These vintage Penguins arrived earlier in the week, all the way from England. I think we have about 8 or 9 now. Don is a big Wodehouse fan, so we’re going to collect Wodehouse Penguins, and of course, I love mysteries. (Don did a one-man show earlier in his career called Jeeves Take Charge in which he played multiple characters from the series. He first performed it in his early thirties, having been coached in it by the actor who originated the role and who had been given permission by the Wodehouse estate to write the script. Don performed it again in 1998, so I got to see it. It was a huge hit. I saw it the day before we got married. He was frigging brilliant.)
A small, but slowly growing collection.
Today, my plants will be granted the freedom to once again grow outdoors. Huzzah! The perennials in the ground, despite frost last night, seem to be doing well. So the plan is to put on some old clothes, take the plants back outside, drive to the nursery/farm stand and get supplies – both plants and some produce. Don had a reaction to a shot he got yesterday, so I’ve forbidden him to leave the house, so this time I will be getting everything. It’s only right as he’s done most of the errand running during this lockdown.
Background: Don has been getting shots in his left eye for a year now as he’s suffering from macular degeneration in that eye. This particular round had been postponed because of the pandemic, but his sight was really suffering, so he went in yesterday. They have a protocol in place, only letting a few patients in at a time. But it was nervous-making. Sometimes the shot is relatively easy, but this time, it wasn’t and his eye has been watering continuously – as well as his nose. We ended up talking to the doctor on call last night and she was very reassuring about everything. But it’s been a pain – literally. So he’s taking it easy today.
And there you go. I’m off to restore the plants, fold up tarps, and run errands.
Stay safe.
That injection sounds terrible. I really sympathise with your Don as my cornea has an erosion sometimes in my sleep and the pain as the cornea tears is horrendously painful and often doesn’t repair for days. My eye waters continuously when the cornea tears. However, I can’t image having an injection into the eye. A day resting is just what he needs.
Thank you, Robyn. Stay safe!
PRAYERS for Don…hope he does well. Love the books. Because of moving into a small apartment, I donated most of my books-some to family and friends-other to students, etc. Love your collections…enjoy your day and hope good weather comes for your plants…rain and cool here again today…still homeschooling online and loving it…probably work with the little ones all summer…they enjoy it..keep writing…
Homeschooling must really help fill your time in a positive way, Brenda. Stay safe!
Ouch. Sorry to hear about Don’s shot-reaction!
Weather here is really windy, which keeps it nice and cool (only around 75 degrees F). We’re supposed to get a big storm tonight and tomorrow; we need the rain.
Enjoy gardening!
I will, Cara. Thank you and stay safe!
Best wishes to Don. I hope the after effects of the shot subside sooner then later.
I adore the title “Some Tales of Mystery and Imagination.” It sounds like the name of a program from the days when there were radio plays.
Wishing sunny and warm days,
Kaye
Isn’t that the most wonderful title, Kaye? Thank you. Stay safe!
Best wishes for Don and his eye problem. Hope the injections will work for him.
We spent yesterday getting ready for, to, and from the vet due to Glory’s eye problem. Seems she has glaucoma now, so we’re medicating and will be going back next week to see if it’s doing any good. This was the first time I left the house in more weeks than I can count. Not looking forward to doing it again next week. I feel that every time one of us goes out for any reason we’re taking a big risk. Life in the time of COVID-19, I guess.
It’s incredibly unnerving. I wrote about it on today’s post. Sending healing thoughts to Glory, Shanna. Stay safe!
Oops! We watched Decoding COVID-19 on PBS last night, to get some (what I think of as) reasonable perspective on our pandemic. Whoa. I think the gist of what was presented may be worse than I was expecting—and I knew it was bad. What are these protesting knuckleheads thinking, anyway? I am truly worried for civilization.
I can’t watch those things. I take it all in and then can’t get it out of my head. Stay safe!
oh, sorry that don has had to deal with that awful macular degeneration and injections. i hope the reaction and his sight clear soon. and by hope, i mean i will pray about that.
same for you having to go out to get some things. be safe!
happy that you could see don in that wodehouse one-man-show. and to do that the day before you were married?! impressive.
the collection of vintage penguin books looks great! i love a good mystery, too, so your photo is reminding me to add agatha christie’s books to my list (“list” because i am still struggling to read more than a page at a time … stupid new-ish short attention span).
glad you can finally leave your plants outdoors. enjoy!
i saw a beautiful dark grey blanket of clouds overhead this morning (we have chances of rain today through sunday morning … which is good because we are at least three inches behind in rainfall for the month). love it … as long as everyone is safe.
hope you and everyone else has an easier day. stay safe and well!
kathy in iowa
And you love the rain, Kathy. Stay safe!
Wishing Don the best & hoping it gets easier for him.. I know I rarely comment- but just wanted to let you know I read all of your posts and you truly are the bright spot of my day. Thank you
Thank you so much, Liz. Much appreciated! Stay safe.
Oh…please tell Don we wish him well. I can’t imagine getting a shot in the eye…I hope the shots are helping. Sounds like a good day of rest is just what he needs.
We went to a garden center this morning…senior hours. It was rainy…and so crowded. But I got most everything I wanted and one thing that
Jim wanted. He chose a Mandevilla….it’s gorgeous, and should attract the hummingbirds! After a spot of lunch, we are off to another nursery for a few more things.
You’ve got a good start on your new collection. Stay safe…and happy gardening! ;)
Same to you Donna! Stay safe!
I cannot imagine what Don goes through, anything to do with the eyes terrifies
me. Please give him my best and tell him how much I admire him. So happy
that you found one another.
It is dull and cool in Ontario today, just waiting for the rain to start. Finished raking
and clearing the back of the yard this am where a huge maple tree fell during an ice
storm.
Here’s to warmer weather.
Amen! Here’s to warmer weather. Stay safe, Lea!
Please tell Don I am sending lots of healing vibes his way!❤️
I love purchasing books at thrift stores (I am rather …..ahem…frugal) and always give a second look to Penquin books. Usually were always good reads. But I haven’t been to a thrift store in a couple months now.
I hope everything went well while you were doing your errands.
Take care.
We all miss thrift stores and antiquing! I can’t wait until we can do that again. Stay safe, Robin.
Oh, Don!! That sounds quite painful. Glad you were able to convince him to stay home today. Everything we feel and we do seems to have new connotation to it now. Always a worry lurking somewhere.
OK…. mini rant about the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. UNBELIEVABLE. I can’t even. This is freaking ridiculous. It is even scarier now than before. May Vos and Fitzgerald rot in hell along with their nasty cohort Walker. Party over people. Government at its very worse. (sorry, Claudia for ranting on your property.)
You may rant. I would be ranting if I lived there. Heck, I ranted on IG, even though I don’t live there. Stay safe, Chris.
Don is so brave having shots for his eye. Hope he’s feeling better soon.
Thank you, Dee Dee. Stay safe!
My mother gets shots in her eyes for macular degeneration, and she has had the watery eye problem, too. We now ask for her eyes to be rinsed out extra-thoroughly, and that has pretty much eliminated the problem. Good luck.
You know, he wondered where the nurse had rinsed his eyes enough. Thanks so much for this, I passed it on to Don and he will make sure this happens next time. Stay safe, Debra!
We are finally going to be able to plant coleus and tomatoes this weekend – IF it stops raining! Next week is going to be in the 70’s, so we’re plenty excited here. It’s about time, right?!
I am so sorry to hear that Don has to get shots in his eye for MD. My friend takes her mother to get those on a regular basis and it always makes me cringe to hear about it. I hope Don feels better by tomorrow.
He’s feeling better Melanie. Thank you. Enjoy your planting – I’ll be putting seeds in the ground on Saturday and Sunday. Stay safe!
Don will be in my daily prayers. I hope that God blesses you both with blue skies and lots of sunshine soon. May your flowers grow prolifically. Hopefully, Don will be able to take portrait photos this summer when the stay safe at home is lifted. he should document his daily walks with photos. i am sure they will be lovely,
Unsure how that will happen as the Farmer’s Market is on a narrow street with virtually no room for social distancing.
Stay safe, Nancy.
So sorry about Don’s eye problem. Seems that it is harder these days with every thing that is going on to have peace of mind without an added problem. You will both be in my prayers
So true. Thank you, Barbara, and stay safe!
All good wishes to Don with the eye issues. That sounds no fun at all, even on a good day. We had the deluge of all time today (the protestors at the capitol didn’t have luck at all this time). More is anticipated and possibly coming your way. But with it are the warm temperatures, which are so welcome.
I hope all went well with the plant transfer and that your back isn’t a hurting piece of gear. Maybe spring is really here to stay. I know. I’ve said that before. Enjoy the market. I still haven’t been able to make myself get out somewhere that I might have to buy something.
Love your penguins. What a treat!
Back always hurts, due to lugging plants around, bending over to garden, etc. Thanks, Jeanie. Stay safe!
Will look forward to the results of your errand-running.
Poor Don. Oh, and these new protocols; we got an EXHAUSTIVE edict from my husband’s optometrist yesterday (I think they texted it as my husband has an upcoming annual appointment) and it’s really quite unbelievable the steps they and we now have to go thru in order to have protection from the virus. My husband goes to a large eye clinic but their door is locked and they unlock it for your appointment only. You have to have a temperature check at the door; the minute you walk in you have to wash your hands. Of course a mask. Etc. No exchange of cash or card; they’ll bill you (and I guess take the risk you’ll pay!). Not taking any new patients.
So far, my own primary care doctor’s front door is still locked and I can’t get our dentist to return any calls although they say they’re monitoring the phone messages; however, closed for the entire month of May due to Covid as per their phone message. My concern is that I was figuring to jam up multiple doctor appointments in a small window from like maybe mid-August thru mid-September before we could (perhaps) get, according to that whistle blower, the darkest winter of our lives, approaching here in 2020 (second, possibly bigger virus wave). But a lot of people will do that and there’s just not much time in that small of a window. Just have to take it day by day and see what happens, as we all have been; the frick’in nightmare of this virus. (Our Los Angeles County public health director is advising/extending shelter-in-place/stay-home orders til August 15. She said ‘if you can’, stay home. On the one hand, I’m not surprised as I’ve tried to stay ahead on the projections; I’d hoped for July but I figured it would be August. Just follow the stats.)
But, yes, comes a time in the balance; you can’t not go to the doctor if you’ve got or are developing a medical problem. There’ve been one case after another, from what we’ve all read or seen on TV, where people aren’t going to the doctor (afraid of Covid exposure) with resulting really bad consequences for them (that are non-Covid). Don did the right thing, of course; you can’t mess around when it comes to the eyes. I’m borderline glaucoma with two cataracts and will have to be in the optometrist’s chair by Sept 4 if, for nothing else, my glaucoma check; I’m not gonna risk going blind. Same for my mammogram; I’ve already had cancer once (in another part of the body) which makes me susceptible to other cancers; there is no putting off my mammo around Labor Day. I got a baseline scan at age 35 and have had annual mammos ever since the age of 40; that’s not going to change. I don’t want my teeth to rot in my mouth; I’m already behind in seeing the dentist. I don’t want a possible skin cancer (I’m prone to that problem, too, due to courting the sun, not avoiding it, as a SoCalif kid and young adult; actually, lunatic-wise, til I was about 35; we live at the beach here; it’s just California sunshine and Calif life). At least that’s one appointment I actually WAS able to postpone to end of August; although of course it’s subject to change (the dermatologist, for my regular screening; at times, I’ve gone as much as every two months; I give him a lot of work to do).
These appointments can’t not happen; they HAVE to happen. Common sense vs risk. Nothing in life is 100% safe, at any time, not just during Covid.
Sigh. My husband did have to risk going to an auto-parts type of store today because of a recall on something significant I don’t understand; he just couldn’t wait any longer because of deadlines surrounding that recall. We’re rarely ‘out there’ in the world at all for anything since early-to-mid March. Just a mail run to the post office twice a month when nobody is there. He did try ONE grocery store run; otherwise, we’re just trying to get by with what’s in the pantry and have been helped by Instacart. Anyway, he was shocked at the number of people and cars between two cities just after lunch today; HUGE number of people out; clearly so many who are not staying home. He just shook his head; he said, “It’s crazy. Like idiocy. We’re in an epidemic. But if it’s a store they can go to, they’re going.” (I noticed our local Hallmark store has reopened but only from 10am to 2pm on certain weekdays and I don’t know if that’s solely curbside pickup or what, but it’s starting to happen; beginnings of cautious reopening.)
But parking lots full and the freeway back to being full, says my husband. He was actually really somber about it because it’s a foreboding truth of what’s to come with a relaxation of closures and almost a de-sensitization of how contagious the virus is, like a false sense to so many of these folks that they’re in the minority and won’t be stricken (I guess). Or of course the whole cabin fever thing. Even on the country road (2-lane; scenic) he took home (to bypass the freeway) which normally at that time of the early afternoon on a weekday is deserted, it was wall-to-wall cars. My husband was really just beyond astounded. Of course it’s nothing he’s seen lately, since he’s always home.
People want out of their houses; they’re sightseeing on a nice, clear, warm day in SoCalif. I get it. I want out, too. I’m jealous. I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I want to be age 25 and healthy with that feeling those young people have that they won’t get it or else, if they do, it won’t hit them hard. Of course, yadayadayada, we all know the whole logic/worry behind that sort of mindset, of who else they’re infecting if not even their own older relatives or one with underlying health issues.
In the vicinity of where my husband had to drive to today was another store that sort of dangled a carrot just around the block from where he was, so he did peer into the nursery center at the end of this big-box hardware/garden store (don’t have to go in thru the main part of the store) and he said they had nada-nuth’in except tomato plants and soil; sick-looking starter veggies (not many) of other types when this place would otherwise/usually be teeming with stuff. They’re clearly just not stocking. I think we’d have better luck with our own hometown/small garden center; I talked to them yesterday and they told me they have full stock; I asked a lot of questions about their distancing and requirements; what they’re doing to protect customers. All sounded very thorough. My husband is really needing more soil enhancement from what we bought at the end of February; wants to have a bigger veggie garden than we’d planned (I’m not as enthusiastic; it needed to be planted three weeks ago and is a lot of work for him; also takes a lot of water, and water in SoCalif is precious, but he’s willing to do the work, saying ‘what else have I got but time?!’), so I guess he’ll give it a go as we tiptoe back out in the world ourselves but on an incredibly-limited basis and NO window-shopping/browsing; get in, get out.
(So I’m being a hyprocrite, right? Like being judgmental about others getting out. Yet we’re doing it, too. And I’m just praying my husband doesn’t forget even one part of the drill, which is easy to do when the whole shopping experience is so darn distracting. Clean the cart, gloves, mask, hand sanitizer; keep distanced. Whew.)
This noted virologist I’d seen on the news shows on TV from ‘way early on, like CNN or MSNBC, etc., had been absent of late, which I’d noticed. When I first saw him on these shows as a guest in earliest March or so, I had to look up the word ‘virologist’ and I liked this guy; he had early tips like on produce, when they still didn’t know much, that to be REALLY safe, just wash & cook it, don’t eat it raw, but that it was probably okay to go raw/fresh. Just lots of background and experience, this guy. And then Brian Williams’ show on MSNBC last night had an ending segment which mentioned this virologist had now actually contracted Covid himself, age 42, in the hospital on oxygen. He seems to be getting well but I just bawled. He’d said he’d done everything he’d been telling other people to do, like how to be careful on a subway, etc., but that he probably forgot something somewhere along the way, like maybe touching his eyes or nose or something despite gloves, mask, etc. He was on a plane a couple of weeks back and that’s probably where he was exposed. (I guess people still have to travel for business; David Muir/ABC-TV anchor went out to Arizona to interview Trump, so…)
Anyway, yeah, if he could get it, and his life’s work is studying these viruses … well … (I guess the admonition would be to not get on a plane?!).
xo
Lots of people at the nursery and farm stand yesterday – at 9 am! So much for my hopes for a relatively uncrowded visit. Stay safe.
Sorry about Don’s eye. Hope it is better soon. Love those books. You have the makings of a nice collection. Enjoy.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn. Stay safe!
Hi Claudia, thinking about Don’s eye, ouchie, sounds dreadful. Hope it is better by nightfall.
It was much better by about noon, thank goodness. Stay safe, Kelly.
Brave girl to go out alone! I really mean that. I’m still not comfortable with it. In fact, I don’t think my therapist is either. I mentioned the other day we would be meeting outside at the flower bridge, but she texted me after that and said she’d been thinking it over and that might be the best. I don’t really plan on doing anything unnecessary (i.e., vet or doctor) thru the summer at least. A shot in the eye!! Good grief! I can’t stand to have my eyes messed with let alone take a needle in one. I’m sure the gift of vision is a big motivator, tho. I’ve just ordered a few vintage needlepoint kits, still looking for a less afghanish craft, but what I really want is a doll house to paint and paper and fill with comforting amenities, a teeny, tiny world without Covid and a criminal tyrant, a tiny hand made quilt on the bed, a needlepoint cushion on the chair by a fireplace, a Brown Betty and some scones on the kitchen table…and a couple of baskets of fresh fruits and veggies. All the ones I see on Etsy or eBay have to be assembled and I don’t have the skills to do that. Anyway, just what I’m hankering for right now, and I suppose if I cleaned up my life-sized space, it would be almost as satisfying. Stay well! Thank you for keeping this a safe and lovely space.
That’s the great thing about dollhouses – a tiny and perfect little world. Stay safe, Nora!