The Corona Diaries Week 52 and 53 - Seriously Ready To Be Done

This post is two weeks worth. As previously mentioned, I'm getting a bit bored of these posts, even if it is still representing real life in Covid-World.

But things are moving.

We are going to send Harper back to school for their modified elementary grades program. Half of each class back in the classroom at a time for three hours a day. (Two shifts of them.) It will be interesting. I'm less concerned about academics and more about Harper being able to socialize, even in modified ways. And to PLAY! That will be the week of April 19.

This coming week is spring break and we are getting out of town. More on that next week.

I've been doing some paying work, which has been good for the bank accounts, and hasn't made me too crazed.

Let's get too it. I have mini roadtrip packing to do!

CATS

FOOD

Irish soda bread and green soup for St. Patrick's Day. Soda bread was not cut well enough before baking and was a bit underbaked. :-(  The soup was good.

Saw a recipe for chocolate cake you make in the baking pan. I knew I had all the ingredients so I just whipped it up. It was quite good and I'm not a chocolate cake eater, which made it really easy to have one small piece and not want any more.

Still loving the school lunch trays.

KALUA PIG! Yum.

FAMILY OUTING

ART

I'm still teaching the third grade art class once a week. I had them make shamrock collages. Here is Harper's which I thought was pretty cool! Using so many objects and such.

Mine was more traditional collage

Harper also has an afternoon art class called "Hidden Art." So they do things like this: Elephant...

...Goose

Another hidden art work.

In class I found a fun wave painting project. We talked about the famous Japanese wave image (click here) and then we made these.

Here's Harper's.

My own, which I quite like.

We watched Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harper didn't seem super into it as she ran to get paper and pencil to draw while we watched. But this was what she was drawing:

The Staff of Ra

The eyepatch guy with the monkey.

Indy doing the switch on the golden idol

Marian Ravenwood clearing the drinks glasses on a try and her medallion on its chain.

I guess she was paying attention. But her verdict on the movie (from the opening frames!) "This movie is OLD!" I was going to argue a little but did the math and, in fact, the movie is old. 40 years!

Harper did a picture for Mom's birthday card. Including her cat Belle who is in kitty heaven, but is coming out of her grave (!!) to celebrate.

FASHION

PLAYDATES IN TIMES OF COVID

MISC AROUND THE HOUSE/NEIGHBORHOOD

New/old ice cream scoopers. (Tape for scale)

This little thing has been stored for the last year. It is now street legal!

 

Best of all, Kurt and I both got our first vaccine shots last week. By mid-May we will be fully vaccinated. Whew and yay!

The Corona Diaries Week 51 - One Year Later - Impatient and Antsy

I've put off writing this for two days because I'm getting so bored with it. After a year, I want to be done with Corona Diaries. (I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this.) Also, I think I miscounted weeks somewhere in there. Last week should have been 52...oh well. Time has no meaning anyway.

Part of the impatience is the anxiety that after all this time, we could still catch Covid. Not that we are changing how we are living right now, not at all. But numbers are still high in LA County and you just never know. I have been consistently wearing two masks any time I go out, and washing hands and using sanitizer, etc etc., and I still worry. We've not been doing many play dates out in the park, and the two times we have it's only been with one other kid and their parent. And both times we have gone were Sunday mornings and the park was PACKED with kids at soccer practice and all the accompanying families milling around and playing in the playground. Which is not great for Harper because then we don't let her play in the playground. Too many kids/people.

I'm a very calm, relaxed person. It's been a stressful year and I do get stressed, but I often get asked by doctors - is your pulse/ blood pressure always this low? Yup. But those Sundays, seeing the park teeming with humanity makes my eye twitch. Luckily the only place that is empty in the park is the big lawn and that is where we sit.

There is also a new restaurant* across the street with a huge outdoor patio and it is packed. And it looks so inviting...god it looks so nice. But we are not going out to eat yet. Not even out on a giant outdoor patio in sunny Santa Monica. Kurt and I even drove by one of those days and said, "Do you think we could...?" and then we both said, "Nope. Not yet."

And let's not start on going back to school. That will more than likely happen a month from now, in a modified form. But I'm not going to worry about it for now. That's for later.

One year.

One year and still more tough times to come. It is getting better - I know that. I see the infection and death rate numbers going down and the vaccinated numbers going up. But it's not fast enough to change anything yet. LA is still in the "Red" zone. There are still plenty of people who will get sick and some who will die from this. And even with millions of people being vaccinated every day, if you live in LA and are eligible, it's challenging to even find an appointment for a vaccine right now. (I looked just for fun.)

I had to pick up something at CVS the other day and the amount of hand sanitizer displayed was almost obscene. Remember a year ago you couldn't get any for months and months? And now, we are swimming in it. And we will live with it as a much more involved thing in our lives forever.

I tell you what though-and I've mentioned this before-I do not miss being sick. We haven't had a cold or anything in a year. That's been nice/amazing. And I plan on continuing the mask and sanitizing routine for a long time to come.

So. Last week. It rained! And hailed! Twice in one day!

Harper had to warm her hands after collecting the hail.

And no, there was no snow cone creation or eating of the hail in any way as it had been collected from the dirty tarp hanging over our driveway...

Harper asked for a nail painting session to paint each other's nails. Precision is not her strong suit yet.

Last time it rained, a week before, the power had gone out for a few hours. Harper loved that (No school!) and so she wanted to recreate it one night and have "old time" night. We kicked it super old school with candles and a game of Sorry.

Sorry is my favorite game because there is no real skill involved, but it's exciting. Things can change for better or worse at any time.

We got another check from our insurance company for all the non-driving we've been doing this year. It's a big help.

I have a friend who buys vintage china. He is fantastic about it in that he actually uses most of it. It's not purely decorative. (I'm too practical for just having stuff to look at. I like it to be functional!) He also collects vintage airline dishes from first class service. I was inspired to buy one little plate myself. A United Airlines plate. I love the old school logo and United was always our airline to and from Hawaii forever. I have nostalgia for it so bought this. I'd love to have three more as it's such a good size for bread/butter or little sammiches.

Not much in exciting cooking last week. We had a lovely brunch on Saturday with bacon from the monthly bacon delivery Kurt gets as his Xmas gift from my mom. I love doing an all in one serving platter.

In non food things, Harper has been experimenting with things in the kitchen. Flour, food coloring, spices, etc etc. She created this, uh, concoction last week.

It smelled good!

And cats.

And now I am off to try my hand at a vaccine stand by line at the Rite Aid near me. Fingers crossed.

The Corona Diaries Week 50 - March Again

QUICK TECH NOTE: if the images don't load, but you see an image link, click it and the picture will pop up.

Just impatient. I know I'm not alone.

This week I did have some serious fears about our stupid government. Same fears and yes, I know it's a million times better than what could have been - we got the best we could get with Biden and majority in the house and senate. But oh those majorities are slim and not perfect. The fact that last year, ALL the democrats voted yes on the first aid package, making Trump look good but mostly HELPING PEOPLE. Then this year ALL the republicans voted against the current aid package. Cruel and callous and sad.

Anyway. One foot in front of the other.

Current Mood:

Caught this nice gathering on Monday during a morning break from school.

Monday's art was inspired by Kandinsky's color/circle study.

I can't wait for school to open up again.

Harper did a card for a friend in NYC.

She also got a delayed and fun valentine from Grace up north. Sweet!

On Tuesday it rained. Harper celebrated thusly.

Then the power went out* so we all sat on the big bed and watched it rain. Then I got the genius idea to see if power was out at the CVS down the street and if it was, would they have vaccine's going to waste and if so, could we get one?!?! Kurt leaped into action and into the car to find out. The power was indeed out! Yay! But this CVS wouldn't get vaccines for another couple of weeks. Boo! It was a great idea though.

*It has rained, what? TWICE in the last 3 months? Then it rains for only about an hour and not really that hard and the power goes out. Shaking my head.

Later in the week Harper got new socks. She likes them a lot.

Biscuity goodness.

Friday night we had a friend over for social distant dining alfresco. I made Plate Lunch dinner (shoyu chicken, mac salad, rice and broccoli). It was YUM. And so nice to have a little company.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went on a long walk/urban hike along the bluff above Playa Vista. There was much grumbling at the start, but we made through 3.5 miles with help from shade, some snacks and the distraction of finding two geocaches.

We walked beneath the LMU letters - a vantage point I'd never had in college when Playa Vista was Hughes Aircraft and mostly dusty fields.

Bird's Eye view:

One of the geocaches.

We neared the end of our walk and found these fabulous structures.

Then Harper got to play on a playground for a while - something we've not been doing lately. She loved it.

Being in this new (to us) park area was a breath of fresh air. It made me so excited about going to new places again, traveling to the Pacific Northwest and scouting potential neighborhoods to live in, finding parks to play in, all of it. I can not wait.

Impatient.