The week of leftovers. The amount of food we cooked for the five of us, even after we sent home take-out boxes with the girls, left us with no room in the refrigerator. We had the choice of throwing it all out or eating leftovers for as long as they last (which was our plan in any event.) As you may recall, we went for our 5th COVID test last Wednesday. On Friday morning, Deb received her result as negative. Mark however, had to wait throughout the day, feeling more nervous as the hours slogged by. Finally at 7:30 in the evening the results were delivered - negative, so Mark was feeling a little better. Of course prior to that he was running around tasting things and smelling candles to assure himself that he still had some of his senses. Deb says he is still missing some.
Friday evening we loaded up some serving dishes, with mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, creamed corn and cheesy casserole. We popped it into a 325º oven and heated a few of the rolls in the microwave. Great eating. We enjoyed it in front of the TV while watching PBS Newhour. It was nice not to have the entire hour taken up with Trump-Trump-Trump for a change, although there will be some withdrawal pains. He continues to maintain that the election was fraudulent, but there is yet to be a court that agrees with him. The number of his legal maneuvers are diminishing as his attorneys slowly slip away before they are tagged as trying to defend a losing cause.
Saturday was quiet around Pierce St. We finished putting away any Thanksgiving decorations and slowly started pulling our Christmas decorations from storage.
Saturday afternoon, our friends Deb and Tim Duggan came over about 4:30 and we set a fire in the fire pit, enjoying some mulled hot wine (Glühwein) they brought over (courtesy of their Belgian neighbor) which was delicious! We also had a piece of pie each. The weather is getting very cool, but there was little wind so it was pleasant. The evening was over by 6:30 and as they leaded home, we marched inside to handle a little cleanup and check out the entertainment on the electronic picture box. We have been bingeing on West Wing for the last few weeks and are now somewhere in the middle of season three. It is fascinating to note that the issues of 2000-2005 are the essentially the same as we are facing in the country today, with the exception that in the fictional White House, there is wonderful man heading a team of genius policy makers created by dialogue writers that make one cry for the intelligence and empathy that is shown.
Sunday we (gasp) skipped Eggs Benedict and opted instead for grazing on leftovers. We received some sad news; our neighbor’s mother, who had been hospitalized at age 81 with COVID 19, opted not to go on a ventilator so went into hospice. She died Sunday morning. This damn disease just keeps getting closer and closer to home. On this day,we never left the house. It was cold and windy outside, so we stayed in, enjoyed the New York Times and the Omaha World Herald, again heated up leftovers in the oven finishing the last of the mashed potatoes and cheesy cabbage, but still leaving stuffing, turkey meat, gravy and corn casserole. We even found a remaining can of cranberry jelly hidden in the cupboard which we opened and added to the mix. More West Wing was on the entertainment box.
Monday, we traveled out for our phase two Shingles vaccine. We had received the first dose 8 weeks ago and it was time for the final inoculation. Medicare doesn’t cover this expense, so we dutifully tendered our credit card for the $133.00 as we had for round one. Expensive, especially if you don’t have the discretionary funds, but infinitely better than to be stricken with this disease. As we were out, we took the opportunity to pick up a Christmas tree at the local Ace store. This year we are going for height as it is going in the family room which has an eleven foot peak. We picked up the ugliest, skinniest eight foot Douglas fir they had on offer at a bargain price of $39.00 (we had a $10.00 discount coupon) and put it on the back porch while we rearrange things to accommodate it. We will end up with two main trees, and as yet untold number of smaller trees, and the Santa collection all over the house. This evening we again fired up the oven and heated up stuffing, the last of the gravy, creamed corn and turkey meat. We had wiped out the mashed potatoes, the rolls, and the cheesy cabbage as well as some yummy cheesy baked endive (again from Deb and Tim’s neighbor, so is it Belgian endive?).
In this time of pandemic, we will have no guests to show off the decorations, we will just enjoy them, remembering where in our travels they were picked up. Also, this season, you, dear readers, will probably
We have been breakfasting and snacking on pumpkin and apple pie all week. By Tuesday evening we are down to the last two pieces of apple pie. We finally broke our Thanksgiving food rut by haveing some egg and cheese biscuit breakfast sandwiches with V-8 juice; trying to get back to some semblance of healthy eating! Tuesday is trash pick up day at our house. Omaha has embarked on a new solid wast program and have issued every household with two 96 gallon bins, one for solid waste and one for recyclable material and this Tuesday is the first day we are to put out the new bins. Of course, the complaining never stops. In the older central city where we live, there are mostly single car garages built in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. The garages are barely large enough for today’s style vehicles, let alone a pair of 96 gallon trash bins that stand four feet tall and 30 inches square. Although the change makes sense, it will take some getting used to. Our neighborhood is grappling with where to store the cans, how to place them at the curb and when to put them out.
Under the old plan our trash was always out to the curb by 6:00 AM and picked up well before noon, That schedule allowed time to run around retrieving the cans that were rolling down the street on a windy day. There are inevitable learning curves but the new bins were not picked up until nearly 4:00 in the afternoon. First week start-up problems, surely.
Wednesday is shopping day around here, so Deb headed out, masks in place, to find groceries and other sundry stuff for Christmas. She started early waiting in line for Aldi’s to open and returned home mid afternoon, tired and laden with purchases. Tuesday drinks night was transferred to Wednesday this week and everyone was able to log on with out any difficulty. These “old broads” are getting pretty tech savvy, next thing you know they will be writing code and uploading it to the ether.
This Thursday we set up a Cocktail Zoom hour with our great friends Karen and Dell (George) Sennentz in Anthem AZ.
Keep washing your hands, stay socially distanced and keep those masks where they belong, over your nose and mouth. You might want to wash them occasionally too (the masks we mean.)
