Tag Archives: Family

Dispatch from the Hideout: Love in a Pandemic 2.0

Heard today: “I finally fell in love with my person.”

My realization: “My person, is me! 

Though the title of this Valentine’s Day holiday musing is Dispatch from the Hideout: Love in a Pandemic 2.0 it is actually the eve of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Let that sink in for a moment.

Like most things in life, we can look at life from both sides now (cue the amazing Joni Mitchell). There’s pre-pandemic romantic love and our relationships with friends and family — compared to the past two years of love in a pandemic. It was a challenge and we each made an assessment — weighing the risks versus benefits — every time we made a decision of when, where, and how we’d get together in-person with friends, family, and loved ones with whom we didn’t live. When you live alone, the question became more powerful. How much isolation can my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being tolerate?    Continue reading

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My Love/Hate Relationship with Technology

“Life was much easier when apple and blackberry were just fruits.” — Ray Bradbury

First, let me share some background. I’m a baby boomer, a couple of days shy of my 72nd birthday. Let me begin, “Aging isn’t for sissies,” yet I’m grateful to be above ground. Hopefully, this information should provide some perspective on why I’m a late adopter and my love/hate relationship with technology. Continue reading

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Omicron Edition

“The year 2021 has been like a roller coaster. It was supposed to be the year the pandemic fizzled out. Instead, it was a year of intense whiplash.” — Julie Ries

“It’s not over, till it’s over!” — Yogi Bera

This dispatch is part holiday season review, 2021 year-end wrap up, plus a look ahead, and once again, an acceptance of opposing conditions, that things both change and remain the same. It has been a year characterized by both hope and despair, gratitude and grief, and resistance and surrender.

The past year — or 22 months — depending on how you want to count — we’ve been riding the coronacoaster of the COVID pandemic. There have been highs and lows on this ride, whiplash, and screams. We want to get off this ride, yet we can’t until it’s over. Continue reading

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The Legacy of Material Things

“We didn’t have much, but we had love.” ― Tyler Perry 

 “I’ve not always possessed what I’ve wanted, but I always received what I needed, and most days it was simply the love of friends and family, and the ability to live comfortably in my own skin.”  ―  From Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

It’s that time of year when we celebrate the holidays, often the traditions of the generations that preceded us, the food we eat, the rituals we recreate, the stories we tell, and the memories we share. This is our legacy. It’s also that time of year when many of us look back and reflect on the year behind us and grieve our loved ones no longer present in life.

We inherit many things from our family, from our DNA to our shared lived experiences, both nature and nurture. We also inherit material things, bequeaths, mementos, and gifts from family, friends, and loved ones. They also represent a legacy. What creates a person’s legacy? Continue reading

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Thanksgiving: Things Change (Again, Again!)

“The only constant is change.” — Heraclitus

Things do not change; we change.” — Henry David Thoreau

From November 25, 2020…

As I write, it’s the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I’ve been rereading Thanksgiving Holiday journal entries from the past 12 years, plus my Thanksgiving blog reminiscences. A theme emerged which I’ve addressed before, yet continues to weave through my life — and the lives of loved ones — things change.

I begin this reminiscence and musing about the Thanksgiving holiday with the same quotes and sentiment from a year ago when COVID-19 was surging and many families and friends had to make the difficult decision of whether or not they would celebrate in-person, and how it might be different from the traditional holidays from the past. The only change in this introduction is I’ve been rereading 13 years of journal entries, and two years of Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! Thanksgiving: Things Change essays. Continue reading

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9/11: When Time Stops & Memories Live On

September 11 attacks began at 7:46 AM (CST) on Tuesday, September 11, 2001

On That Day

It was an absolutely perfect, late summer, early fall day. The sky was blue — almost translucent — clear and cloudless. The temperature was mild, in the 60’s that morning. I was getting dressed for work. Before I left for the office, I called one of my best friends and chosen family, Donna Salverson. Continue reading

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Pandemic Staycation Redux: Safer-at-Home

Staycation: A vacation spent at home or near home, doing enjoyable activities or visiting local attractions. — Dictionary.com

Labor Day weekend has historically been the beginning of my annual Staycation, usually 7-10 days which I take off of work and remain close to home. It’s also what I can afford to do as I make choices with my discretionary income and travel often falls off the list.  It sounds a little mundane, yet it serves me. This time is a vacation from my routines and allows me to practice spontaneity and rather than check off things on my to-do list — which I regularly make for the week ahead — instead I make a “to-do only if I want to list,” which I add and subtract to as I wish. Yes, I’m a little OCD. Continue reading

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Pod Squad 2.0

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin

Last weekend, on Friday, I spent time with friends, celebrating a birthday on a pontoon boat on Lake Mendota in Madison, WI on a hot, beautiful, late summer day. The next morning, I had brunch outdoors with three Pod Squad members (some of my quarantine bubble of friends and family), and continued the birthday celebration of one of our members. On Sunday, I setup and staffed the OutReach Magic Pride Festival outdoors at Olin Turville Park. We watched the entertainment program and speakers on a Jumbotron screen while people picnicked.

When the weekend was over, I realized I spent more time with people than I have in over 18 months, many who I didn’t know if they were vaccinated or not, including Pod Squad members, friends, and members of my LGBTQ+ community, unmasked outdoors. There was no guarantee during the latter event that everyone was vaccinated. Continue reading

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New Habits Are Hard to Make

…and old habits hard to break!

“You can’t teach an old dog, new tricks is a common phrase that means it is challenging to teach a person something new, usually because that person has been doing things a certain way for so long that they’re too stubborn to learn how to do it differently.” 

Yes, full disclosure, I’m an old dog, living the first year of my seventh decade. In dog years, I’m 10 going on 11. I’m also at the threshold of changing habits, again. It’s challenging; I’ve been doing some of the same things for so long — the task of undoing them and replacing with new behaviors — seems impossible. Continue reading

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Dispatch from the Hideout: Two Steps Back

“It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward.” — Vladimir Lenin

“Captain, May I take two steps forward?” — Childhood backyard game

Yesterday, I traveled to Racine, Wisconsin to visit my 91-year-old father who gratefully remains independent, vaccinated, and healthy as he continues to live alone. Since I live 100 miles away, I can’t just drop-in for a quick visit and check-in on him. Prior to the pandemic, we scheduled a weekly phone date every Sunday, and I’d visit him in-person at least once a month The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that. Continue reading

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