So we’re all living in a time that we could never have imagined except in movies or books like Outbreak or The Stand or even The Walking Dead. Is this the end of life as we’ve known it on our little blue marble? Will things go back to normal?

It’s hard to imagine that will be possible. Things did after the 1918 flu pandemic or Spanish Flu as it was called. It was an H1N1 flu virus. H1N1 is also a Coronavirus like Covid 19. A third of the population of Earth caught the flu (approximately 500,000,000) and 50,000,000 to 100,000,000 died. We are currently at risk of an even higher mortality if people refuse to take the recommended precautions and stay isolated.

It is a little lonely for me all alone in my doll house, unable to work or earn money. My new job was scheduled to start March 24, but the office is closed for the next two or more weeks as we are all supposed to stay home. I am lucky I have stored up enough supplies to last a few weeks without having to go out. I don’t know what will happen financially if I can’t get to work soon and/or supplies run out. One thing I know, we are all in this together. Over half of the country are or should be staying home to reduce the transmission rate.

So I am taking this bounded free time to escape into movies, series, books, crafts, and writing. It is way past time for me to write. A lot has happened the past few months.

I journeyed from my Western Pennsylvania home to Little Rock, Arkansas the last week of January to sort thru my mother’s life and possessions. She ended up in the hospital for the third time in three months, so it was determined she could not return to her apartment and her things needed to be sorted, donated or distributed to family members.

I spent 10 days and nights sorting, unpacking and repacking all of her possessions. It was strenuous and exhausting. It was also an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. Plus two and a half days driving, which is a good thing considering the danger I could have been in via air travel.

I got home on February 10, unfortunately my mom passed on February 21, early in the morning. Oddly, somehow I knew it. I had awoken with that knowing you get with close family. I

The above was written the last week of March and unpublished. Now eight months later we are still living with Covid. Though yesterday they did approve the first vaccine for this pandemic. It has killed 295,000 Americans 1,608,000 worldwide.

It has been hard to keep going with blogging or any of the normal things that you would think I would do during a time of not working. A time of being able to do whatever you want sort of blogging should be the thing I did but I didn’t. It’s like I shut down just like the businesses shut down. The country trying to shut down. I got glued to my Google Covid page every day and then there was the politics and the election; there was so much noise that it was hard to find a quiet center even though I’ve been all alone this whole time.

Even my creativity is stifled because I ended up having arthritis hands this whole time and haven’t been able to sew or crochet. I’ve only recently started to paint again. It just feels like I’ve been locked in a cell or something even though it’s the cell of my own design in my own home and for my own protection. I did start working the end of July, finally, but that hasn’t helped with the angst and stress of this pandemic.

I want to be hopeful and looking forward to the new year like always. Like when I started my last blog about with my hopes for the new year 2020. Then my mother died and the pandemic happened and so now it’s hard to be too hopeful. Except I am.

At least I am relieved that we will have true leadership back in the White House instead of the idiot that’s been there for the last 4 years. That we will hopefully find a way as a world to work together to stop this pandemic and fight it together for the health and help for all the world citizens.

It is time to move forward with a greater appreciation for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Return to a country governed by our constitution for liberty and justice for all. I am so sickened by the self-aggrandizing and relentless pursuit of helping himself and making himself feel more important and servicing his friends that service him; pardoning people for crimes that they even confessed to. I’m so sick of the lack of leadership that our country has endured with a ruler (not leader) who couldn’t even keep his own employees intact. Nor hire the appropriate employees for the jobs he gave them. Instead hiring friends to do jobs that they had no qualifications for which isn’t surprising since he had no qualifications for the job he took on that the American people ( a minority of them) hired him to do.

And if that wasn’t insult enough the four years of his existence in the office that he has disdain for and that he has ruined relationships worldwide with his behavior; he refuses to accept the fact that he has lost the election by more than 7 million votes. He fights against allowing those of us who voted by mail properly having our votes counted. Voting by mail was a necessity due to the pandemic that he let get out of control by his lack of leadership. We have a greater percentage of American population is sick and dying than most other nations. Approximately 5% of our population have tested positive. That doesn’t even include those who are never tested but had mild cases and stayed at home or maybe died at home without being tested.

Anyway I’m sure everybody’s read more statistics and we’re all very aware of all of these things. I’m not trying to be a statistical analyst or even go on about how horrible the president has been. I am touting that I’m glad I have the freedom of speech to say this openly in this blog and I am sorry for anyone this offends. It is my experience my personal experience and understanding after 63 years on this planet. I grew up a child of the sixties and now I am flabbergasted at how completely our country went from the Obama era to the Trump era in a different direction that makes no sense. We lost forty years of progress. It’s sickening truly sickening. I think that the pandemic is a result of that somehow. It’s like the Earth has become so sickened from global warming and from political upheaval and stupidity of people and violence and crime and wars that we all got sick; the planet got sick literally.

So once again I say let’s look forward to 2021 let’s have a happy holiday season this next couple of weeks and enjoy Christmas Hanukkah whatever beliefs or love you have. I won’t be able to see my family as we are all social distancing and not going to have the big Gathering, so I will still be all alone for the holidays as I have been throughout the holidays of this year. But I am hopeful, that next year will be different. That our country will slowly start to return to normal. That the world will take a much more serious look at who they put into office in the future, in every country, and not allow megalomaniac idiots to be elected. Not allow the media to direct people in the wrong direction anymore. The media is supposed to report the news not script the future history. They’re supposed to just report it without slant, without bent or propaganda, without intent of affecting it.

The only news I’ve watched this year was from election night until the election was called for Joe Biden because I couldn’t stand to see the lies and the talking heads and everybody with their own agenda pushing their own ideas on the American people, not even about the pandemic. I couldn’t stand to see that stupid face of that person lying to us every day on the screen and them giving him all the airtime in the world to do so. And nobody stopping it!! I just didn’t watch it that was my choice, my freedom of choice. I have read a lot; my local paper, the NY Times, the Washington Post and many other articles online just to keep abreast of what’s going on without being brainwashed by that media machine.

Well it’s hard in this year not to be on a soapbox about politics and the pandemic and all of these things. I’m sorry to have put it out there like this today, but I needed to get these words out of me so I can move forward into more hopeful World. A more hopeful life and back on track with staying healthy and achieving my goals. Having hope that others can too. I look forward to saying goodbye 2020 and hello 2021.