A New Week - A New Beginning

Yesterday DH and I spent several hours at the shop vacuuming, washing the floor, and replacing the "waiting" chair with one that is more easily sanitized. Today I'll be there early to wash the floor once more and vacuum the rug we keep right in front of the door (it catches the initial dirt that gets tracked in). DH spent the afternoon working on the second portable shield, which is in the back of Minion, ready to be taken to my area early in the morning. 

I was tossing and turning and just couldn't get any
sleep after about 1:00 am. So, I really ended up
with a bit less than four hours of sleep last night. 

I'm actually exhausted, but it's because I'm up - after only four hours of sleep. The sleep was great, but I couldn't manage to get back to sleep after awakening at 2:00 am. So, here it is, 5:00 am and I'm looking at finishing the blog and making some oatmeal. Maybe grabbing a catnap, although I doubt it. 

I've actually be fine with the Stay-at-Home order. DH has had a lot of
time to work in his garden, and I've been healing my broken ankle. But
now our unexpected vacation is coming to an end and we have to
be cautious with other people once again. 

It's been seven weeks since we've been open to the public. I sent out emails to our customers on our email list, and Chickie spent yesterday afternoon making colorful "Welcome Back" and "Thanks for Coming In" signs for the shop. I'm happy to be seeing people again, but a bit frightened at the same time. I haven't had to interact with people for a long time and except for a salesperson here or there, haven't really be among the public for a while either. I'll be wearing a mask - ABSOLUTELY - but gloves won't work well with the work that I do. It's hard to wear gloves while working with price tags and tape. 

I'm also a little worried about my leg and how it will hold up. I've got my scooter there, but I actually don't think I'm going to need it very much. I've been pretty comfortable with a single crutch, and even some short moves without any crutch at all over the past 48 hours or so. I may have wasted my money buying the scooter, but I'm not saying that's an absolute yet. It may come in very handy in other situations. 

Social Distancing can make a huge difference. We've marked
our flooring with "Stand Here" stickers and tape to encourage
our customers to use their heads and keep the distance, but
we're still dealing with a small store and aisles wide enough for
a wheelchair, but not much more. It might be hard, so we'll
limit the total customer count to no more than 6. 

So, I'm off and both anxious and a bit scared as I go. Now is the time when we might see a big jump in infection levels, and I'm also going to have to be a bit harsh on customer count and making sure everyone is wearing a mask. Those are mandatory things for us, so no choices here. I hope all of you are safe and have a great Monday, I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay at Home - The Final Day

Yesterday was crazy busy so I had no time to post. DH was busy trying to build portable shielding for the shop that Chickie and I can easily transport to any counter where we're working with customers. I was busy with mail orders and book work. Today he's continuing the build effort and later we'll head over to the shop to wash the floor and apply the "Stand Here" decals I purchased. I only got 10 because I wasn't sure if he would approve, but he liked them so I have another 10 coming Tuesday via FedEx. 

Chicken Pad Thai extra spicy is our usual go-to at
Lisu's, along with pork fried egg rolls with extra
fish sauce. So good! 

We were so exhausted by day's end we ordered Thai takeout from our favorite local Thai restaurant. Pad Thai and eggrolls - lots of calories but so, so good. It's hard to believe I open again to the public a little over 24 hours from now. It's been a very eventful stay-at-home for me, and I know I have customers anxious to get their bead and color fix. It's going to be great to see customers again - I've missed most of them. 

It'll also be nice to be on a schedule once again. The gyms aren't allowed to open yet, but since my foot is wrecked, that's OK. I'll enjoy having my Wednesdays to myself again. It's not always easy living in each other's back pockets when you're used to operating only on intersecting orbits. 

An Exaltation of Larks is the first book in a
trilogy which also has two side story books
that mash into her universe. It's stunning
characters, intriguing plot lines, lots of
Spanish - enough to keep it interesting but
not to get the reader lost - and wonderful
writing. Highly recommended. 

I have a book recommendation for all of you. "An Exaltation of Larks" by Suanne Laqueur is a beautifully crafted multi-family book that pulls things apart and manages to put them back together again, stronger and more interesting than before. It's the first of a trilogy, and I've been pulling my way through them for the past five days (I read fast). I'm almost finished with the fifth in the series now, and loved every one of them, but the first three are the core. Each can be read as a stand-alone, but they mesh so beautifully. Give yourself a treat and try the first one. 

On that note, I'm out of here. I have a floor to wash at the shop and time is ticking. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 43 - Limping Along, But We Have Cake!

I'm getting used to working with my crutches with no weight bearing on my leg. The Podiatrist was quite adamant about that, so I'm trying to be good. I meet with his partner, the ankle specialist, on Thursday morning. I can tell you this - I'll never forget this birthday - limping through the Pandemic with cake. 

His cake wasn't quite this pretty, but it tastes absolutely
fantastic. I'm going to gain weight with all of this food
and no ability to exercise. 

DH baked yesterday, my birthday cake, although we indulged in our first portions last night. He did a vanilla cake batter with lemon curd filling and a buttercream frosting with more lemon curd. Super good (not thinking about the calories). He'll do the grocery shopping today and I'm hoping I remembered to put everything onto the list. Personally, I'd be all in favor of shopping with one of those electronic carts that they have, but he's rather I stay in and I'm fine with that. 

I'm looking forward to getting my knee scooter. I have a feeling
that's going to be a lifesaver at the shop. 

I'm actually not having a lot of pain, taking Tylenol Extra Strength for overnights, but staying away from any pain meds during the day. I am keeping my leg elevated as much as possible, though. I'm trying to do everything I can to avoid having a hard cast put on. I think I'm doing well, but I haven't had to work yet. That comes on Monday and I'm not looking forward to it. I suspect that's when I'll be hurting, so as much healing as I can get before I have to work, the better. 

I adore owls - they are funny, charming, stealthy hunters,
silent flyers and so beautiful. I might send in the registration
application anyway, just so they get the money, but I doubt my
project will be finished on time. 

I just can't concentrate well, and even though I don't have a lot left to do on my Owl project, I haven't been able to settle and take care of it. The deadline is looming, and I suspect I won't have it finished on time. It's OK, There are other events I can display it at, but I'm disappointed to not support my favorite birds. I have to be in the right frame of mind, though, and right now, I'm just not. 

So, on that note, I'm going to take it easy today, and if I can, I'll slap a load of laundry into the wash. Easier said than done since that's another short flight of stairs I have to negotiate. *sigh* Have a truly glorious Spring/Fall day (depending on who's reading this) and I'll be back tomorrow, although tomorrow will probably be a late post, not an early one. As always, Stay Safe, Stay Home and Stay Well. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 42 - CAT Scratch

Yesterday's CT scan was a breeze, in and out within 30 minutes and no claustrophobia or needles. Made my day. Of course, the subsequent followup by my Podiatrist wasn't so great, so what started out as a good day ended up with me in a depressed curl. 

I'm a bit down right now, and the fact that we're cold and rainy outside
today isn't helping. I need blue skies, sunshine and some warm temps
to make up for my darned broken ankle. 

Basically, instead of breakage on two bones - 5th metatarsal and bottom of the fibula, I've actually managed to break five bones. I've also broken a bone in my third metatarsal and have two breaks through my interior ankle. I'm under strict orders to have NO weight bearing on my injured leg for at least six weeks and he actually offered me the option of getting a plaster or fiberglass hard cast if I felt it would be a better alternate for me. But since I'm doing better with the walking cast with my orthotic inserted, I'm going to try and stick with the removable cast. 

I want to be clean, this is NOT my x-ray. My x-ray would
have a break on the right side too. Dr Szopa said he was
quite amazed by how hard I had hit and the damage I had
managed to do to myself. I reminded him that I had fallen
onto a poured concrete floor. But yeah, I did it really well. 

The thing that frightened me was his talk of possible shifting of one of the breaks in the ankle, which would require surgery and pins to stabilize if it happened. That crushed my normal optimism into the depths of black despair for a while. He also mentioned that a knee walker scooter might be helpful but that they were expensive and I probably should also check secondary sellers (I actually ended up ordering a new one from Target for slightly over $100, so not bad). He said I may need to use it for up to eight weeks. 

I'm getting one of these from Target (I hadn't been aware that Target
carried medical equipment, but they do). The slightly more than
$100 I'm paying for this with free delivery beats the $188+ per month
that renting a similar one would cost me through my clinic. The
scooter isn't covered by insurance, so I want to be economical. 

He also requested my permission to pass my records over to his partner, Dr Jorgensen, who specializes in ankles within their department. I gave permission, and shortly thereafter received a phone call to schedule an appointment with Dr Jorgensen for Thursday next week. 

My main concern is work. If we are allowed to open on the 18th (and DH- thinks we'll still be shut down until closer to the end of the month) I'm not sure I could handle crutches and no weight on my left leg while working with customers. So the scooter is going to be at the shop, although it would also be a great help in the kitchen at home. Still, I think it would fit into either the pickup truck or my Mazda so I might be able to transport it from one location to another with relative ease. 

Either way, the cat scratched me and I'm going to be feeling this for a long time to come. I'm a bit spooked by the doctor's words and I'm working hard to find my internal balance once again. I think I'll wrap this up and I'll be back on Monday. Please have a great weekend, right now I'm living through all of your positives to buoy me up. Stay Safe, Stay Home and Stay Well. 

Stay at Home - Day 41 - A New Adventure

My Podiatrist wants a better look at my ankle. He thinks there may be something going on with the right side, not just the two broken bones on the left side. So, today I go in for a CAT scan - something I've never done before. I've tried to stay away from these because I have claustrophobia, something that's not recommended for such things. But, I want to find out what happened and what damages I truly did to myself. 

I have claustrophobia, so I'm not really looking forward
to my CT scan. But, I really need the doctor to know
what's going on with my foot, and the x-rays just aren't
clear enough. So I'll punch through it - no choice. 

The Doctor also put me into a new, higher boot. He said the shorter boot is used for foot injuries, but when the ankle is involved, the higher boot is recommended. So I wore that yesterday and was in some serious hurt by the end of the day. So ... 

The doctor upgraded my walking cast to the
taller style that goes just below the knee. He
said the smaller one is great for the foot, but
he suspects the ankle may also be involved,
so wanted the taller support. 

In the middle of the night, I realized a fact that might help my leg pain. I wear prescription orthotics in my shoes to help with Planter's Faschiitis. I haven't had my orthotic in the walking boots. I decided to add the appropriate one to my boot and see if that might not help my foot feel a bit better. 

Late yesterday I had two doorbell rings. The first was my co-worker Chickie and ChickieMama dropping off an offering of fancy cupcakes, mini donuts, chocolate and a "Get Well Soon" card for me. So sweet! It was wonderful to see them again - I've really missed them. The second was FedEx, dropping off my Fluidity Barre, all nicely packaged up in a box. 

I checked eBay first, but shipping on these was more than $100
in all cases, so buying a used one for $250 and paying $100
or more in shipping, vs buying a new one where the shipping
was included in the price ... it was a no-brainer. Now, if I hadn't
crushed my foot, I could clean the den and set up a space today. 

The Fluidity Barre was my present to myself with my stimulus check. Most of the money went to paying down debts, but I've been wanting a barre for working out for a long time. I decided on this one for several reasons (1) the factory was selling rebuilts guaranteed as new for under $400 and with free shipping and all of the workout program materials, (2) it doesn't need to be attached to a wall or anything, and it folds up into a compact thickness, so having it in the room with the treadmill is actually going to work., and (3) a good barre workout is basically a solid isometric workout and I'm hoping will help my muscle groups strengthen. Of course, I hadn't planned on breaking my ankle. I'll probably be able to unpack it and set it up in July. *sigh*

On that note, I'm off to get irradiated by yet more x-rays. I'm going to start glowing in the dark before too much longer. Stay Safe, Stay Home and Stay Well. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 40 - Channeling My Inner Dorothy

Sorry about missing yesterday's post. I ended up having to run quickly to the shop for a customer query and by the time I got back home, DH had the garage overtaken with his building. He's busy building privacy screens for the shop. Things were going OK ... but I've learned over the years it's better to walk through and ignore to the best of my ability. Which is exactly what I did. 

The walking boot is working OK, I'm still using crutches, but I'm not 100% dependent on them. I see the Podiatrist in two hours, so I'll get the scoop on the boot and how soon I can take the darned thing off when I see him. I might be tolerating the boot, but it's really hurting my shin and I hope he'll have some suggestions for that. 

Although Dorothy Gale overcame many obstacles on
her hunt for the Wizard and a return home, she isn't
the Dorothy I'm channeling.  

I headed today's post "Channeling My Inner Dorothy". Some of you may be thinking of Dorothy Gale, from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" fame, but no. My Dorothy was a very real woman whose fortitude I've been amazed by at various times of my life, but especially now that I've been relying on crutches and boots. 

Dorothy wore braces on her legs and had crutches
similar to these - attached at the upper arm with
bars for the hands. She managed to keep her rambunctious
family all together, kept a clean kitchen, and was
a rather phenomenal person. 

Many of you know I grew up in Denver. My best friend in childhood (aside from my cousin across the street) was the girl across the alley from me. She and her two younger brothers lived in a small house with their parents. Both parents were polio victims, her father usually in a wheelchair, her mother with arm-attached crutches. He was a talented jeweler, working for one of the downtown Denver custom jewelry stores, she was a stay-at-home housewife, because that was the trend back then in the "dark ages". 

Many of my readers are too young to remember the last major
Pandemic that spread through the world - Polio. I knew people
directly affected by polio, and even met a woman living inside
an iron lung when I was in my 30's. It's a truly frightening
disease and we managed to find a vaccine. We'll find one for
COVID-19 too, it's just going to take a while to find the best
one to offer to the world. 

When I look back at all they managed to do for their kids and the friends of their kids, I'm amazed. Dorothy was the mother's name, and what she could do on crutches was beyond amazing. Her husband, whose name I don't recall, was the handyman. He made us a seesaw for their back yard, he also made us our first skateboards from an old set of roller skates and a one-by-six board. We got really good at going full speed down the VERY steep hill at the bottom of my block. I suppose we could have seriously hurt ourselves - no helmets, no knee pads - but we all were very lucky and lived into adulthood. 

I think it's always good to remember people who left a positive impact on us. So, I'm channeling my own Dorothy as I work through the problems ahead with my foot being broken and still having to make my store ready to open on the 18th. I just thought I'd share a bit of her story with all of you today. As always, Stay Safe, Stay Home, Stay Well. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 38 - A New (Old) Ride

Late yesterday I got a call from my auto body shop - Minion was ready first thing in the morning and "Looks like a Million Dollars'. That made me happy. I was perfectly fine driving the rental out on my own, as long as DH pulled it from the garage for me. Getting into the door with crutches and my walking boot would have been challenging. He decided to pull it out, but also to accompany me. So, we were off in the early morning, enjoying beautiful weather that was destined to turn colder and wetter as Cinco de Mayo moved forward. 

Originally we had planned on Margaritas for
Cinco, but with my foot and the cooler weather,
we'll stick to tacos. 

They were absolutely correct - Minion looks like a Million Dollars. She's absolutely perfect and stunning and I'm beyond happy. I handed them my credit card, they charged me $50 for a $2700+ invoice and I was thrilled. They took care of my rental car for me, and later the rental car emailed me my bill from them, a $268 bill which cost me $0. Hurrah for good insurance. Sometimes it can really pay off. Now to keep Minion looking this good for another decade. 

If you live in the Twin Cities area, and need any auto
body work, I highly recommend these guys. Totally
AWESOME! 

After the auto body shop, we headed to the Post Office. I had a bunch of papers to mail to Social Security (they're saying I didn't pay one payment, but I did), and I didn't have an appropriately sized envelope. I also wanted to pick up the held mail for the shop - bills, bills and more bills. *sigh* 

After the Post Office, we headed to the shop. We paid bills, balanced the checkbook (since we finally had some bank statements to work from) and made sure everything was OK. Apparently a large package of paper towels I had placed on the bathroom shelving had fallen, hitting the bucket and mop, and blocking the bathroom door from easy access. DH mounted an extension for the shelf so that we won't have that problem again. 

I don't usually buy more than a 12-pack of paper towels at
a time, but we're going to be cleaning like crazy at the store,
so I suspect our 18 roll package will get used up much
faster than expected. 

Finally, it was time to go to the drive-through mail depository at my local Post Office and we started gathering things, only to be missing my keys. After a half-hour search, DH finally found them in the trash can. They must have fallen down while I was putting the mail down. Crisis averted. 

I'm going to try and take it easy tomorrow, but Thursday morning, I have an appointment with the Podiatrist at my clinic. He'll review my x-rays with me, talk about what I can and can't do, I do have questions for me about how long I'll be stuck with crutches, but the walking cast seems to be working well, so that's one positive. Here's hoping that your crises will be minimal and resolved easily. As always, Stay Safe, Stay Home and Stay Well. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 35 - RICE For My Ankle

I didn't post yesterday, and I apologize for that. I was going to post when I finished my work at the shop - I had a lot of mail orders I wanted finalized so that I could print the shipping tags out at home and drop them into the mail later in the day. I also had to go to the bank and pick up some merchandise bags from my supplier. Very blah, but very necessary. 

Life got in the way. 

I was taking the merchandise bags down to the basement to put onto the appropriate shelf, and I messed up. Badly. I completely missed my count and missed the last step of the staircase, landing very badly on my left ankle. I don't think I broke it (well ... maybe a hairline crack, but no greenstick fractures), but I turned it really hard and I still had my work to do. So, after finally catching my breath, I started filling orders because that's what had to get done. 

My left foot is pretty swollen, and probably even a bit worse today, but
at least it's not hurting quite as much this morning. What a mess! 

I finally called DH to come over and help me (the help was negligible, but necessary), and we got the orders finished, invoiced and packed. I got home and he handed me my old set of crutches, and I finished the labels and got everything ready to send. I'll go with him to the Post Office today, and I'll have him actually go into the building and mail the boxes. 

I, on the other hand, have realized that I move a lot faster and with more stability when I'm actually crawling, so I'm channeling my inner nine-month-old and crawling as much as possible instead of using the crutches. One way or another, I'm housebound for quite a while. I guess I'm grateful to COVID-19 after all, since our stay-at-home was extended until May 18th. If I had to go in to work on Monday, it wouldn't be a pleasant thing. 

I can't believe I did that. I've caught myself on that stairway
in the past, but since I had a hand-full of bags, I couldn't reach
out to grab the hand rail. My bad! 

So, I'm once again a klutz. And I hurt, and I'm none to happy about my situation. Still, I'm going to try my best to RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevate. I'll have DH bring my laptop to the middle level of the house and set it up there to keep my foot elevated. And I'm OK - just hurting, and that will heal. But, what a mess! I'll be back on Monday, hopefully with less swelling and less pain. In the meanwhile, Stay Safe, Stay Home and Stay Well. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 33 - Clinging On the Edge

So, we're clinging on the edge. On the edge of what, you might ask? On the edge of chaos, on the edge of decisions, on the edge of working or not, and nothing can be resolved, because we haven't had any ropes or ladders pushed to us for a while now. I'm still holding out hope that we'll get one of the City grants, but that won't even come through until next week, earliest. The PPP loan we got will cover our payroll through May, but it would be really nice to pull some sales through too. 

Walking through our front door, immediately to your left are the
five four-sided pegboard displays of Czech seed beads, divided by
size and type. This is only the smallest beginning of the beads
we offer, and I think you can start to see my problem. 

We're looking at the store and trying to figure out how to make it sanitary - an almost impossible task. We're going to recommend gloves for everyone (I have 200 pairs on order, due sometime this month - exact date unknown). We are also going to recommend gloves, and despite my partner's objections, I'm going to limit the number of people in the store to no more than 6 at any time, and also recommend that people leave their children at home. 

Our Japanese seed beads are displayed in small two-inch
hanging tubes which contain a small sample of the bead
for color, and is tagged with the computer number and the
actual price for a full-sized tube (usually 6" tall and fairly
thick). Again, I think you're seeing my problem. 

My store consists of samples of 1000's of beads and other products. Each customer chooses what they want to purchase by removing the samples and collecting them in a basket. We then pull what they want from the "back" shelving, where everything is already packaged in full quantities and priced with the appropriate computer codes. This has allowed us to have a HUGE inventory in a very small space of approximately 750 sq ft of open store area, and it keeps our "walks" (stolen merchandise) to a ridiculously small amount. It's great...except now. 

When checking out, this is where the customers would
stand. There are books and sparkly beads everywhere, and
ideas for other projects, like the belt blanks, behind the
counter, easily pulled down for the customer. Again, though,
I think you can see the problems I'm facing. 

With COVID-19, there's really no way to sanitize every bead on every board. They are touched by people who are looking, and people who are buying, and we don't dog the steps of each customer to see which, of 50 colors of a bead, they actually touch versus actually choose to purchase. I think the gloves will be absolutely necessary, and I have lots of hand sanitizer on hand for people to use. We'll clean the counters frequently, and I'll make sure the check-out stand is thoroughly cleaned after each sale, but there are limits to what we can effectively do. The fact is, we'll have to have some faith in our own masks and gloves. It really all comes down to doing the best we can and having some faith that we'll all pull through this. 

We also sell a lot of hides - deer, elk, cow and
buffalo, pig and lamb. These are used for
clothing or things like knife sheaths, moccasins,
or even desk tops. No way to sanitize a hide
that I'm aware of. 

So, as I go over to the shop to run the month-end reports and pull more mail orders for Monday, I hope everyone is being smart - stay home, stay safe, and stay well. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 32 - Busy Running in Place

Today is my "normal" Wednesday - shopping, errands, many loads of laundry, etc. Apparently basic items like ground beef and chicken breasts are becoming harder to find, so I'll have to hit several different stores to get everything I need. Hopefully I'll find most of it, but it's unlikely I'll find it all. There are several things that we just keep on the permanent list and if we see any, we grab it. 

I usually just take a photo of my list and have it on my
phone. When I'm finished, I'll cross off the things I
bought and delete the photo from my phone. Easy, peasy. 

So far the Governor is still keeping quiet about any extension, and although I understand his wanting to wait as long as possible, it's driving me a bit crazy because I can't plan anything. DH was saying that we would at least be able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Margaritas in the back yard, but if the stay-at-home isn't extended, he's incorrect. I'll be working on Cinco. *sigh*

It would be pleasant to spend Cinco de Mayo at
home, drinking Margaritas on the patio, but I
doubt it'll turn out to be possible this year. 

Still, as the month winds down, it hasn't be a bad one for us. We've managed to find a rhythm between the two of us. Yesterday's catastrophe was DH's coffeemaker breaking down. He gets the really inexpensive ones, and makes coffee every morning for himself. On rare occasions I'll ask him for a cup, but I've been making do with tea throughout the day instead. The broken coffeepot led into a bit of a tirade, a search on-line for possible models, and a trip to Target which resulted in a new coffeemaker and a couple of summer tops that he thought might look good on me. 

Really fine tassels like this can knot up and shred
in the laundry. I'm trying my best to keep them intact,
but no guarantees. 

The tops are actually cute - nothing I would have bought for myself because the tassels on the ties are going to be a pain to launder, and because they won't last long (not counting the fact that although they were each under $30, it's money I'd rather spend elsewhere). But, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. They are currently in the washer getting a cold wash on the delicate cycle, and I'll hang them to dry. Hopefully that will resolve the tassel issues. 

So, on that uneventful note, I'm out of here. I have a lot to do, so I'll be back tomorrow. As always, Stay Safe, Stay Home, and Stay Well. 

Stay at Home - Day 31 - A New Ride

Minion is at the body shop and I'm driving a rental. It's a smaller sedan, a Hyundai Elantra. It's a very different experience sitting so close to the road after being elevated with my PT Cruiser and even more elevated with my Mazda CX-5. Now I'm low, and if I'm going to be low, I'd much rather be in a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. *SIGH* Alas, dreams of a great sports car are just that ... dreams. Still, after I managed to link up my phone over Bluetooth, at least I'm able to pull in my Sirius on the radio, so at least I have decent tunes. 

I'm now driving a Hyundai Elantra. It's not bad, gets really
excellent gas mileage - close to 500 miles per tank. Once
I got the car to talk to my phone via Bluetooth, I could
listen to my own music, so all is good now. Still, I miss
Minion and can hardly wait to have my car back home. 

DH and I braved the lines and crowds and went to Home Depot for gardening supplies yesterday. It was a beautiful day. The store was limiting the number of people allowed in and there was a long line, but it actually went quickly and before too long we were inside the store looking at flower seeds, plants, lots of different grass seed, lots of soil and dirt and top soil, and a new 100 foot hose because our old hose was ... (wait for it) ... hosed! LOL (Please limit your throwing things in my direction to either money or marshmallows.) 

This is the type of cherry tomato we planted yesterday. I love my
cherry tomatoes, and adore the fact that we always have at
least two different types. They taste differently and they mature
at different rates. 

We came back with smaller June-bearing strawberries for our strawberry pot (hopefully this year the deer won't eat them), a single larger everbearing strawberry for my little patch where one of the plants didn't make it over the winter, and a lovely cherry tomato plant. After replacing the bad hose with the new one, DH played happily with dirt and shovels, getting all of my plants into their new homes for me. We still need one more cherry tomato plant and some annual flowers, but I haven't seen the plants I want for flowers yet. 

I adore Lantana Camara flowers and we had purchased some
last year from a large nursery on the south side of the river.
We'll probably have to make one trip out there because
they have the best selection, but since things are still on
lock-down, we weren't willing to go that far yet. I want
several of these lovely flowers - the butterflies love
them and they bloomed throughout the summer. 

Here's hoping your Spring (or Autumn) is going well. So far we're still in the final full week of our lock-down, and our Governor has actually started a slow open. However, our numbers are still increasing, and we're not on the downward trend yet. Although I'm planning on being open on Monday, I'm still not 100% sure the Governor won't require retail to remain closed for a longer period. I guess we'll have to see what happens. Meanwhile, stay safe, stay home, and stay well. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Stay-at-Home - Day 30 - A Venture Out, An Adventure

Today I have an 8:30 am appointment at the Auto Body Shop for Minion. They'll replace the shark fin and fix the roof. The shark fin is the easy part, the roof repair might end up requiring a complete replacement of my roof. I cleaned the car out on Saturday while helping DH rake the thatch from the grass. The car hasn't been this empty since I bought her years ago. The insurance company arranged for a rental car for me during the time of repair, so I'll have a strange car in my garage for a while. I have no idea how long this fix will end up taking, but it is what it is. I just hope they do a good job. 

At the very least, they'll have to pull up the depression in the roof and
repaint it. At the most, they'll have to pull the sunroof out and pull off
and replace the entire roof with a new one. I have no idea, I'm just very
grateful that my insurance will cover the cost. 

For the first time in over a month, I actually woke up hours before my alarm, at my usual time of 3:15 am, and I couldn't manage to get back to sleep. So here I am, almost on my old schedule of posting times. Not a bad thing, but 90 minutes before I wanted to get up, and WAY too early for me to get onto the treadmill. So I'm catching up with email and doing my blog and other miscellaneous things. 

The rules are pretty simple - don't go anywhere unnecessary, wash your
hands often, keep social distance between you ant others, etc. It's
almost become a mantra. I wonder when hugs will return, I miss them. 

I really don't have much to say today, life has been rather boring while we're housebound. DH still thinks the Stay-at-home will be pushed outward to the end of May, I'm still thinking we'll be able to re-open on May 4th. I guess we'll have to see what happens. 

Did you get a chance to see this amazing photo released by Hubble to
celebrate the telescope's 30th birthday? It's called "Cosmic Reef" and I
loved it so much, I added it to my computer's Wallpaper rotation. Just
stunning! 

So that's life from the trenches of the Frozen Northlands, which isn't frozen anymore (except in the far northern portions of the state) and which has trees that are actually starting to show their first leaves. We're sitting outside on the patio almost every day for an hour or so, just to get a bit of fresh air and enjoy the early Spring. The flowers will come, but they're slow, and DH is chomping at the bit to go to the local Home Depot and buy plants. Maybe we'll do that later today. Have a great Monday, stay safe, stay home, and stay well. I'll be back tomorrow.