social distancing

Day One Hundred Fifteen

July 6, 2020 at 10:05 am by Claudia

We are in for a hot and humid week. Yesterday was a stay-indoors-out-of-the-heat kind of day and it looks like today will be as well. I went out to water everything, but that was it. Don went on his walk early in the morning and then ventured out to play the guitar on the front porch. He’s writing music again (that makes me very happy.)

What did I do? I spent a lot of time on the jigsaw puzzle, which is a real challenge. I finally made some headway, so I’m feeling more positive about the whole thing. I needed to take a few days off from making stones for the dollhouse. (I need to start calling it by its name, which is Dove Cottage.) The other day, I spent several hours scrolling through artisan dollhouse miniatures on Etsy. If I like something, I put it on my Want List. I’m starting to think about the interior and the windows and wallpaper and beams and trim and wood floors…First up, beams and floors and windows. But all of that costs money, so I have to rein myself in a little and see what I can do on a budget. I welcome the challenge.

I’m thinking of doing another IGTV video – this time of Don’s Mini Studio. I spent some time cleaning and dusting everything in it yesterday. I have to film it when Don is out of the house, so maybe tomorrow morning. Eventually, I’ll do a quick tour of the vintage houses as well.

Today? Probably more work on the puzzle and maybe some work on the dollhouse.

Rest in Peace, Nick Cordero. I didn’t know him, but many of my friends and colleagues did. He was loved and adored by so many people. It’s simply heartbreaking. And then I see video of idiotic people jammed together at various beaches and bars and I want to scream. Because of those selfish and self-absorbed people, people will die. We will be quarantining even longer. I know the majority of Americans are sane and are wearing masks, but it doesn’t take many to spread this disease and screw it up for the rest of us. Quite frankly, there should be a national mandate requiring everyone to wear a mask. And if you don’t wear one, you will be fined. If you’re warned twice, you go to jail. For heaven’s sake, one inept guy trying to conceal a bomb in his shoe has resulted in years and years of taking off our shoes when going through airport security. And no one questions it. This reaction is the result of the idiocy in the White House.

I have to stop. It makes me so angry. Nick Cordero was a healthy, fit Broadway actor in the prime of his life. He went through an unimaginable 3 or 4 months while the virus slowly decimated him. I want to throw all of these entitled fools in jail. Ditto for the people who destroy things in stores because they’ve been asked to wear a mask, all of whom managed to get their little hissy fits recorded on video so that they can get lots of attention.

I’m over it.

But I love you.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Day One Hundred Ten

July 1, 2020 at 10:10 am by Claudia

Since the news is ever horrifying; treason, COVID numbers shooting through the roof, idiots not wearing masks (you know I could go on and on,) let’s look at a photo of two little beings dining together for a brief moment:

And it was a brief moment. The moth was there first, then the bee landed and then…

The moth got worried about the lack of social distancing and took off.

I put in another three hours or so on the dollhouse stonework. I’ve reached the window, so one more session for this side of the house should do it. It’s so tedious. When I stop for the day, my muscles ache and I feel as if I’ve been released from hard labor. An exaggeration, of course, but it’s not my favorite thing to do. Nevertheless, I am determined to finish it.

Today is grocery pick-up day. I think our slot is at 3:00. More rain is forecast this afternoon with storms, etc. We ended up only having a light rain yesterday that lasted about 10 minutes and that was that. It’s very humid today, so I’m hoping we have more of those thunderstorms on the way.

But maybe not while we’re driving.

We’re watching Frasier now. We watched it several years ago on Netflix in its entirety. We are craving excellent writing, acting, and storylines written with wit and style. Cheers had that. Frasier has it. Both shows were blessed by wonderful cast members who created a strong ensemble. I grabbed my laptop yesterday to re-watch the final episode of Cheers, as it was disappearing from Netflix today. Impeccably executed, written, and acted. It hit the perfect note. and once again, I teared up as I was watching it. Almost every series I’ve written about lately, including Will & Grace, was shepherded and directed by the great Jim Burrows. Don worked with him onstage many, many years ago and Jim always remembered him and cast him in several of his television shows. He was also the force behind Taxi, and Friends. He is the son of the great Abe Burrows, known for his work on the books of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize) and Guys and Dolls. Talk about a talented family!

We’re saddened by the passing of the great Carl Reiner. There was no one like him. May he rest in peace. We are thinking about his family, about Dick Van Dyke, and about his best friend, Mel Brooks.

And finally, we are saddened to hear it officially: Broadway won’t reopen until 2021. We are not surprised, but hearing it announced by the Broadway League was depressing. That means that major regional theaters will also be dark until next year.

That means neither of us have work until well into 2021, nor have the hundreds of thousands of people who work in theaters, from set designers to box office staff. Unemployment benefits are running out here in the state of New York. What will my colleagues do? How will they survive? Actors can’t work from home. Singers can’t work from home. Dancers can’t work from home.

If I let myself think about this too much, my heart breaks into a thousand pieces.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Day One Hundred Six

June 27, 2020 at 9:49 am by Claudia

Lots of bees dining on the milkweed blossoms yesterday!

I have to say a little something about the mechanics we encountered yesterday. If you don’t know, Don tried to start my car yesterday to make a run to the grocery store and it wouldn’t start. I went outside and tried it, too, and it was clear the battery was dead. Since I just got a new battery about 2 1/2 years ago, I knew something was up. We have insurance through Geico, so we called roadside assistance and they had someone here within 30 minutes. The guy, who wore a mask (Yay!) was the most positive, lovely, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. He got out, brought his battery charger with him, Don got in the car and tried to start it and it started. The gentleman immediately told Don to roll down the window and he looked in the car and noticed that the dome light – the one you can read by – was on. That’s what drained the battery. Don had last used the car Wednesday morning to recycle and we’re pretty sure that while taking the bins out from their position on the passenger seat, one of them hit the on switch and that darned light remained on for two days – or until the battery died. We are so grateful for a guy who gave us advice about what to do next, all with a twinkle in his eye and a smile – even though he had a mask on, he had a smile on his face. I could tell.

His advice was to let it run for about 30 minutes and then take a drive to let the alternator continue to charge the battery. In the meantime, we called a tire center which is just about a mile away and they told us to swing by after the drive and they would check to see it the battery could hold a charge. (I bought my current battery from them and it is still under warranty.) They were incredibly helpful. We asked what their COVID protocol was. They wear masks. Good. So we stopped by, Don went in (masked) and talked to the guy at the counter (masked) a young guy (masked) came out and checked the battery. It was good, so we didn’t have to buy a new battery. Then he replaced the windshield wipers, because we figured we should take advantage of the opportunity.

And then we went home. Everyone was so helpful, so kind and they weren’t disregarding the rules about masks. Bravo. We felt safe.

All of this happened early in the morning and as I’m not a morning person, I never felt fully awake the rest of the day. But I’m grateful it all worked out.

Late in the afternoon, we also gathered some smaller rocks to fill in some of the bare spaces in the rock garden.

We’re due for rain today. We are thrilled as it is very, very dry here, approaching drought conditions. Much of it will be in the form of thunderstorms, but we’ll take it. More is due tomorrow, so we’re going to take advantage of being indoors and relax.

I’m currently reading Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I’m late to this one. I like it. I’m not crazy about it. But it’s early on, so I’ll share my final thoughts when I finish. I will say that Owens writes beautifully.

I’ve started another Van Gogh puzzle. It will be slow going, but that’s just fine.

By the way, I made a video of a walk in our woods and uploaded it to IGTV. This is my first video and it’s a bit long, but what the heck! I’m not sure how to make an IGTV section in my highlights; I’ll figure that out later, but you can see it via my latest post on Instagram.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

claudiahillsparks

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