Running late today! A last minute decision to go to the grocery store in person, rather than order online, threw everything off. Because, of course, we disinfected when we got back, we threw our clothes in the washer, took showers, put everything away, and now here I am, trying to get a post in before my email post deadline.
But it’s done and that’s a relief. Plus, I was able to get a magazine or two, something I usually can’t get my hands on. It’s a hot and humid Monday and temps this week will be in the nineties, so I’ll mow tomorrow when I can get to it earlier.
Oh joy.
The a/c is already on. We’re freshly showered. We haven’t even had our second cup of coffee yet, but Don’s about to pour it. (I don’t do well when my orderly routine is upset.) So here I am, saying hello to all of you. Have you been doing your best to avoid the news? We have. Though I did succumb very briefly to Twitter yesterday. And then I got off and stayed off. We’ve been reading a lot, sitting on the porch, watching Frasier.
The deer chomped on some more hostas so I made up a bunch of my spray and sprayed everything that might be in danger. I think it’s a young deer. That happens every other year or so. A young deer, who isn’t at all cautious yet, will come very near the house looking for food, though goodness knows there’s enough of it elsewhere on the property. I may get one bloom out of the Rose of Sharon. I’ve done what I can to protect it. We’ll just have to see.
Sigh.
We expect the tree guys this week. I’m not looking forward to the mess they’ll make. And I’m determined to make sure the ‘pruning’ of the big maple by the porch doesn’t take away all of the shade, since the hostas that have been planted there for years depend on it.
That’s about it for this Monday.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
A busy shopping morning with a hot day means you should relax and read for the rest of the day! Have to pace yourself! Take care!
We will!
Thanks, Ellen.
Stay safe.
Hah! A neighbor of ours was determined to grow many tropical plants, hibiscus, etc., to please his wife. Needless to say the deer loved them. He took his liquid donation in a container and spread it around. When that didn’t work so well, he invested in coyote urine, hung it in little vials around the yard.
sorry somehow got the reply on the wrong post 8-((
xo
Ummmm…I think the stuff I use does the trick – I just have to remember to use it!
Thanks, Martha.
Stay safe.
This sounds weird but I had a neighbor that loved her Hostas and she swore that when she asked her hubby to go out every few weeks at dark and “sprinkle” the hostas that deer would not eat them! Just a thought.
Hostas are right in front of the house on a very busy County Road.
Not gonna happen!
Stay safe!
Our routines are about all we are hanging onto these days, aren’t they? No wonder we are out of sorts when even those are upset. One day at a time, sweet Jesus. I think that is our anthem.
Take care, kiddo, and may your day be a peaceful one.
I think it is, too. But November 3rd can’t come soon enough!
Thanks, Chris.
Stay safe!
Comedian Leanne Morgan has been doing Facebook ‘porch talks’ during this quarantining time. She ends most of her talks with ‘Everything’s going to be alright. Don’t watch the news!’ We need to know what is happening in the world but the news can be both frightening and sad. Sorry about your hostas.
Thank you, Jan. Don’t watch the news!
Stay safe.
We ran errands this morning, and by the time we get home, and do the disinfecting, we are wiped. It is so muggy out there, and no wind, it feels like you could cut the air with a knife.
I totally understand the routine bit…Chris is right, that’s all we have now. And, a coffee routine if not done, can lead to all sorts of mental disaster…eh!
Enjoy your book reading. Think I might do the same…thunderstorms are on the way! ;)
Very hot here, as well, Donna
Having that cup of coffee so much later than usual has thrown me off. I feel like I never woke up!
Stay safe.
Claudia I have the same problem with my Rose of Sharon bushes and deer munching on the new growth and buds. When I water them I keep telling them…you need to grow taller so deer can’t get to you! 😁. If you don’t mind could you share the formula for your deer spray? I have tried strong smelling soap, human hair, etc. and nothing seems to deter them. Thanks! It’s very hot and humid in Michigan too (close to your old stomping grounds). Take time to rest and don’t over do it in this weather.
If you go to my sidebar and look for search, put in the words ‘deer repellent’ – there may be several posts, but one of them will contain the recipe.
This is pretty good stuff and it’s worked for me in the past.
Stay safe, Marlene.
Hi Claudia! There was a good belly laugh in the news about the orange man having his sycophants inquire about having his head added to Mt. Rushmore. oh my, even a photo! It was also suggested to me that the little deer are searching for water, and tender greens are the next best thing. have loved your posts each day for years, and thru these uneasy and downright terrifying times you really seem like a pal to navigate with. Thank you for sharing every day! Cindy
Except that we live a hundred yards from one river and maybe 500 yards from another! There’s plenty of water around here. We’re rather blessed that way.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Cindy. They mean more than I can say.
Stay safe!
Good afternoon! We are having 95 deg days as well. No humidity really, but a 26,000 acre fire on our hill is making life miserable. Can’t open windows or run the swamp cooler or go to hill where it’s cooler. At least we have some fairly good fans. Those darn deer! They should know better. Heehee. We have a rose of Sharon and it is beautiful, but since each bloom only lasts a day, I have to pick up about 50 dead flowers every day. I’m rethinking that darn bush. But the hummingbird moth loves it, so… you two take care.
Verna
I bet hummingbird moths love it! A perfect shaped bloom for them.
I’m so sorry about the fire! Praying it gets contained quickly.
Stay safe, Verna.
I quit Twitter over a year ago. Much better off without it!
Not ready to do that. I learn about news more quickly there than anywhere and I follow a lot of wise political types who give me hope.
Thanks, Cristina.
Stay safe.
150 days…seems impossible. The view from the lookout is inspiring and it’s a good plan for you both to get out safely into the world. I have got to stop watching the news because not only does it upset me about 20 times a day, but my sister and I have been having words about our political differences. I know she’s Republican and her sons, too, and that’s never been an issue. But lately she takes every reference I make about Republican Administration or the idiot in the White House as if I am personally attacking her. That’s on me as well as on her defensive reactions to criticism of her party. Hey, I don’t brag about the Dems, I think we’ve done an awful job, too. Anyway, I don’t want to lose my sister over this. Having been reminded by you of the big picture outside our house/yard, I’m going to take one of the hours I waste watching CNN and take a drive. Thank you!
I have one sister who is estranged from the rest of the family – her choice. She is very conservative and I’m sure she voted for Trump. Beyond that, I obviously don’t know as she won’t speak to any of us – and by us, I mean about 15 people in the family. Anyway, I don’t want to go down that road but I do know that political differences are especially tricky among family members.
Go take that drive, Nora!
Stay safe.
I had never worked watched Frasier , west wing, bluebloods etc
Since movie here end of 2017, have watched on Hulu and Metflix. I just re watched Don on Frazier. I remember him making comments about ex. I noticed he was on Law and Order SUV which I watch on Hulu and the Practice also. Will take some time and watch also. What a career he has had. Amazing…Congrats Don on antime of using your gifts. Brenda B
He’s done a lot over the years, Brenda. Thank you!
Stay safe.
Oh my goodness
I remember wondering if the therapist on L and O SUV. was real therapist…that was DON. I did another major Psychology. Don was great .
xoxo
No shopping for me this week. My fridge which was repaired earlier on in the lockdown for half its worth, has now died with no hope of it being repaired as they no longer make those spare parts. I spent the money to have it repaired a few months ago, as it wasn’t even 10 years old and now the manufacturers have changed all the fridge sizes since my brand new kitchen was done. The fridge was new then. I am feeling so cranky. I can’t get a fridge to fit the space which is ridiculous as they now have these french door things as they are too wide and the other type are 10 cm too high. I don’t know how people get things out of the top shelf of the new ones as I have to climb onto a chair to clean the very top of my fridge and I am tall. So I have had to purchase a smaller version of mine and don’t know how I will be able to live with it. My friend over the park has all of my frozen stuff so I won’t be able to put it all into the new freezer. She doesn’t mind as I will have to go across the park before dinner when I want something that is there and then come home and cook it. When I reduce the amount of food I will just have to learn to live with it. Not happy Robyn!!! Now I’ve had a whinge and got it off my chest we can talk about other things.
I have been busy making more masks as most people are starting to wear masks when they go shopping in Sydney. At the beginning of the lockdown we were the only ones in the shopping centre who wore masks. Now everyone wants to wear them. Of course some nutters think it is an invasion of their privacy. I’ve not had enough masks and have had to wash them as soon as we take them off. Also posted 6 lovely ones I had made to my daughter.
We don’t have large animals eating our garden and I can imagine the frustration you feel having your lovely hostas and other plants being eaten. We do have plenty of the grubs and other insects which love to eat our veges, but I’ve tried this year to live and let live. If they eat my green vege leaves I just chop that bit off.
We had 3 trees chopped about 18 months ago because they were becoming dangerous and I understand the mess you are talking about. It has taken quite some time for evidence of them to disappear. Of course ours were on the front lawn and we are about to replace them with some shrubs which we have finally decided on.
Must get back to the fridge as it goes tomorrow. Took everything (fridge magnets) off the front doors.
So sorry about your refrigerator! What a hassle!
Stay safe, Robyn.
After watching Brian Williams’ show on MSNBC Friday night, which left me loudly bawling in despair, I kept the news off all weekend. And I am NOT dispensing medical advice here in the comments, BUT there were the two most interesting people on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show tonight (I think he was subbing for Chris Cuomo) and I wish I could recall the particulars because they made SO MUCH sense and it was uplifting … the woman was I think from Univ of San Francisco and the man from the Mayo Clinic, both physicians/scientists, and they are in deep in study of Covid-19 (and they were saying, on the one hand, maybe something of what any of us have already known with just common sense but, somehow, hearing it from them, was really fascinating): That, yes, there’s been a big push to wear a mask for somebody else’s health and do your civic duty for your fellow man … but it can’t be emphasized how much it can help the individual wearer because, although nothing’s definitive yet, there is enough data to see that, even with a mask, if you DID still get Covid-19, the mask prevented more droplets from hitting your nasal passages than if you were NOT wearing a mask … the mere fact that you inhaled fewer droplets due to the benefit of the mask, you may then get a much-less-worse case of the virus. (I’m thinking, for people like me with underlying issues, this is a way to not die!)
More important than ever, then, to wear a mask because who wants to be MORE sick than they’d have to be; like the one doctor was saying, help yourself, because ‘who wants to wind up on a ventilator; NOBODY!’
The other thing, and this was the Mayo Clinic doctor, is to, okay, we have to face this Fall/Winter with the double respiratory infections of both cold/flu AND Covid; it’s a given. But do we have a chance in h*ll against this doomsday scenario? Well, yeah, we do. He said FORTIFY YOURSELF NOW, LIKE TODAY. If you have an underlying issue like high blood pressure (and this is me talking), watch your salts; get your readings lower. He said, if you have Type II diabetes as a co-morbidity for complications from Covid-19, get to work NOW on lowering your ‘sugars’ (glucose control). I can’t do anything about having asthma, but I can do what I do every Fall/Winter and that’s being really careful who I’m around, like if I knew a friend had a cold, I just wouldn’t go near them. (Believe me, I’ve missed family gatherings or get-togethers with friends over this sort of thing in other years and have been mocked, ostracized; and I had a former boss who frowned if I wanted to stay home from work due to a bad cold; he expected me to come into work sick [and selfishly infect everybody else]!)
I’ve heretofore in former years, stocked up at the pharmacy so that I can avoid that line of coughing and sneezing people at the pharmacy counter, at the height of cold/flu season. I’ve always started planning in August! If I was in the department store aisle somewhere and saw someone coming toward me while coughing badly, I’d turn my cart around, go the other direction, and not breathe their air. I’ve been in the line at the post office or bank, been too near somebody having a coughing or sneezing fit, and I’ll just step out of the line and lose my place. I’ve had to be this way for years due to having incurable lung/airway disease, basically since I was born. (I’d get a cold from my husband and he’d be better in a week; I’d be sick for three months, and it would usually descend into bronchitis.)
My doctor had me using hand sanitizer as far back as 2001. If I was in a store and the person at the register was sick as a dog and touching each of my items at checkout, first thing I did when I got back to the car was use the sanitizer on my hands, keys, credit card, purse handle, car door handle, all before I ever started up the vehicle, and then I’d let my parcels sit for a day, if possible, to decontaminate. I’ve considered ,,, that for the rest of my natural life in this world, and once we get past Covid-19, even with a vaccine, because the experts say we’ve been dealing with the coronaviruses and other virus strains and still will be, ongoing … I may still be wearing a mask for half the year, Oct-April or thereabouts, in these coming years; and that’s okay; it’s a small thing to do.
But here’s what else the Mayo Clinic guy was saying: If you smoke, cut down. If you drink, cut down. If you’re overweight, try to lose some of those pounds. It’s called HEALTH MAINTENANCE. Exercise is one thing he mentioned. Do everything you can NOW to put your body in the best possible physical shape for these coming, potentially bad months of the pandemic. I’m adding to that for myself: Eat mindfully and nourishingly. Get enough sleep. Drink a lot of water to flush toxins. Reduce stress with stress-relieving hobbies and relaxing pursuits to give my brain some time off from doom & gloom, worry and frustration. Keep to a routine; run your body and your life on a good clock. Again, this has crossed our minds even months ago, to keep as healthy as we can, but however these experts said it tonight, so easy to understand and confidently, just hit me BAM with the light on.
What the Mayo Clinic researcher/doctor was also saying is to get your OTHER vaccinations. Make sure you get a seasonal flu shot. I usually get mine in mid-October but I’ve heard we should maybe get it sooner in 2020, so I’ll be talking to my physician about it. If you qualify (one part is that you usually have to, in general, be age 65 or older), get your pneumonia shot.
(I remember when early in Covid they were saying the pneumonia shot had no effect on helping out your lungs if you got the virus; this guy is saying, no, it CAN help you because you might be less likely to get AS sick as you would without it. [Note to self: Remember to get my pneumonia booster; I personally have been getting the vaccine yearly since I was age 60 due to my vulnerabilities.]) This is something I don’t know about, but he also mentioned getting the vaccine for hepatitis; I think he said Hep C, not A, but it’s certainly something to run by one’s personal physician.
My takeaway is to just try not to get sick … with ANYthing; be aware. Get strong; get healthier. Don’t wait; don’t put off. Be at your best as you go up against this enemy virus. Strap on your armor. Put up your shield. It’s something that can empower us; something we CAN do, to not feel hopeless or helpless against this menacing monster.
I had earlier seen this Dr. Haseltine interviewed on one of the news shows, probably CNN, and he’s the noted AIDS researcher who’s with Access Health and was a professor for Harvard Public Health; has recently written a book for families with children, like a guide to Covid. But the discussion was about children and the going-back-to-school dilemma, and how kids are known to bring home stuff from school (colds/flu) and give it to their parents but also how the doctors are learning that these receptors in the nose, or however it’s termed …I don’t know quite know how to write out the medicalese here… specifically of children, how the coronavirus goes thru their nose just like symptoms for cold and flu/influenza, so of course that means the same thing, that they can easily then transfer it right over to Mom and Dad who are caring for them, but Mom and Dad can then get much sicker.
So, yes, it was then the further discussion of what the kids will be transmitting to the cafeteria workers, the janitors, the administrators, the school-bus drivers and, dear Heaven, our valuable, giving, dedicated teachers, many of whom can be in the older ages of 40s, 50s, 60s. I’d of course heard the argument before, that we risk sending kids to school with the result of losing the structure/staff who can actually run the school and make any of this work. The kids can’t be there without adults running the show!
The point was made too that for the past five months or so, many children (not all) have been quite isolated in the lockdowns. Their parents still went out to stores or to work. But a lot of kids have been very removed and in a little oasis of protection at home, and now you’re gonna throw all these little ones together in a pool of potential contagion with hundreds/thousands of other kids?
(I remember with my great-aunt, how she’d been a shut-in at home for years as she approached age 100, only seeing a handful of people. Then, when her Trustee put her in a nursing home after a stroke, she immediately got a REALLY bad cold because I’m sure of all the various workers and visitors, with that kind of thing just running rampant through all those old, fragile patients in that sort of bigger institutional setting. [Needless to say, we’ve seen this with Covid-19 in the nursing homes.] It’s like when those world explorers would, in previous centuries, descend on innocent indigenous peoples, who’d been apart from anyone ever bringing sickness to them, and then it would wipe out their populations because they had no defenses.)
Dr. Haseltine was saying about the schools, that the youngest will be the big transmitters, I think they were saying up to age 5, so I guess he’s meaning preschool/kindergarten. I think he said the 5 to 12-yr-olds will get potentially very sick of any age group of school-age kids. Then the 13 yr old to age 19 kids will have the same kind of suffering an adult will. Which is why I think that big report came out today from the pediatrics community that this is a false narrative of kids in general not being so affected. Because they ARE being affected. That we have to re-think ‘school’. It’s such a burden of responsibilities for these schools; I don’t see how they can do it across the board.
We have to basically re-think everything. Dr. Fauci doesn’t want 15,000 cases a day overall. He wants to get down to 10,000. If we go into the winter with these 15,000 cases and don’t do all the good thinking and basic mitigations (masks, no gatherings, distancing, etc.), we’re just going to see more tragedy. I’d like to take what I just wrote and paste it on the heads of the idiots who partied this weekend in my neighborhood [two separate parties] in too-large gatherings. And nail it to the palm tree trunks at our beaches, to remind these massive clusters of beachgoers, the likes of which a lot of us in SoCalif have never seen to this degree, so that maybe, just maybe, SOMEBODY without a mask would take notice.
I really don’t see how we’re going to get these violators to comply unless we just put a force (“a strength brought to bear”) of law enforcement out there (they could use volunteer citizen patrols like we have in our city; they’re authorized peacetime-type officers; I think in some communities they’re using city workers to at least send out a warning and give out a mask, but I just don’t know if they’re being taken seriously?) … so, you know, issuing ‘for-real’ citations and making penalties for abusers (hit ’em where it hurts; have to pay a fine; make your point; next time they’ll think twice; consequence for action) but, you know, my husband says we have to remember that this isn’t how America does things. But we’re in unprecedented times. We’re not ahead of this virus; we’re not in the driver’s seat. We’ve gotta be able to get back into our place behind the wheel or we’re gonna just keep getting run over.
Thanks Vicki. Important information!
Stay safe.
I don’t know why we picked the hottest, most humid day to leave the lake and come back to Lansing but there you have it. today (Tuesday) looks to be a little better. I have to get a grocery delivery going soon here. All I have in the fridge is five pounds of cherries, leftover orzo salad from the lake and two peaches. Well, there’s lots more there, but I don’t count condiments! Rick is making birthday dinner tonight — maybe there will be leftovers!