@MusicCandy @SadMe70 A place to communicate

Hi there! Just a quick mid-week note. I am going this coming Thursday to visit mom (tomorrow) to Saturday night. Not sure if I will have a chance to write a note over the weekend. I did not go to their big family germ fest, which I think was a terrible idea, sigh.

Hello! I had a nice visit with Mom. I got there Thursday afternoon and we just hung out at home, and made paneer cheese. We planned a picnic and hike near a river for Friday but it was raining. We went to a small park and ate under the trees where we were partly protected and then went back home. I had given her some salve for Christmas that I made from beeswax and oils, which helped her hands a lot, so we made some of that together. Saturday we got carryout from a new restaurant near her, and then I came home.

This week was mostly uneventful. There were school board meetings last week and this week. Our current plan is staff start Aug. 3 as planned. Kids start one week late, on Aug. 17, everyone virtual for 3 weeks. On the day after Labor Day, families who choose (in a survey now) can have their kids come two days a week. We'll have a Mon/Tues group and a Thurs/Fri group. Others can choose to stay virtual. Teachers wanted more time to train on the online systems, and to get their rooms transformed for the new rules. I don't know what I will be doing for a whole month with no kids. I also don't know how they will work small group interventions, which is what I do, and we use shared materials all the time. It is going to be a mess I think.

I went on a hike yesterday, about 4 miles, at one of the local parks. I went to another one last week before my trip. I am still exercising at home, or doing yoga. My neck has gotten worse because I am doing a lot of leaning over books and my tablet, but yesterday and today I did a lot of stretching and other PT activities so it's a little better. I can't turn it very far. It was pretty disconcerting driving to mom's on bigger roads where I needed to change lanes. I have to turn my whole upper body because I can't turn my head far enough, and that feels like it takes too long and I'm not looking forward again fast enough. I am glad I am mostly driving on little roads normally!

I have gotten 2 squash so far. One yellow one from plants I planted. The other is one of my compost squash and is called delicata. I recognize it as something I bought from a farm stand last year. That is one hardy seed! It was out there a year in my composter, baking and freezing and getting tossed around. There are lots more blossoms but no more squash so far. I am finally seeing some tomatoes starting! Some of my herbs are doing well. The blueberries are pretty well done. I took the bird netting off them today.

My older son's girlfriend is in the process of moving in with him. They are living in a basement apartment in a big house his former roommate bought. It's a fairly new house and very nice, though in a development which I personally would not like. I'm too much of a country girl! It is a walkout basement, so they are at least not underground and have some nice windows and glass doors to the back.

I hope your trip to Norfolk is good! The ballroom dancing sounds really neat! Our community center did that years ago and I wanted to try, but we never did it. I am completely awkward and a terrible dancer, but I feel like I could learn. I do some dance cardio videos at home sometimes and it's fun. I hear you about the messiness. Our whole yard and whole house are just a mess. I'm overwhelmed and I know it's not going to get any better.

I hope you are well and have fun with your sister!

I fully understand how you are feeling about your yard. My yard, house, and basement are all junky and crammed. I find it completely overwhelming and depressing. Luckily we are in the woods where no one will see or complain. When my dad died, their basement was like that too. My sister and I helped mom for a whole day bag up stuff, and she paid somebody to take two box truckloads away. I have far more stuff here than mom had, much of it big and heavy, and I don't know how I will ever clean it up when he's gone. Some of it could actually probably be sold, but I will have so much to clear out I don't know how I would manage it. I would probably throw it all away just to get some space. It also includes two collapsed outbuildings, both full of stuff, that were supposed to get taken care of before now, but have not and probably never will. I wish you far better luck than I have had getting anything cleaned up, and I hope your eventual new neighbors will mind their own business!

I went to a farm stand last week and bought twenty pounds of veggies, cooked them up, and froze 10 quarts to use throughout the year for easy dinners. I am starting to get some delicata squash from my volunteer compost plants, 5 so far. Only one from my own plants - 3 others rotted on the vine. My one okra plant is producing now, three pods so far. There are some tomatoes but nothing ripe yet. I have already decided not to bother planting veggies next year. I mainly did it this year since I had lots of time, but even though I managed to get healthy looking plants, nothing much is coming of them. My herbs are doing well though.

I go back to work on Monday. I am anxious for various reasons. Because I sleep so badly, and am often awake a few hours each night, I was always in a perpetual state of exhaustion while I was working. These last months, since I can stay awake for a few hours but then sleep to 7 or so, instead of 5:30, I've gotten rested. I am not looking forward to being always tired again. Then is the unknown about what my job will even consist of with no kids in the building until October. They have us doing training on the online system, so maybe I will get to interact with kids that way. And of course, after being careful and mostly isolated for four months, I'll now be out around a lot more people, so I am worried about getting sick or giving it to my husband.

I am continuing my once a week trainer session virtually for now, switching from afternoon to 6:30 am starting August 10. I really do want to go back to swim one morning a week at the Y. I am pretty comfortable about the pool area itself, as they are using only every other lane. It's the locker room and shower that make me nervous. So, I am still debating that. Next week I am not going for sure. I need to just get back into the routine of getting lunches and outfits ready, and getting myself up and out the door.

It sounds like work is keeping you very busy! How was the COVID test? I actually dread ever being tested because that sounds pretty awful in itself. I hope you were able to catch up on your rest!

I am still amazed at what a great job somebody did of matching us as buddies! We really do have a lot of similar issues, and it is such a relief to be able to talk about them with someone who understands.

I hope you have a great week!

i think i missed posting last week - it was a terrible weekend at work. The computer was a planned downtime which means entering everything by hand- acurately of course. The Ed had to fill out paper forms for orders and that process was chaos; plus it was busier than usual. We finally got it all back together - but it was exhausting. It was challenging to make sure i got the right information and the right order in ?dr's handwriting - it is a disaster if that gets mixed up plus the nurses were confused. If that doesn't hapen again for a long time i'll be happy,

I hope your first week back to work wasn't too awful. I know it is hard for you to get your full rest and that is detrimental to your health. I guess they wil get in all the training and details before Oct. Several districts went back full steam, no masks and students tested positive the first day. It won't be fun anyway they do it. i have not been tested myself yet. some of my coworkers have, but I have not been close to a known positive case without PPE and no symptoms, so no test. i'm thinking about the APP the governor mentioned in his talk last week that tracks if you have been near someone who tested positive. I'm not sure how it works. so many people come in and out of the ED and with positive tsts or symptoms are told to go home and self quaranteen - we don't know who they are. I did give up my in person piano lessons for good - it was the right thing to dosince I'm at retirement age anyway. Mt one online little girl does very well but sheis tech savvy and bright to start with. She is so cute , just a little hard to keep her focused when i'm not siring beside her.

My exercise has gone well , even better than thr gym overall. i pull up a HITT workout 30 minute and don't have to go anywere; plus the walk with Rachael every day 3 1/2 miles. I hope you got back to the pool, i know that is good for you. Rachael and i got back to the outdoor pool a little while in the late afternoon on non storms days. Not many people so that is good. She won't wear a mask or self distance anyway.

i also made it to the Farmer's Market and I loaded up - near closing time so I got 2 full boxes oif whatever was left - Beautiful berries and a basket of lovely vegetables -including the baby eggplant that I didn't get to come up this yearand 2 kinds of squash.Several kinds of cherry tomatoes for salads including a new one to me "shimmer" - they are bigger than th little round ones and have some orange and green color - very good - and cukes, all imperfect so you know they are straight off the farm, and a cantalope. i got 2" 25 dollarboxes "which is more expensive than grocery store $ but so much beter in nurtients and taste - worth it to support local farms too. Every Thursday 2 mles from my house. SCORE! like they say , eat the rainbow.

Back at work this week-end but i hope it will be calmer. Fiance is fixing my car so I can't complain about the mess this week. He is trying, I just hope the new neighbors are understanding. you are right - we have a lot in comon and it isn't easy to talk honestly to most people. Especially with introverts who really don't mind this social distancing anyway.

I am so sorry to hear about last weekend! That sounds very stressful! Don't ever worry about missing a week. I have been overwhelmed and missed a week before. We are here to be supportive and understanding of each other, and I and understand how you felt for sure!!

Week one back to work was very mixed. I did online self-paced training for the online learning system the school will be using. They sent the links earlier so I was over halfway done before this week, and finished it on Monday. I tried parts of some additional training courses that were not required, and we also had some health training videos to watch. All of that did not take up my time though, and I spent a lot of time killing time with nothing to do. The teachers are all still training, plus have to actually set up their virtual classrooms, so they had nothing for us to do. Next week we will be helping to assemble packets of materials that families will pick up (math manipulatives, etc.). Classes start August 17 online, and I don't see most of the teachers being ready since most of them have no idea how to use the online systems. I don't know what I will actually be doing. Our reading specialist hopes to adapt the lessons we teach to K and 1st for online and have us still do those small groups, but there currently are no chromebooks for the paras to use (they are handing them out to students) and the desktop computers in the building don't have cameras.

I have been very upset at some of the people in my building who are disregarding safety measures. My para team of 6 people share one small office. The open floor space between the furniture is maybe 8 x 12 feet. Two of these women are sitting in the room with no mask, two feet from me. I have been mostly in a computer lab training where I did not have to be near them, and am eating my lunch in our library where I can also be away from people. One of those ladies was asking me for help and I told her I had to have masks to be near her (if she has hers on at all, it's never over her nose and often down at her chin). She halfheartedly pulled it over her mouth, but it's loose and doesn't stay. So clearly saying anything to either of them would be useless, and I don't want confrontation anyway. I am hopeful that I can just avoid being around them, since we may not be using our office much anyway, but it makes me mad that I am the one who has to adapt. I feel like if they don't want to wear a mask, let them be the ones to go someplace else in the building. The even more frustrating thing is that our principal is often not wearing her mask either. I also seen our vice principal, IT person (sort of a 3rd admin), and the office staff not wearing theirs. So, no support is likely from the people who should be leading by example and enforcing the policy. They are even continuing the communal junk food and other meals (salad bar one day, potluck bday celebrations one day) and people are eating from it. We are going to be closed down before we ever even get students, because the adults in the building are not being responsible.

My exercise has remained ok. I am cutting way back on the alcohol now that I have to get up early. I was drinking pretty much every day, and now am trying to go back to Fri and Sat only. Most of my pants were too tight already back in March and so far I've avoided wearing them. I have one comfy pair of jeans, and have also been wearing sweatpants since no kids or parents are in the building. I am also adjusting back to wearing a bra all day! Since March I have only worn one to go grocery shopping, walking at the park, or for my exercising here. I much prefer not wearing one!! My meals have been good this week and I slept restlessly but was not up for hours on any night, so I'm not too tired so far. My friend who had been feeding the animals for me is going to start back on Monday and Wed next week. I will continue my training sessions online, Mondays at 6:30 am. I think I will try the pool on Wed. I found out that the family locker room is open, which is one shower and toilet so you are in there by yourself. It still would not have been cleaned between people, but at least nobody else is in there breathing near me like they would be in the regular showers and locker room.

I am glad you still have one online piano student! Do you think you could get another that way? Lots of kids are going to be used to doing any kind of learning online these days. I'm glad you still have some music in your life.

Good for you keeping up your exercise! There are so many great videos online. It's great that you are able to walk every day too. I would love that. I went yesterday after work, but will probably only manage once a week.

Your farmers' market trip sounds great! All those veggies sound so beautiful and amazing! It is definitely worth the extra money for such fresh food. I went last week for the first time, and was absurdly excited to find purslane there. I planted some for the first time this year after reading about how good it is for you, but I only got a few sad stalks. At the market I bought a big bunch for $2. I used a lot in a hot veggie dish, and have been putting the rest in my salads all week. The berries sound amazing too! I might have to go to the farm stand near me and get a watermelon this weekend. I have a hankering!

I hope your car is running better now! I hope this weekend goes more smoothly too. Keep up the good work with your exercise and all that healthy food!

I was amazed to hear about all the laxed attitudes starting the school year. My jaw drops to think they are still having potluck / shared meals. People do bring in some food at times, but most of us are careful not to "double dip!" The improper mask wearing or not at all is just crazy. I thnk no matter how they decide to hold school classes, each option has problems one or another. Most schools around here are opting mostly virtual for the first semester anyway. No one thought we would be this behind the ball after 5 months. I just hope your personal job gets ironed out soon. That must be stressful with all the uncertainly. You just look after you no matter what the idiots around you do. Salad Bar?/ NOOOOOO!

I'm pleased for you to feel good about your exercise. It is one thing we still have some control over. R and I did go to the pool a couple of days last week, despite most afternoon t-storms. We still got in out walk every morning. Today we are in the middle of the STORM that has flooded many streets in chesterfield/ midlothian. Fiance drove me to work in his truck and it still took an hour longet than usual. The main river cross James River Bridge at the Powhite toll plaza shut down just before we got to the long line- i've never see it that flooded. - all 6 lanes covered The police turned people around so we were driving the "wrong way" on the Powhite Parkway.. I don't drive in bad weather so I waa glad he drove, Midlothian got almost 7 inches of rain just today. I hope it is better tomorrow. He will pick me up and after I sleep awhile i'll get Rachael around 3. Still not going to church in person but a few people are with masks and distancing. I see it online.

Purslane? Im not familiar - I'll look it up. I never met a vegetable I didn't like! I'm still eating some of the vine tomatoes and some berries. The food from the farm is so much better tasting- it is worth it.

I don't know if i will active look for more online pianostudents or not. I'm enjoying the less demanding day right now. Cooking for the homles shelter Monday but it will be a one dish entree. The canned goods that other members brought will go with that and another member is delivering. Its a small thing but I know it means a lot to them.

And Oh yes, fingers crossed, I sent in paperwork and docs to try to refi my mortgage - down 1 and 1/2 points. I will be so happy if that goes through and 15 years , before it was 30 but I already pd. since 2014. I am so praying they will waive the appraisal. i'll let you know - Keep on keeping on.

I had a pretty good week at school, helping prepare materials that will be distributed to kids next week - workbooks, math materials, etc. We are sending out a pretty good package of stuff for each grade, so hopefully that will make things go more smoothly once we get started (still no wifi hotspots arrived). The attitudes are no better. The two people on my team that were not wearing the masks correctly still are not, and one of my other co-workers thinks those two have worked out a signal between them to pull up their masks when the nurse is coming near, which thoroughly disgusts me. I was talking to our vice principal yesterday and her mask was constantly falling completely off her nose. She was pulling it right back up, but it's not hard to get a mask that fits properly if you care. Some parents sent in boxes of donuts which were brought around to all our doors for everyone to reach in and take one, and also cupcakes which were in the kitchen. For once I am not having trouble resisting the junk since I don't want a dose of COVID along with it!

We have been able to go in at 9 instead of 8:30 while classes are not running, so I have been able to exercise every weekday morning! It's been nice and I am getting spolied by it. I have been eating fairly well, though consuming way too much chocolate. I have decreased my alcohol intake during the week, though this week I did sneak a little bit on some days but a small amount and early so it did not mess up my sleep. Last night though, I drank almost an entire bottle of wine and I did not have the best night. No throwing up or anything like that, just not able to sleep and feeling gross. I got up for an hour from 2-3:00, ate 2 granola bars, drank water, and looked at facebook and then got back to sleep a bit better.

Those storms were certainly bad! I am glad your fiance could drive to you work. I do not like driving in bad weather either. I heard about some of the flooding down there. That was scary! I am glad you are still getting in your walks and swimming! I ended up not going back to the Y to swim yet, but my friend is still feeding the animals for me that day, so even once I start back to my 8:30 schedule I will have enough time for a good workout at home that day.

It is so good of you to cook for the shelter! I know it does mean a lot to them to not only get food, but a home cooked meal. You are a good person!

Good luck with the refinancing! Any word on that yet? That will be so great for you! I will keep my fingers crossed!

Have a great week!

Hello! Another OK week at school. I spent my days in my friend's classroom instead of the library. She keeps her mask on all day except to eat or drink. I did not feel like I should eat in her room, so I did go eat in the library with the other 5 people on my team, which I do not like at all. On Friday, they gave us our chromebooks to use for the online classes, and I got to pick one of the storage rooms to be in, so now I have my own little space. It's hot and has no cell service, but it is my own spot! Classes start Monday and for now we are just observing K-2 classes throughout the morning live broadcasts. We are assigned to various grades for the afternoon but our actual role for now is not clear at all. Eventually we should be running small groups as we usually do, but that is down the road at this point.

I have still been exercising most days. My right ankle is a bit swollen on the outside and I'm not sure why. It doesn't hurt much so hopefully it will go away. I did hike several times, and unfortunately there were overgrown spots that I walked through and I have chiggers all over my legs. My ankles itched so much last night it kept me from sleeping well. The itch sprays do not help much with chiggers, as they do with bug bites, I guess since they are burrowed in. My meals have been ok, chocolate way too much as usual. Alcohol is good during the week and bad on Friday and Sat nights!

I have not dried any of my herbs but I would like to dry some rosemary at least. I have store-bought jars of everything else but ran out of rosemary. I love mint! It looks nice and green, and smells so nice. I do like my herbs that come back every year. I have a couple that do, and it is nice to see something growing without putting in any time!

Did you go to AZ? That sounds fun! I did not kayak at all this year, and only once last summer when my son took me. It's a lot harder now that my kids are off on their own, since my husband can't do it. When they were younger we kayaked around here a lot, and when they were a bit older we started going on vacation places where we could take them and get in some nice river trips. Now that they don't vacation with us anymore, I really miss that!!

I hope your week went well!

Hello! Well, this was quite a week. Classes started online for everyone on Monday. The younger grades are live classes for 2-3 hours in the morning and then working on their own for the afternoon. Eventually testing will be done and the afternoons will be small groups, and then I will be working with kids, but that is a few weeks away at least. There was no shortage of technical issues. Freezing cameras, slow loading videos, assignments not working. Kids don't mute themselves. Teachers juggling two computers (desktop to show their document cameras, and Chromebooks to broadcast themselves) while trying to mute kids. My first hour is observing a K class for 30 min and a 2nd grade class for 30 min, but there is nothing for me to actually do. My afternoons are also spent looking for stuff to do. Wednesday is no classes, so teachers can do planning and other stuff. Wednesday night someone cyber attacked the county school servers so school was closed Thursday, and we were scheduled off Friday and Monday anyway. My best work news is that I got my own space, in the 5th and 6th grade storage room on the second floor of the building. I have a table and a Chromebook, a place to eat away from other people, and I can avoid the people not wearing their masks properly. Plus I have been walking up and down stairs more which I need because I have somehow put on a few more pounds.

On Monday, my husband was told that his job is being eliminated, along with a couple of hundred others. He is 72 and we had been looking into retirement but he hadn't planned to do it yet since the economy is so bad and things are so uncertain, but now he has no choice. They will all get 2 weeks notice on Sept 16 and will not be expected to work those 2 weeks. He had vacation time left, so he took these next 2 weeks off starting yesterday, so he is effectively retired now. After Sept 16 he'll get all the paperwork for everything that comes with that. Because he lost his job instead of retiring in a regular way, he gets some severance pay so that part worked out to our advantage.

I did not exercise much this week, and my eating has not been great. My meals are still good, but I made brownies this week and we had cookies from the store yesterday, plus all the chocolate I eat too much of every day.

I hope your week has gone better than mine!

Hello, Not too much new going on with me. School still going about the same. Lots of technical glitches but some sort of routine is going. We had a teacher test positive and her team is not allowed to come back to school yet, but my friend saw one of them at the Dollar Tree. I saw 2 teachers arriving in a car together with no masks. Still plenty of mask violations going on inside the building. I spend all morning in my closet observing various virtual classes and I love my little space! This week and next week they have K-2 kids coming individually for testing in the building. My team has to health screen them outside and bring them in to their teacher. Parents have to stay outside. The kids have to wear masks in, but lots of parents don't bother to put one on when I approach them to ask my screening questions. It's all very discouraging.

I am exercising when I can, which is less than when I was on my extended vacation, but most days I get a little bit. I am still eating too much and drinking too much. I am getting home earlier than I used to because I get off work a half hour earlier and not going to yoga or the Y, etc., so I am using that as an excuse to have a glass of wine when I get back, since it's far enough from bedtime to not interrupt my sleep. I've gained a few more pounds. I am 9 pounds above where I was in early April, when I initially lost a few right after school closed.

Still, my family are currently all healthy and I'm so grateful for that. I'm grateful to still have a job, and that my friend feeds my animals 2 days a week because I get a nice long exercise session on those 2 days. My animals are also well. One of my chicks is confirmed a rooster. I suspected it all along due to his size relative to the others, but I caught him crowing yesterday. So far he is docile, and if he stays nice he can stay. I handled him as much as I could when they were in the house in the brooder box and I think it helped - he comes up to me sometimes to eat food from my hand.

I hope all is well with you!