Current State of Mind

Today I went back and looked over the whole blog, from day one, just to see what I used to post about. The entire blog took place while we lived in Georgia, and of course SO much has happened since then, so I'll just have to post a lot of things to catch up. But one thing hasn't changed- most of my old posts were about the cats, hanging out at home, toodling around town, struggling with my weight, and travel. My life has not changed ONE bit since I started the blog in 2009! And I am kind of happy to say that! (Except for the weight part, wish that was different!)

I mentioned we now live in Virginia- and I'll have to go back and post all the stuff from our short time in Tennessee. Virginia makes the fifth state I've lived in. I can't tell you how long we will stay here, it really depends on James' job. He may change positions or divisions again one day in the future. Every time we've moved, it's been because of his job. He's been with the company I think over 22 years now. We now live in Elliston, which is a very small rural "community" south of Salem, where the hubby's workplace is at. I mean really RURAL, like sometimes I get my phone out and it says "No Service" rural. Salem is south of Roanoke, which is pretty much the biggest town around. Having said that, Roanoke is NOT very big at all, to me anyhow. I've spent my entire life living just 5-10 minutes away from everything I need, whether it be Kohl's or Target, Michaels or PetSmart, Kroger or Lowe's. Now it's a good 20 minutes to just "some" of those things in Salem. The rest are about 40 minutes away in Roanoke. I will admit, traffic isn't bad here, coming from someone who lived just outside of Atlanta for almost ten years. Elliston is sandwiched in between Salem to the north, and Christiansburg to the south. I used to go to Christiansburg the most when we first moved here, but lately I've been going to Salem instead. Less stores to pick from, but it has the basics covered.

We moved here the last week of October in 2019, and since then we've had two vacations, the holidays, company visiting twice, and then of course the quarantine started. I've been "at home" in quarantine since March 12th- that was the last day I was out in public. The panic had already started here, that day I went to do my regular grocery shopping and found shelves wiped out. I had gone to my Weight Watchers meeting that morning and a lady two rows ahead of me was obviously VERY ill but as she coughed away she announced to everyone "it's not coronavirus, it's just the regular flu" and I was aghast. I told James about it when I got home and he said yeah, you're not going back out again. I have severe asthma and had just gotten over a long bout of mild pneumonia in January. I can't even pretend to think I would do well if I caught this virus, because I struggle to breathe on a normal healthy day. So I've stayed put since then, I've not seen or talked to anyone but James since that day. And in fact, that was the last week my WW meeting place was opened, so I'm not even missing those. Ever since then, James has been running all the errands- grocery shopping, the pharmacy, post office, Lowe's. Since James works for a food distribution company, he's still out there every day anyhow, so he is taking over the shopping for me. They are very safe at work- taking temperatures every day of every employee, practicing extreme social distancing- and he is equally safe when he goes out into public. If he needs to get down an aisle at the store, he waits until it is empty. He carries Clorox wipes in his truck and wipes down everything immediately. When he gets home every night, he changes into clean clothes before he can even approach me.

But we go for drives on the weekends, and sometimes I've gone on short drives around town by myself, just for a change of scenery. This past weekend I actually rode with James as he ran our errands, and I made him use the Clorox wipes before he got back in the truck. James recently hiked part of the Appalachian Trail (before it was shut down) and we took a day drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, both of which run through Roanoke. So sadly we haven't got to know our new area very well, just because we haven't had the time or opportunity yet. It IS a big change, we've never lived so out in the country before. Pros and cons, of course, mostly pros I guess. This is an area of the country where outdoor sports rule. We have so much hiking and biking and watersports here. Unfortunately most of the greenways and trails are closed right now, because people were mobbing them by the hundreds and no one was wearing PPE or keeping safe distances. Luckily I live in a very "country" setting even though it's in a planned neighborhood (called "The Ridges"), but I have nice streets to walk when the weather is pretty. Right now we're in the season where it's freezing then hot, all in the same day. I was running my heat this morning, but I have the AC on this afternoon. I was told it gets downright hot and muggy here in the summer. I'm from Florida, so I'll be the judge of that! I'll post more about life here soon, and more about the house and town. The photos in this post are from one of my neighborhood strolls. You can see how the subdivision got it's name. What beautiful views. One of the "pros" for sure!

SANDY

Our New Family Members

As I mentioned in a previous post, we lost two of our kitties to cancer, General and Romeo. It was a sad thing to go through, as anyone who has lost a pet will understand. General had a very aggressive form of cancer and sadly he didn't live very long once he got sick. Romeo had a slower growing cancer, and with medication and chemo and a great oncology staff, he survived almost two years with it. And although we loved them both very very much and they can never be replaced in our hearts, when one door closes another one opens, and for us, in walked new cats!

Christmas came to us at a super crazy time, in December of 2017. Romeo was recovering from one of his cancer-related surgeries. We were getting ready for the holidays and my dad's visit. And as soon as Romeo was finished with his "confinement" and recuperation, Maarten had a life or death incident that required emergency surgery and 10 days in the hospital, and then the same confinement/recuperation that his brother Romeo just dealt with. In the middle of all of this, James went to go hang the Christmas wreath on the front door and there, in a patch of sunshine on our welcome mat, slept a small black kitten. Mind you, at the time we lived on almost 8 acres out in the country, way up on a very steep hill, surrounded by heavy woods (yes this was my Tennessee dream house that we just left) and we were surprised to find her. Of course, up and down the country road we lived on there were several farms with barns, so we assumed she was a kitten that wandered away from one of those barns. We put her photo on a flyer and delivered one to each neighbor, but no one claimed her. In the beginning we kept her in our mud room, where she stayed warm and dry and well-fed. Eventually we decided to keep her, and James named her Christmas for obvious reasons.

 

Christmas is extremely loving and affectionate, and she loves to sleep in your lap. She loves to be scratched and petted. Romeo had been James' "buddy" and Christmas has done an admirable job of filling that role. She's a good sized cat, at about 11 pounds. She's very high energy and loves to run around and climb, and for a long time she was a little too aggressive with Maarten when it came to play time. Maarten was starting to slow down because of severe arthritis in all four of his legs, as well as a deformed hip. Although I could tell he enjoyed playing with Christmas, she pounced on him to the point where he couldn't physically defend himself very well. I know she didn't intend to hurt him, but I had to constantly break them apart. Romeo passed away at the end of April in 2019 and by October we had packed up and moved here to Virginia.

About a week after we moved here, I first saw Pippa! She was at a PetSmart adoption center, and I just fell in love with her. Of course I always look at the kitties there, and I always fall in love. I would go see her once a week in her little cage there. I kept talking about her nonstop to James, hoping to wear him down! I sold him on the fact that Spider and Maarten were getting old, they were very much senior kitties and I'm realistic, they won't be around forever. Christmas is still young and she really needed someone to play with and someone to grow up with. I thought adopting Pippa was a great solution.

 

Even though we're known for having black cats, General was a tuxedo and I've always wanted another one. General was such a big personality, but when I started going into the adoption center to actually "meet" Pippa, she seemed super shy and scared. I wasn't sure she would fit in with our three at home. But I had time to think about it. A few weeks after we moved here, we went on a cruise so I knew I didn't want to bring her into a new home then simply leave. I told the rescue group that I wanted to adopt her and that if she was still available once we got home, I would come get her. Luckily she was! Originally I thought she was a kitten, because she was a tiny thing at only 5 pounds. I've never had a cat who weighed in the single digits! But it turns out that Pippa was 4 years old and had just given birth to a litter. The kittens had all been adopted but Pippa had been up for adoption for several months, with no interest. I don't know why!!! Look how pretty she is!

 

Pippa got her name from the staff of the rescue group, and I thought it was cute so I just kept it. They said she was already answering to it anyhow. And oddly enough, the only other cat I ever "kept" a previous name for was General. They named him that at the kitten rescue and asked us to keep it, so we did. Introducing Pippa into the household was a little bumpy, even though we did it slowly. She was a little scared, and the other cats were a little hissy. But it didn't last long, everyone is lovey dovey now. And although I got Pippa with the idea of her being a sister to Christmas, Pippa for some reason likes to play with Maarten! I don't know what it is, but the younger girls seem to favor him. But we're going through the same thing as before, Pippa plays rough and makes Maarten cry, so I have to break them up. But Maarten usually jumps right back in there, because he loves the wrestling too. She loves to chase him too, and I worry about that because he will zoom around and I know darn well that arthritis is hurting him (although he does take medication for it).

Pippa is VERY high energy and it turns out she is NOT shy at all. And even though she's a small cat, she's doubled in weight since coming to live with us. So she's a pudgy girl now, but it doesn't stop her from running around like crazy. She has a very funny little squeak instead of a meow. And just two weeks ago I started her own Instagram account @pippa_dippa_doo (my nickname for her) and she has almost 900 followers as of today. I almost called her account "hey there's Pippa!" because it's what I say every time I see her. It's been crazy because it grew so quickly, and I like to respond to all comments. But she's so cute and so photogenic, I couldn't stop taking pictures of her. She needed to have her own page! I will say, I think James is utterly in love with her as well, and I know he's glad we adopted her.

I'm also glad that we are able to open our home to kitties in need, and I know they'll always have love and food and toys and medical when they need it. They do give us so much joy. Since I'm home all day anyhow, it's good to have them with me. And now that James comes home every day, we have fun in the evenings watching their antics and having them come to bed with us at night.

SANDY

 

One Grand Adventure

So yes, we went on a few truly amazing vacations since I last posted on here regularly. It's our favorite thing to do! I'll try to catch up and post about most of them in the upcoming weeks. One of the trips I'd like to show you is one of our three cruises from 2019- we went to Cuba in April of that year. Yes, we were fortunate enough to sneak in a trip to this beautiful island, before the doors got slammed shut again. I feel so lucky to be able to put this destination on our list of places we've visited. We booked it as soon as the cruise lines started sailing there. I told my husband we HAVE to go because I just knew in my heart the current administration would ban travel again, and they did of course. Sadly we had friends who had booked their cruises there already, and they were cancelled, so they didn't make it there. So thank you Carnival Paradise for such a magical trip!

Our cruise left out of Tampa, which enabled me to have a quick visit with all my family down there in my hometown of Bradenton. We had one of our favorite types of cabins- the aft balcony. We love being on the very back of the ship, you just can't beat that panoramic unobstructed view! The ship's first stop was in Key West, one of our favorite destinations and, by the way, where we got married. We didn't take a tour here, we've already been so many times and we've done just about everything there. Although this was our first "cruise" here, because normally we fly to Miami, drive down and stay for awhile. We walked around to our favorite spots- ate lunch at DJ's Clamshack (where you can still see the license plate sign James made for them years ago, hanging on the wall), we went to the Hemingway Home because we were missing our kitties, we did plenty of shopping, and we just strolled up and down Duval because when you're in Key West, that's what you do. That and eat key lime pie on a stick, which of course we did. I say it's the closest thing to being on a tropical island without leaving the US. I was born and raised on the beach in Florida, of course, but I can never get enough of the Keys. And don't think I haven't thought about living there one day. But I don't like hot weather!!

We made it to Cuba, coming into Havana during the predawn hours and staying overnight. James and I booked an all day long tour. Normally we don't book excursions, we do our own thing, but in Cuba we had to book at least one guided tour in order to visit. Afterwards we were on our own- we could have spent the whole night dancing and partying away- but truth be told after walking around ALL day and seeing so many wonderful things, we didn't do anything other than the tour. We were tired! We started off at the port, and went on a quick walking tour with our guide through the old city. We saw museums, gardens, and stunning architecture. I was so impressed with the buildings, I couldn't stop taking photos. Of course I couldn't read most of the signs or plaques on any buildings, but our guide did a wonderful job of pointing everything out to us.

We then took a comfortable bus ride over to the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabaña. Of course the first thing we did there was buy coffee, rum, and cigars at their gift shops. We were fortunate, we were the first tour group there so we had the place to ourselves for awhile. Then it got crowded. It was a beautiful place to walk around, gorgeous views of the city and our ship, and it was early enough the weather was pleasant while we were strolling along the brick pathways. We found a few local vendors set up there, but the coffee was the only souvenir I wanted!

 

We drove around the city for quite awhile. Of course everyone wants to see the old American cars, and it's no joke. They are absolutely everywhere, in every shape and color! Most are used as taxis and for tours, and everyone seemed to have a convertible. Our guide informed us that many of the cars were handed down in the family, for several generations, and it was a form of pride to have one and take excellent care of them. Our driving tour included government buildings, parks, museums, and schools. We saw the closed down American Embassy, which looked a bit sad sitting there. We drove along the coast, and it was beautiful. I can tell you this, from our experiences cruising to "islands" this was the cleanest city I've seen so far. It's very urban there obviously, so I was impressed with the city streets. I've had people tell me "oh they only take you where the government wants you to see" and that may be true. I tried to take as many photos as I could from the window of the bus, but sadly a lot of them came out blurry! We even drove by a park where they had a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Our guide explained that Cuba has long had a deep love of America and the American people. Maybe that was propaganda, but I could see that he truly meant it and he was quite emotional. I confess, for a long long time I thought NO ONE could go visit Cuba. I was mistakenly under the impression that Cuba had closed itself off to the world. Then I found out nope, it was the other way around, the US government didn't allow us to go there! The rest of the world had long been enjoying Cuba.

 

With the bus part of the tour over, there was more walking. We stopped briefly at a local senior center, where some absolutely lovely ladies entertained us with their dancing and singing. They were sweet and genuine. After that we had lunch at La Bodeguita Del Medio. Famous for being the original home (so they say?) of the Mojito, as well as a favorite haunt for Ernest Hemingway and many other celebrities. It was a crazy packed happy loud place, and we headed upstairs for a private room. Yummy food and, even though I don't drink alcohol, everyone in the group gave thumbs up for the free libations. I had a local cola and it was delicious.

 

 

 

We finished the tour with more walking, through old plazas and courtyards, and looking at churches. The breezes blowing through the carefully laid out streets was extremely nice. Growing up in Florida, I equate "tropical" with hot and muggy, but the temperatures were mild. Before we headed back to the ship, the group stopped on a street filled with shops. We went in a few, and I bought more coffee! And then of course, we found a sweet little street cat to keep us company while we waited for the rest of the tour group to finish their perusing.

It's sad that this historical and beautiful and amazing island is closed back up to the cruise ships now, thanks to the current occupant of the Oval Office. I won't make any statements about that here, but I have my strong opinions. My nephew was also able to visit, taking a cruise right before us. But most people I know, unless they are avid cruisers- or not Americans- have never visited Cuba. And that's a shame. If we could go back again, we would, it was a wonderful day that we'll put very high on our list of travel experiences. Perhaps one day, when the heads of state are more open-minded and don't live in the past, Cuba will just be like any other place on this planet. Cuba has millions of non-American visitors and tourism is their number one industry. As it should be, because Old Havana is really a stunning jewel of a city.

I don't pretend to understand the politics behind cruises no longer being allowed to go to Cuba. I mean, it was abrupt, literally ships ON their way to Cuba couldn't go. It happened just weeks after our trip. I'm sure someone could give me a lecture on why this happened, but I'm not really interested. I just think it's a shame it's closed back up again. Yes, I'm in my 50's and I'm old enough to have studied Communism and Cuba back in high school. And yes, before our trip some of the older family members expressed safety concerns for us (apparently they've never been to Jamaica!) but I can tell you we felt extremely welcomed and the people we came in contact with were absolutely delighted that Americans were there. "We love America!" and we heard that a lot, and I don't understand why America doesn't love Cuba back. Our funny, warm, friendly tour guide must have told us a hundred times how happy he was to be with us and how proud he was to show off his home. As well he should be!!

SANDY