Category: At the Moment

At the Moment, Weekend Tale

Neighborhood Showdown

Karen

Remember the days when you could leave your front door unlocked?

Or walk away from your car confident it would still be there when you exited the store?

Or didn’t have to worry if someone would steal your mail – or if it would even be delivered to you and not your neighbors? (An ongoing problem with us right now).

Remember when people were neighborly? Friendly? Smiled?

I’m not saying our neighbors are jack holes – not at all – we have a lot of really nice neighbors. Kevin has made an effort, through LeRoy, because LeRoy will talk to anyone and everyone, (Kevin’s special-needs uncle), to get to know our neighbors. He can point to practically any house and tell you the names of our neighbors.

I, however, have no idea who lives where or who anyone is. I’m that neighbor – not very neighborly. I’m not rude, I’m never rude for the sake of being rude, (I’m not a KAREN after all – that’s said with tongue-in-cheek and meant as sarcastic), but I don’t go out of my way to get to know anyone, either. I like keeping most people at arm’s length. I’ve always been that way. Not just with neighbors, with co-workers, with family – I’m just a person who likes her space and the freedom to do what she wants, when she wants, without the interruption, (for the lack of a better term), of disrupting my life for someone else.

I know I’m not painting a very flattering picture of myself, but I’m just keeping it real. I’m friendly, funny, helpful and loyal, but on my terms.

But I digress, (as usual).

Everyone, to my limited knowledge, gets along in our neighborhood. Everyone seems to be pretty respectful, keeps their houses/lawns nice, smiles, nods/waves whenever we see each other, but there are always those bad apples.

We have a father/son duo who like noisy cars. It all started with the 16-ish year-old son. At least, he was the first to get my attention. Every day, you could set your watch to it, he would leave for school at 8:20 and come back from school at 3:30. You could hear his car coming for 1/2 mile. He not only has one of those highly annoying muscle car mufflers, but he has some sort of “glass thingie”, I don’t know, Kevin explained it to me but …

::blank stare – shrug::

This thing sort of detonates as the kid lets off the gas. It explodes and pops and it’s super loud. If that weren’t bad enough, in addition to him leaving and coming home from school every day, he also drives up and down our neighborhood multiple times a day so it feels like we hear his car, all. day. long.

We live on a corner lot. So, there is a stop sign at the corner and this punk has to slow down and roll through the stop sign. But that’s okay, you see, because this just gives him an excuse to rev his engine and take off with a roar, a pop and an explosion.

At all hours of the night. I don’t know if the kid is just bored, if he works as a Door Dash delivery guy, or what, but he drives back and forth, back and forth, multiple times a night.

It’s gotten so bad, that some of the younger dads in the neighborhood have confronted the punk’s dad. Kevin, or LeRoy, maybe both, have witnessed these confrontations and they are ugly. Everyone is yelling, cursing and acting all alpha male but the dad simply yells, curses right back at these guys, doesn’t apologize, nothing.

In fact, one day, the punk drove by and a pickup truck, just as loud and obnoxious, was right on his tail. I looked to Kevin and said in a sarcastic tone of voice, “Oh look, the piss-ant made a friend.” Come to find out, it was the piss-ant’s DAD.

What the actual …. ::bleep::

Apple didn’t far too far from that jerk tree, did it.

I’m not mad at the kid, he’s just following in his father’s footsteps, I’m sure good old dad is egging him on. No, it’s dad’s fault. Hands down. For not teaching his kid some manners, some courtesy, some respect.

This roar, pop, explosion, grinding went on for weeks. Neighbors called the cops on him. But the cops couldn’t do anything, he wasn’t breaking a law. I even saw a motorcycle cop hanging out around our corner one day, I think to try and catch this punk rolling through a stop sign or something, but father/son got word there was a cop hanging around and though they were still noisy, the punk didn’t speed through the neighborhood and he stopped at the stop sign. Again, this only helped him because then he would gun his car and make even more noise.

It annoyed me at first, then I got used to it. Whatever. The kid clearly wanted attention, he wasn’t getting it from me.

But we don’t have littles at home. And a lot of my neighbors do. And his driving through the neighborhood at 9:00 at night was waking up those littles.

And the neighbors continued to fume.

Then, one day, as dad was driving down the street, they flagged him down. I don’t know how they flagged him down, did they stand in the street so he couldn’t get around them? Did they pound on his truck so he stopped? I don’t know, but the guy stopped. The neighborhood guys started yelling, cursing at the guy and this time, they showed their concealed weapons.

Oh boy.

I’m all for the 2nd amendment. Everyone has a right to bear arms and protect themselves, however, I feel like the guys were close to crossing a line. I understand their frustration, but getting into a gun fight is not the answer.

I didn’t see any of this. I’m only hearing about this from Kevin who did see it. He was going to get involved, and then thought twice about it, especially after the neighborhood guys started showing off their firearms.

To be clear, the neighborhood guys were not pointing their guns at the dad. They didn’t even take the weapons out of their holsters, but them showing them to dad was a clear message: Stop messing with us.

After that?

Silence.

I guess whatever happened, whatever they said, or didn’t say, got to dad because I haven’t heard a peep out of father/son in over a week. I don’t know if they’re taking a different route, if they removed the noisy muffler thingies from their car or what, but the neighborhood is peaceful once again.

My takeaway?

If you’re a gun owner, don’t go showing it off in a threatening manner to jack holes, I get it, it’s tempting, but don’t open yourself up to a potentially deadly situation – but also – it’s good to have a gun because there ARE jack holes in this world – whether the Kumbaya folks want to admit it or not.

Don’t buy a car with super noisy mufflers. You’re not impressing anyone and everyone hates you. Save your money.

Also – can we teach our children to be respectful, decent human beings? Please? What happened to that? Why do people insist on being jerks? Your children are only reacting, imitating to what they see/hear.

Lead by example, parents.

Seriously.

At the Moment, Life

Knee Deep

Karen

I’m a spoiled princess.

I know this. It’s no secret. Kevin spoils me rotten.

I rely on him to be my fix-it man, and my yard guy.

Confession: I have never mowed our grass. Any grass, really. Could I do it if I needed to? Sure. Would I struggle and look like an idiot, (how do you turn this thing on?) Yep. Most definitely.

But I haven’t had to because I have a wonderful husband who takes care of it, and who does a really good job taking care of it.

Call me a 50’s housewife – it’s fine. You won’t hurt my feelings.

(Unlike some people – I don’t run around with my feelings on my sleeve).

My mom was the same way. She never had to take care of things outside the home because she had my dad to do it. And he enjoyed it. He loved being outdoors fiddling around with … man stuff.

I don’t pretend to understand man stuff.

But since he passed away, (the 3rd year anniversary of my dad’s death has just come/gone – can’t believe he’s only been gone for three years and yet at the same time, it feels like he’s been gone longer), mom has had to try and figure stuff out. Sure – she has us to help her, and Kevin has done a FANTASTIC job of helping her, but, Kevin also has our house, our rental house, his chickens, his elderly parents … he has a lot on his plate. He’s one man – he can only do so much.

Mom has been learning to do the outside stuff on her own. I’m so PROUD of her for rolling up her sleeves and figuring out how to use the lawn mowers, the weed eater, etc. It hasn’t been easy but she’s stubborn and persistent and she’s been figuring it out.

I worry about her, though. She’s 79 after all. I’m not sure it’s a good idea for her TO do it. I worry about her getting too hot, or getting injured and I have tried, and will continue to try, to talk her into hiring someone to take care of her lawn but like I said, she’s stubborn. She says as long as JT, (the lawn mower – a nickname my dad used – I think it stands for John’s tractor, but I could be wrong), continues to run, she will continue to ride it.

Now that the weather has been wildly too warm for this time of year …

(Side note: Take a GANDER at our temperature ranges these past few weeks! )

The trees are blooming, the flowers are coming out and yes, the dang grass is growing.

So – she’s been out there on JT. And she mentioned that the last time she was on JT she drove over a few holes in her lawn. At one point, it scared her because she thought the mower might tip over with her on it.

And that, of course, scared me.

She mentioned something about needing some dirt so she can fill in those holes. Mom and dad used to have rabbits. And they would dig holes in the yard whenever they ran around the back yard – hence where the holes came from.

I mentioned that Kevin had some dirt and maybe he would have some time to go over to her house and fill the holes in for her.

When I said something to Kevin, he said he would go over there and fill them in, but that was a few weeks ago. Remember the busy part? But, he kept thinking about it and this past Saturday, when mom came over to our house to hang out with me, he took some dirt over to her house and filled in the holes. Mom mentioned that there was one hole that she thought was pretty deep … and she wasn’t wrong.

That’s Kevin standing in the hole that mom “thought” was pretty deep.

She was right. If she, or someone walking around her backyard, had stepped into that hole, that person would very likely snap his/her ankle. Not to mention, it was the perfect size to snag a riding lawn mower tire and topple my 79-year old mother who is too stubborn to hire someone to take care of her lawn for her.

:;gulp::

Crisis averted. Kevin saved the day. The holes have been filled and that’s one less thing I have to worry about.

Thank goodness mom said something and Kevin went over there and fixed it. When things like this happen, I can’t help but wonder if that was God’s way of tapping us on the shoulder to say, “Um, excuse me. I see a potential problem and I don’t want you folks to get hurt. You might think about taking care of that.”

Thank you for taking care of us, Father.

We definitely need looking after.

At the Moment, Can We Talk?, Politics

Orange Man Bad

Karen

I might make this a series … this is a REAL problem for some people.

It’s called TDS, Trump Derangement syndrome, and if you can’t read further because Trump triggers you, bye, have a nice day.

For the rest of us, let’s break this down …

Have you ever talked to someone who has TDS? Or, have you ever watched someone with TDS?

How can you tell if someone has TDS?

They can’t talk about anything OTHER than Donald Trump. They have wild eyes, their tone of voice is unnaturally shrill, they speak, but do not make sense. They possess zero ability to think outside the idea that Orange Man Bad, that Donald Trump is the Devil, Hitler, a Fascist, a Misogynist, a Homophobe, a Nazi … really, insert any name out there and that’s Trump in their minds.

And the thoughts that spew out of their heads is NOTHING but hatred for Trump. There is no diverting their attention to another topic, or, if you’re successful in diverting someone to another topic, that person somehow, inexplicably and irrationally somehow brings it back to Trump.

It’s Trump’s fault.

Trump is evil.

Trump is the reason everything in my life sucks.

It’s really bizarre and yet fascinating to watch.

I have never really spoke to anyone with TDS, though I suspect I have some relatives that might have fallen into this self-imposed “illness”. These relatives have made comments about possibly not wanting to see the rest of the family because their political beliefs are different than ours, ours being the “wrong” belief, and they don’t want any part of that.

How sad is that? So we disagree … okay … but also – so what?

We’re still family. Nothing will change that.

But that’s a topic for another day, I suppose.

I don’t bring TDS up to be flippant – people have a right to dislike, hate, loathe Trump, and I’m certainly not making fun of people who suffer from TDS, though sometimes the disconnect from reality is pretty funny, but rather – the concept of blaming all of one’s problems, heck, everything that is wrong with this WORLD on one man … is sort of fascinating to me.

So, in an honest attempt to understand this mental mystery, let’s start at the beginning. What IS Trump Derangement Syndrome? Well, according to Wikipedia:

Trump derangement syndrome, (TDS,) is a pejorative term used to describe irrational and extreme negative reactions to President Donald Trump, often characterized by an inability to distinguish between legitimate criticism and personal hostility. It is primarily used by Trump supporters to discredit his critics and suggest that their views are distorted by their dislike of him

That last sentence made me giggle. I suppose that could be true – a Trump supporter, not appreciating someone trash-talking a person they admire, trust and have put their hope into making this country a better place, could use TDS as an excuse to discredit criticism, but I would argue that this belief, attitude, obsession, goes WAY beyond simply disagreement, I truly think some people have lost all sense of reality and use Trump as a scapegoat for every disappointment in their life.

Full disclosure – I like Trump. I voted for him and I appreciate the fact that he has the balls to make the tough decisions and help get this country back on track. However – I’m not blind to his faults, his narcissism, his unique way of speaking and the fact that he LOVES to troll the people who hate him.

New flash: you’re being trolled, people. Trump intentionally says outlandish things because it amuses him to see the media, and his haters’ heads, explode. And the people who have TDS? Fall for it, every. Single. Time.

I don’t really care much for the man, though he’s intelligent, charismatic, and talented when it comes to making deals, he’s just a man who loves his country and wants to restore American values. Personally, I just want him to fix what Biden screwed up. I want a better economy, I want to restore morals and ethics and get back to being decent human beings. (Stop encouraging mentally disturbed men to become women, stop lobbing off body parts and brain-washing children into believing they will be happier if they became someone else). I want normalcy … and our country hasn’t been normal for quite some time.

Perhaps it never will be again.

I’m not here to make fun of people who suffer from TDS, (I actually feel sorry for them, truth be known), I’m more interested in knowing WHY someone falls into this disturbed black hole of rage to begin with.

I’m not a psychologist, or a psychiatrist or particularly smart or clever, but what I AM is a realist. I don’t go through life wearing rose-colored glasses – I see the world around me for what it is. Sometimes beautiful, sometimes grim, sometimes disturbing but ALWAYS real. Some people, for whatever reason, and I’m sure everyone has their own reasons, choose to ignore reality and base their decisions, beliefs, existence on how they feel.

I’ve never understood this way of life. Sure – we’re all human, we all have feelings, we all have days/times when we made stupid decisions based on feelings in the past, but ultimately, one MUST come back down to Earth and face reality – the truth-truth – not someone else’s version of the truth.

The facts.

And facts are not always pleasant and some people have a real problem with facts, especially when those facts do not perfectly align with how we were brought up, swayed to believe, or FEEL like it should be.

So what does one do? Find a scapegoat.

And that is where Trump comes into play.

I think some people who have grown up or become indoctrinated into believing the world should be a certain way, but it’s not, because you know, that pesky reality thing, have no choice but to blame another person, entity, occasion for the reason the stars are not aligning and their warped view of the world is not being justified by reality. Instead of stepping back, looking at the big picture and entertaining the possibility they might be WRONG, they stubbornly keep their eye glued to the eyeglass and refuse to look away from their preconceived notions.

Objectivity? Never heard of her.

Critical thinking? What – are you speaking a foreign language?! What in the world does THAT mean?

Exactly. No one even knows what those terms are anymore, let alone apply them.

And that’s sad. And alarming. And sometimes, downright scary.

So. I wonder how many people with TDS are actually using Trump as an excuse to not face reality. Because their reactions to him, and their inability to have a rational conversation without injecting Trump into the conversation, even if it CLEARLY has nothing to do with him, is … strange.

Now – are there people out there that truly believe Trump is trying to cause harm to our country? Are there people out there that truly think they’re on the right side of an issue and are only trying to save our country from … insert whatever reason people think..? Of course. Everyone has a right to his/her opinion – however – when one is unwilling, or incapable, of listening to an opposing view, or incapable of contemplating that perhaps what they believe is wrong – Houston, we have a problem.

And by incapable, I mean people who fall to their knees and scream at the sky because they lack the emotional maturity to process disappointment, or anyone who doesn’t align with their beliefs or thought processes. People who are not willing, or incapable, of having a rational conversation without losing their damn minds …

I’m sorry, folks, but that’s called mental illness.

Am I always right? Of course not. And I freely, and willingly admit that. I like to think of myself as possessing a healthy dose of skepticism. I have two life mottos:

  1. Question Authority
  2. Prove it

I do not, nor will I ever, blindly accept what someone else states as “fact” if all they have to bring to the table is “feelings.”

Girl, please.

Go drink some green tea, take a nap, and come back when you have calmed down.

TDS? Is real. In my opinion, it’s a coping mechanism to avoid facing facts. Just because you WANT something to be a certain way doesn’t mean A. it will be that way and B. IS NOT REALISTIC.

All I’m saying is: Stop. Take a breath. And consider the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, there are better alternatives to a problem. And then, stop, take a breath, dust off the part of the brain that produces logical thought and listen. You might be right after all, or, you may very well be WAAAAY off the mark.

THAT my friends, is called being an adult.

Now – let’s lighten the mood and watch a little Baby Trump. (I’ve been hooked on this channel for a bit). Just because I like what the man is doing for our country doesn’t mean I can’t recognize his faults – we all have them – I just choose not to take HIM as seriously as some that have TDS.

It’s okay to laugh. Don’t forget that.

At the Moment

Life Overview

Karen

Hello stranger.

Still breathing.

And still working from home. You can catch up HERE.

I have been working remotely for two years and three months.

OVER. TWO. YEARS.

I’m sorry … what?? In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ve just started this job – I feel like I’m still blindly stumbling in the dark with my arms outstretched trying to figure out this new gig. But in other ways, I was MADE to do this job. I’m good at it. I feel pretty confident doing it but my confidence level swings back and forth like those big pirate ship rides you see at sketchy county fairs.

I’m very fortunate, I realize this. I know a lot of people would LOVE to be able to work from home. My daily uniform is a tank top and gym shorts in the warm months, and sweats and slippers in the cold months and I’m lucky if I brush my hair most days, but I’m WAAAAY less stressed than when I was working in the clinic and I don’t see myself going back to an office for the rest of my working days.

EVER.

I get bored sometimes, not gonna lie. My group, the Urgent Action Team, has gone through a lot of people. And no, it’s not because I’m a bear to work with, (at least, I HOPE that’s not the reason), but our group … we’re designed to be the janitors of the precertification departments. I continue to work today, tomorrow and the next day’s cases and of course, if/when there are any problems our pre-registration group contacts my group, (i.e. me), to figure it out. If it gets too bad, I just direct them back to the person that created the mess.

It’s exhausting and frustrating to always have to clean up someone else’s mess and THAT’S a big reason we can’t keep people on my team. Honestly? I’m thinking I may ask to transfer to another group at some point – I’ve been cleaning up after people now for nearly 2 1/2 years, I’ve put my time in.

But now is not the time. The hospital I work for is switching over to a new EMR (Electronic medical record) and though it’s going to be really cool once the dust settles, it’s going to be pure chaos before that happens. So, asking to be transferred out 1. is bad timing and 2. likely won’t happen even if I ask. The hospital flat out discouraged anyone from taking a vacation during this time period – they need all hands on deck. And that’s fair. I wouldn’t have done that anyway, I’m not a jerk, (most of the time). But once that dust settles? I make no promises.

Kevin is doing well. He’s loving retirement. He’s busier now than when he was working. He has to take care of me, our house, the boys and the rental house, LeRoy, (his special-needs uncle who also lives in the rental house with our boys, yes, the boys are still living there), his elderly parents, our seven chickens and in his “spare” time, he goes treasure hunting to fill his three thrift booths. (He’s getting a reputation for having fun, unique stuff – his monthly paychecks from that are pretty good!). Kevin knows to leave me alone when I’m working and he’s typically working on some project after I get off work so he does that and I bury my nose in my cross-stitch projects so we rarely see each other save for Friday/Saturday nights. (Our dates nights).

Blake is also doing well. He quit Wal-Mart and is now working for a prominent shipping company. He’s working from home from 6:00 PM to midnight, (he still likes his evening shifts), and he seems to enjoy the work. This has built his confidence and it’s heart warming to see him start to figure out where he belongs in life.

Brandon is also doing well. He just quit the bank when he found out that his big brother was making more money than him AND working from home, so he is also getting ready to start working for the same shipping company as Blake and will be working from home, eventually. He has to go in to the office for six weeks for training, but ultimately, he’ll work from home during the day. Blake is my night owl, Brandon is my early bird. He’s pretty excited to start that adventure.

I pray this job works out for the boys. I think a big reason they have these positions is because of Trump’s tariffs thing he’s started so … who knows if it continues when Trump leaves office. I’m quite confident that if a Democrat gets elected to the office, he (or she), will promptly undo everything Trump has done, (on so many levels and regardless of whether it’s been good for the country because ORANGE MAN BAD), so, we’ll see. That’s still three years away … a lot can, and likely will, happen in that time frame.

Not to bring politics into this … YET.

We’re coming up on three years since my dad passed away. Mom is doing better but she struggles daily and I’m sure she will continue to struggle daily. She’s adjusted but it’s a roller coaster ride. We still get together every Saturday to catch up, go out to lunch, watch Survivor, (we’re getting ready to start season 16!), and work on crafts. I look forward to these days with my momma. She’s my best friend and I enjoy our time together.

I mentioned cross-stitch – I’ve really gotten back into cross-stitching. It’s SO RELAXING! I subscribed to “Just Cross Stitch” magazine, it comes out quarterly and mom and I look forward to thumbing through it when it arrives. I’ve been bookmarking my favorites and my goal is to work at least patterns from the magazine. I’ve also jointed Audible because I spend so much time working on crafts now after work that it just makes sense to listen to some books. I’m still an active Kindle Unlimited member, but I rarely actually read anymore so I think I might cancel that and become a member of Audible when my free trial is over.

We recently returned from a two-week cruise! We drove the Jeep down to Galveston Texas to catch the boat there. We were LITERALLY one day ahead of the crazy cold, snowy weather that hit most of the US. If we had delayed our travel time by even a day, we would have struggled to get down there. We took a gamble booking a cruise the last week/first week of January/February but it’s cheaper to take a cruise that time of year, (for obvious reasons), and we decided to go for it. Up until we left, the weather had been pretty mild and we thought, “cool – no problem, we’ve got this.” And then … Mother Nature wagged her finger and said, “not so fast, chicka.” lol

Writing more about the cruise is on my list of things to write about, (don’t hold your breath folks – if you had a dime for every time I’ve said that, right??), but in a nutshell – to sum it up – the jury is still out on whether I like being on a ship for two weeks. Kevin could have sailed longer, he loves it, but … I started to get a little homesick and started to feel a little claustrophobic, which is stupid given we stopped at eight ports during that two week time. We were busy and off the boat quite a bit but still … it’s a lot. Would I do it again? I don’t know … I guess it depends on the trip but … it was a lot.

The Jeep was a dream to drive. No issues whatsoever and we even got pretty decent gas mileage – better than I expected. And driving down there WAS more relaxing than navigating the chaos and stress of flying, so liked that part. But, the down side – it took two days to drive down there and back so … there’s that. Would we drive to a port again? Absolutely.

Kevin surprised me with one of those digital picture frames. His folks have one and they love it. His mom really loves that the family can upload their pictures to their frame through the app so she feels like she’s constantly being updated on how the family is doing. We both took a lot of pictures on our vacation and posted them there so it’s been fun to see them scroll through. We’re going to make folders and start uploading more vacation pictures. We have soooo many pictures. It’s also a goal of mine to make photo books of our cruises, camping trips, holidays, etc. Mom has been busy sorting through all of her pictures and putting them in albums and it’s been quite a project for her. But she doesn’t want to leave a bunch of random pictures in a box for us after she’s gone to scratch our heads over and think, “who is that??” So that has inspired me to get our photos organized and ready to view. We have sooo many cool photos, both print and digital – the challenge is to put there somewhere so we can easily look at them.

These are the highlights of my life right now. Obviously, there is SOOO much more to say – I have so many thoughts and opinions on what is happening with the world right now, it’s overwhelming to think about sorting through all of that – where do I even start??

I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, I hope you all are doing well and hopefully we’ll “talk” soon.

At the Moment, Vacations

Planning 2025 Vacations

Karen

Do you try and go on vacations every year?

We do. And we have, except during the scamdemic when no one was allowed to breathe unless given permission to do so.

Going on vacation is the light at the end of my working tunnel. It gives me something to look forward to. Otherwise, it’s the same hum-drum every day, I start feeling beat down and not exactly depressed but sort of … numb.

Though I love going on vacation, I love planning vacations almost as much. There is something so satisfying about putting travel puzzle pieces together and building a trip. We don’t use a travel agent, I’M the travel agent. I coordinate the flights, the trips, the vacation details including reservations for various things we want to do/see. Kevin hates this part, but me? I enjoy it. I’m a planner. Though I don’t get as upset when things don’t go according to plan anymore, (I used to get SO STRESSED when something didn’t go according to my carefully-laid out plans), it is nice to have some sort of a skeleton plan to begin with.

We have been on some pretty epic vacations in the past. For example, here is a list of vacations we’ve taken over the past decade …

This list doesn’t include our vacations from 2024:

2024 May Cruise to Bermuda (left out of Boston)
2024 June Camping to Branson MO
2024 Camping to Greenville MO
2024 Camping to Beaver Lake AR
2024 Camping to Crater of Diamond/Diamond Mine Murfreesboro AR

We had two cancellations – the first was supposed to be our 30th anniversary cruise to Europe. We were going to fly into Amsterdam, drive through the countryside and spend the night in a hotel near the cruise port. We were going to England, France … I can’t remember all of the places, but it was going to be EPIC. But if you notice the date, it was during the scamdemic year and we had no choice but to cancel the trip. We weren’t ABOUT to succumb to societal pressure and inject ourselves with God knew what just to go on a cruise. Our health was way more important to us than that.

The second cancellation was October of last year. We had to cancel because Kevin’s dad ended up in the hospital and very nearly died. (He’s okay right now).

We had gone on a cruise, pretty much, every year until the scamdemic. When the scamdemic happened, we weren’t about to be stuck at home all the time because life is too short to hide from it, so we started talking about buying a 5th Wheeler and going camping again.

We bought a pop-up when we were young parents. We took quite a few trips in the pop-up and though we enjoyed it, it was a lot of work and not really that safe. We got caught in a hurricane-turned-tropical storm one time and we were nearly blown over from the fierce winds. It scared us. We were basically a kite just waiting to lift off. We sold the pop-up shortly after that experience but by that time, we had used it for a number of years and we were sort of burned out of camping.

Fast forward about ten years later, and we bought our “Cub.” It was a hybrid camper. A hard shell camper with two folding tent beds on either side. It was a cool little camper and we drove it to Estes Park Colorado one year with the boys. We had a lot of fun, but it stressed me out because the canvas beds would leak and I would obsess about making sure I had sprayed enough water repellent to try and prevent waking up in a puddle of water every morning. Then we noticed it was starting to buckle and the walls were warping because of water getting in so we ended up selling it.

We were done with camping from that point forward, or so we thought.

When the scamdemic happened and it looked like we were going to be forced to cancel our cruise, we went into rebellion mode. We were not, nor will ever be, those people who kowtow to a government that tries to bully us into living our lives according to THEIR rules. So, instead of going on our anniversary cruise to Europe, we flew to Clearwater Florida and stayed at a hotel for a week. It was right across the street from the beach and it was a fun, if not weird, time. Everyone was pretty freaked out about COVID at that time, we had to wear masks, yadda,yadda,yadda, I don’t have to remind you of that dark and weird time in our history. Though we braved the hostile environment, (because let’s face it – it WAS hostile – everyone looking at each other with suspicion and with judge-y eyes), and got away for a short time, it wasn’t anywhere NEAR the type of vacations we were used to, or even wanted.

Since we had no idea when, or if, we would ever be able to get on a cruise ship again, we started talking about buying a camper again. I was surprised Kevin was even open to the idea because he wasn’t that crazy about camping to begin with. But when we started to seriously look and pay attention to how much campers were … whoa. But we were still determined to do SOMETHING for vacation every year.

And then, both Kevin and I stumbled on to some YouTube videos of people who had converted a cargo trailer into a camper and it was like a lightbulb moment.

Wait a minute … COULD WE DO THIS?!

Before I knew it, Kevin had bought a cargo trailer and was making plans to convert it. We watched a TON of videos on how to convert a trailer, came up with a layout that worked for us and Kevin started scouring the city for pieces he could use to build it. He found all of our cabinets at Habitat for Humanity and various other pieces at thrift stores … he did such a good job of keeping the cost down and he built everything himself. I’m so proud of him!

We’ve used it about 18 times over the past three years. We’ve been taking about four camping trips a year, though Kevin has used it a few more times than me as he has taken LeRoy on some camping trips, too. We love it. The trailer is very comfortable, is holding up really well, hasn’t leaked, so far, and it was the best $13,000 we’ve ever spent. (That includes the trailer). We plan on continuing to go camping for the next 5 years or so … until either we can not physically handle it anymore, (because camping is a lot of work), and/or, we just get tired of it.

Which brings us up-to-date. It’s that time of year again when I start throwing vacation ideas against the wall to see what sticks. I want to plan one long camping trip, a few short camping trips, and one cruise. We have some pretty strong contenders, now it’s just a question of figuring out the logistics.

I won’t actually start booking anything until January – we need to get through the holidays and cool our credit card off a bit, but I’m making plans, doing some research and getting excited for this year’s trips!

Bring it on, 2025!

At the Moment

Merry Christmas … Again?!

Karen

The world is spinning too fast, I’d like to get off, please.

I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but seriously folks – IT’S TIME FOR CHRISTMAS AGAIN?!

Are you ready? I’m not, though I do have some gift ideas. The only people I really buy gifts for anymore is my mom and our boys. Which is silly, because the boys are 32 and 29, but you know how it is when you’re a parent – your kids will always be little in your mind.

We put the Christmas tree up right around my birthday, which is early November. I know, we’re THOSE people. But I don’t care. I feel like we get the tree up, don’t get a chance to enjoy it because we’re so busy with work and other obligations, Christmas happens and it’s time to take it down. Nope. We’re putting it up early November and keeping it up until New Year’s. We get six weeks to enjoy it.

Plus, it’s a lot of work and I hate doing work with little pay out.

What is up with Christmas lights? We’ve had two strands burn out on us so far this year. Kevin just pus another strand on, the tree is decorated and it’s too much of a pain to take everything off, change out lights, then put everything back on again. So. When it’s time to dismantle the tree, we’ll be peeling off about two extra sets of dead lights.

Fun.

But I suppose that’s like everything else – nothing is made like it used to be. We used to get four, or more, years out of a strand of Christmas lights, now we’re lucky if we get four, or more, weeks out of a strand of lights.

We’re planning a few Christmas parties. We’re supposed to go to Kevin’s family’s party on the 15th, then we’re having my family’s party on the 22nd. We’re having Kevin’s party at his parents’ clubhouse. It’s the clubhouse that everyone in the neighborhood uses. It’s a really nice space that comfortably houses everyone. It comes with a kitchen, too, so it’s really handy. We’re planning on having my family’s party at our house on the 22nd. I think mom would have liked to have the party at her house but our house is bigger.

Hopefully, I have my voice back by then. These past two weeks have been ROUGH for me. I left work/home to drive up to Wal-Mart because I needed a few things and as I was walking into the store, I got THAT feeling. You know, THAT feeling when you start to feel sick? I can’t even describe THAT feeling … just an overall pressure/heaviness that weighs down your entire body. And it came on HARD. I had been feeling a little run down before that and had loaded up on Vitamin C, Zinc and Zicam but apparently it wasn’t enough to stop the freight train that slammed into my entire body. I quickly got what I needed from Wal-Mart and came back home. I felt ok-ish for the rest of the day but by Tuesday, my throat was really sore and I had a dry cough.

Swell.

Wednesday, my sinuses started to thicken up and my voice was raspy, but still, I thought I would feel better by Thanksgiving.

Nope.

I woke up Thanksgiving day and felt like a dog had dug me up and treated me like a beloved chew toy. Yum. We were supposed to have Kevin’s parents, my mom, the boys and Leroy over for Thanksgiving dinner. Kevin had cooked the turkey the day before, but he went ahead and cooked the entire meal, by himself, the day of (God bless him), and he ended up taking food to his folks and having lunch with them while the boys took my mom some food and had lunch with her. It was just me and my germs at home.

Still though, I had a dry cough, I could barely speak, but I didn’t feel that bad, overall. I wasn’t in any shape to be around people, but I wasn’t feeling that bad.

The week after Thanksgiving, my cough turned phlegmy, heavy and loud. I was glad, actually, that meant whatever crap I had caught was finally started to break up. My body had figured out the key to this sickness lock and I had turned a corner. Monday, I could talk but it sounded like I had a cold, Tuesday, it was a little weaker, but I started training the new girl that day and I talked ALL DAY so by the time Wednesday rolled around, I could barely speak above a whisper. I had to train her via text, which was fun … not. (Reminder – I work from home and my company uses Microsoft Teams to communicate with one another). I trained via text pretty much the rest of the week.

It’s a good thing I’m a fast typist. The new girl was being nice, she said she didn’t mind it because it slowed us down, and she was right about that! But still, I felt guilty. I’ve NEVER had laryngitis this bad in my entire life. I felt fine otherwise, I just couldn’t talk.

Friday, mom picked me up and we drove up to the Middle School to set up her Christmas craft booth. It was only a one-day event but we went up the night before to set it up. I was fine until about halfway through the set up and then a wave of nausea hit me so hard I had to go outside, around the corner of the building and throw up. I felt better for about 15 minutes and then, it started to hit me again. Mom said I looked pretty bad so she could tell I wasn’t feeling well, so we left. Mom has a harder time seeing at night, so I drove my dad’s truck back to my house. As soon as we got to my house, I said bye and rushed into the house, straight to our bathroom and threw up two more times.

Dude. I don’t know. Again, I’m NEVER sick so by this time, I’m getting pretty annoyed with myself. I don’t know if I ate something bad? Or if it was because I hadn’t eaten anything before going up to the school and I’ve been pretty sedentary because I’ve been sick and it was the sudden physical activity, or maybe it was because I sucked on a cough drop on an empty stomach, maybe it was a combination of all these things, but after emptying my stomach, I felt loads better and I feel good today.

I have A voice, it’s not MY voice. It still sounds like I have a stuffy nose but at least I can talk, people can understand me and my throat is no longer sore. I had heard, from other people at work, that a sickness has been going around and it was affecting people’s voice boxes … who knows. All I know is I’m glad I’m back to semi-normal and life has resumed once again.

The craft show on Saturday went well. I woke up Saturday, took a shower, got ready and started feeling nauseous again. AAARGH. I ate a piece of dried toast, took a Tylenol, laid down for about 30 minutes and felt like a new woman. Kevin dropped me off at the school shortly after the show started and I was able to sit with mom all day with no problem. Still couldn’t talk very loudly, but I could talk. There weren’t as many people there as we had hoped. It started out busy in the morning but by about 1:00 PM, traffic as practically nil. It was a beautiful day and a lot of people were out, but not a lot of people were at the school shopping for crafts. Overall, mom did well. She sold quite a few things, I sold some of my dorky diamond painting ornaments, my cute diamond paining cow picture and I ended up buying a super cute snowman from mom’s craft neighbor and friend.

I’m just glad I felt better and was able to sit with her. The show ended at 4:00 and we were packed up and driving away from the school by 4:20!! That has to be a record. Granted, I did move her truck up closer to the school about an hour before closing time and we lucked out and got a spot right outside the doors when it was time to leave but we timed it perfectly and kicked butt getting out of there.

Now, to get through the rest of the holidays.

I just wanted to post a little something-something to let ya’ll know I’m still here. I’m feeling the urge to write again but don’t worry, I’m sure it will go away like it usually does. Ha! I’m hoping to write a little more, if not consistently, in 2025, but you know me …

K – time to shift focus and get ready to clock on for work. Since I’ve been training I’ve been working 10:30 AM – 7:00 PM and I sort of hate it. Not the training part but the hours. This right-smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-day shift is for the birds. Not a fan. Boo!

Christmas is right around the corner … are you ready?!

At the Moment, Life

Remember COVID?

Karen

It’s hard to believe that we’re coming up on four years post-COVID. In some ways, it seems like it happened ten years ago, in some ways, it feels like it’s still happening, on some level.

I know a lot of people have mixed, and strong, feelings about the man-made pandemic, and that’s okay. We all have unique experiences, we all went through some very uncomfortable, sad and in some cases, horrific times. All I can relay about COVID is my personal experience and my personal thoughts and opinions – feel free to agree, or disagree. We’re all unique individuals and are entitled to process traumas in different ways. My way of thinking is not right, your way of thinking is not wrong – but my goal is to process these sorts of events with my eyes wide open.

I hope you will, too.

To catch those up just joining us, (thanks for the subscribes, by the way!), I work in healthcare. I used to be a medical assistant in Neurosurgery, yes, brain surgeons, and it was the most challenging, and the most rewarding, experience of my life. I did that for 12 years. Now, I work from home with the precertification department, meaning, I run testing, like MRI’s, CT’s, and other testing, through the patient’s insurance company to make sure they know about the test and agree to pay their portion of the bill.

It sounds boring because it is boring, but it’s a necessary step in patient care.

Health insurance – now that’s a topic for another day.

As you can imagine, working in healthcare during the height of COVID was … challenging. Especially since I didn’t agree with the vaccine mandates, and still don’t agree with vaccine mandates, (they have since lifted the COVID vaccine mandate at my hospital – is anyone shocked?). and to me, it made zero sense to subject myself to an experimental vaccine for a disease that had a 99% recovery rate for healthy people. I had to fight the hospital. I filed a religious exemption and was denied. I then appealed it and to my utter surprise, it was approved. I really think that by the time I appealed my exemption, the hospital was bleeding employees, they were leaving because they didn’t want to get the jab, and the hospital felt like they couldn’t lose anymore employees and approved me.

I’m quite sure it wasn’t because I was a valuable employee, it all came down to numbers – let’s not kid ourselves.

Anyway. I ended up staying. Filed a religious exemption against the annual flu vaccination, which is still a requirement to this day, and they approved that, too. And as long as they continue approving my exemptions, I’m happy to continue working for this company.

Now that COVID is behind us, for the most part, a lot of really disturbing information has come out about the experimental jab. “Vaccine injuries,” they are calling it. In many cases, people have died from the complications of the injection, whether you want to admit it not, it’s been happening.

I subscribe to an email newsletter: Coffee and COVID. Jeff is a lawyer and it’s interesting to get a legal slant on the COVID madness surrounding us.

“The pandemic is behind us, but the propaganda, the psyops, and the relentless drumbeat of bad news continues. My mission is to deliver truth and light in an entertaining and optimistic way that you can safely share with people you love who haven’t yet seen the light.” says Jeff.

It’s also refreshing to keep on top of the COVID fallout because have you heard any follow up news about COVID in the, (MSM), main-stream media?

I didn’t think so.

Jeff also writes witty, and informative, opinions and takes on all of the other craziness in the world right now, too. He often brings a smile to my face. I highly recommend his newsletter.

I don’t bring all of this up to scare you, though it is scary to read about, but to inform you – there is a lot of crap that is going on in the world and you can’t count on the MSM to inform you. It’s better to know what we’re dealing with so we can come up with a realistic defense if/when it directly impacts our personal worlds – again.

Ignorance is NOT always bliss.

Here is an interview between Tucker Carlson and Bret Weinstein. I really enjoy listening to Bret, I feel smart if I’m able to keep up with his commentary, (ha!), and though there are some things I disagree with him about, I do appreciate how he takes the time to articulate his point-of-view and with how thorough he analyzes an issue. This interview is Bret’s take on the WHO’s plan to force everyone to give up their bodily autonomy and hand it over to the WHO on a silver platter so they can dictate what is “good” for us and of course, the good of the people in general. It’s scary stuff and something you would read in a story like “1984” and yet, here we are. It’s worth a listen.

A few thoughts:

“Pharma is healthy when people are sick.” A lot can be said for this simple statement but in a nutshell, Pharma is big business and in order for them to stay in business, they need people to remain sick. If that doesn’t rock any trust you might have had in pharmaceuticals, or the healthcare industry as a whole, you’re really not paying attention. It’s a shame that COVID damaged healthcare so much, but perhaps we should have been paying closer attention to what Pharma has been doing all along.

“Pharma created something truly beautiful with the mRNA technology.” Interesting. I never really thought that the technology could be used for good. And perhaps at some point in time, it might be able to manipulate people’s DNA, trick it, into repurposing cells to help the body’s natural way of producing what it needs to produce but for some reason doesn’t produce, like insulin, as Bret suggests. I suppose the question would be, would Pharma be motivated to use their “beautiful” technology for something like that? I guess it depends on how much the profit margin would be.

The part about your heart not repairing itself … didn’t really surprise me but alarmed me. I wonder how many people know this? Once our heart is damaged, it’s damaged forever and if your heart is not pumping at full capacity, then it will ultimately shorten your life. His hypothesis on why these athletes have been collapsing on the fields because they’re likely pushing damaged hearts to the limit makes perfect sense, too. The fact that these “vaccines” targeted the hearts of so many, and that so many people’s lives have been and will be, impacted by this government over reach … it’s truly mind blowing when you look at the big picture. These people that pushed this crap on to us, that ruined so many lives, that killed so many people, truly should be in jail. It’s pure evil what they have done to people.

The fact that Pharma thought they had the media in their back pocket and were confident they could sell us anything they wanted to sell us because the media would have their backs was also very telling. And the fact that it was podcasts, Elon Musk buying Twitter, and alterative platforms and news sites like Rumble and NewsMax that thwarted their plans also demonstrates how crucial it is to have alterative sources to go to. Because if we allow MSM to control the flow of information … think how much power they would have over us. It’s mind boggling, and terrifying, honestly.

“The measures that would have allowed them to silence the podcasters, to mandate various things internationally in a way that would prevent the emergence of a controlled group that would allow us to see harms clearly, that’s the reason I think that people, that want to move on from thinking about COVID, maybe stop thinking of COVID, but do start thinking about what has taken place in respect to medicine, public health, Pharma and ask yourself the question, given what you now know would you want to relive the COVID pandemic without the tools that allowed you to ultimately in the end see clearly that it didn’t make sense to take another one of these shots, or your kids to take the shots, we want those tools, in fact we need the tools,”

In a nutshell, Bret is saying that we had enough tools, THIS TIME, at our disposal during COVID to push enough doubt in enough people and then to spread this doubt, that we were able to push back on the narrative so that it stopped the hemorrhage from being fatal. If we had not had those tools, that dissension, I’m betting our world would look a whole lot different right about now. This is why it’s CRUCIAL that you get your news from different sources. You can’t trust anything anyone tells you so it’s up to you to use due diligence and educate yourself on what is truly happening so that you can make informed decisions when it comes to you and your family.

Pay special attention to what Bret says about what the WHO is proposing to do if/when another pandemic happens. The WHO is trying to give itself authority to tell you what you can and not take, to demand that you take what it thinks you need, to doctor documents so that you may not travel freely if you do not conform to their demands and to box you in so tightly that you can not live a free life. You will be at the mercy of those that are doing what is “right” for the “greater good.” However, because we have these tools, these voices and platforms that dare to speak out, to ask questions, to bring these evil agendas to people’s attention, the WHO was forced to back off and lie to the camera in order to dilute it’s intentions.

For now.

This, THIS, is why we must never forget COVID. Because if we forget what they did, what they are trying to do to do to us when future tragedies strike, it will make it that much easier to squash us under their thumbs like the ants they think we are.

Don’t forget what they did. NEVER FORGET.

Thanks for reading.