Archive for April 2020
1 Second Everyday for April 2020
April 30, 2020Wednesday
April 29, 2020Wednesday we do a Zoom Senior Bible study. We finished up our work on Nehemiah. Didn’t go anywhere. No beach for us. I don’t particularly care for going to the beach. Too much sun, too much sand, too hot.
Today, I will be sharing some pictures from our deep dive into the Stanley archives.
The note on the back says Harold, age 7 after recovering from scarlet fever. What a nice looking young lad.
Wait, there’s more. Paula’s dad was always in the kitchen at Los Angeles Harbor Lodge. Harold was the person who got me interested in Freemasonry.
One more and I’ll quit for today.
That’s all for today. Stay safe.
Joe
Tuesday
April 28, 2020It seems that has become our designated grocery shopping day. So we get out once a week to go grocery shopping.
So after hanging our for most of the morning, doing nothing much. Read the newspaper, did a couple of crosswords. We made our bed. Off we went to Albertson’s.
They are still sanitizing the carts when you go in. We got our usual drinks at Starbuck’s. Then, we started our shopping.
The store was not particularly crowded. The produce section was well stocked. So was the meat. We got some tilapia for dinner tonight.
They haven’t really caught up with soups and canned goods. We have been concerned about the meat section. We have been hearing on the news that some meat producers have shutdown.
Apparently, I have learned that there are two supply chains for meat. One for the grocery stores and one for the restaurant market. The closure of the restaurants has thrown that supply chain into a massive funk. I never thought much about the term “Supply Chains” until the pandemic. Click for more than you ever wanted to know.
So we headed down to the freezer section, first to get resupplied with ice cream. We have our priorities. We were checking out the Ben & Jerry’s section and lo and behold they had pints of “Netflix and Chill’d”. I figured I had died and gone to heaven. Here’s the Wikipedia entry. Click here for the link to the Ben & Jerry’s site.
Well the paper goods aisle is still pretty much empty. We got a couple of boxes of tissues for my occasional sniffle.
Still no shortage of wine, beer or liquor. In CA. grocery stores are allowed to sell beer, wine and liquor. I remember the days before an impending blizzard, where there would be lines at the local liquor stores. Mass, still doesn’t allow sales of beer, wine or liquor in supermarkets.
Not much of a line at the check out. They seem to be changing their policy of bringing your own reusable bags. All they have is paper bags that the charge for. Today, they said we could bring our bags but you have to pack them yourself. We usually do that anyways.
We are continuing our work of going through all the archives of photos left behind by Paula’s Dad and some of our pictures. Lots of Shrine pictures of people gone long ago. We took another load of trash in the shopping cart down to the trash room in the garage. I occasionally scan some of the pictures that are interesting and email to various people.
That’s all for now. Stay safe.
Joe
Monday
April 27, 2020Good morning everyone. We are continuing our stay at home and we are doing well. We have not been sick. We are staying occupied. The archiving of our old photo albums is continuing.
This post is mostly about the books that I have been reading. Reading is one of my prime activities to conquer the boredom.
I read all of my books on my iPad’s Kindle app. I try to avoid buying the books. I check the Libby app (LA Library) for availability. Libby is a free app where one can download the books to your Kindle app for three weeks. They have a limited number of copies of any one book available for download. If the requests exceed the number of books, you get added to the waiting list. Beats paying $10-$15 to Amazon.
Sometimes, I find out about books from late night TV shows like “Late Show with Stephen Colbert”. Another source for me is “CBS Sunday Morning”. They interview authors about new books that are coming out. So I write myself a note to check out the book(s) to download later. I’ve often told Paula that I need to stop watching late night TV, too many books to read.
This is the story of lawyers who work on cases where inmates have been wrongfully accused of a crime. The fictional story is based on a real organization called “The Innocence Project” that works on proving innocence of inmates wrongfully convicted of a crime. Reading Grisham tends to be a page turner for me. It took me three days to read the book. When I was done, I sent it back to the Library, just like a paper book.
Next up (sourced from CBS Sunday Morning) are two books, both non-fiction about our current situation. First is a book titled “Quackery – A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything” by Lydia Kang, MD and Nate Pederson. I am doing this one first, because it was available for free from the Libby app. The title just about says it all.
Next up is a book titled “The Coming Plague” by Laurie Garrett. (Also, sourced from CBS Sunday Morning). Apparently, this is a popular book. I have put a hold on it with “Libby”. Expected wait time is six weeks. I probably won’t buy it for now. I’ll check back at Libby after I finish Quackery. Also available from Amazon.
Friday
April 24, 2020Today we went out to do some errands. Traffic seemed to be pretty much back to normal. Plenty of cars on the 405. Long trains heading to the port of Los Angeles.
The Nissan odometer hit 11111 miles. We got word from our auto insurer that we will be getting a rebate. Woo hoo! Listening to KUSC, classical radio station
First stop was the ATM, so that we have cash to pay our cleaning lady on Monday.
Then, we headed over to Long Beach to drop off some adult diapers for Mary. We can’t go in to visit until the pandemic is done with us.
Stopped at Stone Age Pharmacy to buy come cannabis for attitude adjustment in the evening.
Time to buy gas for the Nissan. Price for regular was $2.47/gallon. This fill up will probably last until the end of May. Some of you who live back East might not think $2.47 is a great price, but it is here in Los Angeles. In February it was around $3.50
Last stop was In’n’Out burger for lunch. Double-Double with cheese and onions for me. Protein double-double for Paula. One order of fries to share.
Wednesday
April 22, 2020Here we are on Wednesday. Just another day in paradise. We did our Zoom Senior Bible Study this morning.
Paula received a picture of Mary via email. We haven’t been able to go over to visit. They are on lockdown. Only staff and end of life visitors allowed in.
So the staff did “makeovers” for all the residents. Mary looked outstanding.
Here’s the picture.
Paula found some pictures taken at her graduation from nursing school (c. 1974)
She also found a stash of postcards from her travels back in the day. I will post some of them tomorrow.
That’s all for now. Stay safe.
Joe
Saturday
April 18, 2020We seem to be sleeping later every day. Paula and I got up almost 9 am. So i was pretty much doing my usual crosswords, jigsaws and reading. “True Grit” is going pretty quickly.
The story is told by Mattie, a 14 year old girl whose father was murdered. So she is on a mission to find and punish the murderer. She hires Rooster Cogburn to help in the capture of the man. Rooster Cogburn is a US Deputy Marshal (this is the character played by John Wayne in the movie. Also, john Wayne received an Academy Award for his performance. Glen Campbell also co-starred.)
Enough on that. We noticed some water leaking out of our furnace/AC unit. Found that the water was coming from a gallon of emergency drinking water that we had purchased a while ago. It seems some junk was sitting on top of the plastic gallon and sprung a leak.
So we pulled out the gallon of water and put it in the sink. So in the process of drying up the spot where the water was, it seemed that it was an excellent time to get rid of some of the junk that had been stashed there over the years.
So I suggested to Paula that I get a shopping cart from down in the garage and load it up with junk that we no longer use or need.
We found some old floor tiles 2 packages of 5 tiles each. They didn’t match any of the flooring in our unit. Why did Mary save them? Beats me. Gone. There was an old step ladder that we haven’t ever used. Gone. We found about four umbrellas. Gone. None of which seemed to work very well.
I don’t understand why there were so many umbrellas stashed away. I hardly ever rains in SoCal. As it is, we have 2 or 3 umbrellas in the back of the Nissan.
So I loaded up the cart and took it down to throw in the dumpster. Much better.
By the time we get to the end of this confinement, we ought to have this joint clean as a whistle.
Stay safe,
Joe
Friday
April 17, 2020It seems that I have missed a couple of days. I just didn’t have much to say. It seems though that people are having trouble remembering what day it is. It it wasn’t for my iPad and iPhone I wouldn’t know either.
So let’s begin. I went out to Albertson’s for a few things. We had run out of milk. Paula had been drinking milk some evenings instead of wine. I was also going to try and find some TP.
Here’s my list:
- Milk
- Tangelos
- TP
- Kleenex
- Liquid hand soap
- Hydrogen Peroxide
- Box of white wine
Got the milk. Bought two half gallons of 1%. Got the TP. I had been told by Dan that they put out the TP first thing in the AM. Then when it’s gone, it’s gone. Going earlier improved your chances. So I scored a 6 pack of rolls. No choice. You get whatever they’ve got. Got the tangelos.
No on the Kleenex, hand soap or H2O2. Got the wine. Plenty of booze. Beer and wine are not in short supply.
So I finished the book about crossword puzzles. I am in awe of some of the people that are stars on the crossword puzzle tournament. I started reading “True Grit” by Charles Portis. This is the basis for the John Wayne movie of the same name. So far the movie is pretty faithful to the book. By the way, the kindle version was only $2. Such a deal.
On another subject, masks. Masks are required for visits to the grocery store. When we shopped on Tuesday, I wore a home made mask. Today I used a folded bandanna.
What many folks don’t realize the masks are intended to keep you from spreading your germs. Not for protecting you from getting someone else’s germs. Ie. Coughing in the vicinity of another person.
The first mask had problems in that it redirected my exhaling on to my eye glasses causing the glasses to fog. I also had trouble sipping my iced coffee.
Today, my bandanna was less problematic in that regard. Besides, when not in the immediate vicinity of other people, I let the bandanna slip a bit. I will be happy when we are done with the mask requirement, PITA.
By the way, the grocery store was not very crowded.
Later,
Joe
First Flight
April 15, 2020Does everyone remember the first time that you stepped foot onto an airliner? My first flight was on either a Boeing 727 or similar 2 engine jet with my brother Rich. We were going to Baltimore to go to one of our cousins wedding. I think it was late 60’s give or take. It was Allegheny Airlines.
I also remember the first time that I flew in a single engine plane with a friend who had gotten her private pilot’s license. I was hooked. I would go on to get my private pilot’s license in 1973. First solo flight at Olive Branch Airport in Mississippi.
Yesterday, Paula found a postcard that was given to her on the occasion of her first flight. Mary was going to a nursing conference in Chicago circa 1954. Mary took Paula along on the first leg of the journey from Long Beach Airport to LAX. Seems a bit silly to take a flight from LGB to LAX. But Paula remembers it well. Of course everyone dressed up in their Sunday best clothes. None of this jeans and tee shirts for travellers.
They flew on a United Airlines Convair-340. The 340 was built specifically for United and replaced the Convair-240. The Convair series was designed to replace the DC3. The Convair was pressurized and had a nose landing gear instead of the tail dragger of the DC3. Pressurization meant that it could fly above 10,000 ft. Click here for additional detail. More than you could ever want to know.
The back of the post card says it could fly at almost 300 mph and pressurized for passenger comfort. The 340 could carry 44 people in comfort. This one of the last planes driven with cylinder type engines.
Tuesday
April 14, 2020So today is our day to go out and do our grocery shopping. But first, we had to meet Paula’s pusher (I mean her Avon Lady). Paula had ordered a bunch of stuff to make her more beautiful. Then she wondered out loud. “Why am I putting on lipstick when noone can see it under my mask?”. Good question.
Today, we were required to wear face masks. I really hate the mask. The one that I got is too tight and it causes me to sniffle. Plus, I can’t drink my iced coffee. And, the elastic over my ears hurt. I can’t wear the mask and wear my hearing aids at the same time. One or the other but not both. So I have trouble hearing Paula. Next time I will go back to the bandanna.
So it’s been six days since we went out to do grocery shopping. Store is pretty much the same. Some shelves empty, some fully stocked. They seem to be catching up with some of the can goods/soups.
Fresh fruit and vegetable doing fine. So too are the meat department. We got some fish, some chicken and some ground beef to do meat loaf.
Still no TP. We did get a package of napkins though. They’re trying to get people to go one way in each aisle with signs like this:
Good luck with that.
While we were waiting in the line for the checkout, I ordered take-out from Crazy Fish. Crazy Fish is a local restaurant that specializes in selling fish. Go figure. Paula ordered Asian Salad with broiled Salmon. I had my usual fish tacos. Don’t laugh. They are pretty tasty. You can have your choice of broiled fish or broiled breaded fish. Support your local businesses.
We chatted with our friend Dan in the dairy section. He is hanging in there it’s a tough job.
calherewecome 