This is how my face has looked for most of 2021 so far. Picture me much older with longer scraggly hair and worried furrows in my forehead. This photo is from my high school's yearbook, and I was in my 30s. That seems like approximately 100 years ago! Or perhaps I'm feeling about 100 years old? I've had a chance to go through some old pictures because of the current atrocious weather. My cat and I are getting on one another's nerves with too much togetherness; we also seem to have the same diet preferences. She is all over me, meowing and pawing if I have: veggies with ranch dressing, cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese, ice cream, turkey or eggs. Although I adore her, I would prefer to eat in peace!
A former student sent me this old picture; I was older here I think, but still loved hamming it up for the camera. Many of my students, like Aaron, were way taller than me, so I made up for it with attitude. ;) I do miss teaching and the (mostly) positive interactions, although I'm delighted to be retired during these pandemic times. My former colleagues appear to be having nervous breakdowns and are caught between many rocks and many hard places.
My parents are dealing with the stresses of their roof being replaced, and the smaller frustrations of a light not working. (on top of their serious medical issues) Not wanting my 92 year old terminally ill father to continue to try to repair it, I asked John if I could borrow one of his testing tools. I wasn't sure if he would be comfortable coming into my parents' house, and I also resist asking for help, which isn't always a good quality. 25 minutes later (at his insistence) John had arrived at their home, masked, with all of his tools. He is such a handy and helpful guy; he was nonplussed that my dad was working on a powered outlet with aluminum and copper wires, which apparently are a bit trickier to handle. It turns out that it wasn't the outlet at all; the roofers were pounding above the wires and the wire connecting the power to the fixture had come loose. My dad could never have managed to reconnect it, which involved standing on the counter, and manipulating many tools and the fixture itself. For many reasons, I'm very thankful for John. I didn't realize when I started dating that kindness is one of the most important qualities in a significant other. We don't always agree on music or TV, but we get along very well in other ways. On my TV: "All Creatures Great and Small"(much more my speed and I LOVED the books), "Somebody Feed Phil"(he's annoying, but the places and food are interesting) and "Derry Girls"(frivolous, but sometimes funny and poignant) On John's TV: News, news, news.
