2021: Think Positively for a Better Year!
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My SIL called to express condolences. She has breast cancer, found somewhat earlier than this apparently rare kind is usually found and is getting chemo. I gave her the job of getting my baby brother to the cardiologist. What a year!0
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Maryanne, your family is having a really difficult year! I’m sorry y’all are having to deal with so much illness and loss.0
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If SIL can get your brother to a cardiologist, at least one positive thing will come from your sister’s death. I hope SIl does well with her cancer treatment. We arrived at my brother’s house last night. He surprised us with seven different choices for dinner. He got inspired to cook and he used gluten free ingredients so everything is safe for DH. In the past, he’s had two dinner choices for us. I have to say I was impressed. So far, everything is delicious.0
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Helene - want exotic cuisine? Top headline of the online Baltimore Sun today:
The cicadas are here. So, of course we had to taste them with Old Bay.0 -
Wow, you actually tasted them? I’ve heard that bugs are high in protein but I think I’ll let you have my share.0
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I can't sit still. Making grocery store runs, changing litter boxes, washing the kitchen floor, working on CROM paperwork.....0
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Heading over to my sister’s for dinner tonight. We take some back roads so we hopefully don’t run into holiday traffic. She’s about 20 miles from my brother’s house.0
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Heading over to my sister’s for dinner tonight. We take some back roads so we hopefully don’t run into holiday traffic. She’s about 20 miles from my brother’s house.
That's great that you're able to get together.
We're having a grey, rainy weekend here. DH even has the heat on (which the cats are loving).0 -
We decided to stay an extra day. We’ll leave Wednesday morning instead of Tuesday. My sister wanted to go out to lunch with me Tuesday if we delayed leaving. Our time is flexible so Wednesday it is. We had a nice dinner. Fred barbecued chicken and Peggy made the side dishes. We enjoyed catching up with what’s happening since we all got vaccinated.0
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We are having a cool, rainy Memorial Day here. This whole month has been unusually cool and rainy, resulting in many of the lakes being closed to boaters because the boat ramps are underwater. At least we won’t be in drought conditions again for awhile. DH is happy because he isn’t needing to water the lawn and cut the grass as often, and we aren’t having to use the air conditioning as much. I miss the sunshine, though. Day after day of cloudy, dark skies does affect my mood.
Not much going on here. We didn’t plan any kind of celebration with friends and opted to stay home and not visit any of our family for the holiday. I did make a pineapple cream pie a little while ago, so we will enjoy that after dinner. At least I will, lol. DH isn’t real fond of pineapple. If I’d had some coconut I would have added that for a pina colada flavor, but I did add some coconut and rum flavorings. DH doesn’t like coconut either, so that would have insured that I would be eating the entire pie, which would not be a good thing at all.0 -
I didn't do anything special yesterday. Just a quiet day at home.
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I'm tired of fighting with this keyboard. I have a new one coming today. We'll see if that's an improvement.0
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We’re in southern VA tonight in a hotel. Tomorrow we’ll be at BIL’s house in NJ. We haven’t seen his family in 18 months so we’re looking forward to seeing everyone. We’ll stay a few days then drive the rest of the way home.0
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I have a working keyboard. YEAH!!!!
Helene - enjoy your visit with BIL!
Pam - that pie sounds wonderful!0 -
Well, I'm more than halfway through my diet experiment. You guys know about "packet day". I decided to experiment before my next doctor appointment with a 3-week packet eating 'extravaganza' (not the right word but the right word isn't coming to me). I'm a little over halfway through. An interesting experiment. I've got so many packets here that I've been able to keep quite a bit of variety. My biggest problem is high protein salty snacks. I feel like I've tried them all.0
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It’s been a mostly quiet and uneventful week around here. I did have an unexpected overnight guest Monday night when my cousin texted me at 9:30 PM that her flight back to Phoenix had been cancelled and she couldn’t get another flight until Tuesday afternoon. She Ubered to our house while I frantically ran around putting clean sheets on the guest room bed and cleaned the adjoining bathroom. I enjoyed the quick visit with her and found out lots of news about what’s been going on in her life and the rest of her family’s lives.
Yesterday I had an appointment to get my hair highlighted. I had been debating letting all of the color grow out and was almost there, but I really wasn’t liking it much. Wednesday afternoon I received an email from my hairdresser saying that she had a large block of time open up unexpectedly for the next day, if I was interested in coming in for any services. It was a group email to all of her clients. I took that as a sign that I should take the opportunity, plus I had been wanting to get a trim anyway. I’m much happier with the color now. I have lots of white around my hairline, but not much throughout the rest of my hair, so until it is more evenly distributed, I think I will continue highlighting.
In a few minutes I am leaving for brunch at a friend’s new home. She and her husband moved a couple of months ago and she is finally ready to have us come and see it. Today is only for the ladies, but she promised to invite the husbands as well next time. DH was a little miffed that he didn’t get to come this time, lol!0 -
Pam - one of the big joys of the summer of 2021 - getting our hair back on track! Who would ever have imagined two years ago? I haven't heard a peep from my old salon and so far the new, much easier to get to one, is fine so I'll stick with it.
A beautiful sunny day here. I fed the colonies. Now I'm working and waiting for a friend who is going to pick up the spring newsletter and take it downtown to what I call the "bulk mail dudes". She's been doing it for years. I haven't been down there in ages. Apparently on Saturday it's pretty quiet. I remember going during the week and it was all these guys with tractor trailers full of junk mail. And me. They were all being paid by the hour so they'd shoot me to the front of the line.
I actually traded a few emails with my baby brother who never checks his email. He wanted to make sure I'd told dad's attorney about Judy's death and muse a little about our other brother's future. I told him the two men will either get along and live together happily ever after or they won't and there's not much we can do about it from here. At least nothing that's occurred to me. My guess is my BIL will honor my sister's wishes but what do I know?0 -
We made it home late last night. We spent three days in NJ visiting family. We hadn’t seen DH’s brother in 18 months. In that time, he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He looked frailer than our last visit. I think seeing DH really lifted BIL’s spirits. We got home late because we stopped at BIL’s son’s house. We hadn’t seen his family in 2 years. He has three children. His daughter is 12 and heading into the moody teen years. He has two sons, 8 and 10 years old. The boys were so excited we were coming and had to show us all the projects they had going. It was pretty touching to see how much the boys had looked forward to our visit. We intended to stay and hour and ended up staying two hours. It was a great way to end our trip.0
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THIS is not rain, not ground clutter (the radar beam picking up objects close the radar site --which is in Loudoun County).... the Hydrometeor Classification algorithm identifies this as biological in nature..so likely CICADAS being picked up by the radar beam...
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We made it home late last night. We spent three days in NJ visiting family. We hadn’t seen DH’s brother in 18 months. In that time, he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He looked frailer than our last visit. I think seeing DH really lifted BIL’s spirits. We got home late because we stopped at BIL’s son’s house. We hadn’t seen his family in 2 years. He has three children. His daughter is 12 and heading into the moody teen years. He has two sons, 8 and 10 years old. The boys were so excited we were coming and had to show us all the projects they had going. It was pretty touching to see how much the boys had looked forward to our visit. We intended to stay and hour and ended up staying two hours. It was a great way to end our trip.
Great to be home I'm sure. I'm so glad you got to see family.0 -
Cruise giant Royal Caribbean International on Friday announced plans to bring back six more ships — including some of its largest — for U.S. sailings starting July 2. The Miami-based operator will not require passengers to be vaccinated.
“Guests are strongly recommended to set sail fully vaccinated, if they are eligible,” the cruise line said in a news release. “Those who are unvaccinated or unable to verify vaccination will be required to undergo testing and follow other protocols, which will be announced at a later date.”
Crew members will be fully vaccinated.
The just-announced cruises will depart from Florida, which has passed a law prohibiting companies from requiring proof of vaccination, and Texas, where lawmakers just passed a similar bill, according to the Texas Tribune.0 -
Helene, I’m glad you had such an enjoyable trip home, getting to see so many family members along the way.
We are having a very rainy day here, with the promise of more to come. Later in the week the weather people are promising that “the gates of Hell” will open as we finally get to our normal temperatures in the upper 90’s and triple digits. Not looking forward to that, lol!0 -
Pam - good luck with all the water.
I'm a little tired of cleaning sorry cicadas out of bowls at the colonies. LOL!0 -
A different kind of COVID-19 vaccine is coming, and it could be 'even more protective'
A COVID-19 vaccine different from those made by Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer could be available to Americans "as soon as this summer," NPR reported on Sunday.
The three vaccines currently authorized for use in the U.S. work by instructing the body to manufacture something that looks like a piece of the virus, but isn't. Then, if ever infected with the real virus, the immune system is prepared. The new protein subunit vaccine, however, already contains that all-important bit, known as the spike protein, meaning the body doesn't have to produce it on its own. What's more, the protein subunit vaccine doesn't require "special refrigeration," and also contains an "adjuvant" that makes the shot "even more protective," per NPR.
The technology itself isn't novel — there are hepatitis B and pertussis vaccines that use the same science. But the first COVID-19 iteration will likely come from biotech company Novavax, which is reportedly hoping to file for authorization in "the U.K., U.S., and Europe in the third quarter," said NPR. Canadian biotech firm Medicago and pharmaceutical giant Sanofi are working to create their own versions, as well. Read more at NPR.0 -
We stopped at one of the state rest areas on I 95 in MD last week. DH asked me what that noise was when we got out of the car. It was like a hum in the background. DH said it must be cicadas. We never saw any but I’m sure that’s what it was. We didn’t see or hear any elsewhere on our trip home.0
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We stopped at one of the state rest areas on I 95 in MD last week. DH asked me what that noise was when we got out of the car. It was like a hum in the background. DH said it must be cicadas. We never saw any but I’m sure that’s what it was. We didn’t see or hear any elsewhere on our trip home.
I don't know why the press calls it singing. You're right; it's like a very loud monotone hum.0 -
So far, no cicadas on my part of Cape Cod. I remember on infestation years ago outside the library. 11 years ago, they dug up the library lot to build a new library on the same location. They probably destroyed the cicada colony underground because I never saw/heard them again. It was probably more than ten years from their emergence to when they demolished the old library. So they were probably part of the 17 year brood.0
