05/03/2020 SUNday

I was able to spend lots of time outside yesterday ! Our lawn is in rough shape, with clay, grubs, moss, bare patches and dandelions being the predominant features. We decided aeration was essential and that we are no longer willing to use a push spreader for fertilizing, seeding and weed control, so we contracted Trugreen to deal with the mess. We'll have to keep the dogs off the lawn for two hours after the eight yearly visits, but we need efficient help that minimizes down time and access to product for Sadie & Atlas. (You may recall Sadie was briefly semi-paralyzed last year, after getting into a closed bag of a fertilizer weed killer combo.)

All of the ignorance around distancing and precautions is getting to me. People with their noses out of masks, getting too close, complaining about their rights being taken away... I get that we all have to deal with it our own way but...agh. I don't like Big Brother any more than the next one, but I'd volunteer for a social contact tracker that could notify me that I had been exposed to a Covid-19 positive individual. Until there is a vaccine, as we make our way toward herd immunity, it is essential that we mitigate catastrophic jumps in active cases as much as possible. The thought of an airplane just...I can't.

Weight 122.4, WW Bluepoints 12. The weather continues to be beautiful and we spend the day doing things like laundry, taking walks and going for a ride on the golf cart. My neighbor next door is going to use the cart for the summer as it needs to be ridden periodically and the battery water checked. They have watched our place every year and helped out a lot so I hope they enjoy using it.

Today it is time to think seriously about highlighting my roots. At minimum I need to do a test piece of hair. We are also doing a driveway get together with friends and take-out food. So an excuse to wear something other than dungaree shorts and a tank top (meaning nicer shorts and a tee shirt). So many clothes I didn't wear this year - LOL!

Other than that, not much going on except the remaining area beaches and the restaurants open at 25% capacity tomorrow. We aren't going tomorrow but hopefully the additional beaches will stay as orderly as the ones already open.

Going back to Massachusetts where the weather has been lousy most of the spring and being fully locked down will be difficult. I just hope the weather improves and I can walk away from people but near the water.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

My tasks for the day: Working on a puzzle, lizarding, binge watching an Australian show on AcornTV, walking Fergus, trying not to overeat, vacuuming and washing the upstairs floors, maybe taking a drive. How boring would a tv show of my life be right now?!

Better than bring locked up with people driving you crazy! I bet there will be TV shows about that in the future.

Here is a more graphic shot of my hair highlighting than I was willing to put on FB. I just wanted to somewhat soften the drastic difference between my very dark roots and the fully highlighted part. I should have taken a before but I do think it is better. I can add a few highlights later if I need to but didn't want to end up with too many and not be able to reverse it.

Hello everyone! Long time, no write... Well, it seems that way. I am reading every day, but like I said, I just don't seem to have the push to write right now.

I'm content to live in my little cloistered community. My county has had a ridiculously low number of confirmed COVID cases considering we are part of a huge suburban spread of the SF Bay Area. As of April 29 we had 891 confirmed cases and 27 deaths attributed to COVID19. The county population is over 1 million. However, there is speculation that there are thousands upon thousands in our area who, like me, were quite ill, but never tested nor hospitalized. Our shelter in place was one of the earliest. All the schools in my county were closed by March 13. We have been extremely lucky here. Subsequently, it is easy to feel the allure of relaxations of current protocol.

My area is the last bit of suburb before the countryside and rural industry begins. 5 - 10 minutes from me are state park entrances, stables, little farms and vineyards. We hear coyotes yip, owls screech and hoot, deal with turkey flocks and oppossums and racketycoons! Across the very wide two lane road that separates us from the open space and park lands they deal with the addition of wild pigs, bobcats, and snakes... lots of snakes.... rattlers in particular. Yet, I'm very close to lots of conveniences, restaurants, supermarkets, etc...

I paint this picture because I am amazed by what I see going on in other parts of the state and country. Here we are, barely affected by the pandemic, but everywhere you look people are wearing masks, stores are quiet and people are very respectful of personal space. I have seen some gatherings of multiple people, but I can count those on one hand. My neighbors had a close relative over last night, too, but that's about the extent of relaxation I see here.

The moments that I feel the pull to ease up on my own distancing, I remind myself I am not teaching in a classroom for a good reason. I remind myself that the county hospital is still seeing and equal in and out of Covid19 patients. We are not overwhelmed here, but ease up and it could still be catastrophic.

Your civil liberties end where my right to safety begins. I am quite sick and tired of this crap about civil liberties being infringed upon. It's as if people think that being a citizen of the USA gives them the right to do exactly as they please. This has never been the case. Sure you can carry a gun, but it is still unlawful and punishable to inflict harm or injury or kill someone with a gun. It is illegal and a punishable offense to yell "Fire" in a movie theater. It is an act that incites panic. Your right to throw a punch ends the moment that punch comes in contact with me. Punch thin air - fine. Punch me - nope!

What irks the **** out of me is this: When getting a haircut/going golfing/getting your nails done/going to the gym/going to the movies/"opening up the economy" is so damned important you are willing to risk the health, wellbeing and possible life of others, it only illustrates the lack of moral integrity and education of our populace. I am not talking about thoughtful discussions by people who want to consider ways to carefully kickstart the economy. I'm talking about these idiot pseudo militia micro penised men and women who think that protesting and threatening and strong arming governmental policies is the right path to take. I'm sick of idiot 'Mericans spouting that covid19 is nothing but a bad cold and the numbers are being skewed to make us afraid. The thinking, the thought processes of these individuals and groups baffles me, but only up to a point. I understand the emotion behind, but I don't understand the inability or unwillingness to understand and value the science that supports the social closures in place.

Now, I do find fault with the broad sweeping closures in effect in many areas. It seems absolutely inane to me me that a mobile grooming business is allowed to operate because it is a low contact business, but a grooming shop that grooms one dog at a time is not allowed to operate. In Washington state mobile grooming businesses are not allowed to operate at all. Here, liquor stores have remained open. Sorry, but since when is liquor essential? It ain't. (Sorry to all the wine ladies here...) Tobacco stores have remained open. Really???? Where's the logic there? (Perhaps they don't want people rioting in the streets who are also nicotine deprived?) I do think some states and counties have closed businesses with little regard to the type of business and how allowing some of these businesses to reopen would impact the health of the population.

But, enough of "My Corona" rant.

I am working with the nutritionist still and coming to understand that part of my job is going to be to trick my eating disorder into complacency. My weight is hanging out at 268-269. just about 100 pounds over my old goal weight and just about 70 pounds above what the nutritionist and I decided is a reasonable goal - under 200.

I am feeling VERY fat and round. I'm not finding much about myself physically attractive, but it is not bothering me the way it once did. It feels more like, "Well, this is okay for now. You're figuring things out."

I spent almost a week with an "oxygen waster" puppy buyer from Iowa. Lovely, lovely young woman who is a vet and is almost finished with her PhD in immunology. (Didn't know one could get a PhD in the medical field...Have I been living under a rock?) We talked about this and that and she wanted this score for temperament, etc... We realized we were working from two different interpretations of scores from the same test and therefore our numbers didn't jive, etc... Got all that sorted out and agreed I had the right puppy for her. The next day I get the email that she can't figure out how to come and get the puppy. I'm so done....

Puppies will start going to their new homes this week. I will miss this litter. I have really enjoyed this litter. They are a sweet bunch and have been really easy. Won't have pups again until at least 2021, maybe longer. We'll see.

So there is my long winded, not much about weight and eating post. Happy Sunday....

Your oxygen waster made me think about a funny show (derived from a movie of the same name) called What We Do in the Shadows on FX. It's a mockumentary on vampires living together on Staten Island. (The movie took place in New Zealand and was written and starred in by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, both hilarious.)

Anyway, in the show, it's a bunch of regular blood-sucking vampires and one energy vampire who steals people's will to live by boring them to death and feeding off their energy. In one episode, he clashes with a fellow cubicle worker who is an emotional vampire who sucks people dry with her sad life stories. Your lady sounds like an energy vampire!

https://youtu.be/szGmZAPsILQ

Greetings All

Seems like everyday feels like Sunday. Oh wait, it is Sunday. Who can tell. But its sunny and breezy here and lovely overall. I just planted the rest of the bedding plants. Took 10 minutes. Now what do I do with my remaining 23.8 hours?

Yes Liz, I wondered if I could also be a volunteer infection tracker. Looked interesting. But we have only a very few sick people here so no need. I am glad to be in a small town where going out is not that big of a deal and I really don't need a mask to walk the dog.

Peps and Cecily, I hear you on the energy vampires. Such creatures exist and are one of the things I most hate. People at the art galleries and clay studio do it too - acting like you are put o this earth to answer their questions and entertain them. I remember one person from the studio who called me 4 times in one morning because her plaster of paris would not come out of its mold. She wanted to put it in the oven which I repeatedly told her not to do. Ever notice such people do not listen?

And Peps, why didn't that woman think about how to transport puppy before she called a CA breeder. Dumb indeed.

Is the play "No Exit" the one by Sartre. Where there are four people in a room that they can never leave and they are annoying and they figure out they are in hell?

Yeah I so don't like the protesters standing arm to arm with guns. We all just have to put up with this stuff. Instead of standing around yelling why not work on some ways to accomplish the things desired while still being responsible. I wonder how many of the protesters are people who cannot work vs those who just want services.

Can't remember if I told you all that our studio got its COVID loan. But there is a boatload of rules to follow on what to spend it on and how fast. I think we have to spend it on wages over 10 weeks which is stupid because it could cover wages for longer. Ditto utilities. Our gas/power bill is $1600 per month for all the firing fuel.

Just saw two people bicycle by. One had no helmet and no mask. The other had both. Which one had the higher IQ?

Liz your hair looks great. You did a fine job. My hair is in full blown Bernie Sanders mode only a lot more of it.

During these weeks someone with a small plane has been flying over and making peace signs and happy faces. I hear the buzz now so we need to look.

Canadian bacon tonight. Will root around and see what vegetables there are. I want some rattatouie. Farmers market required.

You Hoo Ann, Shirley, are you ok?

Later Diane S