Good Evening Everybody

Very glad Dh's back is a little better and he is cooking again.

Happy the open houses had more people in there!
YEA! getting to hang out with S and G!

WTG! getting the dishes almost caught up !

I got all the dishes done.
Did the glasses then rested.
Did the plates then rested.
Did the bowls then rested.
Did the silverware then rested.
Got it all dried and put away.
Then washed all the Kitty dishes and they are filled with food & fresh water.

Supposed to water grass this evening but decided not to.
It has only been high 80s not all those 100+ days any more.
The smoke was moderate today, not light but not as thick as before.

Good morning

So nice you have the old truck to give to him.
That all really sucks about no longer being able to hold Bean once school starts.
Everything about covid19 sucks (((HUG)))

Going to try to wash dishes today.
Not many to do since I'm not eating regularly or cooking.
So many things I have been wanting to do but can't right now.
Really hoping Autumn will be better than Summer was.

He will be the 4th of our kids to drive this truck.

Today I almost caught up on the dishes.

I also had my open houses. These were better attended. The other day when I was feeling sad and stressed, Dh told me to name three things I was looking forward to at school. I named three students, r, s, and g.

I came into the kitchen at lunch time and he said "hey, you look happy!" And I said "I just got done hanging out with s and g at my open house."

Dh work has eased up and his back is a little better and he is cooking again.

I am hoping for a better autumn for you as well tillie.

Good morning. Happy equinox.

CM, I am very sorry for your loss. You have faced a lot this year, and you are handling things amazingly well.

I wish that you could just not worry about the sister. But I know your roommate's feelings have to come into account too.

There are always too many things to do in a day. Corona virus came and cut things out of my life, and there are still too many things!

I agree that a chart or a list might help, But then, I am always starting and then losing/abandoning lists and schedules.

It's hard. I think sleep is the most important, and sometimes it just doesn't work. sleep, then hydration, then nutrition.

I spent yesterday with Bean. I get to go back on Thursday and then Monday, and then after school starts I will be "an outside cat" who can only visit with him on the porch at a distance, with a mask. This will be very hard. I don't know how long it will last, but it could be a very long time. The whole idea of me watching him on Mondays will be on hold indefinitely. I am trying to accept that he may be a toddler before I can hold him again.

Today I have virtual open houses and a virtual parent conference. I am also trying to catch up on dishes and laundry and make progress anywhere. And do something about all these tomatoes!

I think tomorrow I will need to set up my classroom.

Balance. Today is supposed to be about contemplating balance.

I saw my extra son briefly yesterday. We are giving him our old truck because he doesn't have a working car. He has been driving his mom's old work truck which she needs back and which is in worse shape than ours. He's a good kid. He looked good and it was nice to see him.

I will probably be less present soon. First day of school us in one week. But I will try to check in.

Tillie, I hope you feel better soon!

It's really quiet here on the Chat today. I even checked to make sure you hadn't had to start a Phase 15.

My aunt's funeral will be Friday morning.

There are a lot of things suddenly converging on this time frame of the next couple of weeks, and I'm starting to stress. Late last week for whatever reason (possibly sleep deprivation) I had a bunch of brain glitches and kept forgetting really stupid things, even things that before I had known, causing confusion and upset. Like which days the bunny toenail trimming, board meeting, garage sale, etc. were scheduled.

And now there are more new things to track, such as thta my roommate has placed a call to schedule that biopsy but we don't know when it'll be because they haven't called her back (phone tag is SO frustrating). Also her sister may come next week to take her to KC to look for a car.

This sister is one who it may be scary to have see the house looking cluttered (by her way more exacting standards), so that may require frenetic preparations, which will have to be fitted in around getting the things for the garage sale out. And if roommate has to be gone on the days they're accepting donations, I'll have to get stuff over there by myself. Plus be doing all the extra cat and bunny care.

Getting the things for the garage sale is not all just putting a few tchotchkes in a box. Roommate is planning to donate her aquarium - 39 gallon I think it is. There is only one goldfish in it, he will be relocated to a smaller aquarium, we'll have to bail the big one, get the fixtures and gravel out of it, etc.

There's a utility cart hopefully it can go on but we'll have to get it down to the porch and down the porch steps, slide the tank off the cart and into my van, which I'll have had to get some stuff out of prior and put down a tarp. Then when I get it to the house where the sale will be, getting it back out. And pray it sells there, or we'll get to do the whole shebang again to get it to a thrift store.

Once the big aquarium successfully gets gone, we will gain a bit of room in the living room. No major change, just enough to make walking through the door into the hallway easier without bumping a table that's by the doorway now. But still nice. So I want it to happen, but it's going to be a big and nerve wracking job. Trying to think of ways to make it easier.

And I still want to be working in my storage unit because definitely there will be things to go to the garage sale from there.

It's like everything has to get worse before it gets better, but can I keep from going mad in the meantime? This morning I was so irritated... the reason I've had sleep deprivation is that the whacko dreams returned for awhile. The ones my antidepressant had given me. Even though I'm at half the dose as before. But I think the way the ADs produce those dreams in the first place is they do something to sleep rhythms. So sometimes it's hard to tell what's from what.

I had envisioned this smooth rest of September effort with my decluttering in the storage. September is going by way too fast for my liking already. Then I figure October the weather will still be decent. November gets dicey - could stay good but maybe not.

But if there are going to be a gazillion happenings to coordinate, I fear mental fragmentation and difficulty organizing. So many times, so many seasons and years, this "too busy, too many fires to put out" issue has ruined it for getting things done over there.

Sorry for the fear and negativity; maybe something will put my mind at rest and I'll think how silly I'm being. But this is our chat, our place to vent, so I'm venting!

Hi CriticalMass
You have enough to work on daily don't you?
Do you have a place to jot down days like toe nail clipping and other scheduled things?
Even just a piece of paper taped where you can easily see it.

Work on the things that are at hand and try not to worry about the future things.
Yeah, things always come up to make things harder but worrying too far ahead just drives us crazy.

You have my most sincere condolences.
You have lost so many relatives recently (((HUG)))

hello
since I am still pretty much bedridden I looked around and found a new free channel on Roku.
peacocktv
I watched alfred hitchcock's the birds, rear window and psycho so far today.

So sorry, SubC; I hope it will work out in a way that won't cause lingering upset for you or anyone else.

We had bunny board meeting today, and are planning for a garage sale in a couple weeks. I hope it can be okay and with proper distancing - everybody seems on board with wearing masks at the board mtg and stuff.

We'll probably have to be careful how we position tables so that customers observe precautions. I should probably bring up these concerns; we were more preoccupied with the fundraising aspects earlier and didn't get to that.

I clipped bunny toenails yesterday and dropped off a baby scale that I'd had in my storage that I used to weigh my own bunnies on. They will get more use out of it now. Today we got to hold baby bunnies.

A larger piece of news - my aunt passed away a little after 5:00 a.m. but I didn't find out till after we got home from the bunny house. (I don't do the Messenger app on my phone so I would've had to have thought to login again to Facebook to see the message there.)

So another funeral - perhaps not limited to 10 people but even if not the church should be big enough for social distancing.

Found out I can get my regular flu shot at the pharmacy which is not crowded at all in the daytime, rather than going to my doctor's office where there are a lot of sick children sometimes. That feels a lot safer.

It's late, it's been eventful, it will be eventful. More soon.

Good Afternoon Everyone

Hi Tatoulia
That's nice you two gave virtual house tours to each other.
Was her home picture perfect or a real place where she lives?

Good luck with your coffee table project.
But all that happened because you actually live at home.

Hope that infection goes away easy enough.

I think it all comes down to all of us making a million decisions daily as to what we feel safe with.
I would be safe at home if Steven did not believe the virus/pandemic was a conspiracy/lies and that the virus was only like having a mild cold.
And nobody has died from it.
Fortunately since his friend died he's been staying home in his garage except for his food shopping trips.
He can't go to thrift shops because they require masks and he refuses to wear one.
For some reason safeway allows him to lie and say he can't wear a mask due to medical conditions.
He refuses to go to appointments at the clinic for bloodwork because they require masks.
No bloodwork = no prescription refills.
No coumadin/warfarin = blood clots/strokes/TIAs.
The doctor at the hospital agreed with me that should he get the virus he would not survive.

Oh well...
Just as long as he doesn't infect me.
I can't fix stupid.

SubC! We are all friends with you! I truly had written a long supportive post yesterday.

Trust me, my heart is breaking for the choice you had to make. Safety is a very personal issue. My health comes before anything else right now. I was suffering with either allergies or a sinus on Friday night into Saturday, so I cancelled my plans to visit with my friend. She's the one I had dinner with on Thursday night. I've been to her house a few times since the pandemic. I know that riding in the car with her and with my BF seems scary. The trips are under 10 minutes, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not. And we wear masks. It is a terrifying time and just as your daughter felt safe to go to a wedding, you need to feel safe by limiting your contact with people. I try to maintain a "no judgment, until it infringes on my health." I had cancelled a lunch with a friend a few weeks back because she just lives with too many people. Husband, children, parents, siblings and their significant others, etc. I felt the risk was too great for me. The one friend I see lives alone and she works at my company to she's working from home. My friends with the kids stay six feet apart from us. It's tricky and it's personal, I think. I am absolutely terrified of getting sick. This sinus over the weekend has me panicking.

Cm you are amazing! Do you see how much your thought process has evolved? You are applying it to all areas of your life, including, the mechanic is a good friend but unreliable. So keep him as a friend, and rely on others! You are so great!

Tillie I am so sorry about your continued pain. Slow down. Just slow it down. I know it's tough.

I did two loads of laundry yesterday.

On Friday I had a zoom meeting and afterward, the woman said, can I have a tour of your house? Do I took her on a tour of my humble abode. Then she took me on a tour of hers. And yes, she did see my messy coffee table. I should get back on that.

It seems like a lovely autumn day. It is nearly five. I've showered and will head out for a walk. Yesterday I was dizzy and lightheaded and had swollen glands etc. today I'm feeling good. Just drinking lots of juices.
I'm going for a walk soon.

I feel like I killed this thread.

Carry on.

Really.

I am doing better today.

Good Morning Everybody

Hi Subclinical
Glad you are doing better today.

Doing just those few loads of laundry yesterday rudely threw me into a whole new world of pain and exhaustion.
Doing better this morning.

I finished posting all my class information.

Two virtual open houses and a parent meeting Tuesday
Set up my classroom
Buy some supplies
Lesson plans

Good Afternoon Everyone

OK Tatoulia 😀

I washed 4 sheets and got them out on the line.
They were dry by the time I got all the towels & washcloths & pillow cases washed.
Brought in the sheets, folded & put away.
The other stuff is out on the line now.

Now my hamper only contains some of my clothes.

Good Morning Everyone

I am so very sorry Subclinical.
But you need to keep doing what you know is the correct thing during this pandemic, even though it is often the hardest things. (((HUG)))

All the misinformation (lies) circulating make me so very angry.
Steven believes all of them.
This is what is helping the virus spread.

The truth is we must not gather in groups.
Isolate into small groups.
Wear face masks and practice proper hygiene (hand washing).
Until EVERYBODY does this we will never get a handle on this virus.
It's worse than the wildfires and is killing so many more.

We must all do what we know we should be doing.
Yes, it really sucks.
We must protect the vulnerable people who don't stand a chance against this virus.

Clear blue skies this morning but it's very cold.
Will wash some laundry and hang it out.
Been weeks since I could do that. 😀

I foolishly mistakenly deleted my long and supportive post. I'll start again later. I was using my phone so I couldn't hit back to retrieve it

Tillie,

I'm glad you have your ibuprofen now. And a break of lovely fresh air.

CM, we cross posted, I am very glad for the found books and continue to be amazed by all the progress.

I am hurting.

My dd2 slept in the barn last night - she came in to town fir a friend's wedding. Afterward she came up to the porch and I cracked the window and talked with her. She is sad. And she just wants to come in and curl up on the couch with her mom and be hugged. And I can't. And I feel like I am failing her again.

If I let her in, I would have to stay away from Bean's family for two weeks. I can do that, Bean doesn't need me. And maybe she does. But I am also about to go into a school full of other children. In less than two weeks. And I feel like the whole thing is crazy, but there is no way they will have a teacher who is more careful than I am. I have spent my whole teaching career basically assuming every student has the stomach flu, and I almost never get sick. (Once. I got sick once. It was so bad that year they asked me to come teach with no voice once my fever was gone because we were combining classes because we were out of subs. The front desk was unattended because we had pulled everyone.)

I don't know how Tatoulia gets in a car with another person. - (Tatoulia, that is not me judging you, that is me saying I don't know where you find the ability to do that) I am not afraid of being sick. I am afraid of being sick and not knowing I am sick and making someone else sick and continuing this thing that is killing people.

I don't know how a child I raised can go to a wedding right now. But I understand that she needs people. She needs her life to be more normal. She wore her mask and she "kept her distance" but there was a dance floor. She spends a lot of time with her bfs family. They don't wear masks. They are a big family. Her bf told her more people die of the flu. I said "that is not true." She said, "well, more people who get the flu die if it." And I said "that is not true."

I feel like I am not protecting her, that I am not taking care of her. Because I cannot be enough for her and so I have to let her go to get the things she needs. She is my changeling child and I have felt like this her whole life. I don't understand the things she needs.

The world is broken and I can't fix it and I don't even know if I am making the right choices to help. And school - I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this. What if I have made a huge mistake?

Hooray for Tillie's rain!

Tillie, please get plenty of fresh air while you can!

CM, fantastic work with the clear out and the van decisions!

I agree that as you continue to edit your possessions, the quality of what us left and of what you are willing to accept will improve.

I am always amused when the simple living/homesteading/zero waste websites are selling stuff. I understand that everybody us trying to make a living, and some of it is bvery good, but a lot of it us just bandwagon junk that goes against their stated purpose.

I like the zero waste people who says "don't throw out all your plastic! Keep using it as long as it works and If you replace it, pass it on if you can."

I mean, seriously it does not help the environment if I put a plastic lunch container in the landfill and require a metal one to be produced!

Today was mostly a tomato day I guess. I filled the dehydrator. I also ran the dishwasher, did my virtual open house for my youngest kids (less than half attended), and made buckwheat pancakes for dinner (because Dh didn't want to cook and I felt like pancakes.) I am still falling behind on tomatoes and everything else from the garden.

I also finished the online set up for another class. Really have to knock the rest out by tomorrow night, but they get easier.

I also need to run some laundry.

I watched another calico girl vlog today while I was slicing tomatoes. She swept her porch, picked a basket of goodies from her beautifully maintained little garden, touched up her fall decorations and made a pie.

Perfectly reasonable day, but what did she do with the carrots from the garden and when does she weed and do the pie dishes and wash her underwear?!

Good Evening Everybody

Subclinical you had me laughing out loud with
"Perfectly reasonable day, but what did she do with the carrots from the garden and when does she weed and do the pie dishes and wash her underwear?!"
So so true. 🤣

That's right, I have my (40+ years old) Tupperware that is doing good for what I use it for so tossing it out to buy the "Newest/Latest" craze is illogical.

Good luck getting your classes set up/knocked out.
That's sad that so few students tuned in.
And at that age I blame the parents for that.

Buckwheat pancakes sound wonderful.
At my house if you want pancakes or French toast it's always a dinner food.

Will you be freezing some of those garden veggies?
Most frozen veggies are great for soups & stews.

Hi CriticalMass
That darned Squirrel!

YEA! you finally found those missing books.
I remember you looking for them. 😀

WAY TO GO!!! for your continuing work at the storage! (((HUG)))

I got even more drizzle rain.
The windows were all open and the air was clean & fresh & cool and smelled like rain. 😀
Later this afternoon the SUNSHINE broke through the rain clouds.
It had been days since I last saw sunshine.
No trace of smoke all day and I hope it stays away.

I could see he was going to go to the grocery store.
He has not spoken to me for days.
I put a yellow piece of paper on the back door that read "IBUPROFEN 200mg".
Many hours later he returned and then there was a tiny bottle of ibuprofen laying on the back porch, 30 pills, from the dollar store.
Generic ibuprofen from WallyWorld costs 1.50 for 100 pills.

The aspirin was not working well and made my ears ring.
And this has set my recovery back at least another week.

He has done NOTHING to help out around the house. Not even take the trash out.
And I don't speak to him because he will expose me to a nasty ugly rant.
I don't need that.

YAY FOR RAIN 💦🌧️

I got 2 cubic feet of stuff out of my storage, but I didn't start till after 3:00. Was waiting for my roommate to get back from the doctor with news. I guess she is going to have to have a kidney biopsy. That felt like a disappointment and anxiety thing from my perspective.

I know they don't want to rush into surgery, but I'm squeamish about things where big needles are stuck into people's innards. Kind of had to go calm down as I almost felt like crying or something. I'm okay now. Will support as best I can and maybe if need be her family could come. But hopefully it will be less scary when it actually happens.

Anyway, happier things - the stuff I got out to donate was books, jigsaw puzzles again, and a couple glass and ceramic items. And a throw that had been given to my mom in the nursing home - it was a mass-produced thing from China, nothing special.

On the way home, I almost ran over a very suicidal squirrel but I don't think I did. Slammed on my brakes, didn't hear any thumps, of course they always have run up a tree by the time you look back. If they have lives like cats do, that dude used up one of them for sure.

And of course my boxes flew off the seat when I braked - not the donation boxes, but ones with dolls that I am going to give to a specific person, which I need to make a time to do one of these days. I'm glad it wasn't the boxes with the jigsaw puzzles. Hundreds of puzzle pieces all over the van would've been super annoying. 🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩

I also found the two UFO books I couldn't locate for months. 🛸👽 They were in with some science books. They're for research on my satirical UFO cult novel. As I carefully put them in a different box with the rest of the UFO books, I got to thinking how this decluttering is going to make it so much easier to write! 🙂 📝💻📚

Good Afternoon Everybody

Hello CriticalMass
No, you are not being snobbish.
It makes perfect sense that now that the worst shelves are gone you are now able to look at the ones there with a more critical eye.

Go ahead and snark away at decluttering/organizing websites trying to sell stuff.
I am extremely snarky at commercials & ads but mostly I just tune them all out.

Very glad you are looking into other places for vehicle maintenance.

WTG! and keep up with all this fantastic work you have been doing (((HUG)))

Hi Tatoulia
Sounds like a lovely evening after that long meeting. 🙂
Good luck finding bread.
I still have plain English muffins and corn tortillas, so I'm ok.

Sorry you have the smoke but glad you can't smell it.
It is a very sad sad smell.

Good luck reclaiming the coffee table! 😀

Another dark day here but.....
IT'S CLOUDS!!!
About noonish until around one-ish we had drizzle!
A beautiful air cleaning drizzle of RAIN!!!
When I look up at the sky it's gray with cloud formations.
The rain cleaned the air down here so I have the windows open letting in that fresh clean rain smelling air!
Real air! 😀

Quick check in! Keep taking good care of yourself, Tillie. We have some of the smoke here, The sky has been a milky color for most of the week, It's high so we can't smell it. I worry so much about everyone out west. This is so terrible.

SubC I love to hear about your life. I love the story about the bed! And they ended up together!

CM I am bursting with pride! You are amazing!

I am focused now that my dining room table is clean and clear. My coffee table is still suffering.

My cleaners came yesterday instead of Wednesday. I was in a zoom meeting the entire time. When they were near me and working behind me, I would cover up my video feed and put my mask on.

Then last night I had dinner with my friend at my favorite restaurant. So tasty. We were out til about ten. We were going to park here and walk down together, but neither of us had eaten very much and we had both been in the zoom meeting from 1 to 5PM so I had her pick me up and we drove to the restaurant together. We then walked a bit after dinner and we were out til 10 so that was nice. I dropped off some raisin bread for mom on my way home. The store didn't have any fresh bagels and their regular breads were out of date so I'm going to have another rough food day unless I can get out.

Got my garbage and recycling out last night and cleaned the kitty's box.

Back to work!

Just a stray thought or two...and a few ramblings

As I'm extricating these "rickety" shelves (and some of their contents) from my storage unit, it has crossed my mind that these are the "good" shelves I had consciously saved when I moved from the storage unit across town in 2017.

I gave my mechanic several of the REALLY rickety or at least ugly ones. Metal shelves with generous amounts of rust, super light Parsons table plastic ones, shelves that had been store displays including one garish yellow one that may have held Mountain Dew soda at one time. All these were SO inadequate and/or ugly that I guess the ones I kept did seem much nicer by comparison.

Maybe I sound like a snob, but I'm raising the bar on both aesthetics and sturdiness now. And as for the stuff that occupies whatever shelving, usefulness and joy sparking are newer, tighter criteria.

I went to glance at the KonMari website and y'know, I don't know how to feel about the fact that they have merchandise for sale. Doesn't that in a way contradict the aims of her method? Aside from the books that is. However, I do think her method is useful. Thinking in categories, spark joy, and other concepts are relatable for me. I'll just ignore my snarky thoughts about the merch, LOL.

Speaking of my mechanic - I've not heard from him for another couple weeks or more. But I started brainstorming new ideas, because I think that's going to have to be the wave of the future. This lovely van cannot be allowed to deteriorate because of a misplaced loyalty to that man. We can still be friends, and if once in awhile he can do a lower priority task, fine.

So anyway, I'd called my friend who had gotten me the new van and she and I we were talking about other things. It occurred to me to ask if she and her husband were coming into town anytime soon, and if by any chance her husband might be able to change my oil. I already have the oil and filter. Turns out they were planning to come next week. And that most likely he can do it.

Once he gets the blue dye out (it went in with the oil and is to check that the valve cover gasket that was replaced is doing its job, but the dye can harm the engine if left in >3 months or 2,000 miles) I'll be good. After that I can start taking it someplace else for oil changes and such.

Hi Tatoulia, good to hear from you. Glad you had a nice dinner with your friend.

Now for the Extended Director's Cut Version, as promised... 🎥 🎞️ 🍿

Last couple of days I was kind of tired and at times out of sorts. This morning too. I'm wondering if I need to start having a cup of coffee in the morning or else drink iced tea with caffeine the first part of the day. I try to get more sleep yet still wake feeling unmotivated sometimes, which can quickly devolve into irritability. 🦖

Things picked up in the afternoon today, though. I called my elderly friend from church, the lady I used to "babysit" pre-Covid. Her daughter is still working from home. Both sounded upbeat and chipper.

Then I went over to the storage unit and got more things out. I had one partial load from earlier this week in the van - consisting of the 2nd set of plastic shelves, and odds and ends. Today I added a rickety metal shelving unit, a little 2-drawer plastic thingy, odds and ends, notebooks, jigsaw puzzles, and a few books. Then hauled it off arriving at the thrift shop minutes before the donation dock closed! 🚛🕔

I think I made just enough progress to feel better again about the direction this whole project is taking. The other day I felt doubt and a touch of overwhelm. Today I was dealing once again with things that were easy to decide about. Finding out what was even in some boxes that have sat a long while - and that most of it was stuff that could go away. So that was nice. 🙂

I have a couple more metal shelving units that have books on them. These are less rickety, if I was to put them up along a wall instead of perpendicular to it (I was going for a "library stacks" approach but it didn't work that well).

It's possible that those two shelves would be stable enough to house my kitchen stuff. There are books in another area of the unit. All the books need to eventually be in one area, and culled RUTHLESS-ly.

So much information is available online for nonfiction topics, recipes, etc. My religious books, children's books I still love, some of my cat mysteries, sci-fi, artsy books, and such I will keep if they still feel relevant - the best ones anyway. They'll be stored neatly, the ones that make the final cut. 📚📒📕📗📘📙📖

If I can get those two metal shelves away from where they've been, I'll have reached the Family Memorabilia area - oboy! But I'll also have access to sturdy shelving that got blocked early on. By that point, the whole place will be getting more open.

I've been working my way down the East wall, the South is the back. That'll take some time what with memorabilia. The West wall is mostly crafty stuff. Loose stuff, the stuffed animals, etc. are here, there, and everywhere, too. All will be dealt with in due time. Breathe, CM. Breathe.

Catching up on everyone's posts...

SubC you are really going to town making cheese and other wonderful things. My roommate's tomatoes all got stolen by critters this year. 🍅🦝 She put up a holographic silver fake owl (Disco Owl!) 🦉 but I don't know if it has helped.

Sorry about dh's spine... hope the pt and exercises will help.

Kitchen prep and cleanup is sometimes overwhelming to me even for large meals. I remember once making Sand Hill Plum jelly with my mom. It was a busy day but our batch was not that huge.

Now when I was taking Wilton cake classes, cake "homework" could be rather exhausting. At my storage I had gotten my Wilton pans out from the two big tubs and gotten rid of the tubs the other day.

I do think in my own place, and perhaps even here to some extent, I'll be using some of those again. From what I feel, they still spark joy. I won't try to make the next royal wedding size cake or anything at this point! What I had gotten was mainly sets of basic shapes for versatility - and I have a bunny pan or two (surprise). But I didn't try to collect oodles of specialty shaped cartoon character pans or anything.

Tillie, I too had wished I could send you ibuprofen! But glad if the other pain relievers and heated throw are working. Hope soon you will be all recovered. The sky was hazy here I'm assuming from the smoke in the atmosphere, and the sun going down was orange. 🌅

Good Evening Everyone

Still resting my back with slow gentle movements when I need to move.

Today was just dark and kept being darker and darker.
Could not even see the sun through the thick smoke cover.

With it being dark day after day is it has not been very hot.
Highs of 80F so the garden plants are not all withered and shriveled.
There has been absolutely no wind or even a small breeze for days now.
Can barely see down the road even a little way.

But I have honestly never seen it this bad ever before.
The air inside is not bad and the ceiling fan feels good.
I am not coughing a lot and Scooter's eyes are not doing too bad.

Quick summary - full report later

I think I got rid of 12 Cubic Ft. or so of stuff including 2 more sets of rickety shelves. Got to the DAV dropoff right before they closed!

WOOHOO!
WAY TO GO!!!
That's FANTASTIC! CriticalMass!
🧨🎆🎈🏆

Good Afternoon

Today is just as smoky bad as yesterday.

Been taking it easy & moving slow.
So much I really want to do but won't till my back is better.

House is all closed up tight to keep the smoke out.
It's a pleasant 72F in here and I have the ceiling fan on just to make the air move.

🐺

Thank you Tillie,

We did have a wonderful day at the orchard! Took a few pictures and picked what Dh said were a good number of apples. Bought a little jar of their homemade apple butter too.

Dsil definitely wants to come over for an applesauce making day. Turns out it was his first trip to an apple orchard too! Not yet though, the apples will keep a bit, and I am still catching things up. Maybe next week.

They are working hard to include the other Grammy, but they are not comfortable with her home or social distancing practices. After today though, they decided they will ask her to meet them for Bean's first trip to the pumpkin patch (for a pumpkin to carve, not eat.) 🙃

Today I got the tomatoes picked and the stalls cleaned. I started cutting some tomatoes up for the dehydrator, but I don't have a whole batch, so I put them in the fridge.

The kids stayed for dinner and we ate a whole loaf of bread. (A smaller, homemade loaf, not the store kind) Dh and I eat a loaf in a week. This is why I think I need so much food!

The dishwasher is running and there are not too many dishes left out.

Tomorrow I get to see Bean again! I am going to his house so his parents can work on building his entertainment center. It will fit over the large glass case that holds his daddy's model ship to protect all the people and things. They are using 3/4" wood. Both of them are excellent designers and builders. When they were first dating, they built a project together for a class. Then, it got stored in our barn, they broke up for a while, and Dd scavenged the wood to build herself a bed. She was loading it in the truck when she looked down and yelled "oh [expletive]! I have to sand (first name) (expletive) (last name)'s name off my bed! It's funny now.

Mr. kitty says goodnight.🐈

Good Evening Everyone

Hi Subclinical
So happy you all went to the orchard.
YEA that Dsil wants to make apple sauce all together!

Sounds like they are enjoying taking Bean on these family outings.
Apple orchard and soon the pumpkin patch for bean 😀

Last time I went grocery shopping I looked for some apple butter but there wasn't any.
Enjoy yours. 😉

Yeah, you will have to do the math for how many guests will be eating there on occasions and add that number to what you & Dh need.
Don't worry, you will get this all figured out but it will take a bit of trial & error.

Have a wonderful day tomorrow!

Good night Mr. Kitty 🐈

Today I washed dishes and cleaned up the kitchen.
Didn't do that yesterday, weren't many, mostly my drinking glasses.
This evening I got the grass watered.
Now I will take a shower & lay in bed.
I am tired.
The sun never broke through the smoke today and when I could see the sun it was a big orange blob I could look directly at.
Walked out to get the mail (sample voting ballots) and looking down the road visibility was very poor.
Saw that the air currents have carried the smoke all the way to New York.
I think I am able to hang out laundry on the line but not with this much smoke.
It would just smell terrible. :p