The 'new normal' (I hate that phrase)

Fruitloop feline femme is BACK! 

So, I have lost 20 lbs thus far since landing. Partly due to my minimalist exercise program (since the weight room was taken off the table) of walking about 3 miles a day and partly due to my lack of desire to cook anything fancy (i.e. takes more than two ingredients) and complete lack of imagination in making anything different. My basic grocery list has not changed much at all since I arrived. Sure does keep things simple. It seems to work.

Two sort of stunning occurrences this week. The last of my aunts passed away, she was the younger of my mother's sisters. Now I have no more living aunts or uncles. I remember as a kid visiting my Aunt Ancy (her name is really Nancy but I didn't know that growing up) and Uncle Norman in northern Vermont. He was really a character and always had a joke or two and Aunt Ancy was always smiling and to me she will be remembered as a happy person. I was glad to catch up with her last summer at my cousin Pat's wedding, she looked good then. She went down quickly in the past few months and was in hospice care at the end so while somewhat sudden and unforeseen this wasn't really unexpected. 

Pat is front center w/ his left arm around his
bride and Aunt Ancy is seated to his right.

The second event was more shocking and sort of hit a little close to home in a small way. My cousin Jim died suddenly just a day or so after our aunt. He was born the same year I was. He is the first of all my many (17) cousins to pass on. I remember visiting them in Connecticut (once) but then many more times after they had moved to Middlebury. But we would only visit either way during good weather since we had to drive up over two gaps in the Vermont hills. Jim was the third eldest of my mother's older sister's children. IMHO he wasn't all that old. 

I don't like the way this movie is going at the moment.

On the bright side (depending on how you look at things) it seems traffic is back to its normal crazy ways now that more people are back to work. I guess there were 4 or so cases of China Flu on base but none that I know of in our building. Oh, and at least the attacks are nowhere near Jeddah ATM. 

So, as I started out, the 'crazy cat lady' has returned to her street corner. I see her every day on my way home. Normalcy at last.