In the know.

Walk, Don’t Run. What I have learned in 2020.  

Running, you miss so much, and run the risk of falling down or tripping over your own feet!  Also, you miss the beautiful folks who are walking at your own speed.

I have learned to use the washers and dryers, without using too many "extra words.”  So far, (fingers crossed) ‘extra words’ are not necessary on the elevator.

Did you ever imagine in years gone by, that you would read a newspaper in 2020 without holding a paper, or use a phone without an operator, or have to dial ten-digit phone numbers? I digressed… Sorry (not really)!

I have learned that I don’t have to make my bed every day!  After all, only two people I know will ever see it unmade, and neither one of them cares one way or the other!  Being on the 3rd floor, no one can see in the windows, so I am safe from exposure.

I have learned that the doors lock at 6:15 PM!  I am just getting my second wind by then. Gently shake the doors and they open like magic!

Learning to live with much less and smaller space has been a challenge, and remembering where I last saw it has been ever so frustrating.

I have become very spoiled with the cooked meals delivered to our apartment.  2020 brought us to MRC Cornerstone and immediately to a lock-down situation.  With the help of several bottles of fermented grape juice, we survived.  We became ‘experts’ in short order with the help of friends and relatives, who kept us well supplied with libations.

Almost daily, I meet folks I have not seen before.  Many interesting backgrounds and careers.  Everyone has a story waiting to get heard.

The monthly calendar is fun to read and circle events to remember.  Events that I have never heard of before such as National Deviled Egg Day, National Candy Day (my favorite), National Happy Hour (next favorite), National Gingerbread Cookie Day, to name only a few for November - all of these designed to make you fat!  But Happy!

I turned 80 in the first month of 2020.  That makes my parents 112.  

Since I hadn’t driven my car in several months, recently I decided to take it for a spin!  Only one problem, it wouldn’t start.  We have had AAA for a number of years, so I thought I would call them.  Before I got my card out to call, a light flashed on the dashboard along with a dozen other instructions, “put your foot on the brake!”

Sitting in the lunch room and looking about, I began to wonder how long some of the folks have lived at MRC Cornerstone.  We have been here 6 months.  I began to think about how many meals I’ve eaten in the 6 months.  In case you are wondering, I did some math.  Six months, rough and dirty, 180 meals for one person. So, I went ahead to 5 years - 1825 meals, 10 years – 3650 meals.  Twenty years – 7300!  This is for one person.  Let’s say each meal would weigh approximately 8 oz. – 5,840 lbs.  That’s a lot of trips to the grocery store that you didn’t have to make (numbers do not include leap years).  Now you are wondering why in the world did she think of this?  2020 made me do it!

Since the environment is in the news almost daily, I recently became aware of these facts. The temperature around the windmills at the junction of the blade to the upright is 4 degrees higher than at the end of the blades.  Also, the broken blades are buried in the earth.  I have not ‘fact checked this info,’ but it makes for brain food.  What if it is true? Planting trees would go a long way in cleaning up the environment and it's cheaper than windmills.  

Run. Don’t walk to MRC Cornerstone to discover new fields of information and wonderful friends.

Ellen L. Unger

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