak even on bright days.

And then you'd come upon these tiny signs of spring - these water plants unfurling their leaves in such an unusual way.

They reminded me of dancers.

My neighbor Roberta and her son got bored and learned to bake bread bringing me a fresh loaf every few days!  It was so good!

And then I got bored staring out the window in front of my desk that only had a view of the neighbor's shed roof and sky. So I decided both kids, who no longer live here, didn't need separate bedrooms and combined them to make a single guest room and converted the front bedroom with TWO windows into my office.  Ahh. Much better!

 Before long, it was warming up and then the green came...but the covid still didn't leave.

And then along came Covid..

About mid-March, as we all know all too well, Covid 19 arrived as a pandemic turning our world a little upside down.  I went from working 3 days at home and 2 days in the office to working full time from home.  We had to do something new called "social distance" which meant not being less than 6 feet from another human. We started wearing home-made face masks and were to "shelter in place".  All the non-essential businesses were closed.  Groceries were available but some things were in short supply if you could get them at all.  Oddly, toilet paper became a hot commodity. 

Like so many others, I broke out the sewing machine and started making masks.  My first attempt, above, wasn't too attractive.  I've gotten better!

Our governor cracked down on closing up everything pretty fast but it didn't stave off the virus.  Detroit was hit hard. Thousands were diagnosed and thousands died.  On March 19, 2020 there were 171 diagnosed cases in Michigan.  By April 12, less than a full month later, there were 24,028 cases.  Another month later and it was 49,582 and 4,787 had died.

While I was still working, I no longer had commute time 2 days a week and there wasn't much to do with all the stores and entertainment closed...but I could still hike. So I did. It was a nice way to usher in spring in the midst of the raging virus.

I worked on finding new hiking trails and undiscovered paths since everyone and their brothers were out hiking/walking/biking as well.  Some of the bike paths at Kensington turned into something akin to rush hour traffic congestion!

But I was sneaky.  I know about horse trails...and many don't think hikers are allowed on them but I knew this not to be true.  And they are some of the best trails around!

I'd occasionally see a horse and revel in the smell and chat up the riders as I hiked.  But more often than not, I was alone on the trails absorbing the fresh spring air.

And when it was too cold or too rainy to hike, I organized.  My pantry has never looked so good!  Every closet in the house got a good cleaning and make-over!

Late Winter 2020

For Christmas I bought myself a set of tattoos - that wash off.  I had so much fun surprising people with them!  This one was a little more private being on my back - it says Breathe - which I ended up needing to heed a few weeks later...

Early March was really quite pretty - we had some really nice weather that was perfect for hiking.

This is one of the horse trails at Kensington. 

The ice melted early and the ducks and swans were back!

This big, tough soldier is the son of one of my best friends...

And this is his new puppy!!  Collective AWWWWWW!!!

Henrik

I admittedly take way too many cat pictures.  But he's so freaking cute!

He often sleeps curled up next to me in my office chair like this.  Good thing I don't have a bigger butt! Sometimes he is on my lap but he seems to prefer next to me better.

One of his favorite spots - especially if I have the shutters open.

My coworker sometimes sits on the arm of my chair and not next to me to get a better view of what I'm working on apparently!

And then he will play jungle cat with the potted plant in the bathroom!  LOL!

Meet me in St. Louis!

So that new guy I met in December?  Well, we started planning a little winter trip to get away - to St. Louis on Valentine's Day Weekend!  It was such a random place but we had a blast planning it!

Getting packed, Henrik decided my dresser drawer was worth investigating!  His eyes look so big!!

First stop - the ARCH of course!!

I didn't know you could take a tram to the top where you get an amazing view of the city.

I didn't take a picture of it but we stayed in a place called The Last Hotel.  It's play on words - the hotel was a former shoe factory and a "last" is a part of a shoe.  It was a super cool hotel!

A view of the Mississippi River with a barge pushing cargo containers.

Our cheesy picture was taken in front of the screen with a picture of the arch with a perfect sky...I loved it anyway!

Inside the St. Louis historical museum.

I think this was at the St. Louis Library...this is what happens when you take too long to publish pictures!

For Valentine's Day, Garry (that's his name!) didn't give me just ONE card... :)