Day 391-395 of Sheltering In-Waiting

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Saturday I stayed home with my daughter while the rest of the family went to my father-in-law’s. I put her to work organizing a shelving unit. It was a lot and none of it that I could have moved.

The rest of the week has been an ugly mess of calling to follow-up on medical bills and family discord. I hear some people actually take it seriously when their voicemail says they will call you back within 24 hours. Not any place I’ve been calling. Grrr!

For some reason I’ve been trying to look up an old friend. None of their contact information has worked so far. One was a house phone with voicemail, so I left a message. Who has a house phone anymore? I did a drive by (I feel like a stalker), but I found the house empty and remodeled. Can’t find them on any social media. Last name is common, so it’s been quite a search. I did find information about the family they lived with, some phone numbers. Yes, I did Google searches. I refuse to pay a monthly subscription to search for people. Not only is it creepy (I don’t want to know their arrest history, if they have one!) it’s also expensive. I sent a text message yesterday. I figure, try a different phone number every couple days. If it’s a good number, that gives the family time to contact them and give them my phone number. I don’t know why, but I have this bad feeling they passed away. The last time I tried to look up an old friend, a co-worker from my 2nd job in Chi-town, I found out they actually had passed away. 

Speaking of trying to look someone up...you would be amazed at what information you can find out about someone online. (In the case of my old friend...not so much.) I’m afraid to Google myself. Awhile back I went down a rabbit hole, so to speak, when I was looking up my parent’s gravesite location in the cemetery they are buried at. I was really after their dates of birth. In that search I initially looked up my Dad. I found relatives, including myself, and every address and phone number I’ve ever had. I started at the cemetery and then was sent off to a few other sites and found all this stuff. 

I thought maybe it might be easier looking up an old friend, than trying to make a new friend during this pandemic.

Went grocery shopping today. Spent 15 minutes in the wet cat food aisle talking with a woman who started chatting me up when she saw me just about dive for the last 2 boxes of wet food for my wife’s cat. The shelves were bare. The woman was picking out single cans of a different brand and complaining about her son’s finicky cat. I complained about my wife’s finicky cat. Yeah, pretty sure I’ve become my Mother. People would stop and chat her up all the time.

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