Speak Louder, Bro! I Can't Hear You Over That Shirt!

[mrdreamjeans]

 I sent a photo to my family to show them how I dressed for work yesterday, wearing my new face shield with an understated shirt/shield/tie combo. My brother replied, "Speak louder, Bro! I can't hear you over that shirt!" It's a funny line, but also an example of how little the rest of my family has been affected by the pandemic. They haven't been the slightest bit inconvenienced ... I hope that remains their truth. Meanwhile, I willingly set myself up to be a target for others' amusement if it in any way brightens their day. 

I've only left my building one time this week. I did so to attend the funeral for one of my neighbor's wives. I didn't know her; by the time, I moved into my building, she had suffered a stroke and was too ill to be out in public. When I was in Texas for Christmas, she was moved to the memory care facility across the street. The nursing home was first closed to visitors due to a norovirus outbreak that swept though the facility in January, then remained closed to visitors due to Covid-19. My neighbor wasn't allowed to visit his wife until the day before she passed. For 90 straight days, he delivered a handwritten card to the facility to be read to his wife. They were married 52 years, no children, and were inseparable until this ... Theirs was a great love story.

There were only 12 people at the funeral/viewing. It's been decades since I'd been to a service where there was a body in a casket for viewing. My parents were cremated in 2013. I've requested two memorial services, one in Minneapolis and one in Texas and I've been very specific in documents as to what I want. Leave it to a gay man to design and stage manage his own funeral!

The service I attended was simple, with recorded music and a priest from St Cloud officiating. All of us attending were masked and sat a few feet apart. I also wore gloves, so as to be able to shake my neighbor/friend's hand. He is 86. I believe what he's missed the most is being touched. So, I shook his hand in hopes it would provide a bit of comfort ... I attended out of respect for him ... It breaks my heart to see him looking so lost ... lost, but not forgotten.

Comments

[apparentparadox]

I can't see the image (it says that it's locked), but I'm sure you looked spiffy.

[mrdreamjeans]

It's a very bright floral shirt with a yellow tie and I'm wearing a face shield. I tried all kinds of ways to get it unlocked, but was unsuccessful, so I deleted the photo.

[zipperbear]

Yeah, I also can never see any of your images, just the locked-folder icon. I assume it's some permission setting somewhere.

[zipperbear]

I also can't see pictures in your LJ posts (Aug/Sept 2019...), and your LJ profile says you have 1686 photos, but I only see the UNSORTED folder with a count of 319, so presumably you've got some locked folders.

[mrdreamjeans]

and I have zero clue how to unlock the photos ... SO, it's back to posting here without photos. I've never been able to successfully crosspost between DW and LJ. There's something about passwords, etc ... I only post here in case LJ should collapse, but there hasn't been enough attention paid to DW to make it as easy to use as I find LJ. I am a luddite ...

[mellowtigger]

Do you ever hear reviews of Augustana in downtown Minneapolis? Or is there a website for such things? If I ever leave this house, that place seems like the only "retirement" option (independent or assisted) within my price range (which is dirt cheap).

[mrdreamjeans]

The woman who moved into my previous apartment in this building moved from Augustana to here. She lived there 8 years and before that her father lived there for decades. She said it used to be a nice place, but has gone downhill badly in the past couple of years. She also mentioned her rent here wasn't much more than it was at Augustana and our building was much, much nicer.