Year 2 - Day 131 - Sigh

The above is a picture of my brother's extensive vegetable and fruit garden. He has everything in there - including a few plants that he's clueless about. It has a gate around it - to keep the deer out, but alas not the chipmunks and bunnies. His wife and daughter tend to stay clear - it's all his. He even has a banana plant - there's a variety that can grow in the northeastern US as a perennial - it hibernates in the winter, and grows in the summer months.

Today, after a sleepless night, and much fretting, mother finally convinced me to abandon the idea of flying down in August or September, and to wait for later in the fall.
( Read more... )

Tomorrow - back in the office again, mostly to put files together. BYT Manager wants us to go back to putting together the award files, with all the required documents. I don't know why - no one ever really looks at them. The auditors just want it electronically now. I think BYT just likes to kill trees and pile up paper work for the heck of it. Make more sense just to do everything electronically.

***

Bro is having a devil of a time getting Niece's Student Visa. They've gone on various sites, only to have them crash. They sent her in to get her fingerprinted, etc, and paid cash - only to find out that they didn't need to pay anything. They don't want to send her passport off - because what if they don't get it back in time. It's become a nightmare. Mother seemed confused about it.

The whole London trip - which would have been stressful for them without the pandemic, is made a hundred times worse with a pandemic. They keep trying to talk her out of it - but alas, she's her father's daughter, heck she reminds me of all of us combined. We'd all have insisted. I know I insisted when the opportunity arose.

As an aside or off-topic, I learned that neosporin works wonders with mosquito bites. It's the asprin in it that counter-acts the effects of the bite. However, I can't locate neosporin, so I used Benedryle cream.

***




Covid

1.) Traveling during a pandemic

Talked to Jay, who told me that the flight to Tampa on Delta was packed. Amtrack was packed too. Sold out. People wore masks on both - although Jay said there were folks here and there on Delta who had to be told to do so.
Apparently Delta and United get the highest ratings for flying during the pandemic. Which does not bode well for me, since neither provide non-stop flights to Hilton Head or Savannah.

Jay said she's taking Jetblue in two weeks time to Martha's Vineyard, and will let me know what it's like. She's more courageous than I am - although also in a different situation. Jay completely understood my issues regarding it, and why I wasn't going down to Hilton Head any time soon.

Also, was told by someone else that Jetblue had three unruly kids behind them - who didn't wear masks.

This is why I want to fly in the fall not during the height of the summer. (Off-peak).

2.) CDC has changed its mind regarding masks indoors - and is now requiring them for areas with upticks in cases. NY has about 68% fully vaccinated, and 77% partially vaccinated. It's those 3.4 million souls that we are trying desperately to talk into it.

I checked and South Carolina is at a 8% infection rate, with Georgia at 12% per the John Hopkins COVID MAP OF DOOM. My area has risen to 2.34%.

Stupid anti-vaxxers. 47% of my organization is vaccinated.

Desperate - the City is now mandating that all City workers either get vaccinated or get tested every day, one or the other. This is kind of the trend for most employers now.

****

Still very warm here, and humid.

Television

* Tried The Bureau of Magical Things on Netflix - it's an Australian teen fantasy series. It's short. But not that good. Kind of silly actually. I binge watched five episodes last night before losing interest. Took two hours.

Niece is apparently into Polish Rom-Com's. I found this out when I was trying to talk her into watching The Wire

Sis-in-law: You're wasting your time. Seriously don't bother. She won't watch it.
Me: Why?
Sis-in-law: Don't get me wrong - I agree, The Wire is a brilliant and excellent show and she really should watch it. We've tried. But she has no attention span for it. She likes these really stupid television series. At the moment it's Polish Rom-Coms.
Niece: Mom, you are being mean.
Sis-in-law: She won't watch anything that doesn't have Me Tarzan, You Jane as dialogue. If it's deeper than that - she asks what it is about, and you have to explain what is happening for her. It's pathetic really.
Niece: That's really mean, Mom. Making fun of what I like. Quinn likes these shows too.
Sis-in-law: No, Quinn likes you, so he tolerates the shows because you like them.
Me: What happened to the Korean Rom-Coms?
Niece: I grew bored of them. Saw too many.
Sis-in-law: They were better than the Polish ones.

* Ted Lasso - Niece, me and Bro - watched Ted Lasso. Bro introduced it to me on Friday night, with the first episode of this season, and a synopsis. Then on Saturday night - he started from the beginning. So I've seen about five episodes of it. We began to binge watch.

[Bro and Sisinlaw have issues with their Wifi in the country. It keeps jumping out. And the cable folks are useless. They call them, and the wifi/cable company asks if they turned off their power? And then makes an appointment to come out - by which time, the wifi is back up again. Niece was constantly getting kicked out of Zoom.]

Ted Lasso is about an American Football couch, who knows nothing about British Football (Soccer) who is hired by the owner of a top team in England - to get back at her cheating ex-husband, Rupert Mannion. His team was the thing he loved most in the world. According to Bro - the man was couching Wichita State's Football Team.

Ted and his co-coach from Wichita State come to London. Everyone sneers at him - but he wins them all over with kindness and sincerity. It's a kind comedy - and hilarious in places. Everyone is likable. Well, except for Rupert.

Also lots of interesting and rather clever pop culture/literary references, that I picked up on but bro and niece didn't.
( Read more... )

It's entertaining, but not entertaining enough to get Apple TV. I got to draw the line somewhere.

Anyhow...not much more to report, except I've managed to give myself gas and heartburn from devouring yet another bowl of McConnell's peppermint ice cream. (I adore peppermint ice cream - it is far and away my favorite ice cream flavor - and I can never find it. So when I do - I grab it. I fell in love with it when I was a kid in Kansas City, we'd ride our bikes to Zarda Dairy and I'd get peppermint ice cream.

I'll leave you with the adorable fourteen year old sleeping kitty that my brother tried to hand off to me while I was leaving. I told him that if I took the poor cat, he'd die, and niece would be angry at all of us.