How's Your Week Going? - Week of September 14th

[ProudTVJunkie]

Well, online school is in full swing and, thankfully, going well. I'm very lucky that my daughter is so self-motivated and enjoys her classes. They actually begin orchestra next week and she's starting violin lessons. I just found out I have to drop her violin off at the school for her music teacher to inspect and then come back to pick it up at the end of the week. My daughter can't wait to get started with the music lessons.

Today is my Dad's birthday. I've planned a small birthday party tonight. It's just me, my husband, daughter and my Dad, and then I have a video chat set up with my sister and her family. I felt like I had everything under control until my Dad called and asked if we could all go out to dinner for his birthday. Our restaurants now have indoor dining again, but I said I wasn't comfortable with that. I really just don't feel like it is safe. I actually read a study that said that about 70% of the people who test positive for Covid say they'd eaten in a restaurant at least once in the last 14 days. So, I won't change my mind, but I do feel lousy disappointing my father on his birthday.

On the upside, I'm suppose to visit with a friend this afternoon I haven't seen since the spring. We're having coffee in her backyard and I'm really looking forward to it.

So how is your week going so far? Check in and let us know.

[ProudTVJunkie]

Well, minus some early hiccups, my Dad's party went fairly well. We got him his favorite meal as take-out from a local Italian restaurant, along with our ice cream cake.

The downside was that when my husband went to pick up the food, someone cut him off on the highway, then kicked up a rock which hit and cracked his windshield. As you can imagine, he was not happy.


But back to the party. My sister and her family were able to video chat with us for cake and presents. Having an (almost) 4-year-old on the call definitely kept things interesting.

My sister and my father both have Facebook Portals, which are special video screens. The Portals have options where you can add special effects to the video you are watching and my little niece knows how to use it. So as we're talking, she's turning everyone into monsters, making us wear funny hats and glasses, etc. It kept things lively.

Tonight we have virtual Back-To-School night for parents and I'm curious to see how that goes.

[ProudTVJunkie]

Although they aren't being evacuated because of the fires, my sister and her family are headed to my Mom's on the other side of the state because of the intense smoke.

This is the normal view from her backyard...



And this was the view as they were driving out of town...

[tycho657]

Glad your birthday celebration went well. We have had lots of smoke from Calif. The sun has been peaking thru the smoke for days. My solar water heater has not been as hot.
I have had back issues for many years. I usually go in every 5 year or so to get a shot. My back really started to hurt last Saturday. I even bowed out of my volunteer gig bottle feeding kittens that day. I have been taking my Celebrex daily since. I had pretty much stopped taking that this last year. Well I called up my Pain/back specialist to get an appointment. It's been 7 years. Guess it's time to get it checked out again. I think picking up 25lb bags of cat littler didn't help   
Cats went in for their yearly check up this week. I got a new carrier so they can both go together. With covid  they wanted them together. The vet came to the car to get them and talk to me, with masks of course.  I use to just take them one at a time and use one special carrier for the vet. I have other carriers for the RV. I don't want them to associate the vet carrier with the RV as they jump in those all by themselves. They are both well. they are both about 10lbs. Carrying that with both probably wasn't a good idea either.   

I am starting on some new reading buddies. I'm getting tired of the bears. One is a fish and one is a dinosaur. My sewing machine is acting up. I tried to do a different stitch and it kind of went crazy. I will have to do more experimenting with the various stitches. I REALLY don't like to sew but these are nice projects. I am still working on my crocheted plastic bag mats. Another new project it braiding the same material that I use for the reading buddies into play things for the kittens at the bottle baby nursery. I saw one last week and thought they could use a few. I bought a remnant of material to use and got it all cut into strips last night. I will take 2 or 3 every week when I go. They will send these home with the foster families when the kittens leave the nursery.

I sure miss having new seasons for the few shows I enjoy watching. I'm afraid we may not get them until next Feb or March if we are lucky. I stopped watching Supernatural a few years back but I think I read that they need to film the last 2 episoded of the series as it was supposed to end this last season. They are filming in Canada so that might be an issue. I know a friend of mine has been trying to get up to Canada to meet up with her boyfriend who is Canadian. She has been stopped at the boarder and not allowed to cross over. Maybe TV and film people get a waiver to cross? 

[ProudTVJunkie]

In the evenings, I try and get some writing done on my front porch because it's one of the few quiet places in my home. Just a couple of weeks ago it was close to 90 degrees and sunny at this time, but now the sun sets at 7:00pm and it's dropping into the 60's. I need a sweater and shoes and socks on instead of my t-shirt and sandals.

I'm already missing my summer.

[Fjordmom]

It is amazing how quickly the summer starts fading into fall with everything getting dark so early now.  But temperature-wise, I'm a much happier camper.  This time of year it's the mad dash to try to get as much done as possible before snow flies!  The weather has been sunny and dry for almost 2 weeks now, so I spent 3 days staining my new back stairs/landing, and another 3 days this week priming and painting the section of the house on the deck that I can actually REACH on a short step-ladder!  I had already primed and stained the new siding that had to be put in for the new porch, so I just wanted to have the rest of the front of the house done too to match what I did for the porch.  Now I'm waiting for a painting company to get back to me to get a quote for painting the rest of the house next year.  Unfortunately, all contractors are pretty busy now with people doing so much renovation during COVID.

ProudTVJunkie , I'm glad to birthday plans worked out, even with the hiccups.  I'm also reluctant to dine in anywhere, but I think you made the right choice, as hard as it was to disappoint your father.

tycho657 , hope your back is feeling better soon.

My friends in Chico, CA sent a picture last week of them in their backyard in the morning standing in that eery orange glow.  Chico sits between two of the larger fires, Mendocino to the west, and what I think they're now calling the North Complex to the southeast of them near Oroville.  Since they're within city limits, they should be OK fire-wise, but the air quality has been bad to hazardous, there's lots of ash falling at times too.  They always have a bountiful garden, but decided to make it bigger this year since they'd be home so much, and now harvesting is really difficult.  

[ibmjas]

I'm here in southern Indiana and the last 2 days it has been hazy because of the smoke! I think the smoke cloud is supposed to move on tomorrow. I've always had breathing issues around smoke. I couldn't catch my breath when they used to burn leaves and everyone else loved the smell. I can't imagine being surrounded by wildfires. The loss of life and property is so devastating. I heard they arrested 4 people for intentionally setting fires. I just don't know what is wrong with people.

PTVJ I'm with you about eating out. I won't do it. It sounds like your party was a success!

There still isn't a huge amount of Covid around here and most feel like it's overblown, but because of the mask mandate most are wearing masks. That will change as soon as they drop the mandate. I'm afraid things will be a lot worse this winter (Covid-wise)

[DrvrTrnr]

Apparently Maricpa County (my county) is in the moderate or yellow zone for the virus. This means gyms, movie theaters, and bars that serve food can reopen without further approval. There is a Planet Fitness at the opposite end of the Safeway plaza where we shop. We drive right by it on or way out. There wasn't an available parking space anywhere near the gym. I'll be curious to read about an increase in cases in the next two weeks. ASU already has over 1,000 cases and letters have been sent to the university president to end all in person classes now.

We're being inundated with political visits: Trump was here Monday, Ivanka on Wednesday (she at least wore a mask), Mrs. Pence yesterday, and VP Pence today. Donald Jr. is coming next week, and Trump is supposed to return again in the near future! Enough said about that.

The smoke from the California fires has been real bad the last several weeks. The sky actually looked like rain clouds a couple days. At least the temperatures aren't in the 110s anymore, but no rain is in sight. The drought continues and the fire danger is extreme in the forest areas. The weather service said la nina is here which means a warmer, drier winter for the southwest.

My husband and I still wear our masks and try to stay away from people in the store. We do get take out food and see our kids, but that's about all. Now isn't the time to let our guard down and I hope everyone here is staying safe.

[nathanfan1]

Well, I thought my week was pretty uneventful but yesterday afternoon, I received a tearful call from my daughter who's a math teacher at our high school here in town. She has the dubious honor of being the first teacher at the high school to be exposed to covid so she was sent home until Sept. 30. It seems that when they setup her classroom, all of the student desks were at least 6 feet from her teacher desk but this one particular desk where the infected student sat up front, was only 4 feet from my daughter's podium that has all of her electronics in it. That's where she stands much of the time when she's presenting so she had prolonged exposure to this student. Thankfully, they were always both masked but the chance is still there. My daughter won't get tested until Tuesday and we'll see what happens after that.

In other bad covid news yesterday, the University of Wisconsin campus in town was completely shutdown and students ordered to shelter in place with all learning going to virtual for 2 weeks due to a large outbreak of the virus on campus. Seems our little town has gone from relatively safe as long as you followed the guidelines to pretty risky to go out in public anywhere. I'm thinking we're in for a LONG and dangerous fall and winter.

I'll keep you all posted!

[tycho657]

Nathanfan I pray your daughter does not get Covid. I fear that teachers are the ones who are at the most risk. I have 2 great nieces and one great nephew in college. That is a crazy situation for students and faculty there also. Yes, the world is forever changed and it will be a long time, if ever, that we will return to “normal”. Again.