Beautiful Rose

We were surprised yesterday afternoon when our back-door neighbors rang our doorbell while holding a rose in a small vase. Traditionally, Grace Village has a monthly party to recognize and celebrate birthdays and anniversaries that fall in that month. The birthday honorees get a carnation, and the anniversary couple receive a rose. I had seen on the calendar that they now have a birthday cart (no party), but since we are not allowed in the main building hadn't given it much thought. This couple was drafted or volunteered to carry the flowers to the condo honorees. 

I put our flower in a larger vase I already own. They also gave us two muffins in lieu of cake I guess. It was nice to know that we are still a part of the community and the effort was made to include us.

I did on-line ordering with pickup today from my usual grocery store. I am still not willing to go inside with the narrow aisles, but I wanted a few of their store-brand items. I got all but one item on my list this time, an improvement. I am not good at picturing quantity or size. When I am in the produce section, I bag up the amount of green beans I think we will eat. In the on-line module you order by weight. I ended up with twice the beans I usually would select. I guess they will stay good long enough to eat not only tomorrow but Monday as well. I ordered what I thought from the picture was a large slice of carrot cake. Nope. It was an actual small cake with easily 6 servings.

 Still despite the drawbacks, I feel safer doing pickup, especially at this store.

 Today we learned that one of the local Winona Lake pastors has tested positive for Covid-19. All of the church staff that share office space with him have to isolate now. My husband has been helping the church secretary's brother-in-law with a woodworking project this past week. We don't know that the brother-in-law has interacted with the secretary, but it is just too close for comfort given that this man doesn't wear a mask. 

For the past 2-3 weeks, our county has been averaging 100 new positive cases per week. I had been thinking of going to my church this Sunday, but now I will stay home and do online church instead. Because so few people in our community wear masks when they are in public, I stick out and feel odd, but I am going to keep wearing one. 

I had a good long read of Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile this past week. Nothing like England's suffering during the German blitzkrieg in World War II to put things in perspective. I had the advantage of hindsight though to know they would win the war; no such assurances yet of overcoming the pandemic.

Pretty Summer Day

This has been a fairly relaxed happy day. I slipped my shoes off while typing up this post after walking around the neighborhood. The air conditioner is off; we have windows and doors open and ceiling fans turning instead. 

It has been a picturesque day with blue sky and fluffy white clouds.

The flags that were installed around the Grace Village campus for Memorial Day have remained up for Flag Day and I assume for Independence Day.

I decided to walk down the grassy slope after taking the flag picture rather than back around to the paved sidewalk to get to the main campus. I saw these little flowers scattered around; certainly not purposely planted.

We have 3 residents with Covid-19 now. Though the employees were all tested last week, there doesn't seem to be much testing of the residents. The comment made to us was that the state does not mandate it. I certainly don't know all of the details, but if my loved one was living in a facility with residents with Covid-19 I think I would want everybody tested to isolate those that are contagious.

 My Stella d'Oro lilies are just now getting spikes with buds. Lots of  plants already are blooming. I don't know why mine are so slow as they have plenty of sun.

 This tree at the front of the campus looks like something you would see in autumn.

 The neighborhood has lots of pretty landscaping. We could use a bit more rain to green things up though. There is some forecasted over the weekend.

I saw my family doctor yesterday for the deferred check-up from April 2nd. It is time for a colonoscopy according to my schedule. Ugh. The general surgeon's office called today. I will have the consult July 7th. At first the scheduler said she had an appointment on June 30th at 4 p.m. I told her I wasn't in a hurry. She just laughed. I do feel a bit anxious about being in a hospital out-patient facility during a time of pandemic, but things could get worse the way the cases are mounting so I may as well get it over with sooner than later.

Our new CEO starts July 20th. He will work with the current one, though the current one will go to part-time August 31st and phase out much of his involvement until the end of the year. I suspect he will be relieved to see an end in sight for a very stressful winding down of his career.

Oak and Alley Burgers

Tonight we ate at Oak and Alley, a craft burger restaurant. In the side dining room of about 8-10 tables, we were the only ones seated, but the restaurant installed and recently opened a deck/patio and quite a few people were trying it out. The Republic Burger had BBQ sauce, bacon, cheddar cheese, grilled onions, and avocado slices. A handful to hold and a bit messy to eat. The burger itself is made of ground short rib, brisket, and ground beef. Very flavorful.

 We are eating in restaurants some again. I take hand sanitizer to use after handling menus or opening doors. If/when the restaurants get more crowded, we might assess our comfort level for continuing. We ate at a Mexican restaurant Sunday. It wasn't very busy when we ordered, but since it was Father's Day larger family groups started coming in around noon. Good that the restaurants are getting some business now.

Summer Things to Look Forward To

I am being positive about the coming weeks. I have many things to look forward to:

Fluffy white hydrangea blooms that my neighbor shares with me

July 4th fireworks in Winona Lake

Returning to my church in a few weeks 

Michigan blueberries and peaches

Day trip to South Haven

New eyeglasses in early September (doctor backlogged)

A memoir/journal I ordered from ebay (May Sarton) coming

A red gingham shirt from Macy's if it fits when it arrives

Maybe another boat-in worship service at Oakwood Resort

Marie Callendar chocolate cream pie in the freezer

Trips to farmers' markets in Warsaw and possibly Plymouth
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It's going to be a nice summer.

Down-sized Bouquet

It has been one week since I received my anniversary bouquet. Today I pulled out a few blooms that may last a few more days and rearranged them. I do like the pink lilies. 

I have been reading Finding Chika by Mitch Albom. It is a fairly small book. I started it last night and will finish it today. It is a touching remembrance of his ward from Haiti who at 5 years old was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumor. It is a good reminder of how precious each individual is and how great the loss of that person is to those who love him/her. 

Though our temperatures are creeping up each day and will be 90 by the weekend, the humidity is staying low which makes for nice mornings. Yesterday I sat on the front porch. Sunday afternoon we drove through the countryside a bit for a change of scenery. 

Weak Link

You have probably heard the adage that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Likewise, a defense is only as strong as its weakest member. This holds true in a pandemic.

When people live together in a household or community, the protection against contagious illness works best when all members agree on following guidelines to minimize risk. 

My husband is more comfortable with mingling with other people right now than I am. Thursday a friend who lives in the independent apartments came to our condo to give us an anniversary card. My husband promptly invited her inside to sit in our recliner and visit. I felt it would be rude to oppose him, but I was not happy with the situation. She told us she had recently had lunch with a friend at Ruby Tuesday so she is out mingling. My husband also crossed over the berm between our condos to talk with the neighbor who was sitting on his patio. Neither wore masks; the two men were less than 3 feet apart. My spouse is ready and willing to eat often in restaurants. I am a bit reluctant. 

I am working like crazy in the grocery stores to social distance, but my efforts aren't worth much if my partner introduces the virus into our home. I must admit that I have a dental appointment at the end of June that I plan to keep; he canceled his.  So our assessments of risk and what we are willing to do differ.

Our county had about 200 cases of Covid-19 June 4th. Now on June 12th it has 306. Grace Village has 2 more employees that tested positive (for a total of 3). I feel like staying home more while my husband is out and about happy things are reopening. I do plan to go to the public library next week during "senior hour"; this will be its first time open for use since March 24th, though it did some curbside pickup service the past few weeks. 

Thursday we did expose ourselves to risk by eating in a restaurant and shopping. At Kohl's, there were many people without masks. After I browsed for some rugs on the second level, I was not happy to discover the down escalator had been shut down while I was shopping. I had to use the elevator. The family in front of me in line consisted of an unmasked mother and 3 children under 5. She pushed the elevator button. When the elevator arrived, they piled in. The lady behind me (unmasked) said aren't you getting on. When I answered no she hurriedly joined the family. Yes 5 people could fit, but was that wise? As I stepped up to the elevator button, I noticed there was a sign that said 1 person or 1 party at a time. I bumped the button with my elbow. When my turn came, I invited the masked lady behind me to join me if she wanted, with each of us in separate corners. There were probably over a dozen people waiting to ride down. At least, with another person joining me, we speeded things up a tad. So even when you think you are not taking much risk, things can go much differently and increase that risk.

I am grateful to be surrounded by nature. It cheers me a bit to watch the birds and see what plants are blooming. The Asiatic lilies started opening the past few days.

My anniversary bouquet had a single red rose among the purple, pink, and yellow flowers. I put it in a budvase where I think it looks better by itself. 

We have been watching Downton Abbey the past few weeks. My sister gave me several years ago a DVD set of the first two seasons. I had forgotten some of the incidents, but of course not Mr. Pamuk.

Grace Village has hired a new CEO to start mid-July working beside the current one until January when the current one retires. Too bad he has to face Covid-19 in the campus now; I am sure when he signed on we still didn't have any cases. His abilities will have to arise to meet new challenges.

All of us have new challenges these days.

43 Years Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be our 43rd wedding anniversary. My husband had the florist deliver flowers today because we will be in Fort Wayne much of tomorrow.

It is terribly humid and hot today (87 right now at 1 p.m.). By mid-morning tomorrow the humidity should drop significantly. It also will be about 20 degrees cooler, at least to start. A pleasant day for our jaunt.

We are going to dine in a somewhat upscale restaurant for lunch tomorrow for our anniversary. Also want to visit Kohl's (during the Senior Hour), Half-Price Books, and Costco. 

We know this increases our risk of contracting the virus, but it is a risk we are willing to make for one day. We will wear masks and social distance. 

A stark reminder of the pandemic world out there is the email we received today informing us Grace Village now has one case of Covid-19 in Assisted Living. Our county also had 7 new cases reported in the last 24 hours. The situation is worsening, not getting better where we live. 

Lakeside Worship

 Every summer Sunday between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the Syracuse-Wawasee Ministerial Association sponsors a 30-minute worship service on the lake near Oakwood Resort. There are 3 ways to attend the boat-in worship service: On the Lilly Pad II boat from which the participants and sound system operate, on the shore, and in one's boat.

It was a bit cool this morning. My jeans jacket felt good. There were probably 70-80 boats in the water.

Next to the pier you can see two people in kayaks that had tethered there for the service.

Well over a hundred people on shore.

A few people wore masks, especially the ladies handing out the bulletins, but there was plenty of room to spread out to practice social distancing. This year my husband and I stayed a bit after the service ended to watch the boats with dogs line up to go to the boat with the dog biscuits. There were some dogs on shore as well.

We try to go at least once during the summer. If we get another beautiful day like today, we may go again. A very relaxing Sunday.

For Sunday lunch, we went to Boathouse restaurant in Winona Lake where we ate fish tacos on the screened-in porch overlooking Winona Lake. Except that the servers wore masks, it seemed almost like the good old days before the pandemic. However, we are quite aware that the number of people testing positive in our county is rising quickly. From about 120 to 210 in a little over a week.

Meet Cori

Covi the elephant has a new friend Cori the giraffe.

Today's Walk

Around 9:30 this morning I headed for the pond. Fresh air on the breeze felt good. We are to be around 90 degrees today, and the rest of the week is to be hot and humid. The humidity wasn't too bad yet this morning.

A resident of Grace Village gave money to buy flags for the planters, etc. around the apartment building and the flag circle. A nice touch for Memorial Day.

Several Robin Hood (condo) residents fly flags most days. We just put ours up on patriotic holidays.

Many people in the neighborhood through which I walked have flower baskets and pots now.

I added a geranium to my porch.

My neighbors' peonies are blooming.

My daffodil stems/leaves were falling over. I cut some short to get them off the speedwell plants. There is a tinge of pink on some of the Asiatic lily buds. Maybe in 10 days we will see them bloom. I bought them the first week of July last year already in bloom; perhaps with the right weather conditions they will bloom in June.

Only one quince bloom left. 

It is a beautiful day; I am glad I was able to be outside for awhile.