We on the other hand stay busy and have much to do. All this week, we spent every day at Abigail and Darcy’s house, first finishing the basement room, and then back to the rear yard for the patio. Thursday afternoon, after three false starts of setting and removing pavers during the week, we finally laid the last paver. Friday is the day to put the finishing edges on and then start completing the raised beds for the vegetable garden; the work is ongoing but it is a great reason for us get up and out in the morning. Notice we didn’t say early in the morning. Now that we are both virtually retired, we find that we don’t awaken until nearly 7:00 (if you don’t count the 5:00 to 5:30 trip to let Harry out for his morning ritual.) We then are “up and at ‘em” by starting the coffee and stepping out onto the front porch to sit, read the morning paper, take care of the Jumble and Crossword puzzles and say good morning to all the neighbors out walking their dogs. There is a “Neighborhood Watch” sign half a house length up the street from us. Deb tells Mark that he is the Neighborhood Watch, not just a nosy neighbor. Makes him feel so much better.
It was a quiet week on Pierce Street, as long as you don’t count the long 4th of July weekend. The noise on Saturday night went on until well past midnight. We had our usual 4th of July feast of Deb’s World Famous fried chicken (the secret being overnight soak in buttermilk and frying in bacon grease saved from last years BLTs,) along with her also world famous potato salad (secret ingredient withheld) and her soon to be world famous baked beans. The Duggan seniors joined us (adding a delicious Thai cole slaw to the table) together with Abigail, and for a short time Darcy and Maria. The food was delicious, there was no pressure of lighting fireworks, just sitting back in awe as the area exploded. There was high humidity that evening, the residual smoke hovered over the ground and was still there the next morning. If you owned a dog, who could hear, or you had a PTSD syndrome, no matter how slight, you did not have a good night. We did have one sour note: the Buster Bars were a tremendous failure due to chocolate wafers that tasted like RAID. We saved the ice cream, fudge and whipped cream but the rest had to go. Our kitchen smelled like a chemistry lab for two days!
This Sunday morning, we broke with our tradition of Eggs Benedict and opted instead to polish off the end of a loaf of Mark’s sourdough bread, toasted and slathered in either peanut butter or plain butter. This was a one time Sunday deviation, and there was a promise that the Hollandaise slathered eggs would appear next week. A solemn promise!
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were spent over at Abigails; the zoom cocktail hour on Tuesday went off with nary a hitch, with only one participant being absent due to a family obligation. Wednesday, Deb had her annual appointment with her heart doctor, and came away with an all clear for her to continue as she has been. Her murmur has no change and the heart was no blacker than it has been in the past - good news for Mark!
Friday is a day to finish the garden as noted above, and another evening for our biweekly Arizona cocktail zoom with Tom and Kevin. As Arizona is now a pandemic hotspot, we are always anxious to ascertain that all is well with our Arizona friends, either via zoom or email with Karen and dell in Phoenix. Likewise, we check in regularly with Ed and Meg in LA to make sure that this other hotspot is not getting to our children and they are social distancing and washing their hands.
OK - masks up, hands washed, stay distanced and keep safe.
