2022 Begins

 It is puzzling, I could not stay up till midnight but I can wake up around 2:00 am and be wide awake and not able to go back to sleep readily. Anyway, Happy New Year! Happy 2022! The news of an all SEC natty can't even dim optimism for the 2022 year. Hopefully, Georgia will show up for the game and not let Alabama get into their psyche too much. We have watched a lot of football this past week. I won't say I am footballed out, but getting kind of close. That extra push at the end of a year into the beginning of the year and then boom, football is over and onto other sports. The playoff games last night weren't as exciting as most of us hoped they would be. 

We got a letter from SSA and Roy gathered up all the dates and sent them on for the process to continue. He bought a new computer on the last day of the year. We've been sharing and playing nice on this one. He did it all online thankfully and I am very happy to keep the old one as my main go to. Not quite ready for a new learning curve and all that goes with that. After getting the paperwork sent off we went to Big Lots because they carry the kind of elderberry supplement I like. We also dropped off a desk at Habitat's thrift store. Next week we will probably take more furniture over there in preparation for the last stuff heading this way. We heard from the detective yesterday and no news. 

One of Roy's friends from the office called yesterday to wish us a Happy New Year. He got Covid two days after Roy retired and is now just back at the office. They talked Toastmasters almost the whole conversation and just the usual check in kind of stuff. Roy has been checking online the local Toastmasters clubs. 

That Toupee, well, she doesn't seem to be feeling good. She did eat dry food yesterday so that is encouraging. Sweetie is hanging around with her and that seems so much like a Hector Protector vibe. I picked up Toupee without incidence and that was surprising. Radley has shown up twice this week to eat. That means KH isn't around with the Rad presence. 

I saw on FB a mural that has been painted on the side of a building of Harriett Tubman. The effect is her reaching out her hand like she will bring you back through that building. We had a set of books growing up and it seems like we could get them at Foley's or they came in the mail. I don't remember but what I do remember is reading the story of Harriett Tubman and the Underground Railroad. I re-read it several times in awe of what she was able to do. That thought brought me to 8th grade English and the paper I wrote on civil rights. The teacher asked me to see her after school and since I loved being at school...uh, no...I went to her classroom. She told me my paper was well written and well thought out, but I could not be writing these kinds of papers and expect to receive an A. She gave me a B+ and suggested I find other subjects to write on, because supporting the rights of Black people would not get me far. I took it that she meant far in her class. Good grades wasn't even in the top five things in life. My goodness I was freaking out choosing classes and the direction for life working on my four year plan that everyone had to do. In high school I wrote a poem from the point of view of as a POC and was asked how I could capture the emotions and culture so well. I didn't have an answer but felt compelled to create those stanzas. I don't know why except for the artwork that has taken me to these thoughts so early in the morning.

Well, here we are a little later in the morning. Roy is starting to appreciate easing into the morning. I think when he was here for a week at a time, he felt like there was so much to take care of, relaxing wasn't too much of an option until the end of the day. Granted, we could get a lot more done if we hit the ground running in the mornings, but while we have the opportunity, taking it easy it is just fine with me. 

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Right now it is warmer here than in Houston. That will change as we go into evening, but still. There is even a chance of thunder snow. We just got home from Sunday School. We are kind of in a catch 22 situation with paperwork and insurance, so we are trying to lower our risks to Covid and any kind of flu or cold germs in the interim. We didn't panic shop yesterday, but we did get bread and milk. Good thing we already have chips and queso, oh yes and guacamole, so we're good for the snow. Also have gingerbread men, so that will help. We needed bread because Roy has added bread back into his diet and milk for the little Feral Fam. 

We rearranged the back part of the garage yesterday and mopped the floor out there. The sky and the clouds went from snow gray to bright sunshine and back to snow gray while we were outdoors. It is so fun to see Roy's reaction here to temps and weather because it is so different than what we have known previously. 

I could only stay awake to halftime of the Sugar Bowl. Roy had also come to bed but he got up and watched the last five minutes of the game, then woke me up to give the good news of a Baylor victory. If you have been a Baylor fan for any length of time, you have had many disappointments over the years, especially in football. It is good to be a Bear in this season of life. 

This morning we talked and shared in Sunday School various thoughts and requests. While asking prayer for her grandmother, we realized the benefit of sleeping through the night and sleep or lack of sleep truly affects us in many ways. I can still tear up thinking of Buddy but not so much at night. Now, I realize how very little sleep I was getting, especially the months before we had to ease her onto the rainbow bridge. I love our class and I especially appreciate them bearing with me while teaching in Ezekiel because it is so above my paygrade. Today, I will cover blackberry bushes and help get the trash cans down to the road. I will read my book and watch some football. Tomorrow our next chapter in Ezekiel begins.