sun's out, buns out!

I went for a lovely bike ride this morning which took me through a ritzy lakefront neighborhood that Magnum and I discovered a while back.  

Lake access is limited to residents of the neighborhood only.  Bike riding riff raff that I am, I snapped a quick pic of the sunrise before continuing on through.  I checked out some real estate prices in the area out of curiosity, already knowing we are not in the target market.  Yeah, they have M's instead of K's after the sale prices.  

I noticed some decent condos nearby for the 62+ crowd.  I thought I'd check those out for future reference and found them to be pretty cozy and decently priced.  What's the catch?  HOA fees:  like 2K/month!!  

What does a $2,000 per month HOA fee get you?  

But speaking of sun and sky, I saw this notion in my instagram feed:

And then of course, the comments...

Yeah, there's one in every crowd.  At least one.

Do you have an HOA?  Likes?  Dislikes?

give the cyborgs a go?

I'm currently waiting for some more contractors.  Those stairs we had installed a couple of weeks ago?  They're ready for carpet.  That's who I'm waiting for - carpet installers.

When we purchased this house from our then landlords, we bought it "as is" with all of us knowing of its shortcomings.  The stairs were a big thing, so it's nice to have the old ones out.  

In the meantime, work at the hospital has picked up.  Elective surgeries, lab work, and imaging are happening again, so the place isn't the big nearly empty building it had been.  Ironically, our (culinary) hours are still cut plus people are taking voluntary two-week furloughs to make up for lost productivity over the last two months.  

But it's all good, and there's been a lot of good teamwork and cross-training going on.  I'm grateful for the levels of management above me for avoiding long furloughs and full-blown layoffs.  Heck, we even got T-shirts recently.  

Another nice thing is that patients can have visitors again.  Just one at a time, but better than nothing.  The moms and babies unit is still closed, though.  Hopefully that will be up and running again soon. For now, maybe it's a good thing since we're lightly staffed in the kitchen and those moms can EAT.

Back in my child bearing days, I took full advantage of the short stay in the hospital.  I didn't realize it with Chaco, but with Wolfgang and Meego, I savored some big meals and took long hot showers because I knew that, once I left the hospital, those things wouldn't be happening any time soon.

So here we are.  COVID-19 and its restrictions appear to be letting up around here while BlackLivesMatter protests are in full swing.  In our city, protests have been well attended and relatively peaceful. 

I confess that I was not a fan of the slogan "Black Lives Matter" in the past.  But I get it now.

I also confess that I was against NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem.  But I get that now too.

On the lightweight side of things, I'm happy that we're able to resume visiting fave coffee shops.  Magnum and I biked over to one yesterday and were greeted by this sign:

In more lightness, I dusted off my moleskine®️ sketchbook and started doodling with no subject in mind.  These two showed up

A push for humans to be replaced by robots?  Let's do the RoboCop thing already?

not the Robinsons

Day 2 of the siege.

Obviously, I don't mean the Covid lockdown siege.  I've lost count of those days.  I'm referring to our interior stairs rip-out/replace project siege. 

I''m hanging out in my loosely named home office with the door closed so the cat doesn't escape and get accidentally sawed in half or something.  Now THIS is how quarantine SHOULD feel.



But it's all good.  Thankfully, both the cat and I have snacks and access to a bathroom.  Not so
thankfully, the cat's bathroom is all to easily accessible for him.


The view from my hideout:


That red bandana?  That's my face mask for being holed up with a cat.  I'm wearing it as I type since I snapped the pic just a bit ago.





The project does seem to be going quite well.  I'm glad I found these guys.  They should finish up today, hopefully I didn't just jinx it.

Last night and this morning, we had no stairs in the house, which is a tri-level.  We've been using ladders to get to and from different levels.  I told Magnum I feel like we're living in the Swiss Family Robinson house, which would have been much more fun if I was about 10 years old, but it'll do.

I've been streaming random videos and doodling, and now the stir crazies are getting to me.  I'm about to bust out. 

Gotta go check the potato patch? ←← the only reference I remember from "Swiss Family Robinson" other than their tree house.

Potatoes, anyone?

chickenpox and dairy free

Rolled out of bed on Sunday feeling tired, achy, a bit chillish /feverish... maybe?  I don't have THE virus, I'm 99% sure.  I finally got 'round to getting my second hit of Shingrix vaccine Saturday afternoon.

Anyone reading had that particular vaccine for Shingles?  Recommended for us over-50 people, but known to have annoying side effects that, as I relived them, are quite similar to COVID-19 without the cough.  It's given in two doses, 2 to 6 months apart.  I got my first hit in early November, and set a reminder for myself four months later. Who knew we'd be in the middle of a global pandemic?

So I waited a bit for the pharmacy frenzy to die down, then headed there on Saturday to get it over with.  I vaguely remember my first hit back in November and then just spending the next day mostly on the couch.  So I planned to do it when I didn't have to work the day after and then thankfully spent a good portion of Sunday on the couch.  The cat seemed to enjoy our time together.  I was happy to rally enough to get out for a nice walk in the immune system-strengthening fresh air and sunshine.  Lots of people outside doing similar.

Monday morning, I awoke as my bright-eyed and bushy-tailed self.  I'm glad to be finished battling Shingrix anyway.  Back to the standard battles of the day.

The hospital remains eerily quiet with no visitors and no one allowed in group areas.  Like the donation to supply free coffee to health care workers, another donation came in yesterday:  cans and cans of this stuff...

I have yet to try it, but it looks good. I'm thinking it packs a caffeinated punch.  Anyone had it?

My manager at the hospital is a nice young guy.  He was asking some of us older types if we remembered ever having to go through something similar to this COVID-19 response.

We all thought a bit, but nope.  One guy said the closest he could think of was 9-11 with the shutting down of airports and everyone glued to the news for days.

Boss says, "Yeah, I remember that.  I was in middle school!"

PSSSSHHHHH!!  Middle school!

Today, we're at home in the new old house and joined by a plumber.  The house has some issues, and this is the first of our major projects to turn the house into a well-oiled architectural machine.  Sometimes it seems like we're not in the situation the world is in.

I'm thankful for running water.