A Parlour for a Plague

I was suckered by Walmart and Lowes grapevines a couple of times. The label has beautiful pictures, but the grapes are always pea size and smaller. I ran the lawnmower over their worthless carcasses.

I would love to throw pretty much anything at this particular appalling travesty of a human.

Oh dear!

Are you delivering face to face? There’s talk of delivery just being to the door, no contact. I’m thinking uber eats combines relative safety for an alert driver with great usefulness to the customer.

Hope you are doing ok.

Raccoons. A pest we DON’T have!

I once bought a tomato plant from Walmart and the damn thing carried a blue stem rot that infected nearby plants that I hadda dig them out and dry the soil with an alcohol flame.

I got all my grape plants from the wine guy. He had these really nice crowns and thy were grown as bare root stock. He kept the shoots in a cold moist building that allowed the grape plants to just lie on their sides (Kinda like bare root tree stock).

They are breaking into teeny leaf now sorta like willows and maples.

Last year we planted a whole bunch of blueberry stock (about 20 plants and 4 or 5 pollinator varieties. We planted them in a mix of composted wood chips and peat moss and soil. They are doing great and although we need to acidify em every year or so, the wine guys are a big help. They know their berries and grapes. (and hops)

Love da village. We stayed in West 11th Street first time I visited.

You East or west?

I’ve seen where Boida lives, but only from outside.

We are seeing sheep in the vineyards where I live. They seem very happy there...lots of shade. Seems like a pretty good win win.

I live in a major wine area, which is pretty easy to take, scenery wise!

Living in the country has its definate advantages. However goin to town easily aint one of them. goin to town in Lancaster is an all day thing. Nearby villages are peppered with AMISH grocers and supply stores , like air tools and wagon wheel repair and all the ferrier **** you need. Except for the donkies we aint got a horsey at the place anymore (We used to rent out horsey paddocks to the"English" weekenders but we had too many horses just jump fences and disappear on us

I usually go shopping once a week on senior discount day. I did that this past week, but I ran out of milk and went back to the supermarket. The line to pay was very, very long. I started worrying (nothing new there). I'm high risk--old and with pulmonary problems. I got the milk and am staying inside.

I rescheduled my hospital appointments. Joe and Winston visit me once a week. This past week Winston was sick. Joe arrived sans canine.

Joe gave me his Kindle. I'm a voracious reader, so I decided to limit the number of books he would get for me to four a month. I finished the four in the first week, so I've been reading books he downloaded for himself. I read about Shoeless Joe Jackson, Joe DiMaggio and his 56 game hitting streak, and Lou Gehrig (I cried).

Now I'm reading a bio of John Lennon. I'm not liking it--or him.

Aside from worrying about the virus and my vulnerability, my life ain't all that different. Well, I'll always find something to worry about.

they shut all the fitness facilites along with just about everything else here. no pool for at least 3 weeks, more likely 8 weeks plus. it's really the only thing that has pissed me off about all the closures. Dagmar gave me a good lecture about the dangers of pooling (her sister is a big league epidemiologist). I'll deal even though I'll grumble.

Can you get stuff delivered Boida?

So glad to hear you have a kindle!

Sounds as though you have a good friend in Joe.

I’m in the higher risk category so I’m being cautious.

Here’s news. Sebastian is on pussy Prozac. Well, it’s normal Prozac but with dose adjusted

Poor little guy has had so much drama, what with two surgeries on his eye, having to be boarded because of the fire,Viola getting above herself when he was so sick and general disturbance he began pissing all over everything again.

He was also incredibly anxious...pacing, constantly in mad hour mode...unless I was eternally calming him.

Took him to vet, where he now becomes immediately traumatised. He cries and growls.. it’s sad, because he’s clearly so upset and threatening, but never actually shows any aggression

So...we are trying Prozac for a bit to see if his little system can settle down.

Honestly, life in the 21st century!

I’m trying to get back garden enclosed so he can have outside access. This is a drama in my community because you have to get permission from line of sight neighbours

This is a slow and deeply frustrating process.

Sounds as though Canada is ahead of us in trying to lower the curve.

I know swimming is a big deal for you, so deep commiserations

We are having what is likely to be our last week of warm weather until spring, so I’ll try to get as much sea swimming in as possible. Our beaches are generally easy to self isolate on. They get lots of use, but there is so much coast that you don’t need to have close contact.

In other news, received first letter from company that has been hired to sue my builder and electrical installer over my house fire.

I have to find the house contract. I know where it was BEFORE the fire....but now? Yikes! I’m hoping it was amongst the important documents that I transferred to an accordion file! There’s nothing like having everything removed from your house by other people to sow confusion!

I'm actually pleased that the municipal and federal governments have been stepping up on this fairly briskly. Looks like border between Canada and US will be shut down fairly soon. Later than I'd have liked but it's coming.

Can't imagine how much knitting I'm going to get done before I can swim again. Solo dance practice will be increasing - so many instructors are offering free online classes for a couple of months. Yup. People are talking months of this.

Absolutely months. I guess unless one catches it and recovers? Though with a new virus you’d want to know you still weren’t shedding infection.

I wish our government were acting faster

Having the US next door can only increase the risk for you guys

Looking as though it’s going to be a nightmare there

Our state health services have been cut and cut lately, so I’m not sure how our hospital system will cope

Cav's widow recently posted that her family doctor called her on Friday and said no visits unless emergency, and that gp's have been told to prepare to step in as first responders. That's disturbing disturbing news.

Some stores are now announcing they will be open to seniors/disabled folks exclusively for the first hour after opening - immediately after store cleaning. this is good news. I'll send Set. He counts as a senior

The

I actually only had one delivery were the diners message said just leave by the door and don’t bother to knock.
I mean, they can see on the app when my chair pulls up. In this case they were on the 17th floor of a high rise. As I’m walking back to the elevator I mark it delivered and they see that also. So no reason to see me.

However, I did hand deliver to others, but everyone (including me) is being rather remote with each other. Just both parties reaching their arms out and not making the usual conversation.

Ha! Just remembered. One delivery was in another high rise inhabited by university students. I saw that the guy hadn’t put his apt number, and I was fairly sure this was a place where you need a code to get in, which he didn’t supply either.

So I called him from the street and asked him the code and apt. He seemed mildly confused by this and said “uh... oh. I’ll uh, come down”

So he’s there within a minute, he opens the gate, I hand him his food.
Then he took one step backwards and promptly drops his food on the ground. There’s a romaine and arugula with wild caught salmon salad, mostly still in its container, staring up at us. He totally knew dropping it was 100% on him, so I just thought “That’s what you get for not understanding you have to tell someone how to get food up to your dumb ass”

Picking up the food at the restaurants was the same. Just kind of a “here, now get away from me” vibe. 98% of the time is spent in one’s own car or walking by yourself anyway. Didn’t feel any big risk.
Good thing I had a roll of TP in the car (always carry TP in Mexico). I could have used that if needed in a hostage situation.