Saturday, April 3rd, 2021

Alone

Very early this morning (04:30) EM and J. left for a hiking adventure in West Virginia.

Because of the early start J. had been allowed to spend the night at our house. I woke up all antsy at 03:18 realizing that if anything should happen it would be hard for me to help EM as she is now eighteen and we have no powers of attorney in place. I was so worried I could not go back to sleep and instead made her coffee to take on the road at 04:00. Giving her a big hug and asking her to be careful and stay safe before they set out.

They have spent so much time driving about that I am sure they will be okay, but one never knows. SO I have also finalized a medical power of attorney and on Monday I think we shall head to the bank to have it executed and notarized.

As usual Saturday was reasonably busy. First practice in the park, then my daily swim. Once back home I set out to try my hand at making Halaua yet again. This time with the full cup of sugar and to my utmost surprised it worked. It did not get too hot or too liquid, if anything it could have boiled for another minute. Once the sugar – lemon mix was cool enough to touch it just needed a lot of kneading and folding to acquire the right texture. I love how rolling it over my arms and face makes the skin all soft and frees it of dead cells.

Once out of the shower I noted the cucumber I had planned to have for lunch had disappeared. So, instead of cooking I headed to TJ’s in DC to stock up on wine and get said cucumber. As always, I picked up additional items. In this case some baby spinach, milk and a pot of Lavendar, Basil and Thyme each all of which shall make their way into my garden in the next three weeks. This and eating lunch exhausted me so much I had to take a nap.

Seeing I am all alone and have no one to take care of, there was nothing from stopping me other than may be a bad conscious telling me I should rake the leaves. Oh well, I did the front lawn after my nap and am now rather satisfied with my days output.

COVID infections continue to rise with 69k new infections reported over the past twenty-four hours to bring the US total to 31.3 million. As States are reducing their testing effort in an effort to keep numbers down CDC is advancing on at home testing, which is good news. Even vaccinated I would appreciate the opportunity to test at home before meeting vulnerable people.

A key reason why less privileged people do not have access to vaccines is the distance to mass vaccination site. Certainly this seems to be the case in Detroit where communities of color would much prefer to receive their shots in their communities. At the same time I know an increasing number of people who have had their first or even second doses or have an appointment to receive their shot.

We are all hoping for a return to something close to normalcy by the summer, even if masks remain common in public areas.