Week 33 - Our Beach Week

What can I say about this week at the beach? It was absolute perfection! Our goal for the week was social distancing together at the beach. And that's what we did. 

This is how almost every day went. We slept in, watched the morning shows in our jammies, eating breakfast at some point. We'd eventually get dressed and move out to the picnic table, where we played Boggle until lunch, after which we'd go somewhere. This included Wakefield in search of Scrabble (failed), the farm stand to buy sweet corn, the liquor store for Crabbies Hard Ginger Beer... you get the drift. Total relaxation by 2 long-time friends. John did go on bike rides twice, during which I sat on my butt and knitted. Nirvana!

We did get to the actual beach twice. Monday was a holiday in Rhode Island, which is the only state in the nation that still celebrates VJ Day (now called Victory Day) so we avoided the beach until Tuesday morning. While it would have been only a 5-10 minute walk, we opted to drive rather than schlep the chairs, blankets and umbrella. Despite it being a weekday, there were lots of people on the beach so we walked to the end where the beach transitions from sand to shingle (rocks) and put our blanket down there. Unfortunately that meant that we couldn't dig a hole for the umbrella, which left my pale skin exposed to the sun. I covered as best I could and when it got too hot, John and I went swimming. The waves were great and shortly after getting out, we headed back to the cottage. I was pink but not burned.

Did I mention our outdoor shower? We did have one inside but I only used it the first night. After that, I enjoyed showering in the great outdoors. It was especially nice at twilight. Just another bonus to beach living.

My friend Deanne, who was willing to brave a visit, came for dinner that night. John cooked chicken on the grill, which was yet another delicious meal he made. Because John did ALL the cooking and served up something delicious every time - filet with a shallot and red wine sauce, fresh swordfish and hamburgers. I made the sweet corn and sandwiches for lunch once so was Princess Merry all week. We did eat out a few times, always at outside tables except for once inside a restaurant and that was at far apart tables with every window open. I ate all my seafood faves, which is always a goal on RI trips but just a bit harder during Covid.

We had one other visit. John's aunt and uncle came for drinks at the picnic table one afternoon. We'd planned an alfresco dinner on Thursday at his cousin's but the weather didn't cooperate. It was only supposed to rain in the morning so we headed to Newport after lunch, thinking we'd get out and walk on the shore. Nope. We had time to hit The Christmas Tree Shop and Job Lot (both must shops on RI trips) but it was still raining as dinnertime approached so we just dropped in for stand up visit in their kitchen, masks all around, of course. At least John got to see his family. I hadn't even told mine that I was in town because I wasn't going to chance visiting them. My aunt is 98 so I wasn't taking the chance, much as I missed her and my cousins.

We hit the beach one last time on Friday, this time driving 20 miles to East Beach. It's always been my favorite beach but this year it hadn't been groomed so there was an abrupt drop off at the water's edge. I went swimming alone and we didn't stay long. John had bought fresh swordfish for our final dinner so we went home to enjoy our last night at the cottage.

I packed that night lest worry would keep me from sleeping and I had no trouble getting everything into my big suitcase and slept great the last night. We had to be out of the cottage by 10:00 but still managed to relax a bit between packing things up. Vivian, the woman in the next cottage, had befriended us so we gave her all our extra food. We packed the car and left right at 10:00. It had been a perfect week and I felt fully recovered from year end.

John was all over logistics and the plan was to drive his mom's car to the Kingston train station, where John parks it when he heads back to the city. He had scheduled a Lyft from there to the airport, where he'd rent a car to drive home and Deanne would pick me up to spend the day before my evening flight home. But when we got to the station, John saw that Lyft wasn't coming and there was no one available from Uber either. In desperation, he called his uncle and he came and got us. As we were waiting for him, a bus arrived that was going to the airport. Oops! Tommy dropped us off at the car rental garage, where Deanne was waiting for me and John could pick up his car. I was sad to say goodbye but it was back to reality.

Deanne and I went to lunch at Plant City, which is a vegan restaurant in Providence. The outside tables were packed cheek by jowl so we opted to eat inside. The tables were far apart and there were plexi-glass shields around each one. The server had a mask on every time she approached and we put ours on too. It felt perfectly safe and the food was delicious. I count Deanne as my oldest friend (we became friends in 6th grade) so we had no problem chatting the day away over tea at her hoplace use. She dropped me at the airport at 5:30 and I headed home.

Remember me saying I had no problems packing? Well my suitcase was 8 pounds over the limit so I stepped aside and repacked, pulling out the tote bag I'd packed for just this eventuality. Gotta love Southwest with their 2 free bags. Empty middle seats during Covid works too. Both of my flights were mostly empty with about 100 empty seats so I could sit far apart and I wiped everything down too. Again, I never felt unsafe at all. I had less than an hour layover in Chicago so it was quick and I walked into my house at midnight. 

It was good to be home and I spent Sunday unpacking and getting ready for my work week. What a wonderful trip it had been! I'm so glad I overcame my worries and went. With Christmas in RI already cancelled, I think it'll be a long time before I travel again.

Week 32 - Hellish Year End

I have worked in Accounting/Financial Systems for going on 18 years and have been through that many fiscal year ends. This was the worst. By far.

Aside from prepping reports for Mary's meetings with the deans, the big spreadsheet is the other big year end thing I do. It takes hours to download the data then do the formulas that help Mary close out the state aided accounts. It's thousands of lines long. This was the spreadsheet I went into the office to do a few weeks ago for only the 2nd time since March. I wanted both my screens and my work desktop to get it done. I thought I was ahead of the game. Nope.

I got a call from Mary at 5:00 on Tuesday that something was wrong with the spreadsheet and she needed it fixed for a meeting the next day. I dug in and found that somehow it was corrupted. I worked until 10:00, first figuring out what was wrong and then redoing it. I was SO stressed and felt bad because Mary then had to work until 1:30 a.m. to prep for the meeting.

I thought it was all good and had a productive day on Wednesday. I went for a drive thru covid test at 2:00 then enjoyed the last water aerobics for the summer that evening. Wednesday was nice but then Mary called again on Thursday. There was another problem and I worked late again, finally getting everything right. Damn! I had already put 40+ hours in and it was only Thursday! 

I was leaving the house at 7:00 on Saturday and had had zero time to prepare to be gone for the week so I told my co-worker Brook that I would only be doing work that Mary needed on Friday because I had to do laundry, pack and get the house ready. Mary needed a couple of things but otherwise I spend the day getting ready to be gone. I even got to bed at a decent hour. Nice.

Since I had to be on the road at 7:00, I set my stove timer and set the alarm on my cell phone as back up. Well, I got a text at midnight with a code to check my covid test results so got up. Negative! I can't say I was surprised but it was nice to have proof before traveling because if I didn't have it, I was expected to quarantine in Rhode Island. I went back to bed and slept until 5:45. After making an egg sandwich and doing some last minute packing (mostly food to eat during my layover), I was on my way to the airport on schedule.

While I had been a bit anxious about flying, I never felt unsafe. There were very few people on both of my flights and I wiped everything down before I sat down. There was no one sitting anywhere near me. I spent my layover in my favorite spot at Midway, knitting, eating and reading at a well wiped down table. Nice. But the Uber driver wasn't wearing a mask so we drove to the train station with windows down the whole way. John and I were wearing masks, of course. I'd had mine on all day. We picked up John's mom's car at the Kingston train station and drove to the beach house.

OMG! It was charming and the location was amazing. We were right on a salt pond and our deck was literally a few feet from the water. Now a salt pond is attached to the ocean but is very shallow and a great place for clamming, which we watched our neighbors do all week. There are no waves and the water is very warm so not a place you'd swim but the breeze over the water was always cool. After a quick unpack, we walked across the street for take out from Cap'n Jack's. We got a lobster roll to split, clamcakes and chowder. None of it was good so we wouldn't be eating there again.

Sunday was our first full day and was totally relaxing, which I desperately needed after the week I'd had. We sat on the deck, played boggle, knitted socks (just me), ate when we were hungry and at the end of the day, went swimming. Keep in mind the pond is only knee deep at high tide and warm as bath water. But after a day of relaxing on the deck, it was perfect. Here's a pic of me enjoying the water. My butt was 3 inches from the bottom. After a dinner of filet mignon with a shallot and red wine sauce courtesy of chef John, we watched a gorgeous sunset over the pond. We'd get to the actually beach eventually. So far, this vacation was exactly what I needed.

Week 31 - Into the Office

It was a busy week punctuated by a banner day on Thursday that included shopping, the office, swimming and socializing. I ended the week with productivity too so it was a good week.

The week started with my usual quarantine routine but things kicked up a notch on Wednesday. A front was coming through on Wednesday afternoon that would bring cool, dry air. While this was more than welcome, it made swimming Wednesday night iffy. In the late afternoon, I started trying to find out if water aerobics was on. I had registered earlier in the day but by mid-afternoon, there was no answer at the pool. I tried emailing the Parks & Rec office but got no reply and finally resorted to Facebook. It said the pool would reopen for class but the sky looked so ominous that I wanted confirmation before driving 30 miles. Luckily the instructor had liked the post so I messaged her (assuming the Barb who hit like was the Barb who taught class) and got confirmation at 5:20. I threw on my swimsuit and drove like a banshee to Lincoln, calling people along the way to tell them it was on. Yes, I love outdoor water aerobics that much. It was absolutely worth the effort and mad dash.

Thursday was a busy day. I had scheduled an appointment with the foot doctor's PA at Nebraska Ortho to see about surgery for my hammer toe and since I'd be down there for 1:30, I decided to go early for a Panera salad then go into the office. I somehow thought I'd have enough time to go to the office before lunch but even leaving right after our zoom ended, I didn't get to Lincoln until almost noon. With not enough time to hit the office, I stopped at Goodwill to check out yarn (bought a couple of grab bags) then hit Panera and ate my salad in a park. Delish! I finished early enough to do a drop off at Brook's before the doctor and Brook, his wife and I had a lovely chat 6' apart on his front step.

What was I delivering you ask? Potato chips! Every year I buy the special flavors of Lay's chips to do a taste test at knitting and the office. Having scored them the previous Friday in Fremont, I took them to knitting where we all tried them and then took them to the pool on Wednesday for another taste test. Normally I'd bring them to the office and certainly didn't want them in my house (we'd barely made a dent in the 4 bags) so I labelled some zippies and made sets for the team. I dropped Brook's before the doctor, left Cindy's in the office (she skipped the pool, where she was supposed to get them) and dropped Ben's after I left the office. We were planning a live taste test viz zoom on Tuesday. Team building during Covid - I do my part.

After hearing that I could have my toe fixed anytime (they offered next week but I said I was thinking November once gardening season was over and the time changed), I headed to the office. Every year, I have to download and format a HUGE spreadsheet of all city campus state aided accounts and that would be much easier at work with 2 screens and a normal keyboard and mouse. It takes most of an afternoon so I hadn't committed to swimming but had my suit with me. Well, I blazed through the spreadsheet and finished with enough time to clear off the part of my cubie that's against the windows, which will be replaced shortly. I got everything done and was out the door right at 5:00, having seen not a soul all afternoon. That left me time to hit another Goodwill (bought a few more grab bags with really nice quality yarn), drop the chips at Ben's and get to the pool early. I even got in free because someone had donated a punch card with open punches. Nice.

There had been talk of having dinner on Anne's deck after swimming but since I hadn't even been sure I'd make swimming, I hadn't committed. But we made plans as we swam and I was elected to do a drive thru since Rene was on her scooter and we did go to Anne's. We sat outside in the now cooler air and chatted until after dark. It was lovely. We may do it again next week since that'll be the last week of water aerobics because they close the pools when school starts. I got home at 10:00, opened all the windows, took a shower and went to bed. What a fabulously productive and fun day!

Friday was a long day (I was still working on the big spreadsheet) but we did have a fun zoom call with Dawn in Virginia over lunch. I had made my fave lunch ever, courtesy of my new toast-r-oven - tuna melt and tater tots. Good friends and good food. Yay! When 5:00 came, I couldn't muster the energy to do more than sit on my butt, watching the news and eating dinner. But at 7:30, adulting kicked in and I neatized the entire house - put away laundry, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and picked up everywhere else. It only took an hour and was long overdue. I'd been looking at piles all week and it's super lame that I didn't take an hour to put it all in order earlier. Oh well.

I didn't have anything on my agenda for the weekend but finishing some chores and making sweet relish with some cukes my neighbor had given me. So after doing some pots and pans, I finally swept the back floors and then washed myself out the door. I ran errands in town and picked up lunch, spending just enough time that the floors were dry when I got home. And I'd bought the peppers I needed to make the relish so got out the food processor and got going on that. Making relish takes hours because you have to salt and soak the veg for 2 hours before you can even think about actually cooking it up but I managed to get it done and have 6 pints to get me through the winter and share with friends.

With so much done between Friday and Saturday, I got to relax on Sunday. I started the day making blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast and did laundry and hung it out on the line in the still cool air. I puttered a bit in the yard and did plenty of knitting before heading to Lincoln for water aerobics again. The weather was gorgeous but kind of nippy in the pool. I enjoyed the heat that had built up in the car while it was parked in the sun for an hour. It felt great and I'd made extra effort in the pool so got a great workout.

What a nice way to end the week and to top it off, I was happy with the progress I'd made getting my house in order. Considering I'm in my house 24/7 these days, I really need to act like an adult and not let things pile up. Not my forte but I'll try.

Week 30 - My New Toast-R-Oven

If you work in Business & Finance, fiscal year-end is later than for the campus users. My work starts when the users are locked out and that was this week. I do all the report prep for closing meetings and the first one was Friday morning but there was plenty going on in my life before then.

We got word this week that my cousin's Disneyland wedding in September was officially cancelled. I had already made the decision not to go but then California's Covid cases sky rocketed so Kelley and Gabe officially called it off. They're still getting married in September but will have the Disney event on their 1 year anniversary, good lord willing. I'd been putting off sending the RSVP but now don't need to. 

We had book club again on Thursday night. I neglected to let the library know we'd be meeting and since the city council was in the big room, we masked up and met around the small table in the genealogy room. We had all read the book in March so couldn't discuss specifics but still managed to talk for an hour. Other than the masks, it felt pretty normal.

The first closing meeting was Friday at 8:00 and while I'd already prepped all the reports, I had to get up early to check them for changes. This meant I had to set an alarm (I actually set 2) for only the 2nd time since March. Needless to say, I slept like crap. I was running reports at 6:00 a.m. and powered through the day, finishing at 2:30. Since I needed to hit a grocery store and was too tired to do anything else, I called Andrea, who was in for a Fremont run. I picked her up and we headed north.

Before hitting Aldi, our first stop was the Habitat Restore, which we are always at just before they're closing and Friday was no exception. We'd never been in the summer and were dismayed to find that they didn't have AC. It was hotter than blazes in there so we split up and ran through. I went into the small appliance area and was absolutely thrilled to find a brand new, vintage toaster oven - the same model I've used since college. 

My mom bought one for me when I moved into the dorms and it's the perfect toaster oven. I had scored one at a garage sale that replaced the first one when it died and when that one died, I paid through the nose for the same model on ebay. But that one had temp issues and so the oven part never worked and I had to put the toast on 9 to get a golden piece of toast. Now not having the oven function definitely impacted my cooking life. No more single servings of tater tots and no foil packets of fish for dinner. It just never seemed worth lighting the big oven and heating up the house. But this one had clearly never been used and I tested it as soon as I got home with some frozen perogies from Aldi and they came out perfect in the exact amount of time. Yay! I cannot adequately express how happy I am to have this toast-r-oven back in my life. It's the little things.

With all my shopping done on Friday, I had the whole weekend at home so was determined to tackle my front room, which had been a train wreck since I organized my spare room. It was a total jumble of totes and boxes, mostly empty, with baskets of yarn and such. A mess! Here are the before and after pics. Way better, n'est-ce pas? Between organizing, cleaning and giving my plants some attentnion, it took all afternoon on Saturday and I finished up Sunday. It was stormy Sunday so no water aerobics, which was a bummer but at that point I was ready to sit anyway. I needed to recharge for the coming week of non-stop closing meetings and report prep. As I often say, better busy than bored.