These Callery Pear Trees border one side of the road near my home. Their flowering stage only lasts a few weeks (at most). It’s one of those photographic opportunities that can’t be put off…and this year I didn’t procrastinate.
At day’s end they almost glow.
On March 27th, 2020 I published a post about shocking prices at the gas pump…as well as on the absurdity of life. It was the beginning of a pandemic. A new virus that nobody fully understood – which would fast become a political football and plunge the United States and the world into a chaotic mess. A tumble into the Twilight Zone where toilet paper became the Item To Hoard. And the chicken that kept disappearing from the meat department at Market Basket. Empty shelves in my corner of America.
Wash Your Hands became the new mantra (although it had always been my mantra since taking biochem in college). The shock at the gas pump in March 2020 should have been a positive sign. But everything was shut down. Nowhere to go with a full tank of cheap gas…
Fast forward to yesterday morning. I returned to the same gas station…the same gas pump. It was another WTH moment. The metal signs that hung over the pumps in 2020 were gone and I suspect it was because the prices were rising so fast. Who has time to keep changing the numbers or maybe they didn’t have enough 4s. Whatever.
I just peek at the news now, in print only. Televised Breaking News is unbearable and horrific…and the horror has nothing to do with covid anymore. But somehow I didn’t expect this when I went to buy gas…prices doubled in 2 years:
The surreal is amping up again…falling into another version of the Twilight Zone. Toilet paper is stacked high in the paper goods aisle at Market Basket, costing 50% more than in March 2020. Chicken has doubled in price, but is usually in stock now. Hand sanitizer collects dust on shelf after shelf. I shop as quickly as possible. Grab, pay and go. Sale prices no longer seem relevant.
Once more, something else in life feels out of control. However, even as I continue to wonder if “normal” will ever return, I am profoundly grateful for the life I have…unprecedented high prices and all.
Ragtag Daily Prompt: March
The snow started falling this morning, a January Nor’easter as they call massive snowstorms here in New England. Warnings popped up earlier in the week on television, newsfeeds and on the radio. Maps with snow totals (12-20 inches!) began creeping into the Breaking News lead-in segment during the evening news. Mother Nature did it again. She preempted the pandemic, the economy, foreign conflicts, politics. She tends to do that, as if to say…Remember your priorities people! I am really in charge here!
News anchors cranked out the usual…Get your snow shovels! Batteries! Bread! Milk! When it gets down to it, survival needs can get very basic. Although, I noticed more shopping carts filled with chips, cheese balls, frozen pizza, beer and wine.
And then the term blizzard (with its definition of wind speed blah blah blah)…and then: this could rival the Blizzard of ’78! That got my attention. I spent the Blizzard of ’78 huddled in a tiny 3rd floor apartment with my then boyfriend, watching the snow fall. I don’t remember anything about bread and milk.
I am always (well most of the time) rewarded when I look up at the sky. One day this summer I was greeted by a mysterious vision during an afternoon walk.
Click!
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This expands a bit on Thursday’s post…chronicling my first flight since February 2020. The plane took off from Logan Airport under drizzly cloudy skies. Not a very positive vibe.
However, it wasn’t too long before this view emerged…
That blue sky…and what looked like delicious whipped cream (I can’t help it, food comes to mind)…a welcome sight!
I happened upon a gathering of daffodils a few days ago…basking in the spotlight of the afternoon sun. One was gazing into the distance as if surveying the crowd. Which, at that point, was just me and the tall arborvitaes off to the side. The trio to its right? Ready and waiting.
It was a glorious warm afternoon and the entertainment was enjoyed by all…well, just me and the arborvitaes. But well worth it as the finale ensued…
…and the spotlight moved on as the afternoon came to a close.
Six Word Saturday
BeckyB’s BrightSquare
Cee’s Flower of the Day
Weekend Sky #22
SixWordSaturday
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Looks like a meeting to me.
And the sun is in charge…
On this beautiful bright weekend day.
What happened to this poor tree? What is the story? I noticed it right away – close to the edge of my walking path last month. Since all the trees had dropped their leaves, this one’s wounds were clearly visible. No longer hidden from view. Layers of bark stripped away.
I suspect it just happened to be in the way of a town or utility company brush clearing project. Left damaged and forgotten. A sad sight.
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bark
Are you excited?
…he asked as he swabbed my upper left arm round and round with an alcohol wipe…hypodermic needle poised above my exposed skin in the cold winter air.
I was sitting in the driver’s seat of my car in the parking lot at our local high school. Cars & pickup trucks were lined up behind the lot until directed to park in every other space to wait. The scene was similar to 3 weeks earlier when I received my first shot. New Hampshire National Guard personnel were in charge and the process was smooth and professional.
This past Wednesday I received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Scheduling had been an anxiety filled website challenge, but my online persistence paid off. Despite all of that, I was filled with an overwhelming gratitude to finally be able to take my turn.
However…excited? Not really. I am just too exhausted – and perhaps numb – from the past year for that quite yet.
As he plunged the needle into my arm, injecting hope for the future, I answered him…
More like relieved.
Excitement will come with time.
BeckyB’s October Squares: Kind
SixWordSaturday
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Today is the last day of BeckyB’s October squares challenge. In the spirit of the theme – all things kind – I wanted to end on a kind…soothing…musical…note. Songs like There’s A Kind of Hush, One Of A Kind (Love Affair), A Sunday Kind of Love went through my mind.
I started looking through our vast LP collection in search of just the right kind of song. As I got closer to the K section searching in vain for the apparently donated Herman’s Hermits album (they are alphabetized courtesy of my musician husband), I heard a familiar voice in my head…🎶…some kind of wonderful....🎶
That’s it! It was very surreal. But I suppose not too surprising…since I only listened to this album thousands of times “back in the day.”
If, in this stressful day and age I am now hearing voices, this is a most wonderful kind.
Some Kind Of Wonderful is on Carole King’s album Music, the LP that followed her signature release of Tapestry.
The booklet inside the album listed the lyrics to every song.
Enjoy…
one letter UP ~ diary 2.0 