People at Work

Danielle in the top picture is the manager at the Trail House. She also makes the best coffee. We got ourselves organized to go there this morning and John, in his customary fashion was herding me toward the door. He was sure that all the available 25% of the seats would be taken if we didn't get over there.I, in my customary fashion was resisting being herded toward the door. As his driver, I have the upper hand right now and pointed out that we had nothing else to do all day.  We picked up the newspaper from the bottom of the driveway and took it with us. There was one other car in the parking lot when we arrived and we had our choice of places to sit. As I suspected, the old, well used, leather couch was nowhere to be seen, and the indoor plants looked as if they had been indoors for a bit too long, but it was warm inside an the first sip of coffee was ambrosial.

We left Spike at home with the cleaner who finally texted us after an hour that he he had been barking non-stop since we left. Since he doesn't bark much when we are at home, and doesn't seem to have anything against the cleaner (although he doesn't like the vacuum cleaner and thinks the feather duster is a toy) we're at a bit of a loss. We figure we'll have to leave in the car and sneak back to see if/when he's barking....

The bottom picture is John 'up-potting' his tomato seedlings. It is cloudy and cold with a biting wind, so he decided to use the space in the garage opened up when we gave his car to our son, Tim. It's not much warmer in there but better without the wind. We had a lengthy conversation about whether to keep putting the eggshells in the compost which has reverted to being just a pile with some wire around it since his beautifully designed three compartment bin burned down. After a bit of Google research we decided to keep doing it since tomatoes and squash both appreciate the calcium. The tomatoes won't go into the ground for another month. This is when John usually carries the seedlings outside for some sunlight every day, but I'm not sure he'll be able to carry them outside or I will be willing....

The paper is full or 'reopening ' articles, and the PIlates studio is opening on a very limited schedule, but the fate of the mat classes seems to be uncertain whether zoom, in person, or none.... Anthony Fauci (in a mask with penguins on it) says some states are reopening and lifting mask mandates too soon and we must continue to be vigilant. John saw an article comparing California, with it's strict measures and Florida, with practically none, which yielded almost identical statistics. However, it’s complicated and it’s possible to be distracted by cherry picking which states to compare....

Who knows what any of it means? I've been pondering two questions...what were 1)the worst and 2)the most positive experiences  you take from the past year? I think most of my experiences have been something of a double sided coin. The uncertainty and lack of information has certainly been frustrating and worrying, but it has also  brought people together in creative ways to help each other. I’m