Posted tagged ‘Corona’

« calherewecome home page
« Older Entries

Mother’s Day

May 10, 2020

We started our Mother’s Day celebration early on Saturday. The staff at Regency Palms had arranged to have Mary down stairs where we could greet her through the glass so as to avoid spreading any virus to her or anyone also at the home.

Regency Palms has done a great job making sure that no one gets infected. Many other skilled nursing facilities have not done as well.

So Mike’s family joined us at 1:30 pm. Jonathan and Sarah worked on a greeting card for Mary. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave it with her. But it is displayed on our refrigerator for all to see.

This is the first time that we have seen Mary for a few weeks. She is looking more frail and wobbly. We are not sure she understands all of the social distancing ideas that we are doing.

After we were done at Regency Palms, we headed home for a late lunch. Mike stopped at In’n’Out for burgers. We stopped at Starbuck’s for some iced coffees. It was really nice to see the grand-kids. We hadn’t seen them since the beginning of the pandemic. It was a nice day.

That’s all for now. Stay safe.

Joe

Categories: Corona, Mary
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Friday

April 24, 2020

Today 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.

Categories: Corona, Mary
Tags: ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Saturday

April 18, 2020

We 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

Categories: Corona
Tags: ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Friday

April 17, 2020

It 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

Categories: Books, Corona, Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Friday

April 10, 2020

Here we sit in our lockdown. Not going anywhere. Today is my turn to cook. So I decided to do beef stew. We’re getting lazy. It was almost 9 am when we got out of bed.

Luckily for us we thought of this when we last went shopping. Bought the stew beef, carrots, potatoes, celery and beef stock. Paula dug out the crock pot and I began work.

Our crockpot is over forty years old. We received it as a wedding present. Still works.

Not long ago, we discovered a product called crockpot liners made by Reynolds. You can find them in the supermarket food storage section. Makes clean up easier.

Every time I do this, I make it a bit different. Today’s version has carrots, celery, onion, potatoes and beef. Well it wouldn’t be beef stew without the beef. If you want details on the recipe, drop me A line.

Peel and cut up the carrots. Dice the onion and celery. Add to pot. I like to cut the beef down to smaller pieces than the butcher provides. Add to zip lock bag along with 1/2 c of flour. Brown in frying pan. Add the flour. Add to the pot. Add some beef stock. Turn it on and forget about it.

I can’t emphasize the last step enough. There have been times that I did all the prep work and forgot to turn it on. Oh crap.

In other news, we decided to watch a movie tonight. We decided on an oldie. “Support Your Local Sheriff” with James Garner.

Paula is continuing her deep dive into our picture archive. She has been putting the best pictures into albums and tossing the junk. I will be scanning some of my favorites to post on social media (blog, Facebook, etc,)

Stay safe

TTFN

Joe

Categories: Corona, Movies
Tags: , ,

Comments: 2 Comments

Thursday

April 9, 2020

Well here we are on Thursday. Just sitting at home trying to keep busy and not go stark-raving mad. I’m trying to do a blog post every day. First to keep myself busy and not get sick by heading out to shop or something.

It is raining here today in SoCal. It is a pleasant light, soaking rain. As I have said before, the seasons here in Cal are rain, mud, fire and earthquake. We are in the rainy season.

Rain in the planter outside our door.

The more it rains, the less likely their will be fires next summer.

So yesterday we had our Zoom Bible Study. One of our members offered to share face masks that she was making for free. So later in the day Bonnie dropped off a couple of masks for us.

We are feeling incredibly lucky here. We don’t have jobs to lose. We don’t have to go out to work in a grocery store or drive a truck.

Our Social Security payment arrived on Wednesday. It’s scheduled for the second Wednesday of every month. And in April, the 2nd Wednesday fell on April 8th, the earliest we could possibly receive it. May won’t be quite as early. And the stock market seems to be climbing out of the deep hole that it was in. (My retirement fund is in the market.)

We are both reasonably healthy. All of our major surgeries were done last year. I would hate to be looking at to reschedule something like knee surgery. Some of our minor medical appointments have been pushed back until May or June. Dentist is only doing emergencies. I was scheduled for optometry visit to get new eye glass prescription. That won’t happen until June, maybe. And, optometry department at Costco is closed until whenever.

One last thing. Regency Palms is on lock-down so no visits to see Mary. So far, there have no covel-19 incidents at RP. Some other nursing homes haven’t been so lucky. We’ve done FaceTime a couple of times with Mary. She doesn’t have a clue what FaceTime is. But we say hi and wave.

TTFN

Joe

Categories: Corona, San Pedro
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Wednesday

April 8, 2020

So a couple of blog posts ago, I wrote about wanting to get to the barber for a hair cut. I showed a picture of me taken at my wedding in 1978.

Paula found a couple of older pictures of me taken in 1973 at my brother Rich’s wedding. The first picture was taken at the wedding reception on board the Peter Stuyvesant at Anthony’s Pier Four in Boston. The Peter Stuyvesant was used by Anthony’s for receptions and the like. In sank during the Blizzard of 1978.

(L-R) Brother Stan, Tricia, Me

I call your attention to the hair and beard.

The second was taken at the after party at my Mom’s house in West Roxbury. The picture was my mother and her three sons.

(L-R) Me, Mom, Rich, Stan

In other news, the rain has finally stopped, but it is a bit chilly. That doesn’t matter much, because we’re not going anywhere.

We had our weekly Senior Bible study this morning on Zoom. It was nice to talk to some other human beings.

TTFN

Joe

Categories: Corona
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Tuesday

April 7, 2020

So everyone was saying “stay home”. Well it’s been six days since we last went to the supermarket. We were out of milk, cream and white wine. Getting critical. Got to get out of this place.

So we through caution to the wind and headed out to the store. Filled up with fruits and vegetables, meat and chicken. First off though we headed to the Starbucks.

We still aren’t allowed to sit and discuss shopping lists or other important stuff. So we just got our drinks and headed off to shop.

Albertson’s supply chain is catching up. They’re not at 100% but moving in that direction. Dan told us that they didn’t sell out of toilet paper until about 1:30 pm.

We talked with our friend Dan in the dairy aisle. He had planned to travel to Boston to see a Red Sox game and a Celtics game. Alas, it was not to be. Trip cancelled. He got us a quart container of half/half and slapped a 50% off label on the carton. It’s good to have friends in high places.

So news people are trying to tell everyone to shop for two weeks worth of groceries. Are you kidding me? I haven’t a clue where we would put all of that stuff or how to pay for it. As it was, our grocery bill was about $275.

Part of the cost was for a bottle of gin and a box of Pinot Giorgio. But still, it wasn’t top shelf gin.

Canned goods are slowly getting restocked including soups. I am happy to say that there is still no run on martini olives. Toilet paper is still in short supply.

What else? We’re still healthy. We will be hanging here at home until next Monday or so. We’ll be zooming with our senior Bible study group tomorrow. It will be good to talk with everyone. We will be having broiled salmon filets and asparagus for dinner tonight.

So on the way to the market the classical station on SiriusXM was playing Beethoven’s 6th symphony. I almost stayed until it was done. When we came out of the market they were playing Beethoven’s 9th. Woo-Hoo!!

We’ve got to take a trip over to Long Beach to drop of a package of adult underwear for Mary

Stay safe everyone. Wash your hands. I don’t want to hear about any of our friends getting sick.

TTFN,

Joe

Categories: Corona
Tags: ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Monday

April 6, 2020

What to do. I’ve just finished my second cup of coffee. Done two crossword puzzles, finished a jigsaw puzzle with 256 pieces, read three newspapers (LA Times, Boston Globe, and Torrance Daily Breeze) Saving The NY Times for later. As it is, I’ve dropped a few other subscriptions from my daily list.

My email is filling up with more and more alerts from the governor, mayor and other assorted officials about COVID-19. Blah, blah, blah.

We’re going to go grocery shopping tomorrow. In the past we would shop every 3 or 4 days. This time it will have been 6 days. I heard one official say shop for two weeks. I doubt that the person has ever shopped for two weeks. We’ve finished up most of our meals in the freezer.

We don’t have enough shelf space in our cupboard or space in our freezer/fridge to put all that stuff. Besides milk and half/half don’t last that long.

Paula has been diving into pictures that we brought with us when we moved to LA in 2012. Found some interesting pictures. She found a few pictures from out wedding in 1978. Wow.

Eventually, after this is over with we hope to show the photo albums to Jonathan and Sarah about what life was like back in the day.

Joe & Paula 1978

We’re feeling blessed/lucky. We had some friends from Mass. come visit us just before pandemic hit. Thus, we were able to go to all of the touristy places that are now shuttered. If they had come in mid March, it would have been very ugly.

We also have excellent high speed internet service and laptop, iPad’s and iPhones. When Paula needs technical support, she comes to me. The questions is usually, “How do I do …. ?” We have been Zooming and FaceTiming with our friends and relations.

Categories: Corona
Tags: ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

Saturday

April 4, 2020

So, here are dome of the things that I’m doing during our home confinement. I have about three books that I am reading on Kindle. When I get tired of reading, I head for these apps.

Crossword Puzzles

I seem to be doing about three or four puzzles every day. First up is the New York Times daily puzzle. NYT has an app for iPad/iPhone. One can get a subscription for the daily puzzle and/or download puzzle packs.

Daily puzzles are easiest on Monday’s and become more difficult as the week goes on. Saturday is the most difficult. The Sunday puzzle is “thursdayish” in difficulty. I can usually do the Monday puzzle in about 7-8 minutes. Later day puzzles are not so fast or easy.

I use another crossword puzzle app that I use is called “Crossword Classic” by Stand Alone, Inc. It provides automatic daily download of puzzles. You set up a subscription list of the puzzles that you want to do. Some of them are free, some are for purchase.

Jig Saw Puzzles

Next up is “Jig Saw Puzzles”. There are several jig saw puzzles available on the App Store. My favorite is Jigsaw by MobilityWare. There are many free puzzles and you can buy puzzle packs with different themes. One can adjust the number of pieces from as little as 4 to the incredibly difficult with 512 pieces. I usually stick to the 64, 81 or 100 piece puzzles.

I usually only do jigsaw’s on my iPad. iPhone is little but too small for my use.

That’s enough for now. Keep on keeping on.

TTFN

Joe

Categories: apps, Corona, games
Tags: , ,

Comments: Be the first to comment

« Older Entries