Brave or Stupid? I’m Going for the Latter

         Roland took a warehouse job with GREAT benefits – less than ten minutes away – but graveyards.  He had done that kind of work before.  He was doing that when I met him – graveyards. His body was younger and in better shape 20 years ago.  Just three days in seemed to take a toll on him and he quit.  Dang. 

He is now training for a sales job at a jewelry store.  Jewelry.  Sales.  Blech!  I was much more excited about the warehouse.  NOT excited about sales or jewelry.  But it’s his comfort zone.  To sell.  He seems excited about it I guess. 

He has felt the need for new clothes.  He has also wanted to purchase clothes for Jenna – who does enjoy shopping at the dollar store, discount stores and even second hand store.  But not for clothes.  A teenage girl who hates to go shopping.

Roland has taken Jenna by himself a few times, but neither one of them are good at finding items in her size.  That is probably what we hate most about shopping – finding cute things in smaller sizes but a limited choice in our own.  Three ugly dresses, shirts, pants or what have you.  This time Roland dragged me into it.  What we couldn’t find in the Big City of Roseburg we would surely find at the MALL in Medford.

After seven years of being away from the mall Jenna was quite thrilled with being there – especially to ride escalators.  What a dream, right?  The stores in Roseburg had not been crowded – especially the dressing rooms.  I was a bit put off that there was the option of trying on clothes when none was offered a year and a half ago when the pandemic had started in the U.S. and the cases were not as high in the state then as they are currently.

But then again we are a red county.  Citizens who vote republican and abuse their “freedoms” without understanding why we even have said freedoms.  I’ve seen more people wearing masks than not.  Thankfullly there are still some businesses who enforced the mask rules and at least one store had closed its dressing rooms.

I remember when the pandemic first happened and there was that  stay-at-home order and several businesses closed and the ones that remained open seemed to have a non-verbal “no touch” policy.  “If you touch the item, you buy the item – we cannot return it to the shelf”

Carts were wiped down for a time.  I don’t know that anyone does that anymore.  Even though we are required to wear masks the social distancing definitely not enforced.  I felt like I was being swallowed by the disease. 

I have been coughing though I don’t believe it’s a COVID cough – although after today I suppose that could be the case. However it didn’t start out that way.

The smoke comes and goes.  There were two days of sunshine and blue skies and yesterday I retrieved Bonnie’s leash and had opened the front door and saw the smoke descending over the hills and went back for my mask – not that it added great protection from the smoke but would help my breathing just a bit. 

I ended up not taking Bonnie out until later in the day when the hills reappeared and the sky was no longer murky. That was weird.  But it did leave a cough.  But there are a number of people who have COVID and I could have easily come in contact – especially today.  But neither Jenna or Roland are coughing and they venture out way more often than I do.

I should have several days of posts as I have had time to write.  The drive just hasn’t been there.  Even now.  But somehow I feel obligated to post something.  I need to come up with something profound and inspiring.  Still working on it.