Beautiful weekend

We've been blessed with a beautiful weekend!  It's not raining, or super windy, or cold!

Yesterday, I got the back yard mowed, and Dave got out our bikes for the first time in two years.

Since my newest pain from the hormone blocker is my hips and thighs, I was a bit wary about if I would be able to enjoy riding my bike again.

This is a heart breaking thought, because, back in the day, I was a pretty serious cyclist.

Dave has issues with one of his tires, so we filled it up, and off we went!  The tire made it through our short ride.

It was so nice to get back on my bike, even if only for about a mile and a half around the neighborhood.

You gotta start over somewhere!

We'll try to go out again today.

Dave mowed the front yard on Thursday, so we are caught up with that for this week.

A few weeks ago, our neighbor dropped off some beer and a couple of "magic beans."

He is putting in a big garden in their back yard, and got some scarlet runner beans to plant, and gave me two of them!  I call them "magic" because they're so pretty!  They're black with purple spots.

The plant is called "scarlet" because the blossoms are a beautiful red that attracts bees and humming birds.

One of the things we want to get done today is to move a couple of pieces of the old chain link gate that we have stored out back into a place where we can use them for the beans to climb.

I'm thinking they can go up next to the pergola over the hot tub.

The beans have sprouted nicely, and are strong enough to go into the ground now.

I also have a potted batch of narcissus that I want to get into the ground in hopes that they will come up and bloom next year.  Dave got them for me when he went to Trader Joe's last weekend.

The biggest news of the week is that Dave ordered me a new 6 string guitar for my birthday, which is next Tuesday.

I had mentioned that I loved the Taylor maker last weekend when we were watching that show that was on all of the networks to raise awareness about front line and essential workers.  One of the performers was playing one, and it was beautiful.

Apparently, Dave picked up his lap top and ordered one with me sitting right next to him, and I didn't even notice until he got up to go get his credit card.

I argued, weakly, and said he should not be spending that credit right now..... but he obviously ignored me, and the guitar arrived on Thursday.

It's one of their economy models, like my Martin (which Dave also insisted on getting for me when I started chemo).  When a guitar is made by a superior process, the economy models are JUST FINE, thank you!!

These are the best instruments I have ever owned.

My friend in Vermont sent us some really great masks that will be a LOT more effective than the paper surgical masks my other friend brought by a few weeks ago.

She sent us four of them, though, and there are only two of us, and we don't go out very often at all, so I sent two to my family back home.

My sister has been wearing the same paper mask for a month, and they're meant to be worn ONCE.

My brother will get the other one.  I think he's been using a bandanna.

Both of my siblings are high risk, so this gift of love, that was meant for us, needed to be shared.

Unfortunately, my friend in Vermont was really upset that I sent half of the masks to my family.

I did it because I want my family to LIVE.  I'd really like to see them again some day!

They're in a MUCH worse situation than we are, living in Chicagoland, with people dying all around them, and they've lost their jobs, and there are only so many things I can do to help them.

I am having a better time dealing with being isolated. I guess I am getting used to it...I've hit a stride or something, and it feels easier now.

The dancers had a "zoom cocktail hour" Friday at 5, and that was really fun.... it was good to see their faces, and to actually talk with them a bit.  We don't really do that when we have on line class that we're paying for.

We had a conference call for work on Friday, and it was also, oddly, good to hear everyone's voices.  Normally, I am so fed up with hearing them talk all day every day, LOL....

One of my co workers is presumed to have the virus.   She texted me on Friday, but her rest results are not back yet.

For some reason, she went to WalMart a little while back, instead of using their delivery service, and she got sick.  She is immune compromised due to Lupus, so it was absolutely foolish of her to go out.  I asked if she wore a mask, and she didn't answer.

Anyway, on Friday, my boss had me to go the office to pick up reams and reams of paper.... the bank deposit print outs for all of March, and half of February  (she had me go on a day when there would be no other people at the building, so I only needed gloves for that outing).

Before we were sent home to work in March, I was told that we just wouldn't be able to do bank reconciliations with me working at home.

I guess they changed their minds once this turned out to be something that would go longer than a couple of weeks.

I had not completed February before we were sent home,  because the February deposits had not been posted by that team yet....and now all of March is finished, too.

So, Dave drove me over there, I donned my gloves, went inside, signed in, took my own temperature- and recorded it on the clip board, and went back to the dark, silent office.

They've done a lot to clean up since I was there last.  The frenzied exit left the place a chaotic mess, but now it's been put to rights.

I found a copier paper carton under a table, and packed up all of the print outs, and brought them home!  I needed Dave to help me because that crap is heavy!

I will work on getting as many of them done as I can by the time they want to do month end close for March on Tuesday.

I don't know why they didn't have me come sooner to get the files.  Even if all of March wasn't posted, I could have started on what WAS posted, such as the ones for February that weren't done before they closed that month....instead of having to do it all at once.

I can only do what I can do, and giving people back their mistakes is much more complicated when we are all in different places!

Some things never change, LOL.

Last but not least, we had our first update from the CEO in a few weeks.

His letter states that we will continue to work from home for the foreseeable future, with no intention of going back to the building right now, even after our city and state "re-open" next week.

I suppose I will have to make periodic trips to take files back, and pick up more, and I guess I should get the rest of my personal items out of my desk.  I am wondering if they are going to just have us work from home until they find a new building, which they have been trying to do for years.

At my suggestion, Dave contacted Shipt to try to get our service fixed, via their FACEBOOK page.  He had been trying to call them for weeks, and emailed them to no avail.

All long, I thought that Dave was making some kind of mistake on the website, and I was right.  He used the wrong email address when he logged in to try to place an order, and that's why they were asking us to pay again.

SO..it's all fixed, and we got a few groceries last night to test it out.  We're back in business, and they even had biscuit mix this time!

I am off to make biscuits to have with the lovely soft cheese Dave got at Trader Joe's last weekend.

Enjoy your Sunday....

Improvement

We were only able to get outside reliably one day last week.  By the end of the day Friday, I was at my wits' end.

Fortunately, it was nice out yesterday, and after I did my chores inside (which included disinfecting just about everything with a batch of cleaner that I made), I mowed the back yard, and sat in the sun for most of the afternoon.

Dave also got some outside time, and did some yard work.

I felt a LOT better after that, until we watched that thing that was on all of the networks last night.  It was uplifting, but it also made me cry. 

A lot.

Maybe it was good to cry, because I feel even better this morning.

My supervisor, in an uncharacteristically warm and pleasant mode, called me on Friday. 

She said she hadn't talked to many of us lately, and had only called me to talk about work....so she was checking in with everyone on a personal level. 

She called me to ask about how I am doing.  Not just with work, but with this experience we are all going through. 

It was really nice.  It was a gift to be able to talk with someone about my state of mind and about how we are protecting ourselves during this pandemic.

She is normally extremely pedantic, and reacts like an automaton when people approach her with humor or sarcasm, OR when we try to get her to respond like a human on a personal level.

She asked me questions, and we chatted for several minutes.

I felt a weight lift off of me after we spoke.  I have been worried that my productivity hasn't been adequate, and that management is watching my every move to be sure I am actually working while at home.

Her normal mode of being 99% impersonal adds to my paranoia.

In reality, when I look at my statistics, compared to everyone else's (I am, after all, for SOME reason, the one who logs the productivity statistics for our department), I am among the three most productive.

The fact that she didn't say anything at all about me not doing the best job I can (with most of my tasks being taken away for now) helped me out.

Management is trying to figure out how we can have a virtual meeting next week.  I hope they like my lavender hair!

In other news, Dave and I normally boycott Walmart due to their unethical practices, but we were able to get groceries delivered by them last week.

He is going to try to get through to the Shipt customer service line again today, to see if we can get that working again.

He also masked-up and went to Trader Joe's yesterday.  They are only allowing a limited number of customers into the store at a time, and they are insisting on distancing in the line outside.  They also have a staff person who wipes down your cart before you touch it, and who gives you a squirt of hand sanitizer before you go inside.

He was able to get us some of our much loved items from there, which will improve my overall attitude, truth be told. 

We talked to Pop last Sunday.  He was doing really well.  He's still struggling with responding to questions clearly, but he is trying!

Since it was Easter, they sent us a picture of him picking a treat out of a basket.  He was up in his chair, and dressed!

We just had a wren singing in the crepe myrtle outside of the living room window!  WOW!  I haven't heard one of those down here before! 

It should be a pretty afternoon again today, so we are going to head back to the park where we went walking last weekend before the weather turned yucky.

Enjoy your Sunday, especially if it is a little different from the other days! 

Complications

Since my last post, it has become impossible for us to order groceries.

The service we paid for to have our groceries (and other supplies) delivered to us has, apparently, become overwhelmed.

We can't log in on the website,  because we get a message that says we have to join again.

We are NOT paying another membership fee, and then, when Dave tries to call, the wait time is an hour, and he ultimately gets disconnected.  He tried multiple times over several days last week.

Our regular order to Chewy.com for pet supplies is also just hanging out there, and still hasn't been shipped.  We needed it early last week.

SO... I posted a message on Facebook, and local friends have stepped up to help us.

Friday, someone went and got the pet supplies, which we needed most desperately.

When Chewy finally ships, we will have extra, and that's just fine.  We started out with extra, and went through it in the past 4 weeks.

We can do without a grocery run for a while, if we need to.  We can do without fresh produce, dairy products,  eggs, etc, and get by on what is in the freezer.

That was the plan, after all, and here we are, implementing it.

I've gained 5 pounds in my 26 days (yes, I started counting) of quarantine, so if we are eating less, that's probably a good thing!  HAHAHA!

Seriously, I am not worried about our food supply, unless one of those famous Oklahoma spring storms knocks our power out.  THEN we will be in trouble.

Another factor in my weight gain is the fact that I have been far less active than usual.

We have been getting out and taking walks as often as possible.  We were off work on Friday, so took an extra long walk around the neighborhood.

Yesterday, we went to the new park south of down town and took a nice long walk.  The flowers are blooming, and it was quite nice.

There were a lot of people there, though, and it was breezy, so we wore our surgical masks.

The masks were a gift from a girl at the dance studio whose dad is a dentist.

It was frustrating to not be able to smell the flowers, or the herb plants, that have been planted there.  This park is going to be very pretty, once the perennials and trees start to mature.

Anyway, I have also put out a call to my friends on Facebook asking for at home exercise ideas.

I have some good tips to go on, as well as some links to videos and on line classes.

One benefit of working from home is that I can stand at my desk if I want to, and I can lift hand weights, and get up and do jumping jacks if I feel like it, and there's no one there to laugh at me... HAHA!

I'd also like to get my bike cleaned up and tuned up, and get ON IT this spring.  We didn't ride once last year, and this year, we should have plenty of time, so that will help.  The only issue is that Dave's tires are crap.  They've dry rotted and won't hold air anymore.

We will have to get his tires replaced if he wants to ride with me.

Other than our park walk, I got some exercise yesterday cleaning the house.   It felt good, and productive, to be doing that, at least.

Last Monday, I went for my blood draw.  I wore a mask and gloves, but the phlebotomist was NOT masked, OR wearing one of those paper lab coats.  I found that a bit troubling, since she's very close to the patients who come in for service.

My results were "in range," according to my nurse call the next day.

My monthly doctor visit on 4/21 has been canceled.  He is not seeing patients unless they have to speak to him about something going on with their treatment.

I will still go to the clinic for my port flush and monthly injection.  The good thing is that I don't have to pay a copay if I don't see the doctor.

I've been seeing some interesting articles about how it's normal to have weird emotional reactions to this situation.   I find myself bursting into tears, and I had a full blown rage attack when Frank broke another of my vintage mugs.

(side bar:  Frank has now broken at least 12 pieces of my vintage dishes or glass ware in three months---it's like he's on a mission, or he hates me)

I screamed until I couldn't scream anymore.  NO, I did not lay a hand on Frank, I just flipped all the way out.  I am glad that it was hot out, and the windows were closed.

Dave was on an errand, going to his office to print and fax something for my assistance program for the big medical bills I get at the beginning of the year, so he wasn't here. 

That was good, because my outburst would have terrified him.

When my friend dropped off the pet supplies, and we thanked her from a distance through the screen door, I sobbed for a few minutes after she left.

On the upside, though, I have been sleeping a lot better.  Could be the new bed, could be the shift in the kind of stress I feel.

Today it's supposed to be rainy.  We've been watching the Lord of the Rings movies, starting on Friday.  We have one more to watch tonight.

I have gone through the freezer to take inventory, and will make a meal plan based on what we have on hand.

But first, breakfast!

Enjoy your day, and your holiday, if you celebrate it.  We don't celebrate Easter, but we did, at the very least, acknowledge the Pagan holiday (that has the bunny and eggs themes) back in March on the equinox!
It came during a time of stress and transition to working from home, so it wasn't much, but I did know the date, HAHA!

Who's couting?

It's day ___ of our quarantine, and I am starting to have more emotional outbursts.

I cried all through our on line dance class last Monday, so it's a good thing the camera view is a bit fuzzy, and that my mic was on mute.

Friday, I burst into tears at intervals.  I kept thinking that the last time I saw my family, for a very happy event, would be the last time ever.

The weather changed Thursday afternoon, and Friday was raw (30s and wet), so the last time I actually stepped out of the house was on our Thursday morning walk....I am pretty sure that was why I was so emotionally reactive.

Yesterday, we got in the car and just took a long drive.  I seriously needed a change of scenery, and it helped.

I also talked to my sister, which was medicine for my soul.

Her fall did not cause her to break any bones, but she has some small tears around her shoulder "girdle," not including the rotator cuff, thank goodness.  She now has to go see a shoulder specialist.

She talked to my brother yesterday, too, and said he told her that he did NOT go to his estranged wife's aid in her illness, and said that she is feeling better.  She was not tested for COVID.

I am grateful that he stayed away from her.  He also reports that he is being very careful on his trips to get groceries, and that he is still working from home.

We ordered carry out from one of our favorite privately owned restaurants for lunch yesterday, which was a real treat!  We haven't been out to eat for weeks, and we want to help keep local businesses running.

I got a different folding table this past week that has a height adjustment.  We were able to move things around a bit to try to ease my neck pain.

It hasn't worked yet, but I adjusted my chair a bit differently on Friday afternoon, so we will see how next week goes.

This week marked the passage of the two week points for my last day in the office in close quarters with others, and the IT team coming to our house every day to try to get my system working.

Other than those contacts, I have not been around anyone but Dave, and have only been out of the house on one errand, to get the bags of soil and a few plants.

Also, gentle readers, id you have disinfectant wipes, or cleaning products, on hand, I've been seeing that you should still clean your regularly-touched surfaces frequently, even if you're not going out.

Your phone, computer keyboard, mouse, light switches, door handles, toilet handles, the fridge, inside and out, stove and microwave controls, counter tops, the hot and cold water... everything you can think of.

If you've had things delivered, those bags and boxes have been in other people's hands, and then your hands, and on your counter tops and floors.

You don't know if the person delivering your groceries only put the gloves on in the car so you would see them.

You should still be washing your hands after you touch these things, and possibly even wiping down packaging as things are put away.

Don't be paranoid, to the point of obsessing....just be mindful, and take care of yourself and your family.

We got everything done last weekend, spreading the bags of soil, and planting.  We also had our crew come to mow the thick grass.  Dave went to the ATM at the bank to get cash to pay them.

The forecast has changed for today.  It was supposed to be sunny and warmer, but it's now gray and drizzly, so we won't be able to establish our weekly mowing routine until about Tuesday.

We've set up an account with a delivery company that goes to grocery stores, pet stores, and pharmacies.  We've had our groceries delivered a couple of times now, and it works nicely.

I have a friend at the dance studio whose father is a dentist.  He gave her a bunch of medical grade masks to share, and she is going to bring us a few today, and leave them on the porch.

That way, I will have a really good one to wear when I go for my blood draw tomorrow after work.

I hope my regular tech is there this time.  The last time, it was someone I had never seen before, and she was kind of unpleasant.  I know we are all stressed, but she was a little over the top, ranting to me about how her company treats the techs.

I must admit, though, she was VERY good.  I didn't feel a thing.

I have been enjoying live and pre recorded music concerts on line during the quarantine.  It helps keep my spirits up.  Every Saturday night, the current version of Grateful Dead (Dead and Company) is streaming a show from the past year or so, and there have been other opportunities as well.

I even dusted off my 12 string guitar last night, and played a few chords along with Dead and Co.

Oh, and last, but not least, I got some highly pigmented conditioner for my hair, so I now have purple hair.  It's also "highly temporary," haha,  and will wash out pretty easily when they tell us we are headed back to work at the office....but until at least the end of April, I can express myself in this way!

The nice thing is that it looks really good, but it doesn't stain my pillow case, or the bath tub.  Unlike the blue stuff that Dave got that was crappy.... it didn't adhere to his hair, and it's all over the pillow case, and stained the tub (yes, a good scrubbing with Comet got rid of it).

Maybe we'll get him some of the pigmented conditioner, too.


Enjoy your Lock Down Palm Sunday as best you can....we will get by....we will survive....