I just wanted to touch base here for any readers who’ve been checking in on my posts.
Evidently I was ill for some time and didn’t realize it. Long story short I had an infection and ended up with sepsis. So I have not really posted on here since the first week of December, and that’s why.
I was hospitalized for four days, and then had to fight it at home. I had to get myself antibiotic infusions via PICC line. That was not fun having that thing in my arm for so many days, but we do what we have to to survive.
Anyway, I’m doing much better and feel like myself again. I hope to add some more excerpts and different things to my blog. I found some poems that I would like to add as well.
I’vebeen on sick leave since Dec. 11, and can return to work Jan. 2nd. Also, it’s back to the office for me beginning Jan. 2nd. I’ve been working from home since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. The last couple years we’ve been on rotation also two times a year for approximately 2 weeks. But now we’re going back full time. I’m not looking forward to it. Not because it’s going into the office, but I don’t think they should have brought back all 200 of us at once. They should have slowly brought in smaller groups, group by group, to avoid disease and illness, and I really wish they would have waited closer to spring. We were actually supposed to still be on work from home until about June 2026.
“Hold on, y’all,” Lasso said. “I’ll get us some gloves.”
Lasso headed for his truck just as other South Padre Island police vehicles pulled up along with Texas State Police.
Covered with sand and grime a couple centimeters thick and caked with a sticky substance which had been splattered all over it, Terry’s car looked as if it had been driven through a slaughterhouse and out into a sandstorm.
“You can’t even tell by this car that it rained,” Hill said as she took a closer look at the hood and then the roof. “This gunk…how odd.”
“I…I think there’s some blood, for sure.” Lasso handed everyone a pair of gloves. “Here, just in case. Y’all be careful.”
Hill pulled on the gloves then touched the gooey substance on the car, rubbing it between her fingers. She held it to her nose and took a whiff.
“Yes, blood and…this stuff looks like…”
She stepped back from the vehicle.
“Like what?” Rob prodded.
The answer hit him, and he turned away from the car for a moment to gather himself then turned back.
“Awe, God.” Rob rubbed his forehead, fighting his emotions.
The truth is, there is more than one trait. I value my creativity. And I also value my abilities to sympathize and empathize. I value my work ethic and believe in a great work ethic. I deserve many things, maybe, but I only take what I earn through work.
I guess loyalty to Brands is still a thing. I think younger generations might be falling away from that. Does the buck stop with Gen X, or do the older Millennials do brand loyalty now?
I don’t feel loyal to any brand anymore, but there are some name brands that I trust. It probably stems from my childhood. Plus, I am a little OCD, and I don’t like change in certain parts of my life. Sometimes I think this is why I hang on.
Quality might be another. But I wonder if even that’s there anymore. Some Brands, I see, got worse and stayed worse. And some got better and stayed better.
The thing is that trust has been dashed by the buying and selling of brands from one company to the other. Sometimes my heart breaks when I see what’s become as some brands from my youth.
Regardless, some of the brands I tend to stick to among the food line are Kraft, Nabisco, Keebler, Frito Lay, and Green Giant. Also Gerber. Of course that’s not necessarily a brand of food, but I tend to reach for it for baby showers, as well as Pampers. Are these products as good as they were when I was young? I think some of them are better, but I do not enjoy brands going from one place to the other. And how many Brands left the United States for other countries?…and they want my loyalty? I don’t like it when American brands are not made in the United states.
And then there are some things that I will not purchase. For instance I like fish – cod, perch, bass, catfish, whitefish. Also shrimp. I will not buy seafood from certain countries. I was certainly glad to see the day where the country of origin was forced to be placed on the package.
Anyway, I’ll leave those places nameless so that I do not offend anyone unintentionally.
Then there are the car brands. While I never considered myself having a favorite brand of car in my lifetime thus far, up until 2022 every single new car (5) and all used cars (5) – with the exception of one, were American brands, union made. And that’s always the way I liked it. But, last year I wanted to buy a new car, and wanted to get back into a sedan. I had a Jeep then.
I checked the American car brands and they did not, at that time, offer the sedan I imagined for myself. I looked and looked. The ones I liked best were way out of my price range. I cringed at the hought of a foreign car brand but felt I should do my research
I ended up with a Toyota – foreign, but assembled in the USA. I’ve never owned a car where the car maker originally started in another country.
I just don’t consider myself a brand loyalist for the most part. Sometimes I just buy what’s on sale. Sometimes I buy store brands. There is one exception. I prefer Kraft cheese. And it’s something I will buy nine times out of 10.
I also used to be a Sony loyalist. I remember my first Sony Walkman, purchased back in 1986-87! I remember holding that Walkman thinking: this is an excellently made product! And I continued to buy Sony’s on and off for decades. But even they’ve changed, I think.
The problem with brands is that they start out with the promises. Promises such as: I am made excellently! I will be here for you forever; you are what’s most important to me.
Then some huge corporation that owns many brands comes along and offers them a flat rate to buy them out. Sometimes because the product or recipe is excellent, and sometimes they just want the stamp out its popularity.
The most important factor should ot be whether the consumer is a brand loyalist, but whether the brand should be a consumer loyalist. I mean, look what happened to Twitter! Yes, it happens there too. Twitter failed its users. And the people who sold that social media product should be ashamed.
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My ideal week is just being alive and well. I’m grateful for every day. That being said, if I could have an ideal week looking out my window at the Smoky Mountains, or the ocean, with nothing to do but write, eat, and ride roller coasters, that’d be great.
WANDA PARYLA 
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