Staycation, no cash to get away.
Sing it with me.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was counting the days towards my vacation after Christmas. To be fair, I actually like working straight through to Christmas generally because I know all my customers are taken care of and I start the new year on the right foot. Of course, when my real life complicates my work life, this becomes difficult. This year, it became impossible.
The day before Christmas Eve I went to work feeling somewhat off. I chalked it up to having gotten the booster the week before and carried on. While out on the route, the pain got worse, and of course, the mail truck broke down. When the supervisor came out to rescue me with a new truck, he could see I was struggling. I managed to make it through the day and checked myself into the ER straight from work. Eight hours later, relieved it was not my appendix, I was sent home with a script for heavy duty antibiotics and a note for work through Sunday.
The next two days, Thursday and Christmas Eve, were pretty much spent in the house. On a liquid diet I get quite dizzy, so I did not leave the house at all. I divided up my last bits of Christmas chores for the boys to handle, along with getting my antibiotics, fetching lunch, and walking the dog. They did well, and our Christmas Eve went as well as can be.
Typically, we do all our opening on Christmas Eve, make a big breakfast, and chill in our jammies Christmas day. This year, since we didn't get to see my brother's kids, we went over to my sister's house for an impromptu Christmas day brunch. While we were there, a game was played that involved holding a candy cane in your mouth and scooping up as many candy canes as you could for your team in the matter of 2 minutes. Super fun but not COVID friendly, at all.
Sunday was pretty uneventful, as I planned out my stress-free week of long overdue tasks. My parents came over...
Me: So, I think I'm going to buy the burial plot this week, since I didn't get one for Christmas like I asked.
Hubs: No way I was getting you that for Christmas. Someone will ask me what I got you and I CAN NOT say burial plots. That's just not okay.
Mum: Next year you can get her poison mushrooms.
*sigh* Comedians, all of them. But by Tuesday I had in fact, secured one of only 30 plots left in the cemetery down the street, with graves that date back to the late 1700s, where Youngest had changed flags every Memorial Day for 7 years. It's a corner plot, quiet, and perfect for picnics. When I got home, I made the appointment to update the will. Funny, you don't think about how important these things are until you are stuck with seeing someone go through it. And given how difficult the last two years have been...
Thursday morning my sister called me to say my niece had tested positive for COVID. Remember the candy game? Yeah, I wish I could forget. Thankfully I did not play, but Oldest did, and after some frantic searching we found a pharmacy with tests in stock. So, he headed out to get one and discovered his car dead in the driveway, behind mine. Forty years of driving could not have prepared me for the comedic events that followed while, aided by Oldest, I attempted an 80-point turn to get my car turned around so I could jump his battery. Once successful, he headed out to get coffee to charge it a bit, came home and tried to restart it. Nothing. Thankfully, my friend had an extra test and ran it down to us. Oldest tested positive. This means his New Year's plans are off, and he can't start his internship for an extra week. He made the contacts aware that were necessary, and I ran to the pharmacy to get additional tests. He's been holed up in his room, sans his hand-built gaming computer -did I forget to mention it completely died on Wednesday?-with a box of tissues and not much else.
With the rest of us testing negative, Youngest has packed up to a friend's house for the next 4 or 5 days, since he FINALLY found a job, and the Hubs and I are masking up and only running necessary errands. One of which, was getting a new car battery for Oldest, which he installed today, since it was 50 degrees outside, a rarity in December. Which brings us to New Year's Eve, the Chinese food is ordered for later, and I am turning my sights towards the last things I need to get done as the next year arrives.
I sure hope the passing of Betty White is not an indicator of what's to come.
I was saddened to hear of Betty White's passing. I was hoping she would at least make it to 100 years old. But I think she lived a good life and perhaps she was ready to move on to the next one.
ReplyDeleteThat candy cane game does sound fun but you are right, certainly not Covid (or really any germ) friendly. Bet it doesn't get played next year, regardless of what Covid is or isn't doing.
Is it even possible to do an 80 point turn? Or was that a joke?
Sorry to hear Oldest has Covid and hopeful that he will be feeling fine soon and no one else will get it in the house. Wise for Youngest to take off to spend some time with friends. Hubby may have had it a few weeks ago. Got a bad cold but didn't go to get tested because he wasn't running a fever. He got better a few days later but still has a residual slight cough and runny nose. His brother in San Diego has it now. I didn't get sick from being around hubby but then I'm vaccinated and he is not.
Sorry you were under the weather though; hope you are doing better now!
I have no high hopes that 2022 may be better; I just hope kinder!!
So Happy New Year???
Did I tell you I'm blogging here? https://benchsnotebook.blogspot.com/
betty
I remember holidays like that... thankfully my lone problem with 5 hrs to go is that, in order to comment on a blog, I have to go to settings, change my "comments" choice, refresh the blog I want to comment on, and re-set it to where I had it. I like betty's comment about next year being kinder. HNY!
ReplyDeleteAs a child the family took many holiday trips and when my girls were little we also took some pretty good holidays but no idea when next we will take one.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are feeling better and that Oldest recovers quickly. I don't have high hopes for this year after getting my hopes up last summer only to find that we've learned absolutely nothing during the past two years. *sigh* But I WILL try to look forward with optimism and keep an eye out for joy, there's bound to be some somewhere.
ReplyDeleteI do Hope the Oldest is Recovered now? Your Christmas sounded as frantic as ours... it was not the Idyllic Normal Rockwell Celebration let us just say, more a Comedic Downer, ah well, I Hoped 2022 would bring good tidings and all that jazz... it... did... NOT. I have Pneumonia, quit work again for an unspecified period until Omicron burns thru the entire Population... had more people move in with us that were in Crisis so now we got a houseful of Six, plus Two Fur Babies... it's like a very dysfunctional Hippie Commune of 16-70 year olds trying to make it Work.
ReplyDelete