St. Patrick's Day (and spider junk)

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

My day at work was fun. Little P.'s mom (one of our Guidance Counselors) goes all out on holidays to think of fun activities and treats for the entire school. Today she brought green iced cookies for the staff, arranged for candy and green bead necklaces to be hidden around the school for the students to find, served "leprechaun juice" (green Hawaiian Punch) during all four lunches, and encouraged everyone to dress up in green today to celebrate. No one can beat her for dressing up for special occasions! Here's a photo of her I shared on the school's FB page this morning.

Don't you just love it? It's obvious where little P. gets his quirky sense of humor and outgoing personality!

It being St. Pat's Day made the morning go by quickly, as I kept getting called to take pictures to share on social media of staff wearing green as well as all the treats. The cafeteria staff cooked an Irish themed lunch today: shepherds pie, roasted potatoes, and cabbage! There were even fresh strawberries for dessert. Everyone was in a good mood. The new band director, Mr. Cribb, greeted me first thing this morning with a  hearty "Top o' the mornin' to ya!" and made me laugh. 

So, speaking of little P....he's been coming to my desk the past couple of afternoons and Googling photos of spiders. I have no idea why he's so obsessed with spiders all of a sudden but that's all he's wanted to talk about. Today after we looked at some pictures of different types he turned to me and asked (giggling up a storm), "Mrs. Barlow....do spiders have penises?"  Hahahahaha!

After I quit laughing I had to admit that I have no idea whether or not spiders have penises. When I saw him reach for my keyboard to start typing into the search bar, I said, "Don't you Google that on my work computer!" I know him well enough now that I knew that's what he was about to do! Of course, then I had to explain why he couldn't look up the answer. Our district office can and probably does monitor our searches and online activity. It might look a little weird if my bosses saw me looking for spider penises on my work computer! The thought of that really made him giggle, the little imp.

There's never a dull moment with that boy around! 

Sweet vs. Salty

Georgie P. Barlow is a total love bug these days. This was his disappointed face last weekend when he thought (mistakenly) that he heard his dad's car in the driveway.

George is so spoiled now that he's the only dog. He gets sweeter and more attached to us by the day.

Marco T. Barlow, on the other hand, doesn't give a flying f**k about any of the niceties of domestication. He wants what he wants, when he wants it, no exceptions. He does life his way. And if you don't like it, well, that's just too bad for you!

Here's the feathered terrorist defying me the other morning when I was attempting to catch him and put him in his cage for the day. He flew away from me every time I got close enough to try to make him climb onto my hand. He very nearly made me late for work with that foolishness! 

And before anyone feels sorry for him, being in a cage all day, please remember that he comes out first thing in the morning....showers with me.....perches on the sink and watches me blow dry my hair and apply makeup....prances around on the kitchen countertops while I cook breakfast.....and then eats his share of oatmeal or cheese toast or eggs while the rest of the family has breakfast...only then is he required to go into his cage because I have to leave for work. He comes out as soon as we get home, and now that the weather is warming up we've been taking him out to the screened porch in the afternoons to get some sunshine and fresh air. Marco lives the life of Riley. 

But does he appreciate it? Look at that defiant feathered face and tell me what you think!

I love both my boys to bits, though. Even when one of them drives me crazy on the regular.

One whole year

Yesterday afternoon Gregg and I received our second doses of the Covid-19 vaccination. What a relief to know that in two more weeks we'll be fully protected from this dread virus.

It's been almost exactly one year since all this began. I'm glad I didn't know at the time exactly how long the pandemic was going to drag out; I distinctly remember thinking that in a few weeks it would be under control and life would get back to normal. Haha!

I'm thankful for science and the worldwide effort it took to get effective vaccines developed and distributed in such a short amount of time. Well, short is relative but you know what I mean. With all the loss of life and all the suffering, I'm also grateful that neither we nor anyone we're close to and love have gotten seriously ill or died. (I should qualify that and add the word yet so as not to tempt fate). 

So far the side effects from the second shot have been mild. My arm started to hurt sooner this time and was (and is) terribly sore. I had crazy dreams all night and when I woke up this morning I felt jittery and weak and out of sorts, kind of like when you're recovering from a bout of the flu. A good dose of Motrin helped a lot and as I sit here typing this, I feel mostly fine. Maybe a little tired. Gregg felt totally normal this morning and went to work as usual. His arm didn't even get sore this time.

It's strange to think about being able to do social things again soon. I feel a bit gun shy about it, to be honest. The first few times I meet up with other vaccinated friends without masks and without social distancing, I think I'm going to be uncomfortable. After a full year of forced vigilance and fear of getting sick, I can't imagine being able to immediately turn off the anxiety. And some things are probably over forever, like blowing out candles on birthday cakes. It's definitely going to be a "new" normal. I wonder what that will look like?

Still, the President has said that he wants vaccines offered to all adults without exceptions by May 1st, and we're on track to be able to celebrate a normal Independence Day holiday. That sounds good to me! The fourth of July seems like a reasonable target for a return to normalcy if everyone has a chance to get vaccinated starting in May. 

Friday morning pictures

 I just couldn't resist: here are two more photos of the beautiful magnolia tree next door. 

According to Luella, my 82 year old neighbor who lives here, the tree was already there when she and her late husband bought the house in 1972. That means this tree is well over fifty years old! Luella says that it's been a joy to her every spring for all these years and that her children and grandchildren grew up playing under it. How wonderful is that? 

Speaking of trees, I'm eagerly awaiting new leaf buds on the little fig tree I grew from cuttings and planted in the back yard last October. So far, not much seems to be happening. 

Nothing but bare sticks... 

Then again, the pomegranate tree is still completely bare and I know it's doing well. I planted it in the ground on March 10, 2019 (our first spring in this house) after keeping it in a pot for almost a decade. In the two years since it's grown really fast, maybe to make up for all that lost time it spent confined to a pot!  It's early yet; I think it typically starts to leaf out at the end of March. The Crepe Myrtle trees will be even later than that. So it's probably too soon to expect to see leaves and new growth on the fig--I'm just anxious know if it survived the winter! I think it probably did, but we'll see.

All of a sudden our seemingly never-ending rain and cloudy days have given way to bright blue skies and lots of sunshine. It's still chilly and gets down close to freezing some nights, but the air seems to have a mild edge to it. Spring has definitely begun in this part of South Carolina. Even George has been enjoying hanging out in the yard lately, and he's the most inside-loving dog I've ever had. Here he was a few minutes ago, just standing there soaking up some rays. Doggy bliss.

Have a good weekend, friends!

Hopeful

 

As March rolled in, my next door neighbor's tulip magnolia began to burst into bloom. Only about half of the flower buds have opened so far, so there's still a lot of loveliness left to come. This picture doesn't do this glorious tree justice! It's the largest, most shapely specimen of a tulip magnolia I've ever seen, and it blooms its heart out every year. A nice beginning to the month of March.

Hello, blog friends! How have you been? I've been reading your blogs but have had very little time to comment in the past week, much less write my own posts. I've been on a mission for a few weeks now to get healthier which has included cooking and eating a healthy breakfast each morning, packing well-thought out lunches for work each day, and going for longer and more frequent walks with the boys. All of these things soak up extra time, but it's worth it.

I'm really looking forward to my second shot on the twelfth of this month. More than anything, I'm hoping to resume some normal activities afterwards. Just yesterday our state opened up the next tier of vaccine eligibility, and the school district immediately made plans for a huge vaccination event for employees on Friday! It's so big that the entire district is having an all virtual class day so everyone that wants the vaccine can go get it. How awesome is that?! So far over 1000 people are signed up. Of course, I didn't need to take advantage of it but I'm so happy for all the people that do. Also, I get the day (mostly) off since I'll be staying home and answering the phones from here. Now that South Carolina is on phase 1B, people 55 and older, people with pre-existing conditions, and essential workers can all get vaccinated. 

And the President has said that by the end of May, all American adults who want a vaccine will be able to get one. How wonderful to think that by the summer we might have this virus pretty well under control. I want to hug all of my friends again.

It's nice to feel hopeful again and to have stuff to look forward to. What are you looking forward to in the next few months?

Random

Since I don't have any one particular topic to write about today, I thought I'd do a blogpost of some random stuff that's on my mind today.

• It's been a good couple of days for wildlife sightings in the neighborhood. Yesterday morning while out walking the dog we saw an owl being chased and harassed by several tiny songbirds. After moving from one pine tree to another, he (or she) finally gave up and flew away into the woods to escape the little tormentors. Then last night when we went out for our after-dinner walk, there were 4 deer standing in the yard across the street, calmly watching us walk past. They never run away as long as we stay quiet and move on after looking at them for a minute. George doesn't even bark at them these days! Then this morning we saw a pair of Cooper's hawks flying from tree to tree and calling to each other. None of these animals seem particularly afraid of us--obviously they see us twice a day, every day, and know that we mean them no harm.
• Around lunchtime at work today both sides of my stomach started to itch. I went to the bathroom and had a look, and small red bumps had broken out on both sides. The shirt I was wearing had some scratchy stitching on the inside, which was just irritating it even more. I went to the nurse, who raised the possibility that it could be a vaccine side effect. I hadn't considered that! She said she's heard of some mild rashes developing (in a very small number of people) several days after a shot, but that it's not considered too serious and isn't a reason to pass on the second shot. She said that if it gets worse to see the doctor, but in the meantime she gave me some cortisone cream to rub on it, a Benadryl to take, a soft school tee shirt to change into. All that made it feel much better, but the Benadryl made me terribly sleepy for the rest of the afternoon! It seems better now, though, so maybe it was just the scratchy shirt and not the vaccine at all. Who knows? And unless something dramatic happens I'll be getting my second shot bright and early on March 12.
• Speaking of the vaccine, I found out yesterday that a friend's dad had died of Covid last week. His mother is still in the hospital (she got sick too) but is expected to recover. He wrote a moving post about his dad for Facebook and added this to the end of it: And to everyone, I know we hear this all the time, but please wear a mask. My Dad took so many precautions and this terrible disease still touched our lives. If we all pitch in, some family out there can avoid going through the same pain ours is in right now. Thank you guys, and love to all our family and friends. I'm so sad for this guy. We used to work together, and he's among one of the best men I know. Seeing so many people out and about in our town without masks feels like a slap in the face after getting this news about a friend's family. I have nothing but contempt for them.
• And on a lighter note...let me tell you the latest about my buddy Little P. Yesterday when he arrived at the school I asked him what he wants for his birthday. If you remember, we share a birthday and it's coming up in March. Well, he immediately told me that he got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas but he only has one game for it and he wants the Mario Kart (??) game. Since I don't know the first thing about video games (and feel slightly opposed to buying them for kids on principle) I said, "What else would you like?" but he wouldn't name anything else he wants. So I said, "Well, we'll see." Fast forward to this morning, and Little P.'s mom said that all he talked about last night was "Mrs. Barlow is going to get me a birthday present and it's going to be Mario Kart!!" Ummmm.....that is certainly NOT what I said! Haha. So when I saw him this afternoon (like the sucker I am) I asked him to tell me more about these games he wants. Sigh. And then that spoiled little boy had the nerve to ask me, "Mrs. Barlow, can I have my birthday present early? Can you get it for me tonight and give it to me tomorrow?" Of course I told him "NO WAY! You'll have to wait!" and refused to budge. I know I indulge him too much, but I do have some limits. Some.

Mixed feelings

 It's a beautiful sunny day here, the nicest we've had in ages. I love seeing blue sky after so much rain and all the dreary gray days. Although it's still cold out, today's the first day it's felt like spring is on the way. I'm so ready for it this year!

Late last night my left arm started to hurt from the vaccine shot. I couldn't sleep on my left side because of it and every time I rolled over in my sleep it woke me up. I also had a couple of nightmares which is unusual for me. Stress dreams, yes, but not nightmares. It may have been a result of the painful arm, or maybe it was a side effect from the vaccine itself. Either way, it's  a small price to pay for getting protection from Covid. I feel fine today aside from the sore arm.

I'm feeling a bit embarrassed by getting vaccinated so soon when so many people are still waiting for a chance. I want to tell friends about it (because it's exciting!) but I have this vague nagging feeling that I've somehow done something wrong. So many people who by rights should be ahead of me in line are still weeks or even months out, and I feel guilty about that. I've been assured that I'm being silly to feel this way. Here's how it worked out. 

A friend of Gregg's works in a large medical building here in town, and they're offering eligible people (patients and employees) the vaccine. They have to thaw out enough each day to meet likely demand. Some people fail to show for appointments, and (this blew me away) over half of the employees haven't had their first shots yet and are hesitating out of fear. So rather than risking having to throw away precious doses, the administration has quietly encouraged staff to bring in family members late in the afternoon to use up whatever's left. Of course, this is a friend, not family, but he knows about Gregg having had lung cancer and only having one lung. He's seen the devastation Covid can inflict on healthy people with no underlying issues, and he was quite adamant in inviting Gregg to come get his shot. Then he was kind enough to insist that it was perfectly okay for me to come, too. So I wasn't getting in line ahead of anyone, simply using a shot that might have ended up in the trash. 

Still, I'm very conscious of what a privilege it is to be getting the shots so early. I probably won't be shouting it from the rooftops, even though it made me want to jump for joy just out of sheer relief! I wish all my friends and all my family could get their first shots today (I include all you reading here when I say that) but as every person gets their turn we're one step closer to protection for us all. 

First of two

 

I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine this afternoon. I barely felt the needle, my arm is only very slightly sore, and so far there haven't been any other side effects. Oh, and we got these cute purple wrist bands!

Shot number two is set for March 12. I'm very, very grateful for the friend who made this happen.