12 Oakdale

For the past couple of days, Grant and I have been hearing a chirping sound. He was convinced it was crickets, but since we’d heard it in the car, I knew it was something from his phone. Every time I’d hear it, I’d try to find an alert. No luck. He still went with crickets. I countered with my car argument. Perhaps it was some sort of warning from his hearing aids, like those expensive babies were in their death throes. He turned them off. We heard the cricket sound. What could it be? We sat down to watch a movie on TV, and he took something out of his pocket that he’d found recently on a morning walk. I don’t know what it is from, but when I switched it on, voila, our cricket. I am adding it to my pile of found objects. We are so nuts. I have been teaching the oldest little girl across the street, Vera, how to crochet. I encouraged her mom to buy a Woobles kit even though we both think they are pricey. However, the kit does have everything, including videos with step by step instructi...

I was wrong that on our country’s 250 birthday, our dear leader would announce the end of his little excursion in Iran. I guess a good thing I hadn’t laid any money out in the “predictions” market. He seems to have forgotten we are even involved there. Certainly the newspapers have dropped all updates below the fold. We started the day at the annual pancake breakfast at Town Hall, graciously put on by the Town of Windermere, his honor the mayor flipping the pancakes. All free, however the Police Foundation did take donations for the mimosas they were pouring. We were delighted to support them. I took my thin papered sketch book to practice sketching in public. Following an Urban Sketchers commandment to always finish a sketch, I used my water brush to add color when I got home. With that non-nutritionally dense start, we were ready for the day. I had already blanched and peeled 20 peaches: 12 for the cobbler, then cut the rest up for the freezer. That was about half of the Georgia Peac...

Food of the Gods - A Costco Hot Dog Sadly, No Relish or Onion Available   9:00 AM, old people’s time at Costco, and we were there. My first grocery shopping since April 1st, and I haven’t missed it a bit. InstaCart and Stephanie can do it all forever as far as I am concerned. Everyone had to wear a facial covering. Physical distancing marks were taped on the floor at the meat counters and checkout areas. In some sections, employees held big signs to show how far 6’ is. Dallying as we do, we were still there at 10:00, and suddenly the store got crowded. Time to wrap up and get out. I only went because I had an $846.02 Costco reward certificate that I had to go to the store to cash. I’m feeling slightly guilty because we are not suffering in this quarantine. The first month, we were playing with grandbabies in Okinawa. Then we spent 5 weeks panicking about packing. Now, when others have been staring at their same old walls for 10 weeks, we are in our new home. Granted, th...