Dealing with the possibility of Covid and morons who think it's safe to come visit

21 October 2020

1004

R. Linda:

Let's start at the beginning so everyone is clued in on what my life has become. We will leave out recent events of the funeral kind and go to yesterday's O'Sullivan's breaking news. As you, R. Linda know, Tonya was sent home when it was found a teacher and student at her school (and in her class), tested positive for Covid 19. Further, she moved into Sean's camper out back to keep clear of the rest of us.

To keep the kiddo's minds off their Mam, me own little Mam got out the Halloween decorations and got them all busy setting them up. She strung up a garland of fall leaves with pumpkin lights and hanging skeletons, and noticed the clay handmade black cats only went halfway across the garland. Well, she just couldn't have that! So in keeping Tonya across of the kiddos decorating, she mentioned the clay cats.

Tonya had bought them years ago and since she was bored in the camper she went looking online for another string. Well, she found one and only one on something called Poshmark. She bought them (for a lot more than she had originally paid for the first set, but having no choice she put out the bucks) and had them overnighted. An hour after confirmation of shipping she receives an email from the Poshmark seller telling her sorry, "I sold the cat heads." 

Yeah, she sold them to Tonya as Tonya had the receipt and tracking. That should have been a clue that this purchase was going to be odd.

Today, the Poshmark package arrived and I texted my wife and asked her if she wanted me to give the Poshmark package to me Mam. She said yes, but open it and make sure everything is in one piece. OK then! So the USPS box was the size of what one could put 2 good size books in, way too big for what it did contain. I hate those boxes because they are glued so well you have to use a crowbar to pry them open. This I did and inside was this brown packaging paper that formed a long cylindrical shape. On both ends brown string was wound tightly and knotted so that there was no untying it. I had to scout out scissors (which in this house is not an easy feat) and cut the strings. I then cut the paper all the way from one end to the other to reveal a massive amount of bubble wrap also in a cylindrical shape and taped completely over it was cello and for a blasted moment, I thought this was a jape on me by me wife that the package had been wrapped by me, Mam! 

You can attest to me Mam's wrapping jobs and Tonya's too for that matter, the two of them wrap everything in bubble wrap and tape the hell out of it! 

So with trusty scissors, I cut through all that and it took me a good 20 minutes! Once I had THAT mess off I found the thing was wrapped in a heavy tissue paper! I was l like what the heck? The paper was so heavy, and the scissors so dull from all the other cutting, it took me another 30 minutes to cut through all that to find these maybe 8 cat heads strung on a curly wire. I tell ya!

I gave them to me Mam who was all happy to have them, but I know I should have let HER open that. Total time from start of opening to finish: 1 hour and 10 minutes!

For those dumb-looking, grinning cat heads I wasted me time, and almost broke me fingers with dull scissor cutting!

So that done and behind me, I see the youngest standing facing the hallway wall, his shoulders giving away he was quietly sobbing. I go up to him and ask, "What's the matter bud?" And he tells me his tablet charger is broken and he can't play Minecraft (which be something I don't condone but me wife got it for him so there be THAT). This to me was a good thing, but to HIM it was the end of the world. He burst out in tears that his life was over, and now he had nothing to do, and woe was him. He slammed his way upstairs and slammed the door to his room and wailed, yes he wailed he did! He never gave me a chance to say I'd look at it, but with all THAT going on up there I decided to wait until later to re-approach the subject. 

Not too long after, Mam came to me and berated me for not going up and seeing what I could do to remedy the tablet situation. It seems she stopped by the door and went in when she heard the pitiful sobbing. My youngest basically accused me of being a criminal because I didn't care enough to fix the charger. I tell ya!

My emotions are a jumble with Covid and Tonya and her not feeling well, well it's all been a wee bit much it has.

Once the wee one was taken care of, my middle child informed me there were two people in the driveway come to see Tonya. I was like WHAT? The middle one was complaining because these two people came zooming down our driveway and he was out with the two puppies and was signalling them to SLOW DOWN! They did and when they saw the puppies, stopped the car, and with no social distancing or wearing masks, were about to get out of the car and come see the dogs. Well, Guido be no fool, his mother may have COVID-19 and he doesn't want it and who are these people anyway, STAY BACK!

I went outside and there standing by their car were these two people, she was a teacher's aide who works at the school and he was the boyfriend. Wearing a mask and trying to keep my distance I asked them if I could help them, and they said they were there to see how Tonya was (I was thinking a phone call or text would have been a better option), and they heard about the pups, and HE had never seen a collie before so . . . Oh boy.

Meanwhile, Guido comes out with a homemade sign that says "Slow it down! Children and Pets at Play" and with a few tacks and a hammer he puts the sign up on the driveway giving them side glances as he pounded away. 

I was as nice as I could be and explained to them that we were a family in quarantine and that stopping over wasn't a good idea. They, in turn, informed me they were Trumpers, Covid was a hoax and face masks (like I was sporting) were dangerous. OK TIME FOR YOU BOTH TO LEAVE!

So just a few minutes ago, I went up to the top of the long driveway with my own homemade sign. It says, "ROAD CLOSED" -- let's hope it does the trick, eh?

Gabe

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