Donating blood and the new driveway (could you finish my room first!-Elena)

 Elena has asked me several time to go with her to donate blood. I tried recently to donate at St Ann's and have been turned down for low iron in my blood. Elena has not donated since she got her tattoo about two years ago. She was a senior in high school when she donated. Nastia wants to donate, but she is still less then 110 lbs. She said she didn't care. Passing out after she donates is a real possibility, maybe worse, but hates being left out more it seems.

Elena made an appointment for 8AM on Sunday before she went to ShopRite. I waited to make an appointment until Friday so I could only get 8:45. Elena was ok to switch her appointment to that. She needs someone to lean on sometimes. I remember being that way when I was younger and sometime even now I need that person to go with me to do something new. It makes it easier even if they just stand there and do nothing. If things get out of hand or become to complicated there is that other person you can turn to and at least look at, there is that familiar.

We arrived at the office building on Smith Street in Nanuet, not the one in Bardonia. The New York blood center is on the fifth floor and has been there for it seems ever. I've been there before and for some reason I don't like going there. The only reason Elena was going was she felt she was getting harassed by them to donate blood and wanted it to stop. It was surprisingly busy on a Saturday morning just after Thanksgiving. We waited outside the office with our masks securely on until there was space for us. We

enter and are seated in front of the computers. We scan are cards and start answering questions, A couple of time Elena asks me about a question. I tell her how to answer it. A Nurse tells me I have to leave her alone to answer the questions, HIPA regulations and all. I understand why, but she is unsure how to answer. I give her a quick answer to her question as the nurse says if she is unsure she should leave it blank and they would go over it with her. Again I understand why, but it is tough to not help her out when she asks.

I go over to the next station and get my finger pricked. This stage always reminds me of the George Carlin joke about being able to get your finger pricked, but not your ........fingered. (if you don't remember the joke figure it out). And it always does and I always want to know the answer to that joke. Elena gets seated across from me. I take a discreet picture to put in my blog. 

I have my usual conversation about finding my blood vessel with the nurse. I use my usual line about having to hunt and stick and hope to find my vein. She is pretty good. She sticks me and only has to giggle the needle a little to get it in the vein. When she takes the needle out I hold some gauze on the puncture and my arm over my head. In what seems like forever holding it up my fingers begin to feel a little numb. She tells me to bring it down and she takes the gauze away. To my surprise blood begins to flow out of the wound. It is dark red and looks rich and healthy. I watch it form a very small pool in the crook of my arm. I then say 'woops' getting her attention and a new gauze applied. That had never happened to me before. She most have stuck me real good. 

Afterwards I am escorted over to a table and I'm given a goodie bag and a T-shirt. I look at it. It says,
"Oh Snap, I'm a blood donor", boring. I like my idea and I tell Elena and a women who is sitting across the plastic dividered (it's a made up by me Covid term which means a clear plastic diver set up to stop people from infecting others while they eat) table. The shirts should look like they are splattered with blood and say "I donated blood!" 

We leave shortly afterwards. I tell Elena if she feels weak or tired to take a break at work and tell them she donated blood. I drop her off at work and head home. 

At home I decide I must dig out the rest of the new driveway I am building. (What about my bedroom!-Elena) I started with a ten foot wide driveway. I was told it was too narrow, so I added about three feet

or so to it. I thought it was good. Next I am told by Teri and as we are leaving to donated blood by Elena you can't fit two cars there. It wasn't meant for two cars, I was trying to simplify it so no one had to park on the grass, later mud this winter. Well, I decide to add about three feet to the width. And in so doing I am shoveling dirt I'd put on the lawn a second time. I get an hour or so into it and I keep replaying me telling Elena to be careful not to over do it after donating blood. I'm tired, but I continue on. At one point I swear my sight goes dark. I'm not sure it really happened, but I decide to stop and go inside. Nastia calls me asking me to have lunch with her, I go. When I come back all refreshed I dig some more. It's going to rain heavily Sunday nigh I must finish before then. I leave at a little before five to go pick up Nastia and Elena. The end hopefully is in sight for this project. (And what about my Room!!-Elena) 

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Covid Thanksgiving, a prelude to Covid Christmas and New Years

 It is the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Two days ago we had our Covid Thanksgiving and in a month we will have our Covid Christmas. What do you ask is a Covid Thanksgiving or a Covid Christmas, well all you future people who don't remember Covid, like all of us who didn't remember the Spanish flu of 1918-1919, or even the ones like me who thought they did here is a primer on Covid 19. Some other day we will go into the parallels between the two like when the orange raccoon made masks a political issue killing thousands and we'll compared it to the Spanish Flu when wearing a mask was considered not being manly, a sign of weakness in Hollywood and the nation. It also killed thousands. 

Anyway Covid 19 stands for Corona Virus 2019. It is not the nineteenth Corona Virus like that idiot Tucker Carlson on Fox new said. Future people, if you don't know who he is don't worry, he was a hack who said things just to rile up the masses. There are usually no facts to back up his claims much like the orange raccoon's ranting about voter fraud in the 2020 election. (Off topic further, that was a scary couple of days after the election when it looked like he might win.) Now a Corona Thanksgiving is a Thanksgiving much like the traditional one, except you have it with just your immediate circle of family. We four let a fifth in and were going to admit a sixth or seventh and pray that our good intentions didn't kill someone. We ended up with five. Teri premade the stuffing, the only reason I know to eat turkey. As we all know stuffing outside of the bird is a waste of time and called dressing. And eating an unstuffed bird, Turkey or chicken is also a waste of time. Teri used chicken broth to baste the turkey. My mother used to put all of the innards in some water with an onion and  carrot, I think and use that. The only thing Teri wants to do with the innards is roast them and give them to the dogs. I consider that a waste, but if you want to stay married, you compromise, so I do.

It's nice to see Teri cross over to the dark side (yes future people we had Star Wars first) after we have been married for so long. Years ago, when we redid the kitchen, I wanted a stove with double ovens. One small, one large to cook small or large meals in. Back then Teri said no. So I settled for a griddle in the middle, which is not easy to use or clean so I don't use it. A few years ago Teri says she would have like to have a stove with two ovens, I just smiled, I've been married too long to take the bait of that one and oh, yes, Teri welcome to the dark side. Teri has also started using Muller time. She scheduled dinner for two and we ate at four. Muller time is usually two hours later then normal time. It's sort of like black time (Nastia's ex-boyfriend David's words, not mine) but without as much style.

last year the girls helping

Nastia and Elena wanted to get drunk for Thanksgiving. So I went out with Nastia and purchased some Smirnoff's hard soda. I think it has about the amount of alcohol as beer, or less. The great thing is they both drink like their mother, usually one and done and I believe this was a one and done day. When I brought it home I gave it to Elena and told her to put as much as she could in the refrigerator until her mother complained that there was no room in there for all of that. Traditions like that I just love. I believe they both opened one. Since Thanksgiving I have seen one here or there, never a bunch, but I also don't see the twelve pack in the refrigerator. Are they drinking without me knowing or did it just get put somewhere I don't see.

Dinner was served about 4pm. It was served on the usual plates we would use. That was a disappointment. I remember back in he 60's Mom would take out the china dinnerware. It made it special. They were white with pink or rose colored flowers on them. I think my mom still has them, but they haven't been used in years. The girls did take out the silver plate (I couldn't afford pure silver silverware when I bought them in the 80's) with their slight tarnish on them to eat with when they set the table. A red table cloth was spread over the usually bare dinning room table top. Five places were set. We served our selves from the kitchen, another sin against tradition I didn't like, but it's a holiday. so don't make waves. Once everyone was seated, no blessing was said. None was needed. I think there was a moment before everyone took a bite of their food where everyone paused, well at least I did and thanked god that we and most everybody we knew are safe and so far healthy. Dinner went quick, it was excellent. The turkey didn't look completely cooked, the top was not brown, but the thigh was loose, so we took it out. Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, herbed white potatoes, carrots and gravy, it was a very good meal. Clean up, Nancy went home early and Thanksgiving was over. Now, oh my god Christmas is coming. It still seems like it should be April or maybe May 2020. I feel like Covid has stolen almost a year from my life.

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