Friday Randomness

Cutting straight to the chase, we are all fine. Maya felt pretty crummy last week, improved over the weekend, and is now back to her old self. Her symptoms were mostly her throat, and feeling tired, it never went into her lungs.

Unfortunately, COVID hit another family member and his household. They live a couple of hours away and are not vaccinated. It hit them pretty hard, and they are slowly on the mend now. There is no convincing people about the vaccine, so we just sigh and hope for the best.

Ted and I never tested positive. Perhaps we had it before Maya did (Ted had some symptoms that indicate this could have been the case, but it would have been a very mild case), perhaps not. We are stocked up on tests now, so we’re ready if symptoms should hit.

We enjoyed our long weekend, those of us who had one. Ted had Friday – Monday off…his company gave the MLK holiday, and he took Friday just because he wanted a four day weekend. I had a three day weekend, with Monday off. Maya had to work. She worked from home, so at least that is something.

Saturday, Ted and I took our COVID tests, then when they showed negative, we took Mulder and went to Marin County, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped and had BBQ at an outdoor seating restaurant, with no one nearby, then went for a hike up near the local reservoir, which was lovely. We had a wet autumn, so the lakes were beautiful and the area was pretty green. Mulder LOVED it. So many things to sniff. Maya stayed home and slept all day, and looked much better when we got home.

Sunday, Ted cleaned up the back yard, which is small but fills with leaves and twigs from the eucalyptus trees on the other side of the fence. I continued my New Year’s Resolution of decluttering the house. That day’s project was two kitchen cabinets – one holds medications and supplements, as well as spices and such, and the other has a mish mash of items – lots of vinegar (we have a LOT of different vinegars!), a waffle iron, Dutch oven, flour, rice, etc. We had some expired medications, which I will take to my local CVS. They have a little kiosk where you can dispose of such things. We had a lot of very old spices, things that I bought for a recipe but that was long ago and it’s unlikely I will make it again. I ended up throwing away 3 plastic bags full of old expired food. I am finding this project to be very satisfying.

Monday we took it easy, ran some errands, that kind of thing. It was a nice weekend.

Loyal readers will remember that early in 2020 I went to Los Angeles and had a long weekend with my best friend Rosemary. We went to museums and gardens and had a lovely high tea, and went to see her son play baseball. COVID put the kibosh on that in 2021, but we were hopeful that we might return in 2022. Her son goes to college in Portland, and will be playing in L.A. in February…but we’re thinking probably not a good idea with the current surge. Rats! I was really looking forward to it. Now we’re thinking maybe we will have better luck in April when his team is there again.

I am still enjoying listening to my audiobooks…most recently I listened to ‘Rules of Civility’ by Amor Towles. I read it back in 2013, and I remember liking it, but not a lot else. More recently I have listened to two of his other books, ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ and ‘The Lincoln Highway’, so I decided to revisit this one. I use the Libby app to borrow audio books from my local library. I can listen to 3 or 4 books in the time it takes me to read one physical book, since I can multi task and listen while I cook or walk Mulder. I have also recently listened to: ‘Song of Achilles’, by Madeline Miller; ‘The Four Winds’, by Kristin Hannah (about the dust bowl); ‘My Dark Vanessa’, by Kate Elizabeth Russell’; and ‘Oh, William!’, by Elizabeth Strout. The physical book that sits by my bed and gets looked at sometimes is ‘Beautiful World, Where Are You’, by Sally Rooney. Maya recommended the first 3 to me. I like sharing books with her, but one frustrating thing about audiobooks is that you can’t really share them, unless of course she loaned me her phone and I listened there. I guess there must be SOME way to do it, but again, frustrating. Happily the Libby app means that I don’t pay for most of them. She has yet to try it, and spends a ridiculous amount of money on books every month.

One of the gifts I received this year was a 3 film set of DVDs by Whit Stillman. I remember seeing Metropolitan back in San Francisco when I lived there, in 1990. It was shown on the smallest screen of a big multiplex in Japantown, a theater with 8 screens…some are large for blockbusters, and some are very small for independent films. I felt very sophisticated watching these Manhattan blue bloods come of age. I didn’t remember seeing either of the other films before, Ted said perhaps we rented them and I fell asleep. I have no idea where he comes up with these things, unless it is because generally I fall asleep in front of the TV at least 4 days a week, usually more. Sometimes daily. The other two films were ‘Barcelona’, and ‘The Last Days of Disco’. All recommended, but they are sort of slow and meandering, so if you are like me, best to watch when you are fully awake. We watched them all and really enjoyed them.

So now you are all caught up. We are well. We have had a very dry January, but are hopeful that February and March will bring more rain and snow to California. Apparently we have already gotten more rain/snow this rain season than we did all last rain season, and we’re only 1/2 way in. That’s a good sign, but the state is still in a drought.

What’s up with you?