The weekend dawned sunny and temperate. We have two birthdays to celebrate and acknowledge for Saturday, October 17. Jacob Stuart Covert turned 46 on that date. He and Audry celebrated by roasting some ribs on the grill and sitting in their yard by the fire pit, enjoying the cool Michigan weather. The other October 17 birthday is of Esmè Marjorie Highland, attaining the age of two. She celebrated by going camping to Waubonsie State Park in Iowa for an overnight camp out with friends from Kansas. The weather turned decidedly cold over night with temperatures plunging into the mid 30º area with snow slush flurries. Other than the birthday girl nearly toppling headfirst into the campfire, all survived with quite a birthday camp out for a 2-year old. Congrats to both.
Saturday was a busy day around the Omaha household. Deb did some shopping and worked on bringing in her outdoor plants she is intending to over winter. Mark continues his recovery, graduating to a new set of exercises and eschewing his four legged rolling walker for his walking stick cane to move around the house. At Deb’s insistence, he is still parking the walker next to the bed overnight for in the dark stability, but clomps around with the stick all day long. We also participated in the bi-weekly family Zoom conference in the afternoon. We received a tour of Ed & Meg’s new apartment, and spent a lot of time talking about movies and other watchables to catch up with during this enforced at home time. Abigail spent the weekend virtually attending a knitting conference. She and Deb had originally scheduled to be in upstate New York for this huge knitting conference, but pandemic interfered. So Abigail logged on and signed up with everyone else for a virtual conference. She attended lectures, purchased more materials than she had intended (surprise!) and met a lot of new knitters. She added followers to her You Tube knitting blog, Covert Knits, and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. Saturday evening was capped by hot dogs on the grill with another caprese salad.
Sunday morning we awoke to slush on the ground and mixed rain/snow falling, but only around a quarter inch of total precipitation. the area is still down over 12 inches for the year, but some precipitation is better than no precipitation. Eggs Benedict again for brunch (no, they don’t get boring,) and BLT’s for dinner, again probably the last of the season.
The preceding week, we received the art work of Marcia Covert Chaves which we had purchased from her September Gallery show in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A beautiful painting entitled “Secret Garden at the Barnes House - Falmouth.” We now will embark on framing and finding a place of importance on our walls. If you have visited our home, you know that wall space is now at a premium. This means we must begin to rotate our displays like a gallery. Not to say that our collections are that worthy, only that we have over-collected over the years.
Monday again began with slush and rain and cool temperatures. Deb finished clearing the flowers off the front porch and getting the trash ready for Tuesday pick-up. More cookies were baked and walked over to Iris and Esmè (parents were allowed to test the fare) and then a dinner of beef pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes, covered in a beef gravy. A hearty meal for a cold and grey day.
Tuesday was a grey, stay at home day. We got some reading done, Deb did some more work on her picture clearing project, and we had a quiet dinner of homemade chicken noodle soup courtesy of Zoë. Deb made biscuits to for dunking in the soup and we enjoyed the cozy meal; preceded by a martini in front of the fireplace and capped by some PBS fare on the telly. Not so early to bed, as the shows seem to run on, but an easy day that was quite settling.
Our neighbor to the East, Patti, dropped off a get well gift for Mark ( a lovely multi-wood handmade winter stopper) and some beautiful roses, the last for the season. They were (and still are!) so bright and cheery that they have made this grey week much better.
Wednesday was another grey, but not rainy day. Deb, feeling that she had slacked the past few days, hit the ground running today. She started by heading out for some grocery shopping, visiting John and Lynn to return some invalid equipment Mark had borrowed, and then headed to Abigail’s house. she spent all afternoon clearing the vegetable garden, trimming back the peonies at the front, and cutting up a large fallen branch from the sycamore tree. She returned at 4:45, changed clothes and headed for Jan’s front porch for Tuesday Drinks (yes on Wednesday.) Dinner for both of us was snacks, cheese and crackers for Mark and cocktail hors d’oeveres for Deb. A busy day, crowned by a very restful and sound sleep that night.
Thursday was again grey and dreary with a morning fog and temperatures rising from 33ºF to 45ºF. Not a day for a glass of wine on the front porch as the wind had picked up. We read, traded cars with Darcy so she could take hers in for oil change, and then ended the day by grilling salmon on the back deck, accompanied by rice and a caprese salad - still trying to use up those tomatoes.
We chose not to watch the presidential sparring session on Thursday, preferring to hear about it on Friday instead. No use getting our blood pressure up. We have voted, our children and close friends have voted, and there is no need to see the two old combatants hurl insults at each other. Only eleven days to Election Day. If you haven’t voted - get out there and get it done. This is not the year to pass it up because you don’t like either of the major party candidates. Nor is it a year to pick a third party candidate as a better choice. Perhaps that third person is a better choice, but, tilting at wind mills is not a choice this time. Get out there and cast your vote - please.
Keep masked up, wash those hands repeatedly, and stay at least 6 feet from everyone but your housemates. Don’t go running to the bars to celebrate or commiserate, don’t celebrate or tailgate - just stay home and keep working at defeating this disease. We now know friends who have contracted the disease, but have not yet been touched by a death. We don’t want that, so pay attention! Thanks for listening.
