Happy Saturday morning to you my friends. It’s my first weekend after being back at work for a week. Two days of unpacking and organizing the office, three days of being in a first grade classroom helping out my sweet student get settled in.

I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t easy, but it was a bit more difficult than it needed to be. I had a pain under my ribs on my right side from Sunday night, all day Monday and Tuesday that wouldn’t go away with my pain reliver of choice – Advil, so I decided to take my extra strength codeine pills — instead of the recommended dose of just one – I decided to try two because I really needed to sleep for the first day of school. For those that know me, I’m a bit of a lite weight – so around 12:30 in the blessed AM, when the bed was spinning, my heart was racing and stomach queasy, I realized I had made a huge mistake, but also knew if I rode out the storm that it would eventually pass. Before I had left for work – my very first day of first grade with my cute little student – I was praying I could keep my breakfast of applesauce down….which the prayer was answered — until I was almost to work and had to pull over to pay my penance….lesson learned….don’t exceed the recommended dosage. Say no to drugs my friends….thankfully the pain in the right side has mostly disappeared, I managed to recover and do a full day at work, and all is fine.

The office is shaping up nicely, we have a ton of space, it will make it so much easier to produce the work we would like to produce for our students. We are still waiting for the new lead teacher to arrive, thankfully the assistant we had before the COVID shutdown could come back and give me a hand with unpacking and cover the students we do have.

I’m putting in all this work, and still do not know if I will have a job after October 18th. Our governor has mandated all employees in k-12 get vaccinated. I’m kind of a stubborn person and really don’t appreciate being bribed, forced, bullied or coerced into do anything that I do not want to or feel as though I don’t need to. So many things do not add up, so many things were lied about, so many things covered up and so many studies saying that natural immunity is better. I’m 99% sure we had the virus back in January – and do not feel as though we need the vax, when there are so many people throughout the world that have not received it yet, let the ones at high risk in every country have it first. I’ve tried to call my doctor five times, three of which I was hung up on because they have a higher than normal call volume, one time I was on hold for 35 minutes and I had to get back to real life, and the fifth time I was on hold for 47 minutes. I’ve also sent a message via my patient portal. It’s ridiculous. First off, why am I going to a doctor who doesn’t respond to my needs – what in the hell is happening? Secondly….what’s happening to our society in general?

Why are the doctors that are second guessing this line of approach being recommended to the medical board, why are they being bashed all over the place and being put on alert that they cannot speak our against the vaccine? Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “no amount of experimentation can ever prove me right, a single experiment can prove me wrong”. Why can’t everyone be right, the vaccine works on some people, but not others. Why can’t it be left up to the people to decide if they want to chance it with the virus or get the inoculation – let’s be reminded it is not a vaccine, because guess what people – even after you get the shot — you can still get the virus, and you CAN still carry it.

My final question about this entire thing – that nobody can answer….what does my vaccine do for you? Why are they so hell bent on getting every person to submit? People say it will keep me out of the hospital – that’s not an answer, and that’s not a fact because people who have had the vaccine still got the virus and still ended up in the hospital, and died. Those that got the vaccine have ended up dead due to blood clots and other cardiovascular issues because of the shot. Why are we not talking about natural immunity more?

I recently read a blog from a lady I hardly know. She was in my pottery class; I found out she was a retired journalist for the NY Times, so I decided to look her up, she seems like an interesting lady and I do love a good read. I was flabbergasted by the first post I read. It was F this and F that, about “stupid people” not getting vaccinated. It was the full on narrative of every media source I’ve been hearing lately, spewing the hatred and anger that the people who are unvaccinated are the ones that are passing the virus around. It went on for paragraphs about f’ing stupid people, and how they were the source of all of the things going on – mask wearing, social distancing, shut-downs, employee shortages, supply chain issues….it was crazy to read and realize that she isn’t alone in this anger and hatred. It’s such an eerie similarity to the hatred towards Jews – they were the cause of everyone’s problems in Germany, so they needed to be disposed of at any cost. This lady wasn’t too far off from saying those unvaccinated stupid people need to be driven to the outskirts of town and disposed of. I’m so over this craziness…..I’m sure she’s a perfectly nice person, but holy Moses….the media certainly has brought out the ugly in people – that has been fed by lies from the government and the big pharma companies. It’s crazy…..I just want to be left alone so I can do my job & live my life how I see fit.

Anyhow, enough of that rant….the garden is slowly winding down. Despite not having much water the pumpkin adapted well and are actually growing and maturing to beautiful colors of oranges, some with strips and some just beautiful white. Maybe next year we will have a bumper crop of them, but this year, there are not very many. All my fault, after watering for three hours I really didn’t want to stand out there and water the pumpkins, next year we will be sure to put irrigation lines on them.

The Zinnias love this time of year, they’ve thrived through the heat, still lots of blooms – colors and textures! One of them even looks like a scoop of strawberry ice cream!

The Maximillian Sunflowers are living up to my expectations – they certainly took their time – but they were worth the wait!

The glads I waited to plant are started to come on, I’m thankful I waited – giving me some beautiful flowers so late in the season is very enjoyable. I have one more bouquet subscription to deliver – certainly been a busy year!

I wish I could report that indeed I’ve thrown 100 pots, and practiced a ton, but I haven’t. Besides the clay day, I haven’t done much in the way of clay. I did finally glaze a few things, and put some decals on the two pots I threw a few weeks ago and brought everything into the local studio to have fired – but she’s taking her time with all of that. Things are so busy, not feeling well, and not having the energy after work to get muddy has put a damper on the clay situation. I’m sad the weather is turning chilly, that means my “studio” on the patio will have to be stashed in the garage soon. Honestly, how often will I go out into the cold garage to get muddy? I’ve asked for a kiln room where I could put all the clay tools and my wheel out in the concrete barn, but hubby is busy with work. I’m not sure if/when it will happen. The nice man already built me a greenhouse, and now I want a kiln room – I’m so high maintenance! A girl can dream can’t she? If worst comes to worst, I will just use the studio in town…..at least I can still do clay in the kitchen and keep the stuff in the garage. I will appreciate the kiln room even more if it happens. With the amount of clay that I’m not producing do I even need a kiln or a pottery room at all? Thankfully I have until the end of January to make my final decision on the kiln, so we shall see how this winter goes.

I’m eyeballing going back to the community college to finish up my transfer degree – one stinking class left to finish it up – one 5 credit Science class…and I will be finished. Then the question is why….? What do I need the transfer degree for if I’m only going to be fired for not wanting to put a vaccine in my body that I don’t think I need? I looked at jobs last night in our area — not much I am qualified for other than working in education….which I have to be vaccinated to do. Who knows….we shall see what happens. For now….I need to clean up the mess in the kitchen to prepare for a fish dinner with Bruce & Jill – our neighbors – but most importantly our family. Yes, what really matters, family….what we believe in, what’s really important in this world we live in….and will eventually leave – because nobody is getting out of here alive.

Thank you so much for stopping by and hanging in there through this wild post – I hope you have a great three day weekend. Until next time my friends, an extra snug hug.