We had a wonderful weekend!

We celebrated Father's day and Aubry's birthday this weekend. Johnny's present actually arrived last weekend...a new charcoal grill! We hadn't been able to use the old one for a couple years because it had rubber "feet" that held water and ended up rusting the bottom of the legs so much that it collapsed just above those rubber feet. It leaned quite a bit after that! So, we got a new grill. Thank goodness for sale prices! :) Luckily it showed up just before I had to take Aubry to work...so she was able to help me bring the 125 pound box in the house! We sat it in the living room and I covered it with a blanket for Johnny to "open" during his lunch break. ;) That night, Johnny was so excited that we put it together in the living room at 1:00 am. LOL.

Then Johnny moved the old grill, cleaned off the back patio, and Ashlyn power-washed the patio furniture.

Friday evening we finally moved the grill from the dining room to the patio. Johnny made barbecue chicken out on the grill for dinner Friday night. It was SO yummy. :) He really likes his new grill!

Saturday morning Johnny started spray-painting the patio furniture. He got through the table and two of the chairs before we ran out of paint. But what a difference some spray paint makes! It had faded to a very light grey color...but with some dark grey metallic spray paint, they look like new! We also had to get some new cushions for the chairs and we found a nice umbrella...since ours was taken out in a storm a couple years ago. It's really starting to come together out there. :)

That evening my mom and dad came over for dinner. Aubry and my dad opened their gifts while I finished mixing the barbecue sauce for the pressure cooker spare ribs and Johnny finished the hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats out on the grill. It was a very nice evening. :)

Sunday was a very relaxing day just hanging out around the house. We slept in and watched some TV together. Ashlyn spent a few hours with her dad and Aubry mowed the front yard. It was a really nice weekend. :)

Oh! And I also joined a blessing group on Facebook...which is basically sharing Amazon wishlists and "blessing" people with items from their list. They play a lot of games...like the Price is Right where you post a price and if someone has something on their list (added prior to that day), they post a screenshot of the item and you purchase it for them. There's also the Wheel of Fortune game where 10 people join and each person spins a wheel with everyone's names on it...then you buy a gift from the list of the person's name that you landed on. There's also a lottery game...where about 20 or so people are entered and the moderator assigns numbers in order of comments and then uses a random number generator to draw a number. Then the lucky winner receives an item from their list from each of the rest of the participants. If everyone shows proof of purchase within 20 minutes, the moderator picks another number. Apparently it was my lucky day on Friday! My name was landed on 3 times in the Wheel of Fortune game and I was the second chance winner in the lottery drawing! So I ended up with 24 gifts! Fourteen of those packages arrived on Sunday and six more on Monday!


And then tonight, the girls and I had dinner with my mom and grandparents at Applebees for Aubry's birthday/graduation. It's still so hard to believe that she's done with high school! Parenting teenagers is surreal, that's for sure. 

Pandemic Panic

You know what's ironic? So many of the people complaining about the media causing a panic are also the ones posting over and over again about the issue including the endless amount of memes about toilet paper. Repeatedly mentioning it, posting pictures of empty shelves, all the memes, etc. has completely taken over Facebook. That is pretty much the ONLY thing happening in my feed right now...a constant barrage of availability at the store, belittling others over the pandemic, and people complaining about panic.

Well...that constant barrage of posts and memes about what has run out at the store is causing people to rush out and buy more of the things they might need...because they don't know if or when they'll be able to get it again because of everyone else who is also doing the same thing. First it was toilet paper, Lysol, and hand sanitizer. Then it was milk. Now it's pretty much everything...including produce which doesn't last that long.

So yeah...complain about the media "spreading panic" by reporting facts but ignore the fact that filling everyone's Facebook feed with posts about what is running out at the grocery store is causing its own panic. You are literally doing the very same thing. You are part of the problem.

And STOP belittling people who are rightfully worried about the health of their loved ones for whom this situation could be deadly.

I will likely be just fine if I get Covid-19, but I have many friends and family members who may NOT be fine if they contracted this brand new respiratory virus. Anyone with a respiratory problem like asthma or COPD, diabetes, heart disease, a compromised immune system, the elderly, etc. are all at a higher risk of complications from Covid-19. MILLIONS of Americans fall into one or more of those categories...and I'm willing to bet you know a few of them. So while lots of us may be just fine if we get it, we can easily spread it to those whose life is at risk. Their lives matter.

This isn't "just the flu." You know why this is different than the flu? We already know what the flu is capable of. We already have vaccines to try to protect against it. Many of us have antibodies against it (certain strains at least). We have treatments for it (there are at least three antiviral treatments for influenza including Tamiflu). But unlike the flu, Covid-19 is a brand new type of Coronavirus for which we have no vaccine, no preexisting immunity, no treatment, and we're learning what it is capable of as we go. They are currently *experimenting* with treatments for other diseases to see if they work on this Coronavirus...like drugs developed to treat HIV and Ebola (some of which haven't even been licensed and approved yet).

And as people keep reminding us, tens of thousands of people die each year of the flu. Well guess what? Now in ADDITION to all of those people, we now have a brand new virus that is ALSO making its way around the world and leading to hospitalization and death. Which brings me to my last point...

We should all be a healthy bit concerned about the crisis which could occur within our healthcare system. Our hospitals do not have an infinite number of resources, space, or personnel. And with a flood of pandemic patients in addition to all those patients who already need medical care for childbirth, surgery, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, car accidents, and all the flu patients people keep bringing up, etc...it isn't just going to affect Covid-19 patients. It will affect ALL patients. Italy's healthcare is ranked number 2 in the world...the US is number 37. So don't act like we couldn't be facing the same crisis they are facing in Italy. That's why things are being canceled.

People shouldn't panic. But stop complaining about the panic if you're just going to keep contributing to the problem. How about thinking of other things to start talking about on Facebook? Then maybe that panic you keep pissing and moaning about will die down...