Toffee Pecan Cookie'll Ease My Mind...

Bud and I have kept busy in the early morning hours for the last few days. Among several other odd jobs on our work list, last weekend,  since we can't find anyone that could do the work for us because of Covid-19 and contractors' back-log of jobs  themselves, we tore off the patio door hurricane shutter ourselves  we swept and scrubbed the concrete to free it of dirt, dust, blown-in grass and leaves from seasons before, and have since had it laying on the patio with all our wooden benches strewn haphazardly all over the place to make room for the gigantic shutter [8 feet by 12 feet]. It's not really heavy to work with; just awkward. Anyway, the reason we tore it off was to get some sealant to 'paint' along the bottom and along the foundation [it's a low patio door/shutter and if it rains heavily, it can flood in the house and on the carpet easily]. It's been 5 years since it's been sealed, and we figured it was time to do it again. So, once the shutter was off, we both took our brushes and laid the sealant down; waited 48 hours to dry and rehung the shutter just yesterday. That job of work is done now for another 5 years. We were lucky to not have it leak badly when Hurricane Harvey hit a few years back. Better safe than sorry I figure.

In the meantime, we mowed lawn before it got hot. I went to the islands again on Monday morning and saw quite a few migrant birds; exciting to see them again. I had to go to find a store with puzzle glue since we finished the last of our puzzles at home [by the way, if I order more puzzles online...the promised delivery date was May 15th thru June 30th]. My sister got wind of the two of us being out of puzzles so she Fed-Exed two of hers that she was done with. I've had the last of ours stored in the puzzle cabinet table to glue and frame it for Halloween. I need glue! In order to begin one of the two she sent.

Let me tell you about my drive to the islands the other day, and stopping at the 'swamp' called the Willows, where feathered buddies tend to prefer this as one of the popular 'stops' during their trek up north....I get about half way to Port Aransas, and the digital road signs flashed "Road Work Ahead" "Be Prepared to Stop"...."Expect Delays". I drive on thinking how bad can it be? Wrong!!! Incoming traffic was stopped, for 30 minutes! The line of vehicles behind me was growing leaps and bounds. Thing was, no traffic was coming from the other direction. What gives? Finally, a showing of outbound traffic! Then, slowly, creeping inches along at a snail's pace, the inbound got through. One lane...one direction. The county decided they should resurface the road. During the day instead of night repair?!!! I was debating if I should use the ferry to return back to Corpus. It would be a long round-about, out of the way home. Probably and hour difference. Logic told me to just go home the way I came and expect another 30 minute delay. Going home wasn't bad, but it sure put a dent in my day, birding.

Wednesday, I had to find glue as I said. I found some at Walmart, and then from Flour Bluff [a suburb of Corpus] I went to Packery Channel to walk a bit. The birders there saw [including me] a bird that is not even supposed to be in Texas [I saw one from my record keeping once before here...in April of 2015]. Got pictures of it...a beautiful male, with all the bright colors!! Whoa. Once I got home, I made us tuna salad sandwiches for lunch and mixed up some sloppy joe recipe for dinner. Cooking is out of the way.

Oh, and one more thing....Texas is going to reopen for business with 25% capacity for places such as restaurants, offices, department stores, etc. Come May 1st. I am leery of this move, but intend to stay away until another 4 weeks or so to see the outcome if the virus returns or not. In the meantime, I will continue to keep cautious with 6 feet distance and masks. Time will tell. I can't help but think it's a bit premature. The right wing in me says we need to get a boost in the failing economy and gain back our social life, while the left says are we doing it all wrong and our ideologies are blinding us?  We have had no new cases of the virus for several days and over 40 of the 99 [in the county!] have recovered. A good sign, but still there is the catastrophizing of my instincts once again, shifting into high gear.

I'm gonna go eat a toffee/pecan cookie I found at Walmart's bakery; bought on a whim.  That's gonna get my mind at ease.  At least for now.