Omaha Pandemic, Friday, June 26, 2020

Does it seem as if we just read this post and here we are over 90 days after we returned from our trip to Arizona and California? This past week we celebrated our 38th anniversary married to each other, reminisced about our trials and tribulations, Deb joining a family in progress and slowly becoming the Queen Bee, and then adding two delightful daughters to the mix. The years have flown by and here we are wondering how 90+ days can fly by - what about the previous 38+ years? Glenda, who was present at the ceremony all those years ago, and her husband Jeff arrived from Lincoln to help us celebrate on our anniversary.  She had prepared some wonderful home made pate´ served with baguette croutons, cornichons, kalamata olives, red onion and Dijon mustard as an appetizer, washed down with Aperol Spritzer cocktails while we admired our rear garden. Mark then threw some steaks on the “barbie” and we enjoyed some potatoes and salad together with red wine.  A glorious celebration.  We even placed Glenda’s bouquet of Shasta Daisy flowers on the table to add an air of sophistication.

Darcy and Abigail sent flowers and chocolate covered almonds, and all four children chipped in on a new electronic picture frame take will hold 40,000 pictures; now if Mark can figure out how to set up a second WiFi network to run it, we can get it loaded. Sounds like Jake will be pressed into service as  our long distance system administrator again.

Sunday was Father’s Day; years ago, after the children were old enough or flush enough to buy us their own presents, Deb and Mark agreed that neither of us was the other’s parent, so we don’t give Mother’s/Father’s day presents to each other, but we gladly accept them from the children.  Books were the big gift this day both discussions of African American culture and how to sort out the inherent racism all white Americans are brought up with. This will be a deep and hard learning experience that we hope to learn by and adjust to. The girls arrived for an evening meal, Abigail giving a wonderful metal sculpture of a nut hatch bird for mounting in the garden. Darcy’s gift was to provide shaggy Dad with a haircut. As long as she was in a cosmetological mood, Abigail took advantage and got her hair cut as well.  Watching the two of them interact was a gift in itself.  Darcy using the Dustbuster vacuum to clean the hair off Abigail’s face was worth the price of admission.

Our West Garden project is nearing completion, and the landscape contractor is finishing up today. Mark is making some benches for the area from the remains of the walnut log that fell in the yard of our previous home some eight years ago and has been air-drying (mouldering) behind the shed in the rear yard. So far it has yielded a lovely live edge dining room table and these two benches. There will no doubt be more as we slowly get it out of our garage, hopefully before the snow falls.

The days are whizzing by: Deb had her monthly Book Club via Zoom on Tuesday evening and then her drinks group, again by Zoom on Wednesday night. Thursday was given over to projects, Deb finishing up her planting and Mark working on the benches, applying coats of sealant to the legs and the benches. More baguettes were cooked in the afternoon and Deb prepared a new recipe, a lemon shrimp fettuccini, for dinner. It was truly yummy! We then sat, exhausted for a cocktail after a long day, raging about the havoc the rabbits are playing with our garden. Can one obtain pet foxes in the city? We watched as the moon came out and then sat quietly enjoying the cooling evening as the lights came on in our rear garden and the fireflies (lightning bugs) performing their mating dance by the hundreds.  Summer is truly here and before you know it we will be social distancing among the falling leaves from our maple and oak trees. Of course we will continue to wash our hands, wear our masks and stay safe, as all of you should be doing.