Hey There!
It's 8:05 AM EDT, 68°F, Humidity 78%, Wind 5 mph S, sunny, AQI 14.
It's a pretty gorgeous morning out here on the screen porch. The trains are rolling through town, and for now at least, the screaming neighbors at my back line are not about. We will see how long this lasts.
Yesterday was another day of chores. After my morning routine, DW went shopping at our local Italian specialty deli. I went outdoors and weeded along the edge of the driveway, which was overgrown with weeds and looked bad. I was on my knees most of the time, and while I was very careful about stones along the driveway, I should invest in some knee pads for this kind of work. The weeds were not too difficult to pull out, but I am always amazed at how living plants find places to grow where you would think nothing could grow. It's most especially fascinating when they grow in the smallest cracks in the concrete. Feisty little things.
I find I have to time myself in terms of doing physical work, and if I am doing a job that will take more than an hour, I have to build in some breaks. The weeding job was about 45 minutes, so I went into the house and took a break before doing the next job, which was vaccuuming the downstairs. We have lost the services of our cleaning person for the foreseeable future, as her husband has been in hospice care and appears to be close to the end. So DW and I have been trying to keep the house clean by doing a room a day. She did the upstairs bathroom Thursday, and I had vaccuuming duty yesterday. I should note here that Son2 and his GF are coming later today, so the necessity to clean is high up on DW's list of priorities at the moment.
I was just finished cleaning when DW came home with the shopping haul. She loves that store because it has unique items you can't get in any other local store. So she brought home some veggies, a couple of steaks, some capiese steaks that we are having tonight, and some nitrate-free ham. Not an inexpensive run, to be sure.
I went down to one of the local churches for two $5 hot dogs meals for lunch. You get a hot dog, a bag of chips (stale), and a soda for $5. I brought them home naked and we dressed them here. I passed on the beans.
After lunch, I had to go to the hospital for X-rays on my ankle. I was in and out pretty quickly. Of course I could not help but wonder if the X-ray techs could immediately tell what was wrong with my ankle. I suspect they can, but of course they can't tell you anything. I could be walking around with a stress fracture for the next 4 weeks and they'd never tell me until I walk into the doctor's office. The whole medical situation in this country sucks.
Some packages came, although they were delivered next door instead of to us, and one of them had my new travel bag. I like it, but I am not sure I love it. It's fine for travel in the US by car, but for flying I am not so sure. For international flights I would choose something different. But for the most parr, for all the travel I do, this seems to be adequate. You have to buy items for the things you do, not the things you wish you could do. That's why this bad should do the job for any 3-5 day trip I am likely to take in the near future. It will get a test run when DW and I go to Illinois for our Women's Professional Baseball League weekend.
DW made a chicken sausage in pasta with a cream sauce of some kind for dinner, which also had chicken breast chunks in it. Pretty tasty. After dinner we both watched the latest episode of Start Trek: Strange New Worlds, which focused on Commander Una Chin-Riley. The whole episode used some vague reason why everything was in black and white, and honestly, it was sort of boring. DW does not like Rebecca Romajin, who plays Chin-Riley. Other personal stories were in the script, but the whole episode seemed somehow forced.
After ST, I tuned in the baseball game, while DW made a coffee cake for Son2's visit. We lost another one-run game 2-1. We aren't too good at one-run games. I checked out a couple more Youtube reviews on my new travel bag, and it's interesting that it's hard to find one that dislikes the bag. If I don't like the bag after this upcoming trip, there are other options out there. After kitchen cleanup, I went to bed at 11:22 PM.
Notable Deaths: Mark Rydell, director of On Golden Pond and other films, 97.
That's all for now. 'Til We Meet Again!