My Week

 This is getting awkward. At this point I have no intention of letting up on either masks or social distancing until after I’ve gotten vaccinated (if indeed that comes about,) but more and more people I know have given up and are socializing “normally.”  This makes me look and feel like I’m being overly paranoid—in a liberal sort of way—and I’m sure at least some people I know have given up on me.

I used to go to a breakfast on Wednesdays with a bunch of guys I worked with at the phone company. We had stopped, and now it is back on again, but I won’t go sit in a restaurant for two hours with either no mask on while eating, or a mask on while trying to talk across a table.

Some friends invited us over, assuring us that there is room in their living room for us to keep our distance, but since I have no idea if or how often “the kids” come over with the grandchildren, we are hesitant. We invited them over to our place where we can sit on the deck, where at least it’s outside and so a little “safer.”  (He says their patio has mosquitoes.) No word back, so they don’t want to, I assume.

So, it’s all kind of annoying.

Sorry. I just needed to ventilate.

OK, not quite done yet. Since I live with another person, it is NOT up to me, as an individual, to decide how careful or not careful I want to be. It has to be a unanimous decision between the two of us.

Now I’m done. 

In further stunning developments, I whirled some grass seed onto the lawn, followed by fertilizer, and then some sort of substance meant to hold in moisture and keep the seed from slipping down the slope on the side of the house.  Another project involves a drainage problem by the back basement door, so I started digging that out so I can rake it out in a way that will allow rain water to drain away. However, now that we are running the lawn sprinklers three (3!) times a day so the new grass seeds will grow, I have had to put aside work on that. Slowly, the number of rakes, shovels and various implements of destruction is building up along the inside walls of the garage. This is something I hoped to avoid, but apparently it is my fate. I don’t actually have to mow, as we have an HOA that manages that, along with leaf and snow removal, and trash pickup. So, sort of a bonus there, except they perform that service on giant riding mowers that zoom back and forth among the trees and buildings, leaving tire tracks and grass that was cut so high and at such speed that it looks more like a bad haircut. 

But it's not ALL bad. Amongst all this negative doom and gloom are some good things. 

I'll get back to you on that.