We had another Zoom cocktail hour with Tom Nielsen and Kevin rose in Tucson. We saw live pictures of the “Bighorn” fire which was raging and visible from their windows, smoking up their picturesque sundown view of the painted mountains, one of the primary reasons for them picking that particular home. Both, along with their roommate Liam the Scotty dog, are doing well, enjoying the morning walks, the afternoons in the air conditioned house, and the early evenings in the pool. Such a life. We are already envisioning our next winter trip south to mooch off of all our Arizona friends; that is if they manage to keep self distancing, masking, and avoiding the current surge in COVID cases that are ramping up in this reddest of states.
Saturday we enjoyed our Family Zoom meeting. Audrey and Jake were on the road in Michigan, leaving their home for one of the first times and hauling their new camper behind the truck to a nearby campsite for a test outing. Later we received a picture of the lovely set-up.
Saturday evening, our friends Lee and Howie Needelman came over for a social distance steak cookout and cocktail in our rear garden. Good meat, potatoes, salad and homemade cookies for dessert from Lee. Although we don’t get out much, it is so uplifting to be able to see friends, talk and be relaxed, although politics and COVID continue to be prominent topics in our conversations.
On Wednesday, our oldest grandson Chris Gillespie stopped in Omaha in the morning on his solo drive back to home in Hagerstown, MD. Chris had driven cross country the preceding week to see Ed in California. Chris was there for one day when Ed announced that he was flying out on Sunday morning to Hagerstown for Spenser’s rapidly organized high school graduation ceremony! So, Chris hung in California for another day and then headed back east. We enjoyed our two hours with him, eating breakfast and learning about his adventures on the road during his cross-country trips. He was truly on a busman’s holiday as his regular job is as a rural mail carrier for the USPS, driving a mail delivery vehicle over the rural roads of Maryland.
This week the crew we have hired to finish the west garden area started. This area is not so much a garden as a walk-way area to be covered in crushed granite to form an area for benches, potted plants and a band of greenery next to the house. Deb envisions an Italianate style palazzo in miniature, less the statuary. Anxious to see the vision as a reality. If they don’t get some crushed stone down before the predicted Friday evening rains, it will just be a muddy pool.
Progress on the new basement room at Abigail’s house is progressing. The drywallers enclosed the ceiling last week and they are taping, applying the joint compound and sanding this week. The carpet people are into measure this week, and next we finish the lighting and painting. the finish carpentry around the closet and baseboards will be done next weekend, we are hoping, and then carpet install and Darcy can move down. That still leaves completion of the patio and raised garden beds to go there. Busy summer for one that is supposed to be quiet due to the pandemic. Exhausting to write about, let alone get it all done. As Mark is truly retired, and Deb is probably retired unless travel picks up again before all her clients die off, it does keep our days filled.
Another Sunday of Eggs Benedict for breakfast and plowing through the Omaha World Herald and the New York Times - plenty of puzzles, reading and lounging. This week we in Omaha have “enjoyed” temperatures above 90ºF every day for the entire week; plus constant wind sometimes gusting to 35 mph. Finally on Friday the high is predicted to only be 84º - but rain and thunderstorms throughout the weekend. We surely need the moisture as we are down an inch for the month of June from historical averages and we are only half way through the month.
Did we mention that tomorrow is also the Summer solstice? We begin the long slide towards shorter days and longer nights. Before we know it Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us. How will the pandemic affect the high holidays for us? Will we have our usual multi-family gatherings as in year’s past or will it be cozy intimate family only? Will there be long travels in store or remixing in place at home. Well one thing is certain, we will enjoy them no matter what.
Stay safe, keep washing your hands and maybe wash your mask occasionally!
