Christmas 2020 - December 28, 2020

Christmas 2020 is over, thank goodness.  In retrospect, it really wasn't much worse or much better than past Christmases.

We put up the tree about a week before Christmas.  Here it is, in all its glory:

This was a failed craft experiment from last year.  I found it in my sewing room, buried under a stack of half-finished projects.  It seemed perfectly representative of the year that 2020 has been.  I pulled it out and plunked it down on a table in the living room with the comment, "Here's us a Christmas tree."  It suited The Husband not to have to go up to the attic for our usual tree. 

Because of the pandemic, we broke a couple of traditions this year.  The Husband and I did not host our annual pre-Christmas gathering that we typically do the weekend before Christmas.  It is generally never a big deal - just the kids, grandkids, and folks here on the hill.  If the weather had been warm enough for us to hang out on the back porch, we might have gone through with it, but it wasn't warm, and we did not think an indoor gathering was advisable.

Nanny also did not do her big Christmas morning breakfast for the family.  Same idea; not safe.  

So, Christmas morning, The Husband and I exchanged presents and then went to visit our children and grandchildren.  We wore our masks and didn't stay long at either of our sons' houses, but it was fine.  I'd done most of my shopping online, and a few presents still haven't made it here, but the important stuff came in time.

I got The Husband a new ukulele for Christmas.  This one is a tenor uke.  He's got quite a collection now.  He got me a new mandolin.  Now I can't blame my terrible music skills on a cheap mandolin.

The Husband also got me a Richard Simmons chia pet.  As soon as we came home from visiting the kids, I got Richard out and put the seeds on him.  The instructions said to soak the chia seeds in a little bit of water for 10 minutes, then apply them to the head.  Chia seeds, when wet, develop a gelatinous slime, and it's hard to get them to stick to the terra cotta.  The seeds are supposed to sit, undisturbed, on the head to dry for a couple of days.

On Day 3, per the instructions, I filled the head with water.  When I did, the seeds re-gelatinized, and Richard's chest hair slid off.

I tried to scoop it back where it belonged, but it wouldn't stay put.  

Nanny came to see us after we got home from seeing the kids, and she brought us a quilt.  Her mother had pieced the top 50 years ago, but never quilted it.  Nanny hand-quilted it last year.  I thought it was the sweetest gift, and especially timely, since the quilt on our bed is getting about as ragged as the above Christmas tree.  

The hit gift among the grown-up kids was home-made hot honey mustard.  The recipe came from my sister-in-law, who used to bring it to Thanksgiving and/or Christmas get-togethers.  It is awesome with cheese or meat.  The ingredients are mustard powder, sugar, vinegar, and eggs, and it is cooked to the consistency of custard.  I made four batches, enough to give each of our sons (including our son from another mother) two jars.  This stuff falls in the "nuclear" category; it's not a lingering, peppery hot, but it will take your breath away for a second, then it'll open your sinuses.  My daughter-in-law said I should be selling it, but I'm not comfortable canning it since it has eggs in it.  I called the county extension office and talked to the "home economist," and she wasn't comfortable with canning it, either.  It supposedly stays good in the refrigerator for several months, but I imagine it'll be gone long before then,

* * * * * * * * 

Today is the first day I've been home alone in weeks.  The Husband was working from home the week I was exposed to covid.  He decided to work from home the following week, too; in case in case I came down with the virus and exposed him, he didn't want to expose his office crew.  Last week was his scheduled work-from-home week, so he was here all week again.  I think he's happy to get out of the house, and I'm happy to be here by myself for a while.  I need to be working on some new embroidery designs.  I just wish it was warm enough to do the computer work on the porch.

 Back in the 70s, when I was in my early teens, my mother and I got into a house-plant craze.  For a time, our living room looked like a jungle.  At some point, we discovered African violets.  Folks said they were hard to grow, but we had more trouble keeping the philodendron alive.

Fast forward 20 years.  I got a basket of plants for Mother's Day.  It included a violet.  I don't recall what happened to the other things in the basket, but the violet sat in my kitchen windowsill for the next 20 years.  Twice a year, it bloomed profusely, despite the fact that it was seldom fed and was watered only when it appeared near death.  The stem grew up out of the dirt and crooked over the side of the pot so that the green part of the plant - the "whorl" - grew outside of the pot and was perpendicular to the windowsill.

A couple of years ago, we built the screened-in porch you read about in my messages.  This porch shaded the kitchen window where the violet was growing.  I decided to move the violet to the porch, where it would get better light.  It promptly died.

I've been on the lookout for another violet ever since.  Apparently, they've fallen out of favor, for I haven't seen any in a long time.

Earlier this year, my friend Elizabeth called me from the garden department of a chain store and said they had violets, and asked if I wanted her to buy one and mail it to me (she lives in another state).  I jokingly said, "Naw, just pinch me off a leaf or two and mail them to me."

A few days later, an envelope arrived in the mail.  Inside the envelope were four violet leaves, each one wrapped in a wet paper towel, with a bit of aluminum foil wrapped around the paper towel, and all four stuck in a plastic zip bag.  There wasn't much stem on the leaves, but I planted the four leaves in a small pot, and within two weeks, new leaves sprouted from the dirt around three of the leaves.  The fourth leaf shriveled up and died.

Each of the three "starter" leaves eventually grew two new crowns.  I cut the new crowns off the starter leaves and planted them in their own pots, and just for the heck of it, I re-planted the three starter leaves.  They each grew two MORE new crowns.  I now have six pots of two-crown violets on my living room windowsill.  And look what I found this week:

One of the babies is about to bloom!  I can't wait to see what color it is!

About a month ago, my sister ran across a violet in some garden department and bought it for me.  Last week, I accidentally broke a leaf while I was watering it.  I planted the leaf and am watching it closely for signs of new life.

It'll be hard to squeeze any more violet pots onto my windowsill, so if you need a violet, I know where you can get one.  ;)

Tulip Bulbs - December 20, 2020

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I'd been exposed to covid and had been tested, but the results had not come back when I wrote the post.  Well, they came back on Wednesday, and said I was negative.  Whew!

The day after I got the test results, I was exposed again, and this time I was seriously worried.  I'd spent an hour and a half in a car with the boss on Thursday, and she tested positive on Friday.  She called me on Saturday with the news.

I immediately self-quarantined in my house.  Shut myself up in a spare bedroom and stayed there all weekend long.  Wore a mask if I had to come out.  

The Husband decided that he'd better work from home last week in case I had caught the virus and exposed him.  He didn't want to spread it around his office.  Come Monday, with him working at home and The Boss home sick, I went to my office for a change of scenery since no one else was there.  Tuesday I went for another covid test.  Results came back on Wednesday:  negative.  

Of course, the experts say symptoms can appear up to two weeks after exposure (I think they've lowered that to 10 days now), so I continued to wear my mask and "social distance" at home.  So far, no symptoms on day 10. 

I firmly believe the masks The Boss and I wore saved me.  

* * * * * * * * * *

Knock on wood, I have felt better for the past few days than I've felt for two months.  The cough and snotty nose I've had since mid-October have finally abated a little.  Maybe it's the kefir/vitamin regimen I've been on, hoping to avoid covid.  "They" say kefir can help with allergies.  In any case, having been cooped up for so many days, I ventured out Friday morning in search of wrapping paper.  Walmart was crawling with people (at 8 a.m.!), and I would not go in.  Ended up at Tractor Supply, not hoping for wrapping paper, but hoping to see some little gift The Husband might like.  And guess what?  Tractor Supply had wrapping paper!  They also had spring bulbs.  I bought two packs of tulip bulbs, 18 bulbs per pack, and planted them along the walkway to the front of the house.  I do hope nothing eats them and they come up and do beautifully come spring!

After planting the bulbs, I set to work wrapping presents. 

Then I made four batches of hot honey mustard to tuck in with some gifts.  The fumes from this cooking may be what un-stopped my nose.  ;)

Yesterday, I spent the day embroidering sweatshirts.

It felt so good to be productive!

Missed- Again! - December 2020

 We could probably make a reality show out of trying to kill the armadillo that is digging up our yard.

I heard him again last night and, boy, he was going at it!  The sound was coming from the area around the shed, where there's a 4-foot high L-shaped lattice fence attached to the shed, built to hide stuff like buckets and lawnmowers and extra lawn chairs.  The fence has trapped a deep pile of leaves, and they were just a-rattling!

I went inside the house to get the spotlight.  The Husband was watching TV in his recliner.  When he saw me come through the living room, he said, "Armadillo?"  I said, "Yep."  He got up, put his shoes on, got the rifle, and followed me outside.

We stood on the porch and listened for a minute, then eased out the porch screen door, careful to not let it slam shut.  We could hear the armadillo thumping around in the stuff behind the fence.  Every time he would go to digging, we would move a little closer, hoping the noise the armadillo was making would cover the sound of the leaves crunching under our feet.  We crept right up to the fence.  

I flicked on the spotlight and shined it over the fence.  The Husband switched off the rifle safety and pointed it over the fence.  The spotlight stayed on about 2 seconds, then went dark.  I turned it on again, and it stayed on about about another 2 seconds, then went dark again.  It would not stay lit!  

Meanwhile, (presumably) the armadillo scampered under the shed where we think it lives.

We went back inside the house, defeated yet again.

Critter hunting - December 8, 2020

 Last night after supper, I went out to the back porch for a few minutes, even though it was a little nippy.  As I was standing out there in the dark, I heard something scratching around in the leaves and thought, “Armadillo!”  

I went inside and said to The Husband, “I think the armadillo is out here.”  He jumped up and got his rifle out of the gun safe.  We went out the front door to sneak around the side of the house, he with the rifle and I with the spotlight, like two Elmer Fudds.

We looked all around the yard, but there was no critter in sight.  

The Husband put up his gun and went back to what he was doing.  I went back out to the porch.  A few minutes later, I heard more scratching.  I convinced The Husband to get his gun again, and we went back outside to listen.  I heard more rustling and believed it was coming from down in the gully behind the house.  We crept over to the edge of the gully and I flicked on the spotlight.  

It was a possum.

Neither of us wanted to “off” the possum, so we went back inside.

End of story. ;)

For the record, I had a covid test yesterday.  It’ll be a couple of days before I get the results.  Meanwhile, I feel fine, don’t have any symptoms (other than this allergy-related snotty nose and cough that I’ve had since October).  

Exposed - December 4, 2020

 

Well, sh*t fire . . . . 

I was exposed to the coronavirus Wednesday at work.  I am irked.

My work involves travel to offices in five counties.  I had a bad feeling about Wednesday's trip before we (The Boss and I) ever hit the road, for I knew that one of the people in the office we would be visiting had been to a conference with many other people, and that most of those people probably weren't wearing masks.  For that reason, I was pretty careful to wear my mask and sanitize my hands at every opportunity.  As it turned out, it was a different person in the office who tested positive for the virus yesterday, and she had briefly been fairly close to me without wearing her mask.  

So, now I am a little worried, and trying to be careful at home, just in case I was infected.  As soon as I got the call (the day after exposure), I sanitized everything I touched Wednesday afternoon after work.  When The Husband came home from work, I kept my distance from him.  Looks like I'll be sleeping in the spare bedroom for a few days.  I will go for yet another virus test Monday (I think today is too soon to get tested).  

Last night, my son and his family dropped by.  I was in the back part of the house and heard The Granddaughters chattering.  I went to the living room door, stood well away from them to say hello, but told them, "No hugging!"  We blew kisses to one another when they left.  They are all in school but have not come down with the virus, as far as we know.  It would be such a shame for them to catch it from their grandmother!

And I worry about The Husband.  He has heart issues.  He doesn't need the virus.

But even though I'm a little worried, I am hopeful that the precautions I took protected me.  I have been taking vitamins and drinking my home-made kefir, which is supposed to be very good for the immune system.  (I'm slugging down a cup of kefir right now!)