Sophie's Story

   Since the weather has been nicer, C and I have been spending a lot of time on our bicycles. Most of the time we ride around the lakes in Minneapolis. It's a nice ride, but I wanted something different.  A few days ago,we decided to go through Fort Snelling State Park.    Along the edge of the state park is old Fort Snelling. It is a historical place in Minnesota and has been rebuilt to what it might have looked like when it was a military post in the 1820s. It was designated a historical landmark in the 1960s. We parked in the parking lot, got on our bikes and rode past the old fort and into the woods. We wound around the woods on the rough trails. This is a good time to bike in the woods. A bit of sunlight still gets to the forest floor and a few spring flowers can bloom. Once the trees leaf out the whole trail is shaded.    The end of the trail is near Minnehaha Falls. It is a small waterfall but still impressive. We paused to look at it. There was a good amount of water runni

      We have some new rules at work to help prevent the store staff from spreading COVID-19 to customers of the store and vice versa. One of those new rules is that all employees must wear a mask when on duty. There are paper masks that can be worn if you forget to bring one with you. The preferred mask is cloth with at least two layers.   I have several that I have acquired over the past few months. I'm grateful to the people who took to their sewing machines to make them and donate them. I'm also grateful to the lady who made me some ear protectors using her 3D printer. I have enough masks so I have a clean one to wear every day at work and can wash my masks once a week with the regular laundry.   I'll be honest about one thing. I don't like wearing them. They are hard to breathe through. If I'm wearing my glasses they get fogged up most of the time. I can adjust it so the fogging isn't quite so bad, but it never goes away. Most of the time I wear my contact

   Next Sunday, according to the internet, is Stepmother's Day. This is the one that I "celebrate". I put up my usual Happy Mother's Day post on Facebook last Sunday. Several of my friends wished me a happy Mother's Day in the comments. I always feel a little queasy when someone does this to me. I'm not a mother unless you count the fact that I am caretaker to a couple of cats. There is no reason why anyone should wish me a happy Mother's Day. That's like saying happy birthday to me on someone else's birthday.   I also feel it is seriously offensive to those who do have children. It takes their holiday away from them. If you want to make this into something that honors any woman who takes care of someone, then call it Caretaker's Day.   I'm probably more sensitive to it because I never wanted to seem like I was competing with my stepchildren's mother. She comes first. She is their mother. She raised them. I'm not their mother and I&

      One of the advantages of having no place to go is that there is time to learn new things. I'd like to share with you some of the new things I have learned.     I've learned how to video chat. Last weekend my niece Lissa and her husband Kurt had their son, Daniel, blessed. Since there were several friends and relatives who could not attend the blessing due to distance or restrictions on gatherings, she set up a Zoom meeting. C and I logged on and were able to watch. One of the participants was Lissa's mom, Micki. Micki and I have been friends since infancy. Micki was having trouble getting on Zoom. Eventually Lissa had her watch via a video chat app that both of them had on their phones. Later in the day I sent Micki a text and she told me of the app. I downloaded it and then asked if she would care to try it out later that day.   In the evening, after supper, I called Micki via the app and we shared a cup of tea together. I showed her around my house. I got to see her

   One of the things that C and I liked to do after a meeting of the Small Town Toastmasters club was to go to the local coffee and bagel shop to have a bite of breakfast and socialize with some of the members. Now that our meetings are held online, we have not gone to the bagel shop. (We would not have been able to go there anyway due to restaurant closures and stay at home orders.) While I like the fact that we are saving that money, I missed my weekly bagel.    I was introduced to bagel in college by my freshman roommate. She was from the Twin Cities area and seemed very sophisticated to a small town gal like me. She showed me how to toast a bagel and then put cream cheese on it. I have always loved cream cheese so this was a chance for me to indulge in it. I found that I liked the texture and taste of a bagel and cream cheese. Later on I learned about flavoured cream cheese and different flavoured bagels. I tried all kinds of them from sweet to savory. My favourite is poppy seed. I

   Life goes on here in Minnesota. The shelter at home order has been extended for two more weeks. We are getting used to what seems to be the "new normal" for now. We have been keeping social distance from everyone except ourselves, the cats and my co workers when I'm at work. C does most of the shopping.   The cats are enjoying this time. In their world, not much has changed. In fact things may have gotten better for them. They have food, water, treats unlimited nap time and the attention of their humans most of the time. Scamp and Colby have been groomed much more often than usual and seem to like it. (Well, Colby would prefer a bit less, but he knows that grooming keeps the hairballs away.)    We have got our storeroom mostly organized. You can now see the floor and the shelves have been ordered so you can find things. Items we wish to donate are sitting in boxes. Some of the items require cleaning before they can be donated. I'm pretty sure that we will have