This week I finished coloring the last page I had gleaned from the internet. It is kind of busy and detailed, the type of page I tend to avoid. I taped it to the inside of my clothes closet. My natural tendency is toward melancholy. "Choosing" is an active behavior, a reminder that with the Holy Spirit's help I can control how I respond to what is around me.
I don't think I will look for any more pages. Like the shelling and eating of peanuts, these were things to do while spending extra time at home. I don't see them becoming a regular part of my life. They filled a void in my days because my usual activities (Literary Club, choir practice, ladies' Bible study, Robin Hood lunches, and Silver Sneaker classes) had stopped.
Usually, everything but the exercise class and the neighborhood monthly lunch would stop for the summer months anyway.
There are all kinds of things being rescheduled or canceled. In the spring and summer, I would normally attend a Volunteer Appreciation luncheon at Grace Village, Saint Ann's rummage sale, maybe a musical/play at the Wagon Wheel Theater. I know some Indiana towns plan to have July 4th fireworks; haven't heard what Winona Lake has decided. The county fair in July will have rides and activities but no 4-H animal competitions. I am guessing the Senior Day free breakfast and afternoon ice cream and door prizes will be eliminated as well. On television, I enjoy watching the American Kennel Club dog show and the National Spelling Bee which were canceled this year. What kind of community events are not happening where you live?
Non-essential travel is allowed now in Indiana. Stores and restaurants are open with restrictions. On Memorial Day a ton of people visited Winona Lake beach without social distancing; the town has blocked access to the beach now. With increased mingling comes increased exposure to the virus. In the past few days 15 new cases of Covid-19 have appeared in our county. We are now up to 120 people sick; two months ago we had about 20. The illness is spiking in the state as well.
The news reporting about the GOP dinner last week in Warsaw stated 130 attended, 5 wore masks during the non-meal part of the program. Kudos to the mayor as he is one who did don a mask; he has persistently been trying to get people to show respect and care for fellow citizens by wearing a mask. I expect such cavalier attitudes toward the pandemic will result in more cases this next week or two.
My pastor announced that our church will resume meeting June 7th. I don't think I am quite ready to do that yet. Maybe by the end of June if it appears the spread of the virus is slowing down in our county rather than spiking.
I am reading the 3-book Christian romance series Wings of Glory by Sarah Sundin. I like her writing. The timeframe is World War II, including American aviators in England.
I would like to travel a bit this summer, but that is not looking likely. Might as well lose myself in fiction.
It was a scorcher today, up around 90 degrees. We've run the air conditioner since yesterday afternoon. The heat makes the irises open up.
I am becoming sensitive to the watering needs of my new potted plant. Every day in this hot weather.
This morning we ate breakfast in a restaurant. They did a good job spreading customers out, and the waitresses wore masks. I had some discomfort taking my mask off, however. The waitress came to refill coffee and clear dirty plates while I had the mask off. I have a slight cough from my allergies; I coughed into my napkin and made sure not to cough when she was near. Nobody seemed to pay any attention to me when I coughed. Not a lot of awareness of what was going on around them by the customers. I ask myself would I be observant of somebody displaying possible virus symptoms? Probably not.
I plan to grill some hamburgers on this holiday weekend. I also bought some sweet corn and potato salad. We will fly the US flag from our porch flagpole Monday. The sacrifices most of us are making during the pandemic lockdowns seem puny compared with those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Lots of iris buds but no blooms yet at the front corner of the house. I do have cheddar pink blossoms. I think this is the largest number of flowers on this plant since I put it in the patio plot several years ago. I guess it likes lots of rain. I hope it continues to spread. I would like it to fill in the front of the plot.
A hint of red sprouts for the portulaca, but they do not like sitting in pools of standing water. Last year it wasn't until the end of July they finally grew, and the year before that they all drowned so there were no flowers. I bought a pot at the store to get them started again. The veronica (speedwell) is growing well; too early for its flowers. Maybe in 2-3 weeks. It is nice to have happy things to anticipate.
Our Zoom session had problems. The newbie could not get her camera and microphone working. She could hear and see us, but we could see only an icon representing her and no sound. Finally, she did get the camera to work, and we used chat and nodding of heads to communicate. She was really hesitant to try. Maybe we will have to practice a few times, just the two of us, before trying all 3 sisters again. It was obvious we all needed haircuts. The beauty salons are open again in Indiana, but a big backlog. I finally found someone to cut my hair on June 4th. I hope she is good because she is going to have a shapeless head of hair to work with.
Some rain predicted for us but temperatures in the low 80s the next few days. Right now it is warm with a nice light breeze. Good grilling weather.
Our plan today was to drive to the public boat ramp on the east side of Chapman Lake, park our car, and eat our lunch. When we lived on the north side of Warsaw, a few times I parked here and walked through the neighborhood which is a mishmash of small old cottages and luxury lake homes. Today the lot was parked full of boats and boat trailers. I suppose people are getting their boats ready for the Memorial Day weekend. There are no public parks along the lake.
We drove north along the curvy road to Road 450 North and headed west toward Warsaw. We ended up at Lucerne Park on Pike Lake. Like Center Lake, there are no picnic tables set out. There were 3 metal benches along the shore, but with all of the recent rain, they were in 2-3 feet of water rather than on land. We ate the packed lunch we brought inside our car. It is mostly cloudy today though we saw some sun north of Chapman Lake. We had the Lucerne Park lot to ourselves. It was just nice to look at the lake and trees, to have a change of scenery.
I am thankful to be able to see through the windows of my home or with a short walk or drive the beauty of the natural world.
This morning as I sat at the computer, a goldfinch landed on the edge of the patio next to the blooming cheddar pinks. The bright magenta flowers in contrast to the bright yellow was lovely.
This morning I went to Owens (owned by Kroger) to shop. I needed some paper towels, and I have been happy with the store brand which saves me money.
The store now has red arrows making aisles one-way. They wasted their time. Most shoppers totally ignored the arrows. Of the 3 big stores I use (Owens, Meijer, Martin's), Owens definitely has the skinniest aisles. With people going two ways, people were passing within 20 inches of me. I would like to say these people were wearing masks, but about 30% of people had none on. As I was leaving the store I was disgusted by what I saw. 4 men dressed in firemen pants with suspenders and T-shirts saying Warsaw Wayne Township Fire Territory were approaching the self checkout lane. Not one of them wore a mask. If the "first responders" can't be bothered to wear something that protects me and the rest of the public, why should I be honoring them? Shame on them.
I will continue to use Owens for certain items only they carry. I will not be doing my regular shopping there until healthier times. One of the benefits was to get reward points toward a discount at their gas station. Not worth it right now with such insufficient precautions and safety enforcement.
They did have two canisters of disinfecting wipes on the shelf (limit 1 per customer) and lots of hand sanitizer in small bottles less than 2 ounces (limit 2 per customer). I bought both. We have some hand sanitizer from Streven Distillery, the only stuff we could find after weeks and weeks of looking. It has a water-like consistency since it is alcohol normally used to make vodka. I see today is the last day to buy it; they are not going to make any more since bars will be able to open back up in a few weeks, and Streven will go back to making vodka in adequate supply for those customers.
Our county has fared well re Covid-19. As of yesterday we had 62 cases (1 died) and currently nobody with the disease in the hospital. God has been gracious because certainly this situation is not because of people being careful in our community. The exception is the nursing homes; they have done an outstanding job protecting the residents.
We do cautiously go out with masks on. Yesterday I went to Menard's to buy some flowers. I was a little irked that the gardening center door was "locked" and a sign said I had to use the main entrance. Once inside, I realized why. There was a huge sign saying all customers had to wear a mask and an employee monitoring the customers entering. I only saw one man turn around and leave because he had no mask. In the store I saw a person who had taken her sweater off and put it around her neck with the sleeves tied across her mouth and nose. I wish more stores required masks. This morning my husband went to his barber. The shop only reopened on the 11th. The barber wore a mask as did my husband. But the man leaving when my husband arrived and the man who came after had no masks. Today in the local newspaper the Warsaw mayor was lamenting that not more people were wearing masks. It is disconcerting. Unless it is a N45 mask, the mask protects people around the mask wearer, not the person wearing the mask. Where is the reciprocity?
People in our community are sewing masks and taking them to a central donation site, the fire department on Center Street. We have a mask sewn by a lady in our church, but we hoped we might have a second one so we don't have to launder the masks so often. We had checked the fire department twice, but the outside sign said no masks today. Yesterday on my way to Menards I stopped at the fire department. They did have about 10 masks. These weren't exactly what I wanted since the ear loops are easier to use than the over-the-head kind, but in these times one has to be flexible. None of the fabric was masculine, but I told my husband he could use the "lining" side of the "fish" mask instead.
We are actively looking for things to do outside our home that we consider low-risk. Yesterday morning we went to a huge antique store in North Webster wearing our masks. The two clerks had no masks, however. We were the only two customers in the store. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to browse. Afterward, we drove north of the town to a large nursery/greenhouse establishment. We were asked to wear masks but nobody enforced it. I bought a basket of ruffled impatiens, something I had not seen before.
The plants at this nursery are kind of expensive. That's why I went to Menards in the afternoon to look there.
I was thinking a geranium would be nice, but I ended up buying this combination which was half the price of the impatiens I bought in the morning. Obviously petunias. I think the pink flowers are verbena. Don't know what the little purple flowers are. I will probably kill it within 2 months; I don't have a green thumb.
Our fothergilla bush is finally blooming. We will have warm weather by the end of next week. The colorful plants will make sitting on the porch pleasant.
I went to Meijer Tuesday morning. Between 7 to 8 a.m. is the senior shopping time, but it is too early for me. I arrived at 8:30. I was glad to see most of the customers wearing masks. One benefit of the virus is that I am looking at food products/brands that I had ignored before. Last night we had grilled shrimp.
There were 6 skewers in the bag. The frozen shrimp were sort of little but so tasty when grilled with a sprinkling of St. Elmo's seasoning.
I bought a new top from Land's End last week. Actually I bought two tops, but one was too long and looked strange. I had to pay to return it. I am trying to order online more because I don't think department stores are going to survive much longer. Right now, online stores have some good sales.
One of my projects has been going through my closet getting rid of older items that are worn out. I needed a long-sleeved top after getting rid of two.
Today we signed up for the New York Times crossword puzzles. We subscribe digitally to the newspaper, but the crossword is an extra charge. One of our routines was for my husband to photocopy the Sunday puzzle at the public library for us to work on together Sunday evenings. We did the last one several weeks ago. Our library is closed to the public though they just started curb-side pickup of items this week. Now we will access and print the crossword puzzle online. It is worth the $20 annual fee to restore a routine and some normalcy to our lives.
A new habit is eating peanuts. At $2.99 for a large bag, they are a cheap snack and relatively healthy. It uses up time to shell the nuts. Yesterday I sat on the front porch eating them; I could be messy since I just had to sweep up anything that flew out of the container.
So we are busy trying to make a new life for ourselves. This new life has some strange aspects, but it helps to make some effort to shape it into our preferences. What new things are you trying?
My husband's project while we are staying home is this wooden elephant. I don't know whether he will apply any kind of finish. The glue is still drying where the ears were attached.
I call it Covi, but he just calls it the elephant.
I have been checking the IRS Get My Payment module about once a week to see when our Stimulus Payment would be deposited since I saw no action in my bank account. Yesterday, the site said that our money would be deposited May 6th. Yes! It showed up today.
We need to think about how to use that money wisely. We don't really need it for living expenses except now with meat prices soaring it will be nice to know there is extra "income" to buy meat if we can find it. I have been doing pick-up grocery shopping the past few weeks at 2 different stores. I find it so dissatisfying. I like to note items on sale that are not on my list that I can purchase to stock up at a good price. And it is difficult to do meal planning because invariably 4-6 items I ordered are not available (at the specific store anyway) though they showed up in the online order browsing. Next week I am going to do in-store shopping at Meijer. That store has wider aisles and last time I was there people did a decent job of social distancing. I will probably feel depressed when I see the meat cases mostly empty, but at least being in the store will let me explore options.
I think we would like to use part of our stimulus money to help somebody who has lost their job or had hours cut. Have a few possibilities but may just go through a community agency. Still thinking about that. We did already donate to the Grace Village Employee Assistance Fund in anticipation of receiving the money. That money was being used for childcare expenses, but now our community has set up and provided to healthcare workers free child care in a church. The fund also has paid a bonus to those workers in the healthcare area.
Today I received in the mail a handwritten letter and a tract from Aubrie, a person I do not know. I guess if you cannot safely go door to door, you can still earn "credit" for your good works by using the postal system. The note suggested I could have my questions answered by going to the Jehovah Witness web page. I have in the past had their magazine left at my house when I was not home, but this is a first to get something in the mail with a personal note.
With very few exceptions, this spring has been cold. Today it is 54 and sunny, but the wind makes it uncomfortable to stay outdoors. I took a photo of my flowering quince; I was glad to hurry back inside. I was going to grill hamburgers Friday for supper but have decided to do them tomorrow with warmer weather chances. Friday will be mid-40's dropping to 28 at night. I may need to find an old sheet to cover the quince flowers.
My husband and I defied the stay-at-home order today. We drove to Peabody Retirement Community in North Manchester to see the tulips. We were a bit too early. Another 10 days probably before they open fully. April was just too cold for early bloom. We did not see any residents outside, just a maintenance man wearing a mask, and we never got close to him.
Which is a good thing given the sad and sobering news report that came out a few days ago. Peabody decided to be pro-active and test all of their employees. Nobody exhibited any signs of illness. However out of about 300 people tested, 42 tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. All asymptomatic. How scary is that. Peabody will over the next few weeks test their residents. None of them appear to be infected, but we are learning that people with the virus and no symptoms can indeed pass the virus to others.
Sometimes we would get a mini blizzard from the nearby Dairy Queen, but today we had plans to go to Hogs R Wild BBQ in Warsaw for lunch. This eating establishment is very small with little inside seating. Of course the inside was closed to customers; but they opened the two windows facing north, making one place order, and the other window pickup. My husband had suggested eating in the parking lot, but they are on busy Detroit Street and any parking away from the street was already full. This was Hogs R Wild's first time in weeks to offer a full menu. They were offering smoked meat with a minimum of 30 pounds for evening pickup in the weeks after the mandate.
We went to Center Lake Park instead. The park is closed, but the parking lot facing the lake made a fine place to eat lunch. There were maybe 8 other cars in the lot with people seated inside enjoying their lunches. So we shook up our routine today.
At 2:30 our governor will have a press conference to explain any changes in the stay-home mandate and business closures that had a deadline of today May 1st. I don't expect a big change, but maybe some shops and restaurants can offer limited service.
I felt a bit depressed this week, especially after reading a digital article about the more realistic timeframe for a vaccine. It felt good to drive through the countryside this morning, to see the tulips and eat lunch by the lake. Things in nature look so normal.
