Day 107 and same old, same old

My dear cousin Mark has informed me that I'm being a slacker, not posting every day or every week, as I once did.

Once upon a time, way back in the times BC (before the COVID-19 pandemic), I only ever posted occasionally -- usually when I was sad, or mad, or bored, or feeling creative. Then the Bay Area, and later all of California, and later still most of the country, was put into time out, everyone stay at home and try to break the chain of infection. And I got bored, so posted a LOT.

I am still bored, don't get me wrong. But there is nothing new to write about, nothing happy to say. It is as if the world has gone into a holding pattern. Will this virus be contained? Will it wipe out 99% of humans? Will something in between happen?

Today the EU announced that they were banning visitors from 14 countries where the virus is still rampant -- and right up there in that shameful group is the US. We have officially become one of the "shit hole countries" our president railed about and tried limit visitors and immigrants from. The US is a laughing stock around the world and treated like a leper because of the federal (lack of) response to this pandemic.

This week, the newspapers told us that Russian president Putin had put out a bounty on US soldiers in Afghanistan. And our president has known about it for a year. And there was no official outcry or condemnation; instead our president pushed to have Russia readmitted to the G7 (8). Well, looks like it may become the G6 since no one wants Americans to come to the meeting.

Today is 124 days until election day. A lot can happen in 124 days. And I could sit on the edge of my seat waiting and watching. Or I could go back to weaving and quilting and gardening and potion concocting. That's what I think I'll do.

But I'll also try to post more often to help keep my dear cousin Mark from getting bored. He often gets into trouble when he is bored.

It's never to late to start, or Day 26 of Quarantine

When Gov. Newsom ordered a mandatory "Shelter in Place" on March 16, 2020, we thought it would be 2 weeks and then back to life as normal. I thought it might be nice to start a journal, but why bother? In 14 days, it would be all over and would only be a blip in the history books.

Today is day 26. Schools will be closed for the rest of the school year. Today the US logged 524,242 cases, 20,223 deaths, and 28,755 recovered; California had  21,505 cases, and 597 deaths. Santa Clara county had 1,442 positive tests and 47 deaths as of yesterday. It is time for me to start tracking this new normal.

Let's go back to Day 25, because that is a nice number and I still remember what I did yesterday. Day 25 was a gardening day. I planted 2 eggplant plants from Ace Hardware, and 6 Cannabis plants I had started from seeds. They joined the 2 surviving Blue Lake bean plants, a Jalapeno pepper and a Thai Dragon pepper planted a week or so ago. Hardware stores are considered "essential" businesses but Summerwinds and Yamagami Nurseries are not -- so we make do with "big box" plants and seeds, rather than the good nursery plants of yesteryear.

There had been 6 bean plants, one for each leg of my bamboo tepee but either worms or grubs got 4 of them. There are 4 Cannabis plants left for my niece and her friend to take. Out of the 12 seeds ($40), 11 germinated and 10 ultimately survived to transplanting size.

Today, Day 26 will be a baking and a sewing day. I have sourdough mixed up for bread and it is rising now. Each loaf I make is a bit different, but so far, most have been edible and one or two have been spectacular.

While the bread is rising, I will attempt to solve a setting problem with my latest quilt top (planned version below). The setting triangles aren't such a problem, but the sashing between them is driving me mad. Instead of calculating, I've decide to just go with the empirical method.