My Morning Walk

Yesterday and today have been delightful with cool mornings and sunshine. I sat on my front porch for 90 minutes yesterday while my cleaning lady worked inside; then my husband and I ate lunch sitting on the porch, too.

I started today out by removing the brown foliage left from my daffodils (still a few green ones left) and clipping some hydrangeas from my neighbor's bushes. This will be my last time to create a bouquet this summer as I don't want to take advantage of her generosity.

I walked to the pond and back around to my condo, enjoying flowers in the neighborhood.

My own yard has a few new things opening.

I haven't killed the flowers on the front porch yet, except the dark purple flowers with the verbena and petunias wilted away. They were very sensitive to heat and drying soil and didn't do well in our 90 degree days. The geranium had many beautiful blooms, but right now it is mostly in a resting period. I gave it some plant food, and I think it will have new flowers before too long.  

Mostly quiet days for us as we continue to worship online Sundays rather than in-person. Several of our church members are going through hard times with cancer treatment and surgeries. The state of Indiana is setting up a drive-thru Covid-19 testing site in nearby Warsaw for the next 2 weeks. We qualify by age and for me because of asthma but since the labs processing the tests seem somewhat overwhelmed and slow in giving results, I don't see any reason to clog the process up more when we have no reason to be tested. We have not been mingling in groups. We wear masks and keep our distance when out, too. We feel well.

I am doing lots of reading of the fiction books on my ipad. When I worked in the Grace Village library and downloaded free books to its Kindles, I would add copies to my own Kindle app on my ipad. I have several dozen waiting to be read. I am glad I "stocked up" over the past few years. I finished The Ice Cutter's Daughter by Tracie Peterson (which is also on the shelf in the GV library) and last night started on Pepper in the Gumbo (forget the author) about a young woman who inherited a bookstore and who is a bit of a Luddite. She did recently join a book discussion group on the internet and unknown to her the anonymous owner/moderator has just rented her empty apartment above the store; except he is building a video game store down the street from her shop and she is in full battle mode not knowing he is the same person who runs the book group. A romance book set in a bookshop in Louisiana should be interesting.

We will be heating up in the 90's again the rest of the week. Having an enjoyable book to read in the AC in my condo sounds good.

Disappearing Products

For the past month I have been unable to find certain items to purchase. Even when using the online order and pickup option, these items have not been available. I could order them online, but they were always unfulfilled. 

When in Meijer last week, the Pepsi product rep was stocking the shelves. I asked about 2 liter Diet Caffeine Free Pepsi. He told me they were not making it currently, and he didn't expect it to return to shelves for months. He did have a 6-pack of smaller bottles. Today at a different grocery store I noticed they don't even have those. I can't drink caffeine in the evening without disrupting my sleep. The main time I drink Pepsi is with pizza Sunday evenings. 

I also have been searching for low-acid orange juice. I am down to my last bottle and a half. I cannot drink regular orange juice without having reflux and/or heart burn. I drank the fresh-squeezed OJ on my Panama Canal cruise and had to take Tums all morning.

I had read in the newspaper that food companies were focusing on the most popular items they sell. No, those two products are probably not the best-sellers since they fill a niche, but an important niche since without them many people will not be able to imbibe in their products at all. 

What products do you usually buy that are now no longer in the stores? I will miss my Pepsi and orange juice when I run out of what I have. I may still be able to buy the Pepsi in the smaller version; the problem is I will probably start hoarding it which will cause problems for other shoppers. It is the toilet paper crisis all over again.

Non-Busy Weekend

It is very hot this weekend and will continue through most of next week in the 90's. I washed our cloth masks yesterday since we weren't going anywhere after eating breakfast in a restaurant. We still have a few disposable-style masks as well. I see the Indiana State Health Department dashboard shows 4 deaths for our county now; since our newspaper didn't publish on the holiday and the local digital news hasn't updated any stories on the virus this is the only way to keep track, but the state dashboard always lags on the number of cases compared to the newspaper. 

Life includes happy moments. Our pastor's son posted on Facebook his engagement to his girlfriend. He took her on a mystery date in a nearby town, then blindfolded her and walked/led her a short distance. When she took the blindfold off he was on bended knee holding out a ring box and popped the question. His father filmed the event; it looked like 2 sisters/girlfriends? were witnessing it all too as they appeared in the pictures congratulating her. 

This morning the audio on my church's You Tube service failed. I did check awhile ago and it must have finally been fixed in time for the sermon but not for the announcements and singing. I had already listened to a sermon by Denny Wilson, the founder of Warsaw Community Church. That church has 3 pulpit pastors, but Denny is the best in my opinion. The series is Joy Remains on the book of Philippians. The emphasis today was on contentment in the circumstances of life even if they lead to death. (To live is Christ, to die is gain.) Very timely. So Satan didn't win this morning by messing up my church's audio; I had already listened to God's word earlier.

I had deadheaded my cheddar pinks, and there have been a few magenta flowers, but mostly the patio plot has been dull. This morning the moss roses started opening. Time for some color again. These come up on their own from the seeds dropped by the spent flowers each year.

Most days I read a selection from a Karen Kingsbury book of short stories/devotionals that I bought at Goodwill some time ago.

The blue vase I usually have on the sofa table in the entry has been in the sunroom with the hydrangeas. In its place I had one of my husband's woodworking pieces. It was interesting to see the light from the skylight enhancing it.

When I returned my online-ordered shirt to Macy's in Fort Wayne Friday, I did browse the store. I just tried two items on over the top I was wearing as the store only had one dressing room open and the line was over 15 people long spaced out 6 feet apart. I found a Tommy Hilfiger shirt to buy. Usually I can't wear his line because the tops are too tight in the bust. This was an XXL which is not my size but I decided it would do OK. I was really wanting to find a summery shirt in pink. This does have some pink. It has those roll-up tab sleeves, but I may move the buttons over to wear it with long sleeves later. When I tried it on at home, my husband pointed out that the neck was rather big, but the price was right and I like the print so I will keep the shirt.

We couldn't see the fireworks over Winona Lake last night. I think they must have relocated the shooting barge. Oh, well, a few blocks over neighbors shot up some pretty higher ones. I also enjoyed all of the fireflies flitting about. We watched on TV the fireworks over New York City, too.

Yesterday afternoon we watched episode 6 of Downton Abbey. Then we started a jigsaw puzzle. I worked on it some last night, too, staying up until midnight since I knew I wouldn't sleep with the firecracker noises in progress. 

Not an especially exciting weekend, but a pleasant time.

A Bit of Outdoors

My husband went walking around the neighborhood at 6 a.m. this morning. He said it was pleasant outside. When I went out around 8:30 it was 73 degrees and not very muggy. I went out to trim the spent Asiatic lilies and give the patio plants a drink. Nothing but 80-90 degrees the next 10 days with a slight chance of rain Tuesday. It has been a dry summer so far. 

My gracious neighbor phoned yesterday and left the message with my husband that I should help myself to some of her hydrangeas. They are big and fluffy and have turned whiter the past week. She has two big bushes of Annabelle hydrangeas with about 70 blooms so I didn't feel sad about cutting off 3 blooms. 

While I was outdoors I walked around to the side of my house and found my hydrangea bushes have about 6 blooms, only 2 blossomed out enough to cut. I took one as there won't be many. They are totally different from my neighbor's plants.

Friday I am going to Fort Wayne to return the blouse I ordered online from Macy's. It didn't fit. I may browse that store though I know some clothing stores have their fitting rooms closed. That's the way it was at Kohl's. I will stop at a few other places, ending at Costco where I will buy one of their rotisserie chickens to eat for supper. We have no special plans for Independence Day. There will be an outdoors symphony orchestra concert in Winona Lake, but with so much heat I think we will skip it. We can see some of the higher fireworks from our house.

Besides the Winona Lake pastor who has Covid-19, a lady in our church (who was at the in-person service) has it, and now the local digital news reports that the mayor of Warsaw has it. We have over 500 cases in our county though about half of those are now recovered. It seems unstoppable. 

I received a reminder from Dell that my warranty runs out in a few weeks. Last summer my computer died and had to be replaced. This summer everybody is concerned about a pandemic and people dying. I could do something about the computer, but Covid-19 I can do nothing but try to avoid.