Oh, man. So glad we’re getting back to the business of normal life now that the election and inauguration are over with. 

Hahahaha just kidding. Still living with the pandemic and all the fun times.

I’ve started playing a game that I’ve called, “How many times today?” It’s really fun. Here’s how you play:

Pick a person that you’re in fairly frequent contact with. Maybe a co-worker if you’re working in an office, or maybe even a family member, if that’s who you’re spending all of your time with. Then, pick a complaint that you’ve heard that person make. For instance, mine is a person who I’ve never seen wear a mask. Like, never. And yet, this person constantly complains about other people who don’t wear masks.

Yeah, this game is a tad bitchy.

Then, pick a random number of times you think the person is going to make the complaint in a specific period of time. The last time I played, I picked eight times in one hour.

Guess what? I lost. Ten was the magic number. Ten complaints in one hour. 

My new goal is to see if I can make others play this game with me as the complainer. I’m going to make my dreams come true.

What? New horizons. I can do this.

I also forgot to mention it, but every time I win, I get a piece of chocolate. That’s the key to the fun. Chocolate.

Yeah, I get a piece if I lose, too. I’m a grownup. I do what I want.

Religion is a poor substitute for humanity.

It just is. Spouting cherry-picked verses from the Bible and then being nasty and cruel and hateful to others because they differ from you or disagree with you is not Godly, and it’s not right.

We have to stop. We need to remember our manners, think before speaking, and remember that these are our fellow human beings. They have thoughts, feelings, experiences, and lives that we know nothing about. Remember that we’re all struggling with one thing or another.

BE KIND.

 So the whole Christmas-New Year inspirational thought time kind of passed me by. Mostly I was just trying to deal with work stuff and baking and trying to see my Dad a little bit in a safe way.

Coronavirus time, man. It’s crazy.

We did find good hiking trails in our neighborhood, though, so that’s pretty great. And we’re trying to potty train our bird, but have discovered that training a bird is really tough because they forget things so easily. So that’s going to take another year or two, but it’s okay. She gets really proud when we both clap at her for pooping on her papers instead of on the floor or on us. Once or twice, we could tell she made the connection and let us know she needed to poop so we could take her to her paper to do her business, but come on. She’s a bird.

And that’s pretty much it. No deep thoughts, just the usual normal stuff. And getting excited for a vaccine so we can see each other safely because we are a small family, so we’re pretty darn close and it’s weird not hanging out a lot. But it looks like a warm winter, so lots of outdoor porch time with my Dad’s AMAZING porch heater. For reals, that thing puts out a ton of heat. I love it.

We’ll get through, guys. Just keep going. Support your local stores and restaurants because Amazon is going to be just fine, but the little guys need help right now, if you can. And be nice, wash your hands, and wear a mask. It’s just common courtesy; don’t make it political. Please.