Omaha Pandemic, May 8, 2020

Entering week 8 and not much seems to be changing. Nebraska has loosened up its leash, allowing church services, hair and massage salons opening and tattoo parlors. As a bearded individual, Mark is trying to figure how to have his beard trimmed while wearing a face mask, as is required!  Looks like time for another home trim job. Also 50% tables in restaurants, but not bars, so while restaurants are allowed to have minimal dine-in capabilities, not a lot of them are rushing to offer this service.  With Mother’s Day coming this weekend, only a handful seem to be offering dine-in service.  Envision lots of carry-outs for Mom’s brunch this year.

A correction (or probably just a clarification) from last week.  Darcy’s stints on You Tube are under Omaha Girls Rock, but they are the ones entitled OurStory.  The subtitle wasn’t mentioned, so if you could not find them, try again.

This past week we walked around the block to our friends Zoë and Garth Highland for a socially distanced cocktail on Friday evening on their back porch, after their girls were down for the night. Very enjoyable to see them together and not just holler  at them from our front porch as they walked by.

On Saturday, the contractor we hired arrived and promptly began swinging a sledge hammer to break out the west side concrete sidewalk.  Quite a job and quite a pile of broken concrete to be hauled away, but he was done in 2 hours. We would have been days trying to do it ourselves, probably at the cost of two bottles of Ibuprofen to boot.  Later in the week, another landscaping contractor stopped over and we laid out our vision for the area.  It will take most of the summer to get it done, but we are shooting for an Italian garden style area, complete with our version of tall cypress trees (Arbor Vitae) and benches along a granite walk with a green border of vinca minor and pots of colorful flowers. Now that we have committed this to the ether space, we will see how true we come to the original vision. Stay tuned.

Our rear garden continues to bloom and take on a finished look.  We are expecting however, near freezing temperatures over the weekend.  This morning broke to 37F in our yard, and tomorrow

morning is forecast even lower accompanied by gusty winds.  No planting of tomatoes this Mother’s Day.  We are at least a week out on setting the tender plants, although the radishes are flourishing, as is the rhubarb.

We continue baking and eating as if for a party of twelve. One evening, instead of a full fledged meal, we opted to go continental with a baguette, some Brie and a glass of wine.  This sounds like light dining until you get to the end of the bottle of wine and discover that you have wiped out an entire baguette and wedge of Brie between the two of us!

Shopping this week was normal - many more masked shoppers but still a significant number uncovered. Vehicular traffic has picked up as the restrictions are being lifted.  However, a significant jolt to the psyche when NPR announced this morning that the national unemployment rate jumped to 14.7% and that the true number of people out of work was probably 22% - that is nearly a quarter of the working population - a staggering fact and all accomplished in six weeks.

Last Saturday we held another Zoom family get together and talked to all but one of the grandchildren; we are seeing more of the family than before the pandemic - something good is coming of all this. Deb continued with her Girls Drinks Night on Zoom, and all but one attendee was able to log on.  Next Tuesday she is shooting for 100%.  Also this week, Deb attended a porch cocktail with distancing at her friend Robin’s house joining with friend Deb Duggan round the fire pit.  Bundled up in blankets, they enjoyed some hors d’oevres and wine, chatting and shivering in the cool evening.

This evening we are going to attend a Zoom cocktail get together with Tom and Kevin in Tucson.  Tom Nielsen is Lynn Covert’s cousin.  Lynn is recovering very well from her hip replacement, but it must be a genetic thing - Tom is going in for his hip replacement  this coming week as restrictions on “elective” surgery have been lifted. We will be anxious to visit with him post-operative.  

We want to wish all our readers a happy Mother’s Day - enjoy your visits, real or virtual, with each other.  We are thinking of you and will spend this Mother’s Day with two of our four children, enjoying a socially distanced cookout at home.  Stay safe and keep washing those hands!