Omaha Pandemic, Friday, April 30, 2021

Road Trip! Our first excursion out of Omaha since July 31, 2020 when we traveled to Red Cloud Nebraska, hometown of Willa Cather and now home to the National Willa Cather Center. This trip was not just a lark, but a purposeful sojourn to celebrate a birthday - the 90th birthday of Deb’s Uncle Bud (Gilbert) Picken. Bud is the only sibling of Deb’s father and is still living by himself, together with his trusty long-haired Dachshund Sara. We departed Omaha on Friday morning at 10:50 AM, getting only three blocks away before turning around to pick up a forgotten item. We finally hit the road at 11:03, headed for I-80 and then I-29 north to Missouri Valley via Crescent Iowa. Our first delay is encountered in MoValley;  the Union Pacific mainline runs through this town, and there are three sets of tracks. Just as we pull into the outskirts, the signal arm drops and two trains, both headed the same direction, pull across the road and grind to a stop. No way around. After 10 minutes or so, Deb realizes that she may have consumed too much coffee prior to our departure from home. Nowhere to go and a crisis impending. Next to the road is Mike’s Automotive Repair store, a two bay steel building with vehicles in front. We pull out of the train wait line and into the parking lot. Deb hustles in, pleading a urinary emergency and they grant her access to the facilities. Back on the road, we wait another 10 minutes for the signal arm to lift and we are on our way.

We are not good Interstate Highway travelers, much preferring the “blue roads” of rural America. A slower way to travel, but much more scenic, flavorful, and no harassing semi-trailer vehicles to wear us down. Our first stop was our guilty pleasure of a McDoanld’s Restaurant in Denison, Iowa. We only eat McDonald’s when we are on the road. This first taste in 2021 was of a Quarter-Pounder with Cheese and a double burger, no cheese. The obligatory french fries were topped off with good hot coffee. Then back on the road headed to our destination of Fairmont Minnesota. The town is just north of the Iowa-Minnesota border, midway across Minnesota on I-90. We had told the relatives we would arrive around 4:00 PM, and we pulled up at 3:57! Great navigating and driving. 

As noted, Bud lives independently in a small cottage home in the middle of Fairmont, but for the birthday event, his daughter and son-in-law Denise and Scott Posner traveled in from their home in Wisconsin. As Denise spent her  teenage years in Fairmont, coming in to visit Dad is a regular event. It gives her a chance to attend his various doctor’s appointments and also to see her brother Dan, who lives in nearby Mankato, Minnesota. Dan was not able to join us for the birthday celebration, although he was scheduled to come visiting the next day. We are sorry we missed seeing him, as Deb has not seen him sine they were kids.

After visiting for a few hours and reviewing the batches of photos Deb had brought to share with her family, the pizza that Diane had ordered arrived for our dinner. Bud is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids. Diane had prepaid for the pizza, and was trying to jockey her way to the door to offer a tip to the driver. Bud however was first at the door and saw the ticket for the $37.00 pizzas and promptly offered the delivery driver $40.00, telling him to keep the change as a tip. He was a very happy driver, and sped off with a smile. It wasn’t until sometime later that Diane explained to her Dad that she had already paid for the pizza and the driver just earned a $40.00 tip! Bud took it well and said “Well, I have been having a hard time getting rid of this extra money that keeps showing up in my account from the government, so it wasn’t too bad a mistake!”  To accompany the dinner Bud had whipped up a Waldorf Salad and we enjoyed the food and smiled at the error.

Diane had made a wild blueberry pie for dessert, so we stuck some candles in it, sang Happy Birthday, and enjoyed the delicious pie with some ice cream. We finally headed out to our hotel room shortly after 9:00, well after Bud’s normal bedtime, but we so enjoyed the visit and hope he did too.

Saturday morning we rousted out, packed up our bags and stopped at McDonald’s for a breakfast egg and biscuit breakfast with more coffee and headed to Minneapolis along the blue roads. We arrived at our destination, the IKEA store next to the Mall of America. We have just spent months clearing the lower level of detritus, so why are we stopping at this Mecca of consumerism? We love the design sense of IKEA and almost always find some small stuff to carry home. This trip, our largest purchase is floor lamp intended for the new lower level library, together with some other small stuff, stopper bottles for wine, a small wastebasket, a couple of packs of frozen meatballs.

Speaking of IKEA’s famous Swedish meatball dinner in the cafeteria, the cafeteria is open. there is a sign we scan in order to secure a time to eat at the cafeteria - no time slots available! Hence we are left with picking up a few packs at the market at check-out. We had planned ahead and brought a cold bag for just such an eventuality.

We finished at the store and moved on to our evening’s hotel, arriving around 4:00 PM. We refreshed, had a glass of wine and then arranged to meet our friend April Dillon at a nearby parking lot. There is major construction around her new neighborhood, occasioned by the light rail coming through the area and it would have been impossible for us to find her new home on our own. She drove us the few winding blocks to her new apartment building and we elevatored to the 5th floor for a tour of her new home. She has done a marvelous job of picking just the right unit in the right place in the building, affording a sweeping view with no chance of another building impeding her view, north light and plenty of windows. She has had to edit her belongings as we all have when we downsize, but she has done a masterful job of editing and display. Her new home is lovely and inviting.

At six, we returned to the parking lot, conveniently also the place of our selected restaurant, Jimmy’s. this is our first foray into a sit down restaurant since the COVID crisis hit. The place was crowded and though they advertised that they were safely distanced, it felt very close to us!  However, all servers were masked and we settled into a table safely away from others. This place is known for its halibut, walleye and seafood. We each tried something different, and although passable, it was not up to the gourmet standards we had expected, especially considering the pricing. We did enjoy the conversation, the martinis, the wine and the outing, but could not recommend this place in the future.

 We were back in the hotel by 9:30, quickly into bed and sleeping fitfully through the night. On Sunday morning, we met April again at another nearby breakfast place for some eggs, toast and other goodies, together with coffee. We said our goodbyes, and headed south toward home, on the road by shortly after 10:30. It was cloudy and 48ºF when we left Edina. As we headed south the temperature slowly started to drop. By the time we were just south of Mankato, it started to spit and we soon found ourselves in a snowstorm with limited visibility. the snow wasn’t sticking to the pavement, but the fields were turning white. By the time we crossed into Iowa, the temperature was down to 34ºF. We stopped for a bathroom break and to fuel the car and continued south. (If you look closely at the photo, right, you will see that the town name is Frost, Minnesota!)

At 28 miles south of the gas station, our low tire indicator light came on and we pulled over near the intersection of U.S. 169 and Iowa 9, just outside of Logan Iowa, A quick inspection showed a rear driver- side flat tire. We unloaded all of our IKEA purchases into the rear seat and pulled the spare tire and jack from its storage position. The snow had stopped, the pavement was dry, but the winds were stiff. Mark, in his sandals and no gloves, began the tire changing process. One lug nut would not come loose, neither tightening nor loosening. Obviously cross threaded. We called AAA and learned that it would be up to 3 hours before they could reach us. True to their word, at 3:30 the truck pulled up. It was a guy from Fairmont Minnesota, the same town we had visited for the Picken birthday party. He had the tire off and the spare on and inflated properly within 30 minutes. Although we were covered by AAA, we let loose another $40 tip for the help we were so grateful for. That was two $40 tips in one weekend for the residents of Fairmont! We hope they remember us the next time we come through.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, but we did stop at a Dairy Queen for the other obligatory pleasure of a road trip - no, not a Blizzard, but a Sundae, topped with chocolate and peanuts. We arrived home at 8:00 and unloaded the car, had a bite to eat and a glass of wine and then rolled into bed, tired but really glad to be home. We had noted that when we passed into Omaha, the temperature had climbed to 78ºF, a 44º swing in less than two hundred miles.

Monday was the 12th wedding anniversary of Claire Covert Bybee and James Bybee. Congrats to these two youngsters! We took the blue chariot in for repair and learned that the damaged tire was unrepairable and needed replacement, the second in two weeks, and also that all the lug nuts on the wheel were now cross threaded, requiring them all to be broken off, the hub pulled and five new ones installed. New tire, $250, repair $185, tip to AAA $40. All in all, an expensive trip, automotive-wise.

Tuesday afternoon, Deb met Abigail at Lowe’s to pick out plants and generally wander the store getting ideas for the garden. That evening, Deb enjoyed a Zoom meeting with her book club; the book was Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. All enjoyed it. 

Wednesday Mark traveled to Master Gardeners to supervise installation of the flagstone he had ordered for a path in a new garden area they were constructing, followed by a coffee hour hosted by the staff of Hospice, thanking the crew for all their annual work. While Mark was working away, Deb walked over to the Highland neighbors for coffee and some time with Esmè, Zoë and Garth. Iris was in class. Wednesday evening, was Girls Drinks Night, again at our house so Mark was forced into the lower level library to watch PBS Newshour and his latest binge, Balthazar, a French murder series.

Thursday noon, Deb’s Girls Lunch group, Mary Carter, Deb Duggan and Lee Needelman arrived, each with their own lunch to dine on the patio, the weather rising to a perfect 74ºF. Thursday evening was a time for relaxation, a home-grilled hamburger and en evening watching Backyard Farmer and catching up on Jack Irish. So ends another extremely busy week. When do we have time to relax?  Not this week.

Again, if you haven’t been vaccinated, get to it please. Now we can be outside without masks but caution is still the watch word. By the way, Sushi the cat lived through the weekend and into the week, still struggling but “not dead yet!” Thanks for following our adventures!

Omaha Pandemic, Friday, April 23, 2021

Another strange weather week in the Midwest. Sunny but blustery days, with overnight temperatures dropping into below freezing range most nights. As much as we love getting the flowers out and uncovering our plantings around the garden, we have resisted and are now glad we have. We even had a light dusting of snow on Tuesday morning.

A big birthday shoutout to first-born son Edwin Busk Covert III on completing his 48th year! Only a few years away from a milestone birthday (of course that means Mark too will be celebrating a milestone that same year, owing to their 25 year age difference!) Ed celebrated by an attempt to dine in every upscale taco joint in LA for his birthday, courtesy of Meg’s planning and knowledge of Ed’s culinary loves. Good job Meg!

Tuesday morning we took our cat Sushi to the veterinarian. He had been listless, no longer jumping onto the sofa for a scratch or onto the bed as Deb was trying to read, demanding a scratch with his loud purring and head butting. We learned that his weight had dropped nearly in half to about six pounds, all due to a huge tumorous mass that has grown around his abdomen, narrowing his trachea, making it hard for him to eat or purr. It is inoperable and it could be days to perhaps a month longer for him. We are truly sad, this will be the second pet this year that we have lost. We are doing our best to make his final days comfortable, putting out good food, letting him sleep constantly (what’s new - he is a cat) and keeping his water fresh.

Abigail has been having some food adventures. She has become a real grillmaster,

cooking turkey burgers and asparagus on her deck grill. She is already an accomplished cook, but adding this dimension to her repertoire bodes very well for future dinners at our daughter’s house. We are thrilled. 

We finished up the lower level library (Mark is forbidden using the term Man Cave) and have spent a small amount of time watching TV, reading and admiring our work. Wednesday evening Deb hosted her weekly Girl’s Drink Night at the house, so the invitees were invited down to ooh and aah then banned to the upper level while Mark cracked a bottle of red wine and proceeded to watch his favorite PBS Newshour show on his own, accompanied by a box of wheat thins and a stack of Swiss cheese squares. It was like a banishment to heaven, although probably not too good for his arteries.

Wednesday morning Mark traveled to his Master Gardener site, got the team working in 30ºF weather and then promptly returned home after an hour due to cold fingers with no appropriate gloves. The crew stayed behind long enough to finish a small amount of clean-up and plant the 24 elderberry bushes that arrived from the Nebraska Resources District; bare root twigs that should make it just fine in our climate. Although the berries are poisonous to humans in their raw state, they make excellent jellies and wine when properly cooked; that assumes the birds and critters don’t get to them first. It will probably be 2022 before we see any fruit from these twigs.

Thursday morning Deb did actual travel agent work, booking some cruises and cleaning up some details. Mark mowed the lawns and in the evening we dined at Lee and Howie Needelman’s home, inside and unmasked, as we have all been fully vaccinated. A joy to see them in person and the Asian cuisine was excellent as always. We learned of Howie’s experience with his AmEx card account due to the massive hacking of UNMC information of last year. Evidently he was buying things all over the country and applying for multiple new AmEx card accounts; a harrowing story. The most intriguing was that the thieves would remotely set up call forwarding on  their home phone number in order to confirm information from the card companies when they would call to confirm purchases!

Friday morning we are leaving on our first road trip in over a year, driving to Fairmont Minnesota to help celebrate Deb’s uncle Bud’s (Roger’s younger brother)  90th birthday. Bud (or Gil, as his family calls him) still lives by himself (with his little dog, Sarah) and is fairly independent. We also will see Deb’s cousin Diane and hopefully Diane’s brother Dan.  Following our day/evening in Fairmont, we are running up to the Minneapolis area for an outing at the IKEA store and then some time with our good friend April Dillon, returning on Sunday. Weather forecast is good, but a chance of snow on Sunday in Minnesota. We are looking to a great trip and will properly note it our next weekly report. 

Darcy and Maria, along with their dogs Norman and Weenie, will be staying at the house and looking after Sushi. We are hoping Sushi’s health holds until we return. We hope you are now vaccinated and urge you to stay masked whenever appropriate, maintain proper distancing and get outside to enjoy the spring weather in your part of the world. Keep washing your hands and stay safe.

Omaha Pandemic, Friday, April 16, 2021

Weather report: overnight temperatures dropping into the upper 20’s, daytime highs in the lower 50’s this week. Friday afternoon rain predicted, which is overdue. It has been snowing in the western part of Nebraska, 450 miles west of here, but will turn to rain by the time the front reaches us.

There are no birthdays to report this week; however, we did note that on April 15, we remembered the second anniversary of our trip to Europe together with the Needelmans in 2019. We note it, as this is the date when fire erupted in the roof area of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. We had just passed by the cathedral and returned to our hotel room when our phones erupted and the CNN news flashed pictures of the burning cathedral. The next day, we walked back to witness the scene, with fire hoses spread all around and the usual onslaught of gawkers, chattering away in their native language, we could barely catch a phrase. For more details, see our post of April 2019 by searching on “France.”

Friday, Abigail took the afternoon off from work so she and Deb could plant the early seeds in the garden beds - potatoes, carrots, onion sets, radishes, lettuce, spinach and peas. Mark spent the time installing some solar lights along the two stairways leading from the lawn up to the deck.That evening we had another Zoom meeting with friends Tom and Kevin in Tucson. They were out on their patio, under the sunlight with the mountain view reflected in their windows. If we get to Arizona this year, it will be in the heat of summer, but that’s what why air conditioning was invented! 

Saturday we watched another instalment of vegetable growing, presented by the Nebraska Extension Service, this time on container gardening. Mark finished putting together the shelving units in the basement, and we moved the area rug down in preparation for work on the new queen sized futon, and glass-fronted shelving units that had been stored in the garage during construction.

Sunday we finished up detail work in the basement rooms and Deb broke out her Instant Pot and dropped in a couple of chicken carcasses she had been saving in the freezer, resulting in a couple of quarts of chicken broth to be used in all sorts of tasty dishes in the next few weeks. A quiet Sunday.

Monday morning, Mark completed most of the futon set-up and Deb began the task of shelving books from boxes and stacks spread throughout the basement. In the afternoon, Mark stepped out to plug his batteries into the lawn mower and clean up the lawn. Deb got out her trusty rake and clippers to do some clean up and we managed to fill two leaf bags! The new 2021 trash pick up program in Omaha is quite restrictive. The plan doesn’t allow yard bags except from May17 through June 25. Excess yard waste at any other time should go in the 96 gallon containers to be added to the landfill. Of course if there is too much in the big bin, then we have to put the yard bags out with each bag bearing a sticker we purchase from the City at the rate of $1.98 per bag, plus City sales tax. All rather irritating.

Tuesday, Darcy arrived in the afternoon to help us finish the futon and to assist in placement of the unit and mattress. Mark hung the television set over the antique book shelf units and Darcy helped to connect the Apple TV unit for use with the TV. we then settled in for an initial glass of wine in front of the TV in our newly christened Lower Level Library!

Wednesday, Mark headed out early for his weekly stint as a Master Gardener. He is a crew leader at the demonstration gardens set up at the Josie Harper Hospice House facility. They actually tend to over 11 separate gardens on the ground and Wednesday was the first day for the crew. The morning broke brisk with a low of 32ºF which slowed the crew down some, but by 11:00 AM all was looking good, so they broke for a coffee.   klatsch to end the day. In the afternoon, Deb finished loading almost all of the books into the new library area and started sorting and shelving. The books were all shelved by Thursday afternoon and Deb headed for her first haircut appointment in over a year. Mark broke down all the remaining cardboard in the garage, swept it out, and delivered the cardboard to the recycling center.

We are planning our first road trip for this coming weekend - stay tuned for our trip to Minnesota and the little things we encounter along the way. Back to our true Covert Journeys. Stay safe, mask up, wash your hands often, don’t kiss strangers and schedule your vaccination.

Omaha Pandemic, Friday, April 9, 2021

Weather has been spotty in Omaha this past week. Temperatures raised to the mid 70ºF range over the weekend and plunged to a high of 44ºF on Wednesday. Sunshine followed by 1.55 inches of rain, followed by a sunny Friday. spring is here; now we wait for tornado season! Birthdays to report this past week include Colin Duggan celebrating his 42nd birthday on Sunday and our good friend April Dillon celebrating her 70th in the northern sunny climes of Eden Prairie, Minnesota on Friday. Congratulations to both.

Projects both inside and outside this week soaked up some of our energy. On Saturday, a sunny warm day, we journeyed to Abigail’s house to construct a new raised planting bed for vegetables. This one is constructed of 2 x 10 treated eight foot timbers. It ended up being 12 feet long and 4 feet wide, at a depth of 19 inches. We took a break in the afternoon for the bi-weekly Family Zoom call from Abigail’s deck and then finished up the construction project.

On Sunday, Easter Day, we awoke to a warm sunny morning, perused the Omaha World Herald on-line and retrieved the Sunday New York Times from the front yard. Earlier this year, we transitioned from the print addition of the daily rag to the on-line edition. As confirmed local tabloid readers, the electronic method is less than satisfying. It is very hard to sit on the front porch, nursing a morning coffee in the early light, and try to page back and forth on the iPad tablet. The page views keep changing of their own accord, throwing off any rhythm the reader tries to gain. The decision to switch to electronic is the result of an increase to nearly $600 per year for the paper edition. To say we are dissatisfied with this change is an understatement. There definitely are pluses to the Luddite life.

 

Sunday afternoon we trekked back to Abigail’s to finish work on the raised bed. Mark finished up some minor construction issues while Deb and Abigail did some yard clean up. We dumped a couple of bags of leaves into the bed box and then Mark and Abigail hauled the top soil over to the box, slit the bags, and dumped in the soil. our thirty bags of topsoil barely made a dent in the box. Looks like we are going to need more dirt, so we made plans for another run for the coming week.

Monday morning, the two of us donned our painting clothes and put final coats on the basement walls; in the afternoon,Mark set up his saw horses, miter saw and equipment in the basement, staging for cutting the base mouldings and trim for the basement project while Deb prepared for a client meeting scheduled for late afternoon. Strange how work now seems to get in the way of all our “fun” projects. 

Last week, we learned that our friends Dell and Karen were driving in from Phoenix to Kearney, Nebraska to visit their twin daughters for the Easter weekend. On Monday they drove in to Omaha to visit their new great-grandchild and to have dinner with Karen’s sister Cathy and her husband who still lived in Omaha.

Tuesday morning they stopped by our house for a few hours conversation and a cup of coffee. How strange but warmly exciting to welcome them into our home, unmasked and unworried about the COVID. All four of us are well past our vaccination dates, so were able to hug and sit in the same room, sipping our coffee and catching up. In person is so much nicer than Zoom meetings, though because of these regular Zooms, we did not need to recap the year past.

Tuesday afternoon, Mark worked on the basement while Deb toiled in the office area. That evening we welcomed our friends Lee and Howie Needelman for dinner of our favorite LaCasa pizza, some salad and bottles of red wine. Lee provided ice cream and cookies for dessert. We sat on the patio for a bit enjoying our class of wine before heading in to dine at the dining room table. They headed out around 8:30 to go walk their puppy, and we were again able to hug some vaccinated friends. There are clear benefits in this pandemic for being old and early recipients of the vaccine.

Wednesday we were back to Menard’s, ordering another 60 bags of topsoil, a half dozen bags of dark brown mulch and rented another truck from them to carry it all home. The yard crew at the store fired up the forklift and loaded the pallet of soil into the truck. Off we drove to Abigail’s and set up a bucket brigade of the two oldsters and the two daughters to unload the material from the truck. That took a quick 15 minutes to stack it on the front lawn.

Next we loaded the two extra 2 x 10 boards into the truck for return/refund and then loaded Darcy’s queen size mattress, pad and particle board bed frame into the truck. An unknown moisture source (spill, animal accident?) had stained the mattress and started to mildew so it had to go. We drove off on the next leg of our project while Darcy spent a hardworking 45 minutes wheelbarrowing the 2400 pounds of top soil around to the back yard - this a real life saver for the old folks! We drove to the dump/recycling location, paid our $20 fee and drove in to throw off the mattress, pad and broken down bed frame. Then back to Menard’s to turn in the two returned boards and rid ourselves of the truck. We were home and done by 1:00 in the afternoon just as the rain started.

Wednesday morning Mark finished most of the work in the basement and later that afternoon we experienced a two and a half hour power outage due to some faulty network equipment in the neighborhood. We put this enforced lull to good use by dozing off in the family room - everything we work with or read is now electrically powered except for some magazines already scoured. Later in the afternoon, our neighbor and electrician Tom Babb stopped over to hook up the ceiling light fixtures, receptacles and switches in the basement.

Thursday Mark finished up the moulding work, applied the caulk to hide gaps in the finished product and began work on assembly of shelving units that had been purchased from Amazon and stored in the garage during the duration. Deb headed out for grocery shopping required to sustain us for the next few weeks.

As Friday is a bright sunny day, we are now headed back over to Abigail’s this afternoon to dump the 2,400 pounds of topsoil in the box, hoping that this will be enough to raise the level for planting the potatoes, carrots beets and other root vegetables envisioned for this spot.

We still are looking for some time to get our own garden in order, cleaning up winter debris, uncovering the sprouting plants and generally getting things beautiful again. Keep your masks on in public, make your vaccination appointment if you can, stay away from strangers, and wash your hands.  We want you all safe.

Omaha Pandemic, Friday, April 2, 2021

It has been a very busy time in Central Omaha this week. Birthdays, babysitting stints, painting, gardening, and general busyness characterized our days. First to the three birthdays celebrated this past week. Our daughter-in-law, Audrey Covert in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan celebrated her 42nd on Saturday. On Monday, March 29, brother John Covert passed his 70th gloating over his new small camper. When asked what kind he received, he stated that he hadn’t checked on the box yet, but he was having a great time playing with it! He was going to put it in the back seat of his car and bring it over for Mark to play with sometime.

Also on Monday the 29th, our friend Zöe Highland celebrated her 38th birthday. We walked around the corner to her house on Monday morning for a quick party, meeting with her friend Char Thiessen and Zöe’s children to celebrate with some cupcakes, and bubbles blowing across the yard. Parties are so much fun with toddlers running around, at least in the morning.

Sunday evening we had our first indoor dinner party in over a year. Our friends Deb and Tim Duggan, both fully vaccinated, joined us for dinner. Deb prepared a Shepherd’s Pie, an amalgam of recipes from various cookbooks and her friend Glenda’s recipe. We sat down to a dinner at the dining room table after spending a cocktail time around the backyard fire pit soaking up the heat and dodging the smoke while munching on Deb Duggan’s hors d’oeuvres of sausages wrapped in pastry. The evening ended with a large helping of Deb’s world famous cherry pie.  Deb was so tired from all the baking and mixing that she didn’t make a salad and Mark hadn’t made any bread. The beautifully presented casserole was unceremoniously placed on the white plates, looking as though it may have already been digested, but it sure was tasty! A great evening and a long time coming.

Monday, after the birthday party, we headed to Menard’s for a major shopping expedition. We ordered  2 X 10 treated lumber, thirty bags of topsoil, a dozen 16 x 16 concrete stepping stones and a bundle of 8-foot base molding. As this was too big a load for our Subaru, we rented a truck from Menard’s, had them load our haul, and then headed out to Abigail’s, first stopping at our house to drop of the mouldings and pick up our large wheelbarrow.

Upon arrival at Abigail’s, the three of us unloaded the truck, stacking the lumber and stepping stones by the drive and piling the bags of soil at the top of her inclined front yard. Abigail was in the truck lifting the bags of soil and handing them off to Deb, who spun east, then south and trotted up the incline to hand them to Mark who stacked them in a neat pile, ten bags high and three across, which promptly started slipping down into a large random pile.

Mark then hopped in the truck to return to Menard’s. We had the truck for a total of 2 hours and it cost us under $40.00. A lot less than a delivery would have charged. By the time he returned to Abigail’s the girls, with Darcy’s invaluable help, had moved all of the stepping stones and half of the lumber to the rear yard. While Darcy’s young legs and strong arms wrestled the balance of the soil into the wheelbarrow and around to stack on the patio, the three remaining Covert troupe finished with the lumber. We then sat for a rest, opened a bottle of wine and rested before dinner. Abigail prepared a great Caesar’s Salad and Mark threw hamburgers on the grill for a well earned meal.

Tuesday we arose early and walked over to Zöe and Garth’s house to arrive by 8:00 AM. Our assignment was to babysit for 2 1/2 year old Esmè while Zöe and Garth attended to an OB-Gyn appointment for checkup on Zöe’s pregnancy and an ultrasound and photo of the impending new-born. We were lucky in that older sister, 4-year old Iris, was being dropped off at pre-school so we two septuagenarians were able to gang up on Esmè alone. Mark has dubbed Esmè “Princess Running Mouth” for her constant chatter; not baby talk but adult language and she knows everything! 

We set a stellar example by setting her down in front of the television and the three of us watching two hours of educational video. She consumed 6 marshmallows (three over the stated parental limit) and finishing most of her cut up kiwi fruit snack. As our own five grandchildren all grew up at least 1,000 miles away from us and we only saw them annually, and never in an in-charge situation, our parenting skills are some 30 years out of date. However all three of us survived the ordeal, and parents returned home with wonderful  photos of the coming being and Esmè was reunited with them without incident or injury.

Tuesday afternoon we continued to paint the lower level room, applying a first primer coat to the ceiling and all the walls. The room is finally taking shape and beginning to look like a real living space.

While Mark painted, Deb worked upstairs in her office handling some client requests. For dinner that evening, Deb prepared some pan roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, some butter roasted green beans, and Mark pan fried some thick cut Duroc pork chops. Delicious and Mark topped his chop with a helping of Glenda’s home made elderberry jelly. Truly a feast with an ending of the final slices of the cherry pie.

Wednesday, Deb was up early and working in her office handling a group of final payments for clients headed out on cruises in the fall. Then it was all hands down to the basement where we began the second coat on the ceiling, and a first coat of “Contemporary Grey” to the walls. This was an all afternoon process but the room is really taking shape. With both of us painting it was a true team effort and both of us gaining ownership of the project. Deb had some Italian sausage left over in the refrigerator and also found some tomato tortellini in the pasta drawer so dinner was a quick water boil and pan fry with the sausage and the last of her homemade tomato sauce from last summer’s crop out of the freezer.

Thursday, we again attacked the basement, putting the final coat on the walls and touching up any missed on the ceiling. Then we headed over to Abigail’s again to help with set up of her new patio table and chairs. These were all delivered the day before on a pallet placed in front of the garage door. We unpacked and carried the table parts and chairs around to the deck and spent an hour or so assembling the lot. then back to the driveway to break down all the cardboard involved in shipping.

Under it all was a plastic pallet which turned out to be the property of the U.S. Postal Service. Mark called the number on the pallet, and after two transfers, was able to convince the USPS to come pick up their pallet as we had no vehicle large enough to return it. We stumbled home in time for Deb to log in only a few minutes late for her “Girls Drinks” Zoom meeting.

We dined on the remains of the Shepherd’s Pie and Sausage Tortellini leftovers, washed down with some red wine. We watched three episodes of a series before Deb realized that she had already watched it. Fortunately she can’t remember how it turns out and Mark is into the story so we can continue to watch in future evenings.

Friday morning was a repair day, The repair being to fix one of Mark’s screw-ups. We have joint banking which makes it easy for Deb who does most of the buying and all of the bill paying but Mark only has one credit card that is in his name only.  The down side is that Mark can never buy something without Deb knowing. So, in an effort to surprise her at Christmas, Mark used his one card to buy some presents on Amazon. Due to lateness of date, he opted for Prime delivery. Little did he know that the card was then billed $14 per month for his Prime membership giving us not one but two prime accounts for the past 5 months.  It took lots of digging, after locating his account password, to cancel the 2nd  membership. If Deb hadn’t noted this when paying the monthly bill for the credit card, he would have been charged until death. Smart sleuthing on her part, but now she will never receive a surprise purchase from Mark!

That wraps up another exciting week in the Midlands. Keep you vaccination appointment, wash your hands, stay away from strangers and wear you masks! We hope to see you again soon, hopefully sometime in 2021.