§ Monday...

To begin my week, I thought I'd start off with a 'shot in the arm'!! Pertaining, of course, to Covid-19, what else?

I can't help myself. Even if you personally like Dr. Fauci, this is still a hoot. In my opinion anyway!!! Okay, confession time...Dr. Fauci yanks my gears the wrong way. Again, personal opinion, and when Erik texted this to me, it made my day and I giggled a lot. On the required 2nd "dose" here, I follow this medical expert's theories more so when it boils down to the pandemic. Besides, the pandemic AND Science is all based on theory... Dr. Jha, I like him more.

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Now, on with a Monday blog...

I found a few more hearts. A tree [where a limb had been cut off long ago, a leaf, and one I unintentionally made. The birds get fed royally in our yard. Seed, water, seed bars, suet, fruit, jelly, and peanut butter sometimes. But the suet cake was a fluke of my maneuvers. You see, before I unwrap the suet cake from the plastic covering, I poke a large slit with a knife on the bottom side, so I can then slide in onto the feeder dish [it has a metal stake in the center, and when I slide it on, over the stake, it stays put and doesn't move.] So, after I slit the plastic tray with a knife, Bud said, "You know what that looks like, don't you?" Lo and behold another heart. Okay, you probably need to delve deep into your imagination, perhaps!

§ Mix match...chit Chat

Bud and I spent the morning outdoors, pulling weeds and working on a couple of flowerbeds, trimming the crepe myrtle and pomegranate tree. Bud also sawed off a large branch on the neighbor's tree that was hanging over on our property and when the wind blows, it hits the fencing. We don't want to do any fence repair...so, off it went. Also, we did some much needed weeding along the back foundation. Done, while the temperature was mild and before the humidity built up.

Doing the yard work put any chance of getting out and walking on hold. By the time we were finished with yard work, it was going on 11 a.m. and after showers, it was lunch time. Bud napped, and I watched tv a bit afterwards.

I checked my emails during a commercial, and noticed a book I ordered was "Out for delivery". I waited for the mailman....

As I walked out to the mailbox to check for more mail since the package was left at the door, walking back to the house, I noticed that the esperanza bush was heavy with bloom this year! I wanted to share 'cause esperanza means "HOPE" in Spanish. There's hope in our neighborhood as is our country!

I walked up for a close up of the sunny yellow blossom....

I had to get one of my heart meds refilled, off I went to the drug store. I've been using the drive-thru to keep myself distanced from waiting in line in-store. While the pharmacist was packaging my prescription for me, I asked her if she had face masks....yes, they did. Boxes of 50 single-use. I bought one box. This is not the brand I bought since I have them packed away in the medicine cabinet and I'm too lazy to go get 'em...this is found online...Anyway, the purpose I mentioned this purchase is 'cause when I got home, Bud was awake, and I showed him: They were made in CHINA!! [funny]

§ This, That, and Chat...

We received a nice rainfall Wednesday! A much needed rainfall. It wasn't enough to even come close to breaking the drought...but, every little bit helps. I'm sure glad we got the hurricane shutter back up when we did. Something this week went right! lol The winds were quite strong, nearly hurricane force...lots of branches came out of the pecan tree. Now, we have another job of work. Won't take long tho. Thank goodness....did I say how humid it is out there right now?  My job of work list was shortened by one because...I didn't need to go out and water the patio plants in all the containers.  I just sat at the window, with the front room door open, and listened to the downpour, and enjoying the fresh, sweet, rain-drenched fragrance.  As I type this up, tho, the traces of any evidence of moisture is gone, and it's steamy.  I'll take it.  If only that would happen once a week, for about 3 months, maybe it would be sufficient.  The water shed [two reservoirs] is not even up to 50% capacity.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will continue to wear face masks while the state of Texas begins to re-open.  I sat down and did another project on my list of jobs for the day. I followed the Surgeon General's face mask tutorial video since we're not supposed to buy/use the N95 masks in order to save those for stock piling for the first responders...makes sense to me.   I kinda tweaked his 'pattern' so I could add a filter behind the mask for more protection.  [It's just a bandana folded with elastic hair bands.] I didn't want to use rubber bands as he suggested, I wanted color: red bands for my red bandana, black for Bud's, and beige for my other one. I did three. One for Bud and two for me. A red and white bandana, and a black and white for Bud. My 2nd one for myself is a camouflage print. I thought since it's camouflage, no one will be able to see I'm wearing it?!! Nah...it's just that those three bandanas were what I had at home in my vanity drawer.  All three were completed in less than 10 minutes.  Easy, and no sewing! 

I also had on my list of things to do; installing a back-up search engine since Chrome and Firefox gave me fits days ago. One that doesn't use anything connected to GOOGLE!!! I know that Google tracks every movement with the use of Chrome [it tells us in the "I agree" part when you install its updates, etc.] And this new backup went on my cellphone too. It's so fast without all the garbage of Chrome/Firefox. Pages open instantly, even sites with heavy text and images. It's awesome. The new [new to me] browser/search engine combined is DUCKDUCKGo ----Another item on the 'to do' list was to get out online and order two books....Bud, one, and the other for me.

I then, crocheted a bit. I got behind on that for a few days, with going out hunting down migrant birds and doing at home tasks this week. Next to last task, work on fingernails with the file and emery board. The last thing on my list was to scrub the two bathrooms.....done!

Oh, and to end the post today...a posy for y'all, Not sure, but I think this is called a butterfly bush. I saw it while out walking along Packery Channel park the other day. If it isn't, and you know what it is...by all means, correct me. It's purple...that's what counted when I saw it. I love purple and blue flowers best.

§ 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.

§ A Headband and Coffee Filter Will Help...

addendum:  This post turned out to be nearly a novella.  I mentioned I wasn't going to regale any more on the 'bio-mishap', and I'm not really.  I'm sharing my idea and shopping experience more so.  Sorry about the lengthy word overuse.  Carry on.....

As everyone globally already knows...there are shortages in everything but gasoline it seems. The oil companies are gonna go bankrupt if we aren't able to go anywhere anytime soon. [ya, right...we'll pay dearly for gas in time to make up for their losses. Guaranteed!  I'm even looking for a gallon of milk to soar in price along with all the food stuffs.]

Anyway, I've been in search of three items. Anti-bacterial liquid soap, jigsaw puzzles, [found two more...this shelf was nearly empty too! - it's gonna be a long time with this house arrest.  Gotta have something to occupy our wits besides books and drawing and movies] and the elusive packages of surgical masks. Of course, I kinda stopped looking for the masks since of the pleas from our government asking us to not buy them because doctors and hospitals...they need 'em more than I do. But, I still want a bit of protection when I DO go shopping. I have experimented a bit. I tried the HUGE massive band-aid and covered my mouth...I can breathe thru them, and they ARE protective against germs with open wounds on any part of the body, why not the mouth? But what about the nostrils? A smaller band aid? No. I nixed that idea and kept thinking. Okay, I came to the conclusion of making my own. I really  didn't want to get the sewing machine set up, didn't really feel like doing the task. Besides, I only went to one store [Walmart is the only 'department store' open other than grocery stores] to do a one-stop shopping trip. They have material. I was told by my daughter's mother in law who is a registered nurse, that cotton is the best fabric and filtering closest to the N95. (see 1st comment from Andrea - Also, I just did research & cotton is best to use - https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/making-your-own-face-mask-some-fabrics-work-better-others-n1175966 ) I didn't want to buy a whole lot and have the extra, not used, material, sitting around the house with no use for it in the future, and it seems everyone had the same idea, the cutting table and people were lined up with their bolts of cloth choices to have it measured and priced. Well, at this particular store, the cotton squares [pre cut] sections, were empty!! And to top it off, no elastic for fitting around the ear. I know I could make ties with material, but again, I'm lazy these days.  I was at a loss...did the rest of my shopping quickly [fresh fruits and veggies]...oh, and cat food! Isaiah needs to fill his empty gut every hour or two, y'know!

As I was walking around the store getting these items, I thought I'd take a chance to see if they had the liquid soap for our dispensers. Nope, that shelf was bare also. BUT!!!! Like Grinch in the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas, I had an idea...a wonderful idea. I bought two. One for me and one for Bud, tho he is content staying home these days while I am antsy to get out and do something! LOL  I bought the cloth decorative headbands!  Their use is to hold hair back.  They have elastic backing, can unfold like a fan, and fit around the ear snugly.  I don't have to sew a thing, and it works.  I called Peggy [Gramma Piggy as Clint calls her 'cause he can't pronounce the 'e' with his Down Syndrome Speech impediment], and she told me to place a coffee filter behind the head band, and I will be even MORE protected...perhaps up to 47% more.  Well cool. She also said before we hung up, "Anni, this was very ingenious. It's better than nothing at all. We should all be wearing masks when out in public."  She also told me to not wash the headbands from mouth vapor as washing weakens the materials.  That made sense, of course material weakens with washing!! She said..."lay 'em out to dry.  The air will eventually kill the virus particles and/or bacteria.  Of course, replace the coffee filters after one use."  We both giggled at that last comment.

I'll have to go in search of a goodly supply of coffee filters in days to come.  Now, if Bud and I can just go out to dinner to celebrate without pre-order and drive thru pick-up!!  A thick juicy, sizzling, steak, baked sweet potato, and steamed asparagus all washed down with the bar's frozen margarita sounds heavenly.  I would even tip huge if only I could go out to dine!