SHORT AND SWEET GODDESSES 2022

I just realized now that maybe a new thread was started!  Had checked the other a couple times and wondered whether you were e route or something, Sue! Thanks for starting this.

I am back to clay—have been making cups and a platter and two oval serving dishes and the past two days made 3 nesting serving bowls that I think will be really neat—they nest perfectly—thinking I may make a fourth small “sauce” bowl for inside them.  I must quit making as I have no more drying space.  Hoping friend will fire a load within a few days!  Today I shopped for groceries and now am finally going to glaze my low fire things I will fire myself—made two friends two more mini loaf pans as they requested and a bunch of test pieces for some new glazes.

I actually vacuumed my car too today.  My accomplishment on Tuesday was that I sold DH’s Ascent—and I got a really great price for it—money is in the bank—he wanted to sell to CarMax and I asked for the chance to do better—he gave me a week—In five days it was sold and we got $3000 more!  Yay!  His Lincoln Aviator will be arriving in Aberdeen WA sometime in the next seven days and he will fly up and drive it back.  He gave up on the one he ordered—Lincoln is now having trouble getting chips again and it will possibly be four months out!  So he’s been searching everyday and found this small town in WA was getting one in and it had all the stuff he had ordered except it was white instead of Bronze —he wanted white anyway and had only gotten the color because of me—so he’s super happy.  

I hoped to go back to gym but have given it up again in favor of staying covid free—or at least higher odds at covid free.  DD here and DGS17 both have Omicron—DD is very sick—not hospitalized but really miserable—thank goodness she is fully vaccinated—I think she might have been a near fatality without vaccine.  We luckily have not been around her for two weeks.  She got this from a client to failed to disclose she was sick until she’d been in close therapy for 30- minutes!  DD made her leave and she was so angry—now this!  So rude!

DS park ranger has been =calling nightly for five days—he has moved out—they were very strange when here for Christmas—DIL was withdrawing from all of us and whispering to DGS16 all the time—like didn’t even eat breakfast outside with the rest of us—anyway, turns out DGS16 is using pot and possibly other drugs and DIL didn’t disclose this to our DS—and she’s enabling him in many ways—DS is angry—has opened up many “wounds” on both sides of a marriage that has not been working for some time—DS has drinking issues, DIL has social issues—both are  in need of personal counseling and DGS has been raised in a family that on the surface looks functional but is actually dysfunctional.  What a mess.  Kids when older are much more stress than when young—they make such big mistakes and being adults you cannot influence the same way—you just get to feel the stress and try to communicate!  

We had hoped to fly to FLorida and visit cruise BF’s and my cousin but with covid omicron insanity we are not.  So sad that we cannot get back to a normal life.

Sue I hope SO is okay—thank good nesss whatever he needed will be done and recovered from before you have to move!

Holly, is your school staying in person?  DGD21 said Columbia is going back on virtual for a few weeks to try to avoid person to person super spread since NYC has had it so bad.  It’s terrible here-=almost everyone we know has it in their family somewhere now.  Hospitals are swamped !  

Hope you all stay healthy!!

Thanks, Holly—me too—the fear with this grandson is that he’s never been into doing well in school—is smart and hates it—refuses to do homework—his mom has enabled a lot—does his math homework for him, etc.  whereas DGS21 who started drugs at 15-16 never quit doing schoolwork and still got excellent grades even tho he skipped school a lot.  Now in college he has all A’s all the time.  DGS16 simply wants to DJ and make money—couldn’t care less about school and if he wanted to go I doubt he could get in.  He lives in a tiny town—maybe when he gets out in the world and grows up he will have a turn around.  His parents brought him up to think he was better than everyone else because he knew so much science, blah, blah, blah.  So he has always had the attitude that he didn’t need school because he knew it all—DIL and DS were science/ forestry majors—thought they were raising the child progeny and everyone would be in awe—trouble is they convinced their son to be so in awe of himself that he didn’t need what anyone had to offer.  Hate to say it, but we watched this for years and always felt they were making a big mistake.  

Right now, DS really needs to work on himself—he’s a mess—and I do believe he is a binge alcoholic like DH was/is—only DH kicked the habit and knows he can never have a “little” wine or beer or booze.  It runs in DH’s family as well as in his first wife’s family so no surprise that DS has a problem.

Think I will go back to using Instacart for delivery or use curbside pick up—covid is rampant here!  I shopped three stores this morning so am set for the week but that may be it for a while!  I feel so bad for people who need hospitalization for other reasons—the hospitals are overrun and understaffed!

I just searched for the email—I’,m so sorry I overlooked it—am trying to clean up my email so that it doesn’t happen again!!  

Hope everyone is staying safe—Omicron is really bad here.  DD and DGS17 had it last week—fully vaccinated—DD was quite sick but thank goodness no hospital level required!  She is back to work as of yesterday—said that it’s a weird illness—like nothing she’s ever had before.  She now said she’s dealing with the brain fog they talk about—she said it’s hard to describe but it’s not normal at all!

we are awaiting news about our new car—have to be ready to make a reservation to fly to Portland on a moment’s notice—then drive in a rental to Aberdeen to pick up the car and sign the papers—the car is in Seattle awaiting truck transportation and we are at the mercy of not knowing when but sometime within the next seven days!  Once we have the car, DH can finally use his trailer safely.  

We have reservations to go to Death Valley for three days the first week of February—if we get the car we will definitely go.  We will just hike around and explore the sand dunes and enjoy being outside a lot.  

DGD21 is back in classes at Columbia virtually for the next couple weeks—taking 18 credits this semester—she plans to graduate in June of next year.  So far she has avoided covid altho many of her friends have caught it.  

I’ve been doing a lot of pottery building—experimenting with some new surface decoration—today we are firing a large load so I will have things to glaze!  II’m doing well with my weight—I had one day where I binged on some chocolate—one of the worst days on the phone with DD Park Ranger—I think it was the stress of that causing me to return to old habits to handle things—but I feel as tho my stomach is back in control again—it’s that mind trip that messes you up!  I’m still weighing once a week—hovering around only changing up or down by a pound so I’m super happy—starting to feel as tho this is my set point weight that I will be able to maintain without going back to old dieting mentality!  

JoAnne are you still spending time in CA or did your DDIL get her babysitting lined up now?  

We flew to Portland a week ago last Sunday—picked up the car in Aberdeen, WA on Monday and drove back to Eugene for the night—the car is wonderful—rides beautifully—DH loves it.  Has lots of power but gets about 21 MPG even in town.  DH got everything set up for towing the trailer and we will drive to Death Valley next Sunday and spend two nights—hike and just hand out.  It’s cold here again so the 70’s temps will be nice.

DSIL from Sacramento drove back same day as us (we spent the night with them last week on way home) as his mom had another stroke—he spent all week here and Will leave for home tomorrow.  She is out and about—but does not drive and needed lots of dr appts and blood checks, etc so he has been playing the “good son” this week.  His Brother will come Friday (not staying here) and help and another brother will come next week.  She lives with some other women in a house sharing thing but DSIL says everyone in the house has issues—didn’t make him feel very comfortable.

tomorrow we will get back to better eating.  DSIL had a birthday Monday so we had cake and ice cream and finished off the cake the last two nights—I feel so yucky full having had dessert even tho I kept it small-=-have been cooking things he likes all week so tomorrow we will pare it down!

thought I had covid yesterday as my allergies were so bad that I actually felt sick—took a test tho and I’m negative.  Today has been a bit better as I stayed inside all day—very windy out there—there is a lot of pollen from trees blooming.

really enjoyed the road trip home from WA—such beautiful trees and greens—lots of fog tho and pretty chilly for us!
we say My Fair Lady Sunday night—it was done so well—the singing was so outstanding we were just amazed.  Was one of the best tour shows we have seen.  To get in you have to be vaccinated and masked so you feel a bit safer but still DH was hestitant about going—he was glad he did tho after seeing the quality of the production.

stopped and shopped at a big ceramic supply store in Portland—I brought back 200# of clay for myself and two friends.  Also bought a few more glazes—Oh my, I could have spent a thousand dollars in there—it was the best store!

Oh my gosh—CONGRATULATIONS!  Sue, this is so funny—my DSIL said last night it was such a great day to get married yesterday!  And so you did!  I think it’s wise—I’ve tried to tell my son and his SO that they would actually find it easier financially to just get married—actually, I think they are married—he always said if they did get married it would be on their terms—I’d never probably know.  The reason I suspect they did is because he has insurance through her now and he made her a partner in his business—pretty sure they just quietly did that!

So fun that you had some friends over and spontaneously did that!

Building houses—ugh—always something!  Even our little tract home we chose a tile that was from Italy and the same time they were building the Bellagio Hotel on the strip and they chose that tile—so for a while it appeared we wouldn’t get any tile because they would get the whole next shipment from that company—then somehow we ended up getting it and had the house on time.  But the bigger and more involved the more stuff to delay—and in this Covid atmosphere even needing a special plastic jar can stop whole shipments—I say that because one of the largest glaze producers is Amaco and they are having major stocking issues because of jars and some chemicals, etc., etc.  It’s crazy.  Our audiologist cannot get DH a thing for the Smith Performing Arts center to send the sound to his h.aids because they are on a ship in the harbor off CA somewhere—have been there two months!

I am still feeling kind of yuk—again today—not sure if it is allergies or if I should test again.  Might take one in the morning if I wake up like this.  

I don’t even feel like playing with clay.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Nothing happening here in that light other than that we did go get a small frozen yogurt after dinner—mini celebration—very mini—LOL!

Whatever I had I think it’s finally out of my system—other than terrible allergies which are seeming like the new normal, I am fine.  I did find two other people tho’ who had a similar thing and kept testing for covid as well.  DGD17 had covid all last week and DGS21 in Reno had it also, for the 2nd time—now he’s had the Delta and the Omicron.  Starting to feel as tho we should have a covid variety game board and get tokens to fill it in!

we had a great time in Death Valley—went there with the trailer for 2 nights—hiked the sand dunes for about an hour—i love it out there—such beautiful sand waves and dunes.  It was 80ºd our first day there and it felt so hot!  On our way back home we were driving through a small town Parump and an old guy pulled out on a red light and ran into our trailer.  We were so scared to look—but fortunately he hit the actual trailer fender and it absorbed the blow and saved the trailer.  Had he pulled out a second earlier he would have smashed the side in!  Also luckily, a cop was at the same place and saw it happen!  It’s towable and usable—looks as tho they will get it replaced (fender) on Thursday and check the axel alignment—hoping that is fine—if so we had a lucky day!

I’ve been playing in clay the past two days—made a nice casserole/baking dish and a lasagna baker—kind of excited about the latter as I made it just for two rows of noodles—so half a recipe—which would be perfect for us for four servings!  I may make another one so that each time I make lasagna I’d just freeze one unbaked.  

DS park ranger was here with us the day we got back (TUes) till Friday—he is definitely going to start divorce proceedings—there is no meeting point between the two of them! They have so much real estate and so much stuff—what a mess!

Sue it’s like you are on a count down but they keep restarting the counting!  Where are you now with dates?

Holly they lifted the mask mandate here but we are still wearing ours—many of the grocery stores are continuing to have staff wear them.