Happy Sunday. And of course, happy Father’s Day to all fathers in the US. And to those who are thinking, “what the heck I might not be living in the US but that does not mean I can’t celebrate their holidays”. Right. Why not?
Henning is the best Puppy Daddy Sam could have dreamed of. Not only because he gets so much love from him. But because he gets so much play time including his favorite tug of war. And these two do not know any friends when they play that. It’s lovely to watch.

How is everyone doing? I personally am definitely getting tired of being part of a major historical event. Who knew this could actually be that annoying. It’s the third month of March and in many parts of the world, Summer has officially started yesterday.
It also was supposedly the longest day of the year. Ha! Don’t make promises you can’t keep, year. We’ve had “the longest day” every day since this whole thing started.
Yesterday was also the first of many campaign rallies of our Covidiot in Chief. Did he make sure Social Distancing was enforced and people were wearing masks? Hahaha, that’s a good one! No, of course not. What he did was have everyone sign a waiver, so that in the likely event of getting sick, they could not sue him over it. Makes sense. If you have a super twisted sense and mind, that is.
Some of his minions are starting to try and out-trump the Trump. Which could be super hilarious, if it was not again something that puts people’s lives at risk. The Governor of Nebraska, Mr. Pete Ricketts, is threatening local Mayors in his State with withholding Covid-19 funds. All they have to do is, to mandate the wearing of masks in government facilities. Yep, you read that right. If as a Mayor you would like for your employees and visitors to be save and ask them to wear a mask, you won’t receive Covid-19 relief funds.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/politics/pete-ricketts-nebraska-masks/index.html
Is that some twisted way of confirming, masks are actually working? As in, “since your employees and visitors are wearing masks, your county / city does not need Covid-19 funds as there won’t be any infections”? You never know. But my guess is, someone is trying to please the Covidiot of all Covidiots. Well done, Mr. Governor. Well done. You are catching up. To the stupidity.

But hey, since you guys like guns very much in your State, these might be an alternative. At least for the Republican Mayors in Nebraska? Just please, do not shoot into the open mouth of visitors. It really won’t work. I promise. And your poison control office will appreciate it.
I just realized, tomorrow is another Monday. These little creeps are really persistent. They keep coming back. I will try to memorize it’s Monday tomorrow. Maybe that will help me keep the working days in order? Because I never got to buy the week day underwear. Yet.
Finally the US is not so different from the rest of the world anymore. There is finally no more AM and PM to define the time of the day. There is only “coffee time” and “wine time”. You may replace coffee with tea and wine with beer, but only if you are from the UK.
Our days are usually starting quite early. Mainly because we are going on a longer walk with Sam before breakfast (who is hungry right after they woke up?). And lately also, to play a game of “kill the horsefly”. I think the score is 8 for me, 1 for the horse flies. One sucker managed to bite Henning today, because I was distracted for a second.
If you’d watch us on our morning walk, you would think Henning and I are either super conservative or part of one of these orthodox religions that require for the wife to walk at least a step or two behind their husband. Well if you’d look at our attire, you’d be quite confused. Nothing conservative about shorts and tank tops.
No, I am not walking behind Henning, because I am too slow either. We lived “in” NYC (we actually lived in Jersey City, but close enough) and have been together for over 20 years. Our walking speed is well aligned. It’s purely for me to have his back. Literally. Watching his back to catch horse flies the moment they settle on his cap or back. Kinda annoying. But at least we get to see this beautiful sky.

Talking about “walking”. Two companies in Germany collaborated to launch a Covid-19 warning app. They ask every German citizen to register, so that cases can be traced faster and a second wave could be avoided. People are then also able to plan their travels using the app to avoid exposure to Covid-19 hot spots.
German’s citizens are flooding Social Media like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with their concerns about data protection and data privacy. I don’t know about you, but I think this is almost a little bit cute. Completely stupid, but a little bit cute.
I highly recommend discussing these concerns with Siri, Alexa or Cortana. I am sure they will keep your secret. They will also not tell anyone, where to find you. Your phone will take over here, since the majority of you did not deactivate location services. But hey, I am sure you concerned citizens are living entirely off the grid.
Meanwhile, Florida is breaking one record after another. When it comes to “highest increase in cases in a single day”. We are literally breaking this record every single day right now.
https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/06/19/coronavirus-florida-cases-spike-covid-19-record/
Apparently Mr. DeSantis did not listen to Mr. T’s recommendation. Mr. T. had the genius idea to reduce the amount of cases by stopping the testing. Genius indeed.
He did not only say that though. He actually gave the order to reduce tests so that the overall amount of positive cases would not rise. And that is, what makes this person so dangerous. Because he knows, that knowledge is powerful and he is taking that power away in the fight against Covid-19.
A lot is going on in the world right now. Some of the pledges made by major corporation in regards to #blacklivesmatter are really promising. Can’t avoid but thinking, will this last? Are those talks or will they also walk the walk? I am really hoping for sustainability and integrity. I really hope this sentiment of “change” that is in the air, is not just a short gust.
https://mykindofsuccess.net/the-integrity-challenge/
Henning and I are talking about the things that are happening and changing a lot lately. And we are discussing them and are trying to better understand. It’s a start. And for that, it’s never to late. I wrote a blog post about compassion but have not published it yet. And I never might. A lot has happened after I wrote it…
My last working week was definitely weird. A lot of opportunity to show vulnerability. Because there was a lot of opportunity to BE vulnerable. My boss commented this with “it’s very brave to be vulnerable”. I could not agree more. And still, it was a difficult week for me bu a lot more difficult for some others, one being a colleague from my team. We all together had better weeks.
What I am doing with this? For sure, write a post about vulnerability soon. I am handling stressful times best, by turning negative energy into something positive.
Sammy does not know much about negative energy. But a whole lot about energy. This guy can play for hours and afterwards he sleeps like a baby.

The good thing is, him being so energetic helps us to stay active. And him sleeping like a baby is, well calming and cute. So he definitely is part of my support system together with Henning.
Sometimes I am sitting in my couch-office and think, how can this even be happening? And I can’t wrap my head around, how our world and our lives have changed. Wearing face coverings / masks in grocery and other stores? Making restaurant reservations for outside seating only. And not just so we can bring Sam. Not being able to meet with friends and colleagues in person, even if you feel it would be good if you could.
I think we will have to continue to focus on the things we can control. There is a lot of things. Sometimes it’s just a little bit harder to be able to see them clearly. But when that happens, we need to remind ourselves how far we have come, the the fog will clear out. And even give way to a beautiful sunset.

What a beautiful end to a challenging week. Or maybe it’s the great beginning to the new week? Or both.
Have a wonderful week ahead. I will check-in again soon. Until then – keep your distance, wear your mask, stay health and take care!
Hugs,
Nannette