Head Swimming Friday Round-Up

We strung Christmas lights in my office to cheer up passers-by and ourselves. It worked, at least for us. There is a reason people leave their Christmas trees up for months. It makes them feel better – about something – in our case, impending doom.

We have each other and our dogs. And, for the time being, we are all healthy. We remember that just two weeks ago, we were shaking hands and hugging friends and colleagues at Howard’s retirement event. We had no idea – not really. Coronavirus was a thing, a faraway thing. It got here fast. I guess that’s what they all say.

I appreciate the people who smile when we pass them on a walk but there aren’t many of them. I am, by nature, a greeter, so it surprises me and hurts my feelings just a bit when people can’t acknowledge my hello from 10 or 12 feet away. Today, I wanted to yell at a guy, “Jesus! You can fucking smile at me when I say hello.” But that seemed hostile and contrary to the whole notion of friendly greeting.

I do not take my temperature constantly because I don’t have to. There isn’t anyone more in tune with her body than me. So if my temp goes up a tenth of a degree I will know immediately. I am very self-conscious, as they say. The old man – that’s another story. I bumble along worrying more about myself getting sick than him and then I catch myself – Oh Geez, if he gets sick, I’m done for – and then I get very solicitous for a few minutes before my attention turns back to my constant personal wellness monitoring.

We now finally have the definitive answer to the age-old question: Do you think we have enough money to retire? It’s sickening to think about so I’m not going to. There’s time for mopping all that up later after we take the Christmas lights down.