Check-in #8

Hello fellow Covid-19 warriors! And also a warm welcome to everyone, who is just visiting to see a new picture of Sam! Of course, I get it. Enjoy!

How are you doing? I hope you are well! And I really hope if you are not well and things are overwhelming in the current situation or in general, you know there is help. Our mental health is important! Take care of your whole self and not just physically! Allow yourself to get support, when you are suffering mentally. It’s not nothing. It’s a disease, that can turn deadly.

If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health issues, anxiety, depression or other mental health symptoms, make sure they / you get help. If you have a broken leg, you will see a Doctor. Do the same, when “your heart is broken”. And please always remember, suicide is a terminal solution to a temporary problem. Because there is just no coming back. https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

This can’t be shared or said enough. Please be safe and take care. Life can be difficult and overwhelming without pandemic, murders committed by police and riots and so on. And we have to take all of that on top right now, without a clear positive outlook. But most importantly, we are no machines, we just aren’t.

Switching gears.

I am back in my couch-office since Monday and with everything going on, my week feels like it’s three weeks in one. But thankfully I have my support system at home. And my work companion is “working” with me again as well. And he also shares the emotions and feelings, too. In short, Monday just ain’t our day.

This week, our Covidiot in Chief opened his mouth again and that, who guessed it, was not a good idea. Honestly, every time something like this happens I am on the fence if that was actually the worst yet or not. Surely, nothing really beats the idea of injecting disinfectant. But he cut it quite close, once again. Mr. T. told the Nation, that there is likely going to be a Covid-19 vaccine soon. “They developed an AIDS vaccine, so…”…OH BOY! OK, where to start best? Probably by screaming from the top of our lungs: “No, Mr. President. They did NOT do that. Not at all.”

https://time.com/5855066/trump-aids-vaccine-fact-check/

Yes, basically all Media outlets do have a “fact-check” blog now. Purely due to the sitting (I know it’s actually standing) President of the (not so) United States.

So what’s the actual message if you correct his “minimal” mistake of thinking a vaccine was developed, when it really wasn’t? Is he actually trying to tell us, developing a vaccination against Coronavirus will take as long as the one for AIDS? Hopefully not. Good thing is, he knows nothing. So one more message that is best ignored.

As I have shared with you before, I am “moving my body” in order to keep my mind sane. So far I have been doing pretty good with my exercise and move rings (Apple watch insider). I am trying to get at least 16,000 steps a day and this months, in order to achieve the “June challenge” I have to get 1,500 exercise minutes. That would be 50 minutes a day. Today I managed to get 79 minutes. Yes, this puppy keeps us active. That’s for sure. Most of this was achieved by swimming and playing in the pool with Sam. Counting my blessings…

Covid-19 kind of turned all of us into dogs. We are roaming the house all day just to look for food, people tell us “no” if we get to close to strangers and we are getting really super excited about car rides. Who can relate?

But seriously, those of you that have kids, how are you going to talk to your grand children about all of this? Will it be like “Anyway, it was 2020 and I was wearing a bandana over my face with a coffee filter in it.” “Yeah, that was the fashion at the time”.

Or will you be the crazy grandpa or grandma who are wiping their grocery shopping bags with disinfectant wipes and who always want to be outside with the kids all the time. So much so that your children will have to tell their kids “it’s fine, grandma survived Covid-19, don’t ask”. Ever thought about that? You maybe should? Yeah, my mind goes weird places sometimes.

I am not sure if I told you, but we got a citation from our HOA (Home Owners Association). They did their (annual I guess) walk through the community and handed out citations. And our neighborhood got quite busy cleaning / painting driveways and so on. So when we got our citation letter, I was super p****d. They demanded for us to clean our roof. No one tells me, when I should be cleaning our roof. Our roof was just fine. Or was it?

In our defense, we bought the house with the roof as it was and really thought it had a slightly darker, grey(-ish) color tone. Well, it does not. Hahaha. Not at all.

Now when we are walking up to our house, we can’t avoid looking up wondering who’s house we are looking at. With this bright, shiny and clearly different shades of red, roof. Glad Henning would not let me “deal” with the HOA. That would’ve been interesting.

The concept of a HOA is so not for me. It’s a group of “elected” home owners that are telling all other home owners what they can or can’t do. I have come to realize, a nice, clean community with no pink or neon green houses does have it’s perks. Especially if you want to resell your home. But my problem is, that they are setting up a whole lot of rules but pick and choose which to enforce. And here we are. German’s by nature, even though we really love living in the US. And if there is rules, you follow them. You do not get to choose which ones you follow or else why bother having them? Right.

So in our community not picking up after your dog costs 100 bucks, theoretically. Practically, no one is enforcing this and dog poop is lining the green spaces next to the sidewalk. As a dog parent, this makes us REALLY mad.

Also, parking on the street over night is not allowed either. But I would say over 30% of the houses have cars parked on the street in front of them, all day and all night. They are not blocking us and we should not care. But there is a rule and it is not being followed or enforced. To Germans that’s like a permanent super itchy mosquito bite.

All of these houses are having garages. However, and I did not know this previously, garages are just called that. They are not actually used as one here in the US. Ever. There is “one more illegal bedroom” garages, “private gym” garages and ” self-storage” private garages. Who knew? Well, we weird Germans are doing something really wild. We are parking in our garage. BOTH cars. Crazy, I know!

Sammy just popped by to get his Espresso treat. The look on his puppy face is unbeatable and I can’t resist it. No bleeping chance.

So yes, he gets far more treats, than he should. And in order for him to not gain too much weight, which would be bad for his hips and his mobility when he gets old, I need to be creative. So I am substituting parts of his regular food with chopped cucumber and sweet potatoes. Luckily, he LOVES both. And you know what else he loves? Pasta. Yes. This little yellow Labrador is a human. And he could as well be me, because we are definitely sharing this love.

When I am cooking pasta, I am now cooking it entirely without salt because someone will get his share and then guard the kitchen counter until I put the pasta in the fridge. Not without giving me the look again. The look that says “I did not get anything Mommy. Can I have some, pleaseeeee?”

Tomorrow I will be in the couch office by myself again. Sam is going to be in Daycare. Time for some house cleaning again.

It really feels like this is the third months of March, every Day is Wednesday and the time of the day is distinguished by “light” and “dark”. Doesn’t it?

Now it’s dark. I guess that means we should go to bed soon. Or get up? Well, whatever, it definitely means no more writing. But I’ll be back on Sunday.

Keep your distance, wear your mask, stay healthy (especially mentally!) and take care!

Hugs,

Nannette