Week 25 - Covid Vacation Plans

It was another eventful week. Yay!

I got a message from John on Tuesday. He'd found a beach house to rent at Matunuck - tiny but with a private dock on a salt pond and a 5 minute walk from the state beach. I was in! I used my Southwest credit from the cancelled Berkley trip last fall (wild fires) figuring I could get another credit if I didn't feel safe flying. I can always drive or worst case scenario, Carolyn can use my half if I can't get there. At this point, I've got so much vacation time and money from my cruise refund that it's worth the risk. I hope it all works out.

As if that wasn't excitement enough for a Tuesday, the Monday Night Knitters were back in the library! They weren't open evenings every night yet so we moved to Tuesday. It felt great to be back in the library, in the big room so we could sit 6' apart. I wiped down the tables and we were back to normal. Ish. Still it felt good.

I was sitting enjoying my coffee and mini wheats on Wednesday morning when I looked onto my deck and saw a beautiful cat that I'd never seen before. I immediately went onto the local lost pets Facebook group and there was a post from someone the next street over looking for this exact cat. She was a long haired tortie with an orange stripe down her nose so there was no mistaking her. I called the number and the woman was at work in Lincoln so said she'd call her son and have him come right over. She suggested I try to grab her but when I tried to put more food down, she bolted. I scrambled to get dressed and then he showed up with his sister half an hour later. The cat was long gone and he didn't even try to call her. Useless! The adults came over after work that night and they tried to find her but failed. I saw the man (the cat was his baby) again the next morning, cruising the alley shaking a can of treats. I still don't know if they found her. I  hope so.

The weather changed with storms on Thursday, so much so that I was able to turn off the AC and open the windows. I love that! At work we had our first big staff meeting via zoom with ~30 people, which was interesting. Otherwise it was a quick week (also nice) and I was excited for the weekend.

It started Friday night with a very belated birthday dinner for Andrea and Lori. We'd been schedule to meet in Ashland the week the world shut down so this was 3 months late. Lori was in town for a hair appointment so we had Chinese food on my deck. The weather was absolute perfection and we enjoying catching up after we ate. After Lori left for the ride back to Omaha, Andrea and sat out until dark. Lovely.

Saturday was the last day of Brooks Books. Andrea had finally decided to close the shop - end of an era. It was the last time I'd pop in to find Andrea behind her counter knitting at her laptop. Lori had cleaned her out of sock yarn on Friday night but I was Andrea's last customer and found a few skeins Lori missed plus a few other goodies. Andrea locked up and we headed to spinning at Danielle's in Valley. 

The weather was still gorgeous so we were meeting in her driveway in socially distanced chairs. It was a lot of fun - sitting in the shade, drinking yummy sangria and chatting with spinning friends. Another wonderful day. I could get used to this! Unfortunately I ended the day with overcooked and overpriced prime rib, complete with canned green beans and gray mashed potatoes, from a local restaurant. Never again. Lesson learned.

I had tried to mow the night before but couldn't get the mower started so emailed John to see if he'd mow Sunday morning. He showed up with his mom, who was going to use the chain saw on a stump left from last week's tree clearing. Heidi and I were knitting on the deck when it started to rain. John ran to finish the last bit of the lawn and they were off. All this before 10:00 in the morning! With that auspicious start, I decided to power through the rest of the yarn organization and by day's end, the yarn was back in the closet and the bed in the spare room was no longer a heap of crap. I even did some long overdue cleaning. Nothing like redemption to finish off a good week. Ahhhh.

Week 24 - Socializing and Swimming

Compared to recent quarantine weeks, it felt this this one had a lot going on. 

First off, my ancient iPad died. It owed me nothing (I bought it used 8 years ago) but I was lost without it. It's my preferred method for reading in bed because I don't need a light, it turns off when I fall asleep and I can increase the font size. I have a Kindle but it can't compare in any way. Luckily, Anne had given me a slightly newer iPad a few years ago so after hours of dinking, I was able to wipe it out and restore my data from a cloud backup. My email doesn't work (I'm sure Allan - the tech guru at work will be able to fix that) nor my weather app and the iPad is too old to download any new apps or updates. But the kindle app is working just fine so I was back in business after only 2 nights using the Kindle. Nice.

On the productivity front, Thursday was a perfectly windless day so I had the kid who mows come over with his loppers and herbicide to deal with the weed trees. But he couldn't come over until after work so with a 7:30 start, I had to help. I ended up doing the heavy cutting because I didn't want anything to do with the chemicals. We worked until dark and had piles and piles of trees, which I paid John extra to come back and haul away the next day. I discovered a few we missed but I'm hopeful that the ones we cut won't grow back from the stumps.

As for being social, I had lunch with Lorri and her husband on Wednesday, which was a delay from my usual Tuesday takeout because of weather. And while it was not storming, it was still too windy to eat outside so I sat at one end of their dining room table with Lorri and her husband at the other end. It was nice to get out of the house for an hour midday. 

I took Friday afternoon as vacation time and after a leisurely lunch watching a Grocery Girls podcast, I headed to Lincoln. My goal was to get Starbuck's for the first time in almost 3 months so that was my first stop. I used points to get a gynormous mocha frapuccino and headed to campus to check on my cats. They were hungry and I had no food in my car so I clearly needed to talk to the Friday feeder. I felt bad leaving them but had a schedule to stick to. After popping into St. Louise's for some tea lights, I headed to the Best Western by I-80 for water aerobics. 

An instructor from the Y, which is closed, was teaching every afternoon at 5:00 in the tiny hotel pool. There were 8 of us in the pool and 6 were UNL people. I didn't feel unsafe but would have preferred a bigger pool. Still, it felt great to be moving again. Afterwards, I picked up a pizza and headed to Anne's where she, Rene and I chatted for hours. It was warm but not unpleasant with a nice breeze and shade as the sun set. It was a banner evening and I enjoyed every minute.

My nephew, who works for United Airlines, had called midweek to say he would most likely be in Omaha for 4 hours Saturday afternoon. Since non-paying employees are the first bumped when a flight hits the 70% full Covid limit, he wouldn't know for sure until Saturday morning. So I got up and was ready to leave but waiting for a confirmation phone call, which I got at 9:30. I headed to Omaha and picked him up at 11:00. 

The plan was to find lunch somewhere but we had an hour to kill so walked the Bob Kerry Bridge over the Missouri. Or rather I walked it. Drew had been up since 4:00 and was so exhausted that he stopped at the halfway point and waited for me to finish and come back. We killed just enough time to hit a micro brewery near downtown but come to find out, that location didn't serve food. Drew was also starving so after finishing the beer he'd ordered while I was in the ladies' room, we headed to Benson. I wanted to find a restaurant where we could eat outside and we found a German brewery with a table in the shade in a big beer garden. The food was delish but the smallest beer they served was twice what I could drink so I left half there. Sacrilege! 

Drew must have checked the time 30 times while we were eating. He was only halfway through his flights and had a chance of being bumped on either of the next 2 so I think he was travel nervous. It was also blazing hot by now and nothing was open so he told me to drop him back at the airport early so he could nap at the gate. I was done in Omaha hours earlier than I'd planned so I headed towards Aldi. When I realized I'd have to drive right by my fave Omaha yarn shop, I stopped and bought a gorgeous skein of sock yarn. Yay! Then I ran through Aldi because I'd forgotten my mask in the car, which I didn't realize until I'd sanitized my cart and was halfway up the first aisle. Since less than half of the people were wearing masks, I didn't look unusual but I didn't feel good about it. People without masks are idiots and I looked like one of them. : (

A busy week, right? I spent Sunday inside doing some much needed cleaning and catching up with friends on the phone. Other than spending time with Drew, my socializing all felt safe and was a welcome change from so much isolation. Hopefully I can include more safe socializing going forward so that summer will have some interest beyond what I can stream and knit. 

Week 23 - Heat is Here

As far as the new normal goes, it was a pretty average week but with a few high points. High points these days have become simple things that involve leaving the house and seeing actual people. Here are my stories... dum dum dum (do you get the reference?)

Heat had set in but it had been so cold for so long that the bugs weren't out yet. When Heidi offered to host Monday Night Knitting in her yard, we all agreed. It was warm but not unpleasant and I got to see actual people in person. That's a joyful thing these days.

Another joyful thing was my first haircut in months at 8:30 Tuesday morning. I had requested the first appointment of the day but Jay did one better and I was in the chair before they opened. Since I had been sporting a Covid mullet since trimming my bangs myself, it felt WONDERFUL to have summer short hair again. I felt like a new woman.

Maybe that new woman feeling was why I got dressed Wednesday morning and was walking within 10 minutes of getting up. Yes, I was walking my neighborhood at 6:05 a.m. It was going to be another scorcher so first thing in the morning was the only option. I was stiff as all get out at first but limbered up after a bit and didn't hate it. I have to get more exercise and this was a first step. Literally. I was home, showered and back in my nightie by 7:00 for breakfast while watching CBS This Morning. Nice.

On another happy note, I'd sold a bunch of yarn (shipped it out on Monday) so used the money to buy more yarn. I had asked the buyer if she'd buy it for me, which wouldn't break my yarn diet, but she wasn't comfortable doing that so I used the money she paid to buy some myself figuring I was still OK. While looking at yarn for sale on Ravelry, I found 2 listings for yarn that was free if I paid shipping. Score! I got some bamboo sock yarn from one listing and a big bunch of leftovers (my favorite yarn score for use in monster socks) that I'll share with the Monday Night Knitters next time we do a monster sock swap. 

It would be great to say this is where I stopped but I did buy one more skein of sock yarn so I guess my cold sheeping (a yarn diet) was broken but I'll call it a lapse and not completely blown. At least I made it 5 months without buying yarn, which is saying something because my 2 exemptions - travel and thrift store yarn - have been non-existent for months. The yarn I bought was enabled by the Grocery Girls podcast, which had been my go to streaming for the past few weeks at least. These Canadian sisters have been my surrogate friends during lock down and even more so since it's been too hot to be outside. in the 90's and humid all week. Blech!

I had a fun day on Saturday. I headed to Lincoln with a list of errands. I needed a new hinge for one of my kitchen cabinet doors, which I failed to get at the hardware store so had to brave Lowe's, had a list for HyVee (groceries) and between those I hung out at Anne's. She had made scones so I brought my tea and we chatted and knitted for a few hours, which was a treat. I even popped into Goodwill on the way to HyVee (my last stop) and scored some yarn for my sister. It was still hotter than Hades but despite that, I went home and mowed. In the dress I'd been wearing all day. I was dripping with sweat and stayed hot for 30 minutes after showering but it was done. I was ready for Sunday inside.

Despite being in AC and cool enough to cook, I did absolutely no cooking all week. I had lunches sorted but after eating pasta Monday and Tuesday for supper, I lost all interest in cooking so ate absolute crap for dinner for the rest of the week. I'm talking cheese and crackers, cocoa krispies and chips and salsa. Not good! So I spent Sunday like I did when I was going into work - doing chores. I did all my laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, cleared out the fridge and did some cooking. I made cheesy baked cauliflower with crab cakes for dinners, cuke salad to go with ham sammies for lunches and made banana bread to share. This would be enough to break the cycle of eating crap and I had some to share with Andrea.

So all in all, a good week and I felt prepared for a good week to come. The heat was supposed to break mid-week and I was looking forward to that. It's the little things these days. Now to get busy getting more exercise. : )

Week 22 - My May List

Any week that starts with a Monday holiday is a good one but more importantly, this was the last week of May. I had big plans to get things done so I could start June off on the right foot. But first Monday...

I did something I haven't done in a long time. I wanted to go to Fremont to run some errands and I called Andrea to see if she would be willing to go with me. In the same car. We weighed the risks and decided it was OK. There was not excitement on the list - just a couple of grocery stores - bit it felt SO normal. We picked up some goat milk at someone's acreage for Andrea's next cheese batch then I found my favorite tea at Baker's - Tetley's British Blend, which was the reason for the trip. Then Aldi and a quick stop for a 4 pack of petunias and we were done. I was very disappointed that Starbuck's was closed so my 2+ month Starbuck's drought continued. Anyway, the normal errand day felt like an absolute treat. 

Tuesday was a busy work day and I had my normal grab and go lunch from Mocha C's. I had an 8:30 meeting on Wednesday so did something I haven't done in months - I set an alarm! I woke up before it went off but couldn't take the chance. The meeting lead to more work, this time on another form for HR. After work I mowed, which still feels great after years of not doing it myself. Love my new knee, which isn't do new anymore.

Thursday was a big day. I had vet appointments for all 3 cats in preparation for registering them for the first time. Getting Gansey into a carrier is always iffy but I had all 3 in carriers and in the car with no drama. I sat in the parking lot at the vet while they came out for one cat at a time so I never went inside. I even paid in the lot. After dropping the cats back home, I went to City Hall and registered them. Good thing I'm not spending money these days because all this cost almost $400, a big chunk of which was the flea treatment. But done is good. My month end to do list was getting shorter each day and even shorter when I finally did my taxes that evening. I know. Late!

Friday was going to be a banner day. Anne was coming over after work to walk at the dam and get dinner. It had been a long time since we'd done that so I was excited. When I got a message that our friend Susan (the woman I drove to Oregon with last summer) was in town, I invited her to join us for dinner. Excellent. Then I got a call at 11:30 from Rene, who was in the area and wanted to do lunch. I had sloppy joes on the menu so she came over for a quick lunch on the deck. Two social events in one day! I finished HR's form that afternoon and Anne arrived just after 5:00. Since Susan was coming at 6:00, we had to shorten our walk a bit but it still felt good to move. We had a lovely dinner and then I did a fire in the driveway. Another night that felt like the old normal. Nice way to start the weekend.

I woke up to a glorious rainy day on Saturday. It was downright chilly and I loved hearing the rain on the roof. I took advantage of one of the last cool days and made homemade Boston baked beans. Yum! I hadn't made them all winter and they require the oven to be on for hours so this was the perfect day. I did some general neatizing and chores because I had big plans for Sunday. 

A few years ago I'd rearranged my bedroom so that I could take advantage of the brand new spots on my non-flipping mattress. I'll never by one of those again. But I digress... While it did give me a firmer spot, it also meant the only floor vent was under the bed. This is fine in the winter when I use my heated mattress pad but in summer having the only AC vent blocked sucks. I've made do for years by moving the bed away from the wall and putting the mattress as far down in the frame as it will go to create a slot for some air to make it into the room. This creates a walking hazard trying to get around the bed so I had decided to go back to the old configuration. This meant moving a stack of yarn totes out of the room, which of course meant a total reorg of all my yarn, and when I moved the furniture, I had to clean everything - walls, floors, furniture. OMG - the dust bunnies! So that's what I did all day Sunday and it was so worth it. Not only was my room clean and cool but it looked so much neater with those totes gone. 

I was ready for summer just in time for blazing heat that would be arriving on Monday. And my May list was done. All of it. That's not to say I don't have plenty more on my to do list for the summer but I got lots of things done that I'd been slacking on since quarantine began. Time to get busy with the new normal and come up with a summer routine. No excuses anymore.

Week 21 - Cruise vs. Home

It was a pretty average week, if you can call sheltering/working at home average. But since that's the new normal, I'll go with that. But not only is work at home but so is vacation. I should have been prepping to leave for my cruise and flying out on Thursday. Oh well.

I did have some high spots in the otherwise mundane week. The first was the delivery of my new bench. Cindy had taken it home in pieces on her last visit and her husband rebuilt it. They delivered it on Wednesday afternoon and I was happy to welcome it back, all shiny and new. This is the place I'm mostly likely to sit in my yard. The seat is just big enough for me and a cat and the arm is just wide enough for a cup of tea. I enjoyed it the very next day for the first of many tea breaks. Since Cindy's husband was with her, it was just a drop off and not a visit. Time to schedule an actual visit.

I should have left for my cruise on Thursday and woken up in Amsterdam on Friday so as a consolation prize I took Friday off. My goal was to spend the day chatting with family and friends. I went to a local restaurant to pick up a burger and onion rings for lunch and after I was done, I called my Auntie Margaret. We had a good, long chat. I also caught up with my friend Eileen in Canada on Sunday. It was lovely to see her and chat for awhile.

I did get some gardening done, pulling out the hoses, testing them all and setting up the best of the lot. This might sound like not much but it requires snaking 2 hoses under my deck and then tucking a long one behind an entire garden bed to use with the sprinkler in my veg beds. Once that was done, I put the sprinkler on and once the water softened up the soil, did some much needed weeding in my veg beds.

I had a bit of a lost weekend sitting on my butt knitting and attempting to catch up on Marvel Agents of Shield. I'd given up a couple of seasons ago so that because my background streaming between chores on the weekend and while knitting. I got through an entire season only to be so unhappy with the last episode of that season that I gave up on the series again. Done with that.

So a quiet week replaced a knitting cruise on the Baltic Sea. I took joy in knitters around the fire on Monday, my grab and go lunch on Tuesday from Mocha C's and knitting socks, including a new pair cast on just for zoom meetings. I'm grateful for these small joys in this funky time we're all living through. I hope you're finding some joy to brighten your days too.