respublica

I did it

All the news today is how more and more public entities and stores are wanting us to wear masks when we are out. Masks are hard to find and I found there is no end to internet advice on how to make your own. I mean, these people are crafters! I am not. But after seeing this video on how to make a mask from a bandana and two rubber bands, I was sure I could do it.

Problem right off the back is that we have no bandanas. We have no bandanas today. Sing along.

But while doing laundry I noticed a stack of cotton napkins we use maybe twice a year. I rewashed two and then ironed them. They're about the same size as most bandanas. I followed along as the cheerful woman explained the process using her own bandana and I was able to do it. Here is the result. One thing I noticed in this picture is I haven't combed my hair today and that it needs cutting. But, well...

Two things. A bandana would be much easier to wear, the napkin seemed thin until I got it altogether, it's just a bit too thick. Next time I have the nerve to go out I'll see if I can find a bandana. Also, rubber bands which go around the ears get uncomfortable fast.

They're GRRRRR Rate

Today our animals at the front door are tigers. Have to mix it up a bit.

Pond yuck

Yesterday, the second or third Monday of our home bound life, I got to work on getting our waterfall/fish pond cleaned up and ready for the season. It will be another day of work because it is truly a mess of string algea and sludge. The waterfall and pumps are turned off in late fall so things can stagnate. We put oxygenators into the bottom with the fish so they have a way to survive.

It was time, however, to get the big filter running again, the water turned ugly around the poor fish. So Kirt came down with the filter pieces and got it running. Meanwhile, I spent time with a strong hoe digging out the string algea which had taken over. Kirt helped with this as well. I bet we pulled at least 40 pounds of this string algea out of the bottom and I got almost that much out of the top. We'd never seen this before and it must have had something to do with the winter weather we had, not hugely cold and very little snow.

Here is some of the algae and the sludge which had to come out today.

Actually algae is really good in gardens, it is loaded with good things like nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. We will get this to our gardens. Here is a look at the sludge we need to pull out today. It too will go on garden beds.

Dale spent some time in the afternoon bringing out bird baths and working up part of his flower beds.

Dr. Tom Coburn as seen by our daughter

Senator Tom Coburn passed away today at age 72. Our daughter Katie was on his staff for some years and she wrote an article describing him for The Federalist. As a parent of a child working in Washington DC, it was such a relief to know the type of man who was her boss.

You can read her article here.

Spending my days

I have come to believe if a person (like me) has a compulsive disorder which is hidden during normal times, it shows itself big time during times like this. Sheltering in place has brought out a lot of fussy behavior. Such as being obsessed with making sure the bed is made each morning with the comforter end falling exactly equal. Not higher on the left or right.

I noticed this today.

This just won't do. I spent about 5 minutes equalizing as best I could.

I can relax again. Then I walked into the bathroom and made sure the towels were stacked as equally as they could be. The problem (first world problem) is towels are of different thicknesses so it is never perfect.

Good enough, but honestly my eyes notice all the unevenness. Not enough to give me hives though.

I swapped out the dog at our front door for a different dog, just to give the many local walkers something to talk about. They do notice, and who wouldn't during these times.

i put the former door dog on the couch to give him a rest.

My brother in law amused a lot of people the other day by going to the grocery store dressed in a shark suit.

Dale's brother, by the way.

This made me remember that some years ago, one of our students was running around in a rat suit and before he graduated he gave the rat suit to us. And, we still have it. I am very tempted.

All this and it's still not even 9:30.

It's a puzzle alright

For Christmas my daughter got me a puzzle that she had made from a puzzle company which features the area in Chicago where I grew up. It's a map actually from a company that makes, Personalized Hometown puzzles. Cool, right?

Well, we've been busy with life since Christmas and Dale has had the dining room table covered with his books and papers so I haven't had the chance to do this puzzle. Yesterday things got sort of cleared out and we're stuck in the house so I figured why not do this puzzle. Well. It became very clear after I emptied the box and separated the border pieces from the rest that I don't think I can do this. The biggest reason is that there is no photo guide of how the finished puzzle is supposed to look, the picture on the box is of Washington DC, and then there was this:

If you click the photos to enlarge you'll see the pieces are all highway map things. Each one is very similar to every other one. I'm going to give it a try, but I only got a few border pieces put together yesterday. It may take the entire quarantine time frame to do it.

Passing the time while home bound

We have made very few trips off our home property since the virus distancing rules have gone into effect. Any early morning run to get food, that's about all. It gets tiresome, but it's necessary and so we cope.

Does anyone else feel guilty or feel like apologizing when walking into a store? I do, even when I go for something we really need.

This made us both smile, the story of many people putting back up their Christmas lights to make things seem more cheery. So yesterday I joined that group and put the spotlights back on in our Tiny Town Christmas village. It did make things seem nicer.

Dale has been working from home and spends a lot of time on the phone or on the laptop. But now and then he looks like this.

So what's everyone doing today?

With all the recommendations by authorities to stay out of crowds, stay home-we watched the Holy Cross live steam of the church service and also watched the Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens Sunday live. They had no congregation at Webster today, while Holy Cross operated as normal with congregants present.

It was interesting and edifying, but not the same as being present. Many churches throughout the country went to a live stream today and it appears to me as though many members signed in.

After that we went into the basement and Dale began taking apart his workbench well ahead of our coming move. I asked him what he was going to do with all the wood and he said, "it's going to Collinsville and be rebuilt." My next question was, "where?" I dread to think of this. I've been in the basement as well, sorting things into piles which need tossing, given away or kept. I have no idea why we've kept some things around. For example a dusty 2007 huge bottle of Riesling wine. It's out of here.

Had talks via iphone with both daughters and grandsons. Lizzie's kids were all at the dining table doing LEGO's while Katie had hers out to Target with her. That sounded like a breaking of the rules to stay home, but, whatever.

Yesterday I went early to Schnucks and wanted ground beef to make stuffed peppers but they had none at all so I am going to make a Thai stir-fry with chicken tenders tonight. We like this a lot, Thai cooking has lots of great flavor and is really nothing like Chinese food. Dale is currently in his chair watching an old cowboy movie.

I just wish it were warmer. All of us need to be out in fresh air.

Hurray for UPS

I have nothing but good things to say about UPS. They have never failed us as opposed to FedEx which failed us big time more than once. As I related in this post yesterday Dale forgot his phone while heading for Phoenix. I was able to pack it in bubble wrap, put it in a small box wrapped tightly with heavy duty packing tape and then take it to UPS to overnight it.

I wasn't altogether sure it would get there overnight and be delivered by 10 or 10:30 this morning. But by gosh, he got his phone by 9:30 this morning. It is a huge relief. I did forget to put a charging cord in, but he can get one of those or borrow one. Such a relief.

We need our phones, we really do

Late yesterday Dale left for a 5 day trip to Phoenix. Before he took off we went over whatever needed to be done here as well as the what the difference in time would mean for communication. With our time change Saturday night, we are now two hours ahead of Arizona when we'd only been one hour ahead up until then. That makes a huge difference when you need to get in touch with someone.

Before he left I told him I'd be leaving shortly after he did to get over to Walmart for some basic things we were out of. About 45 minutes later as I got into my car to leave Walmart, an unknown number rang on my phone. I ignored it figuring it was a wrong number or spam. Shortly after that, a text came appeared under the same number. It was Dale telling me to call that number. When I did he said, "Where are you!" I said, "I told you I was going to Walmart". But again he said, "Where are you now?"

"I'm sitting in the parking lot talking to you."

Then the worst came. He said, "I forgot my phone, it's on the dining room table."  "We board at 12:20, could you get my phone here?"  I looked at the car clock, stared at it for a few seconds making sure it was the correct hour and then told him, "Dale, it's five to twelve, I don't see any way I could get home, grab the phone and then get to the airport in that short amount of time."

What was going through my head was that it is always hard enough to hear from him when he is somewhere two hours behind, but now I wouldn't be hearing from him at all or not being able to call him if needed. So I told him I would see if it would be possible to overnight his phone but wouldn't be able to do that until the next day since no shippers are open on Sunday.

He then asked me to find his phone at home and text someone he was to meet at the Phoenix airport to share a ride to the hotel and let him know he'd be at the gate. It took me some time to find the phone. It wasn't really on the dining room table, but in his laptop bag on the dining room chair which was pushed under the table. I had to call his phone a couple times and follow the quiet hum. A hum because he'd turned the sound off.

I confess this really affected me almost physically yesterday, I felt almost dizzy all day knowing there would be no communication. I went out later and got a small box and bubble wrap to pack up his phone all the while worrying about whether this would get to him by Tuesday in one piece. UPS has overnight which leaves their offices at 3:30 in the afternoons and if you select, "early delivery" it may get there by 8 Tuesday morning. If we're lucky.

I hope this works. Today will be long unless he borrows a phone at least once to let me know how he's doing and lets me be able to tell him the status of his phone.