We're hunkering down again

Cliff and I mutually decided we should listen to the experts this time and forgo the usual Thanksgiving Day festivities.  Sometimes I say "we decided" when it was mostly me, with Cliff just saying what he thinks I want to hear.  But this was truly a mutual decision: we discussed the risks for awhile, considered the big picture, and chose what we think is the best path.  I will still do my own shopping for groceries (wearing a mask) and I'll continue going to both little churches I attend because it's easy to do social distancing in both of them; other than that, we are going back to being hermits for awhile.  I'm letting everyone know today, so if they want to make other plans they'll have time to do so.  

I've been awake since before 2 A.M.  Usually I manage at least six hours of sleep, but for the past few nights it's been less.  Of course I'm up three or four times a night going to the bathroom, but I usually go back to sleep.  I was laying there this morning trying my best to put everything out of my mind when coyotes started their usual high-pitched whining, whistling racket... like this:

  

It sounded as if they were right here in the yard, so of course I began to worry about my cat Blue; coyotes eat cats and small dogs, you know.  When I finally got out of bed and took Gabe to relieve himself I learned my fears had been groundless; Blue met us as we walked out the door and strolled with us while Gabe shopped for the perfect place to do his business.

I didn't go to church yesterday because I was tormented, trying to make up my mind about Thanksgiving, so it was a long day.  The Chiefs weren't playing football, and they are the only team I can get interested in.  Cliff records all the games on TV and watches them later so he doesn't have to watch the commercials.  We'd been talking about the movie "Little Big Man" a lot lately, so we set out to watch it:  We have quite a few of our favorite movies in DVD form and we have a cheap DVD player, but we seldom use it... too much trouble, I suppose.  For some reason, the player would only play a five-minute portion of a DVD and then start over.  I don't know what the the problem was, but thought maybe dust got to it, since we don't use it much   I got the canned air and sprayed in it, but that didn't help.  I was going to give up, but then I said, "Remember when we were kids, if the TV started acting crazy, people would just go smack it on the top or sides?"

So yeah, I slapped the DVD player around a bit with my open palm.  This time when it played Little Big Man, it got about halfway through before it started over, which I suppose is an improvement, but not much of one.  I decided that if we were only going to be watching half of a DVD, we needed something with no plot:  I got out a couple of our "Country's Family Reunion" DVDs, figuring it's just a bunch of people singing and talking, and there's no plot to follow.  We'd just watch as much as the DVD player would permit.  Wouldn't you know, it played every bit of the two music DVDs I chose.  Now I'm wondering whether I actually fixed that player with my abuse.  Maybe it will let Little Big Man play all the way to the end.  

That's all I have for today.  I'm going to read the Kansas City Star for a while and see if there's any good news.