Skip to main content

Ten Things of Thankful: Mixing up the Routine

 

John, my nephew, and my brother, all wearing masks, presumably smile for the camera before my nephew goes off to college

The past few days, I've been masked up in my own home, as my brother and nephew stayed here prior to my brother taking my nephew to college. Though it was strange to have visitors, and strange to wear masks inside the house, it was also refreshing to be able to spend time with family. My nephew has moved into his dorm, and I took my brother to the airport Thursday morning, so now I've taken off the mask and am getting back to the routine. I'm thankful:

  1. to have spent time with my brother and nephew. 
  2. that Moon's Rare Books is still open for business and I could share that amazing store with my brother and nephew. 
  3. for game nights. My nephew introduced us to Richard: The Lionheart, and we taught him (and my brother) Splendor. Together, we tried to save the world from Pandemic.
  4. for Rockwell Ice Cream. The honeycomb flavor is great, but I especially enjoyed their G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) flavor, which they describe as: "This flavor won best ice cream in America in 2019. It has a rich goat cheese base with blackberry, lemon jam swirls and honey rosemary roasted almonds." YUM!
  5. to be able to laugh together while watching Troll 2. It has it all: terrible premise, awful dialogue, and over-the-top acting. It inspired a documentary, Best Worst Movie. If you haven't seen Troll 2, pop some popcorn, sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," and get set to laugh!
  6. for texting. As I'm typing this up, my phone is busy buzzing next to me with a couple of different group text conversations going. Family reunion on my phone!
  7. for texting and phone calls. When the fire broke out in Vacaville, California, family members near there were able to reassure us that they are OK. 
  8. for firefighters, who work so hard to battle blazes.
  9. for the Division of Wildlife Resources, who this week were able to capture a sick cougar--not in my neighborhood, but not too far away. I know that I frequently chased coyotes out of my yard in California, but somehow I don't think I'd be so brave around a cougar. 
  10. for John. 

What is on your thankful list this week? 

Joining me this week:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Comments

  1. I am happy you had family time in this time of pandemic. I am starting to see more of that. Sometimes I see people getting together in small groups without masks and that makes me nervous. I would definitely want masked guests. That GOAT sounds yummy. I love goat cheese, and it's terribly addictive to me. With little use of my taste buds, it's one thing that seems to get past that. Yay! Must be magical! Hope you have a great week!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm more comfortable with everyone masked up, too. We only took the masks off for meals, and then they went right back on. The GOAT ice cream was really good!

      Delete
  2. Quite a week and cudos on making adaptation less than a burden. In a way, (some of) the effects of the pandemic offer a new opportunity to appreciate what we have...
    Have a good week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fortunately my brother's family is on the same page as John and I are regarding masks, and though I was admittedly a bit nervous hosting visitors during this pandemic, it all worked out great and we all had a great time.

      Delete
  3. I like the photo at the top. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congratulations to your nephew on starting a new phase of life at college. It's great to get to spend time with family, no matter what accommodations we have to make.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hope the ice cream place is still there by the time I am able to make another trip. :-)
    A cougar killed a deer just over and down the hill from us last week, and there have been a lot of sightings of a cougar mentioned recently. I don't know if it is one cougar or more than one since a cougar has a territory of 100-300 square miles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think the ice cream place is in any danger. I'll be sure to take you there when you come again. :-)
      Yikes on the cougar!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Things of Thankful: Live from Oregon, part 2

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this...

What a Wonderful World! (An #AtoZChallenge Post): Z is for Zion National Park

  Visitor Center sign in Zion National Park My husband recently re-retired, and we are front-loading travel. My #AtoZChallenge posts this year will explore our adventures--some pre-retirement, some post. Today's location: Zion National Park in Utah.  Zion is a bit of a shibboleth. People from outside of Utah (or those who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) tend to pronounce Zion as "ZIE-on." Locals (or tourists who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) use more of a schwa sound, pronouncing Zion to rhyme with lion. However you choose to pronounce it, it is an amazing, beautiful national park and has some amazing hikes. The last time my husband and I visited Zion National Park, we entered from the east, and traveled through the mile-long Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel. It is an engineering marvel, completed in the 1920s. Before we passed through the tunnel, though, we spotted a group of bighorn sheep, including some babies...