In which we cool down nicely

Last Wednesday was our last really hot day, and although we retreated to the basement one more time, we managed the house so that it was a few degrees cooler when we went to bed. Those couple of degrees were just enough so that we were comfortable and got some sleep for a change. Then, Thursday’s and Friday’s temperatures went way down, so that we had highs in the 80s, and now we are back down to lows in the 50s or low 60s and highs in the low 70s.

However, on Sunday and Monday we had bad air quality because of the fires in Eastern Washington and Canada. So, it was a good thing it was cool, because we had to keep our windows closed. The air quality was back to Good yesterday, though.

My injury to my side generalized itself to pain across my abdomen over the weekend, so I finally made a video appointment with my doctor to talk about whether it had anything to do with my medication. I am off one of my meds for a few weeks now. As a result of my discomfort, I haven’t been going to any of my exercise classes. I hoped to go on Tuesday, but that was when my video appointment was scheduled.

Since our groomer closed, Christine and I have been unable to get a grooming appointment on the same day. I thought I’d let her find a groomer and then try to schedule with them, but the groomer she found won’t take Keeshonds. She referred me to her “assistant,” who turned out to be another groomer who leases the premises from her on the days she doesn’t work. So, my appointment for Luke is the day after Christine’s appointment for Duchess. When we talked about it, I said I didn’t know what to do. She is happy with her groomer, and to get on the same day, I think the only thing we could do is have her switch over to mine, but I don’t think she wants to do it. If you’ve been reading this blog, then you might remember that the reason for this is because on grooming days, we offload our dogs around the same time and usually go out for breakfast or lunch. We had been planning to try a British fish and chips cart in Vancouver this time until our groomer closed.

We decided to leave Duchess home by herself, since she barks constantly in the car, and take Luke to pick up fish and chips at the cart and then take them to Fort Vancouver, which has a large park area and eat them at a picnic table. The weather was perfect, so that’s what we did. It was a bit too long of a drive between the cart and the fort, though, for the fish to taste as delicious as it did when Wayne and I got it and ate it right there in the car. (The cart has no accommodations for sitting. They said they put out picnic tables, and someone removed them. Stole them? They don’t know.) Also, we both ordered drinks, and we were ten minutes away before we realized they didn’t give them to us. They are supposed to open a “restaurant” (he said it wasn’t exactly a restaurant, so I don’t know what that means) in a different location and are moving the cart there the next week, so we decided there is no point in returning until they have that built. Christine told me that after she reheated the fish, it tasted a lot better, which is what Wayne and I experienced when we ate it right away.

Because of my injury, I have been a home body the past few weeks, so that’s my only outing. I skipped art class last week because of lack of sleep over two nights, which made me suspect I wouldn’t be able to concentrate. However, I am going today.

On our first beautiful day after the heat wave, Wayne called me outside before I was dressed, telling me to come out and enjoy the day. I think this was on Saturday. I threw on my clothes and ended up finally finishing deadheading my roses. I don’t know if I’ll have a second bloom or not. I usually do, but Christine’s roses went into second bloom weeks ago. I also need to do more watering. I did it one time during the heat wave, and the plants were droopy, even the cone flowers, which are usually heat resistant. I think I might have lost my blueberry bushes. I have been remiss about watering this summer. The only things I have watered regularly are my fuchsia hanging basket and my tomatoes. By the way, we ate my first and practically only tomatoes last night. We had one grape tomato and one small tomato divided between us. They were delicious. I have some other grape tomatoes coming in, but I only have one other tomato on the other bush. You might remember that one of my three plants never grew, so that it is only about six inches tall, and it produced tomatoes that are about 1/4-inch in diameter.

My latest freebie from the British Library

I received another shipment of review books from British Library, or in this case book. This one is from the Women Writers series. I just finished reading my last book from the Crime Classics series, so it was nice to get this one.

On Monday, I went to get my flu and Covid booster for the year. Wayne didn’t want to go with me to get his shots on Monday, so he said he’d do it when he picked up our prescriptions yesterday. However, he forgot. I suspect he’ll continue to forget, which was why I wanted him to go with me on Monday. It wasn’t too bad. No one was ahead of me, and after checking in, I just had to wait about ten minutes.

That leaves only one thing left to do besides packing to prepare for my trip to Illinois in two weeks. I have to get my American Airlines membership straightened out, maybe. I vaguely remember being a member years ago, and that has resulted in their system not letting me sign up under another email. I don’t have to sign up, but I think it may make it easier to use their app. However, it looks like I’m going to have to call someone to straighten it out, and I’m not looking forward to it, so I’ve been procrastinating.

In which we get a new water heater

This weekend our temperatures are supposed to go up into the 90s, but so far we have managed to keep our house cool just by opening the windows in the mornings and evenings. In fact, until yesterday our days were pleasant, staying mostly in the 70s or low 80s. That’s good, because I think our air conditioner has problems. The few times we’ve used it this summer, it hasn’t gotten the house cooler than 82.

As if that weren’t bad enough, we have realized the past month or so that we might need a new water heater. Our hot water has been coming out either really hot or not very hot. Wayne went down several weeks ago and drained it, thinking it might be full of sludge. But he said it didn’t have any in it. So, last week, he found a company that fixes and installs the same brand and they came out and told us it was time. The water heater was 25 years old, so it’s not surprising.

On Monday morning they were due from 8 until 11, and they showed up around 9 or 9:30. Of course, all morning I kept thinking of things to do that involved water, but they had to wait until the heater was installed.

On Friday Luke had an early drop-off vet appointment, so we both took him in. Then we went out to breakfast, which we used to do fairly often but haven’t done in ages. After that, we went to Costco, timing our arrival with their opening. Although we took Luke in because of the mat under his arm, the vet was more concerned with the skin condition he’s had forever. So, now he is getting sprayed twice a day and he can’t go in the water or have a bath until she sees him again. We have asked the dog place whether they feel they can keep him out of the pool and offered to keep him home this month. So far, they haven’t answered. The only thing he likes to do there beside watch the other dogs is get into the pool, so it would probably be better to keep him home. I will also have to ask if, for his next grooming appointment, they can even do it without bathing him.

I have been getting on in art class, switching back and forth between my two paintings. Last week I worked on my snowy tree painting, painting part of the background a lavender gray color.

On Sunday evening I took my sister out to eat for her birthday. I would have thought she would like to go without a child since she has her seven-year-old grandson with her most of the time, but instead she invited her nine-year-old grandson and fourteen-year-old granddaughter. Only her grandson came. Our eating place was chosen by him, and then we all had to eat hamburgers because he told us that nothing else there was good. The hamburgers were good, but I don’t usually get them. I could only eat half and took the rest home to Wayne.

I skipped tai chi class on Saturday because I had been up early every day except Sunday and was too tired to get up. Wayne and I ended up sleeping in until 8:45, so I guess I needed the extra sleep. Normally, on tai chi days I get up at 7 because I have to leave by 8:30 for 9:15 class.

This week I also received another packet of free books to review from the British Library, this time from their Crime Classics series. I love free books.

More good reading to look forward to

In which Wayne surprisingly attends a social event

The last few weeks we have been looking at the national weather maps and being grateful we moved here. During most of the time when a lot of the rest of the country has been in the 100s or 110s, we have at most been in the 90s, and that’s sprinkled with days like yesterday that didn’t get out of the 70s. In fact, last night before bedtime it got so cold in our bedroom that I had to bring out the winter quilt and put it on top of the summer quilt, another thin covering, and the blanket, which I put back on the bed during our last cold spell and forgot to take off. Usually, it is off all summer. Our friends know one of the reasons we moved here was to get away from the Texas heat, which got worse in the summer (and the summer got longer) the longer we lived there. We chose the right place.

I have finished cleaning all mouse presence from our food cupboards but am still working on the one with the dishes in it. The top shelf is going to take me a while, because it has my grandmother’s Lowestoft hand-painted china in it, and it can’t be washed in the dishwasher. I’m taking one stack at a time and hand-washing it, because I don’t have a lot of room for drying. When they’re dry, I’m stacking them on the table. Once I get them all out of the cupboard, I can wash it down, and the rest of the shelves should go a lot more quickly, because I’ll just fill the dishwasher to capacity.

The rest of the week went normally except for a couple of events. On Wednesday, Wayne found out that I was the only family member outside their household who was attending my great-nephew’s seventh birthday party. My niece’s family was planning to attend the official weekend party at the park, full of children and people we don’t know, so we didn’t want to go. This was the family party. Usually my brothers might go, but one couple is in Canada, and the other had prior commitments. So, when Wayne heard it was just me, he felt bad about it and came, too. I think my sister thought he came for the cake, but this time that wasn’t the case.

Unusually, he also decided we would go to see the movie Oppenheimer at the IMAX theater on Monday afternoon. However, he pooped out of that one. Perhaps we’ll go see it next week. It’s not that he’s a recluse, but he tends these days to only want to leave the house to run errands or occasionally go out to eat.

In art class even though I am working on two paintings, I had issues with both. I thought I could trace my drawing onto my tree painting, and I touched the canvas and thought it was dry. Then when I went to check my tracing, I at first didn’t realize what had happened. The top half was fine, but the bottom half came out all white. It turned out that the bottom half of the painting was still wet, even though it had had 10 days to dry. Oksana said I could use the white lines to paint by just fine, but obviously, I couldn’t work on it until it dried.

You can see the outlines of my baby peacock in among the finished background. The green leaf needs more work

So, I turned to my peacock painting, which was also wet on the top left side. However, I thought I could work on some leaves on the right side, so that’s what I did. I don’t usually post my paintings at an early stage, but some readers might be interested. The background is finished after two coats, and on Wednesday I added the blurry plant on the right in the back. I also added the pinkish leaf. However, I had some problems getting the green paint to cover, and class finished before I could do a good job on it, so the green leaf needs more work.

Over the weekend, I received another package of free books from the British Library for review. These two are from the Women Writers series. Reviews of those books should be turning up on my other site What? Me Read? within a month or so.

One more event that was slightly out of the ordinary. I took Luke for his first interim groomer appointment on Friday. For once, he trotted right in. My appointments with Christine’s Duchess are every seven to eight weeks, and the groomer and I decided that wasn’t often enough for Luke. She asked me to brush him, which I thought I wouldn’t be able to do, because when he was a puppy he wouldn’t let me. But actually, he now seems to like it, so I’ve been doing that. But Wayne and I decided to also get him groomed twice as often, because he has a bunch of little bumps all over his skin from impacted hairs. (The groomer says that for every pore, they have four hair follicles in it instead of one.) I have been getting the bumps off by just scratching his skin with my nails until they fall off, but the extra grooming should help keep that under control. So, I took him in on Friday morning and told her I had felt something that he wouldn’t let me touch under his left arm. It was a matt that was hanging there irritating his skin, which I just assumed she could cut out, but instead she refused to take him. So, now I am taking him to the vet this Friday. Although he had trotted in to the groomers okay, when he saw we were leaving, he was visibly delighted, but I wasn’t. I had been counting on a quiet day to get some of the china cabinet done and some other chores finished. Oh well.

In which the snow continues and we go to Crab Feast

If you read my blog last week, you know that on Tuesday we had the tow truck out to pull the car out of the yard, where it had slipped when Wayne was trying to get up the driveway. Well, we had a successful trip out on Wednesday afternoon, where on the way out we only had troubles in our own driveway and a bit getting up to the main road on our road. So we ran our errands, and then after we had pulled back into our road, Wayne decided we should go to Yacolt to get our mail, which we hadn’t received in about a week. I pointed out that our mail was usually just junk mail and said I wouldn’t bother, especially as he hadn’t decided to do this while we were on the main road and could have just kept going in to Yacolt. However, Wayne decided to turn around in the neighbor’s driveway on the corner, which wasn’t shoveled or plowed but was fairly level. And of course, he got stuck again. We almost made it out once, and might have done if we had swapped drivers and he had pushed at that point, but he kept backing further and further down the driveway toward the house, which had a slight upward slope to get to the road. Of course, we got more and more stuck. So, I finally called the tow truck, picked up my cup of coffee, left my phone with him, and walked home, since Wayne wouldn’t leave the car in someone else’s driveway. It’s a good thing I did, too, because Luke really needed to go out. Wayne got home about an hour later.

It has snowed every day now for almost three weeks, although some days it hasn’t snowed a lot. Down in the valley they don’t understand, because it’s been raining there for almost two weeks instead of snowing. When driving to our house, we go through the valley, which has almost no snow, and then we turn in to the first minor road after the highway and see an inch or two of snow on all the pastures. Then we drive that road and another one, and as soon as we turn onto the road the leads to our little neighborhood road, we see four or five inches of snow everywhere. After not having gotten very much more for a few days, this morning I woke up to another inch or two. However, this fell on dry pavement, because Wayne had managed to shovel two ruts all the way down to the road, and a turnaround area by the garage, so I am determined to go to art class for the first time in two weeks.

As for my other classes, I made it out on Saturday for tai chi, although the middle part of our driveway, which had not been shoveled yet at that time, was very slippery and I almost slid into one of my landscaping boxes. Then, by the time I got home, Wayne had shoveled all the rest of the driveway, at least in the ruts made by the tires. Yesterday Maja and I also got out for our senior fitness class. We understand from the weather report that the snow level is supposed to move back up to 3000 feet and ours will melt this weekend.

A week ago, my sister invited us to Crab Feast. When the two of us were visiting my brother in Seaside a few weeks ago, I suggested that she and I get together periodically for coffee or something, because since she moved into town I never see her. She told me she likes to go to the pub periodically and she’ll invite me when she goes, but that has not materialized. Instead, she sent a text from the pub to invite us to Crab Feast, which we would not have known was going on. So, on Friday, the day before, I texted to ask her what the plans were, and she texted back that she had changed her plans without further explanation. It was a little mysterious.

My brother and sister-in-law had been planning to drive up to Seattle for my brothers’ birthdays, which are four days apart, and I had suggested I go up there at the same time. However, last time I saw them, they had plainly forgotten my suggestion, and I didn’t bring it up, because I had learned my nephew dropped out of college and was back home, so I assumed they wouldn’t have room for me. My Seattle brother always posts his Wordle score against mine and on Sunday he wrote instead, “Sue surprised me.” I asked what he meant, but before he answered me I realized that her changed plans probably meant that she forgot all about us and drove up to Seattle on impulse. Then I was a little disappointed to have missed all the fun again. And sure enough, that’s exactly what she did.

In any case, Wayne and I went to Crab Feast on Saturday. The crab was delicious as usual.

My latest haul from British Library Women Writers series

In other news, I received a big box from the British Library Women Writers series. The Crime Classics people have been sending me a book or two a month, but since fall I received nothing at all from Women Writers. I let my contact know, and he tried to send me everything I had missed. Riches!

On the other hand, I learned some very sad news from Dean Street Press. For years I have been in touch with Rupert Heath, one of the founders of the press, who periodically sent me review copies. Lately, too, whenever I published a review of one of their books, usually from their Furrowed Middlebrow line, his wife Amanda sent me a nice comment. Rupert mentioned on Facebook some time back that his wife was ill, but I hadn’t heard anything else. This week, I learned that Amanda had died and that Rupert had become ill after her death and also died. I am so sorry! They both seemed to be such nice people. I had just sent Rupert an email and wondered why I didn’t hear back.

On one of our walks this week, which were few because of slippery footing, Luke and I saw four ducks in the pond. The other day I saw two. These seem to be a different breed of duck than were there a few weeks ago.

This week the county reports 222 new cases of Covid for a total of 112,051. There has been only one more death, for a total of 1047. The rate of new cases per 100K population is up 3.8 to 46.7.

In which I meet my cousin for the first time in 50 years

To say that the branches of my family have not remained close is an understatement. As in my immediate family, my uncle’s family also had a late child who was much younger than the others. I remember meeting her when she was a small child, when I was probably in high school. It’s possible she was also at one other family gathering, but I don’t remember her. However, in the past few years, we have been sporadically in touch via Facebook, and a couple Christmases ago there was a time when I thought she would be coming here for Christmas, but that did not work out. (She lives in Spain, so it’s not like we’re physically close to one another.)

Anyway, my visit to my brother and his wife, which was originally scheduled for a month or so ago, got cancelled because she had a horrible back spasm. I was thinking about going there this coming weekend, and when I sent my proposed dates to my brother, he suggested I come a day later so that his wife could rest between visits, because our cousin was coming for a visit. Since I was sorry not to meet my cousin Amy at the time of the Christmas debacle, I decided to go just for a day so that I could meet her. I booked a hotel, because although they have two guest rooms, no one but kids should be forced to sleep in the attic guest room.

My cousin, brother, and sister-in-law after dinner

I drove to Seaside on Monday and got there just after they had all finished breakfast. The weather was beautiful, so in the afternoon, my brother, our cousin, and I went for a walk on the beach, while his wife, who has been advised not to walk on the sand for a while, stayed home and did her Spanish lesson. It’s been a while since I went for such a long walk, so I was fairly tired by the time we got back, around 3 PM. After we visited for a while, my brother and cousin went out to look at Ecola Park while I checked in to my hotel, hung around for a while in my room, and then went back to keep my sister-in-law company while she made dinner. (She will never let me help, and she has an admittedly small kitchen.)

We had a lovely dinner, a long talk, and I went back to the hotel around midnight. The next morning, I thought I was going to leave early, perhaps before they got up, but I was ready to leave around 9:30, so I texted them. They invited me for breakfast. Everything is laid back there, though, so although we had a nice breakfast, I left far later than I had planned, around 11:30, and got home around 2 PM. Wayne had Luke in the basement when I got home, and Luke was so excited when I let him out that he knocked me over on the stairs. My ankle doesn’t feel so great now.

Anyway, it was great to finally meet Amy and to have a day in the sun.

In other news, I received another package of review copies from British Library Crime Classics. I appreciate that, but I wish I could get on the list to receive the Women Writers series. I haven’t bugged them in a while, and since the last time, I have received maybe seven to nine of the Crime Classics and no Women Writers books at all.

My latest haul of Crime Classics

Luke and Duchess had their grooming appointments on Friday, so Christine and I went out to breakfast at Valerie’s. It is across the street from Trader Joe’s, so after breakfast I decided to pop in and try to find the delicious graham crackers that we had this summer when the kids were making s’mores. I got some of those for Wayne and some Pound Plus bars of Belgian chocolate. Now that I know it’s not crammed at that time, I’ll stop by some other time after art class and look at their stuff more closely.

In art class this week I drew feet. My tai chi class this week was the last continuing class I will take for a while, because starting in October, they are having introductory classes again, and I’m all signed up. Unfortunately, they are at 11:15 on Saturday (my current class is 9:30), so again, I have the problem of my classes in Vancouver taking up the bulk of my day because they are all scheduled for around 11 (except art class, which is 10-12) and because of the time it takes to go and come back. I don’t get home from anything before 1 PM, and then I usually want to sit around for a while.

That’s about all for the week. Nothing much has happened so far with the Kalama fire, and our weather has been turning colder. Our nights have gone down to the 50s, so fall should be here soon, and right now (at 7:30 AM), it’s 51°. It’s supposed to be in the 70s today. Although we had the possibility of rain in the forecast this weekend, it did not rain at all.

In which I spend way too much time cooking

Good heavens! I almost forgot about today’s post, which explains why it’s really late.

I am very proud today of my drawing of a model’s head. It is a stage in my practice for a painting that will have a real person in it. So far, I have drawn eyes, noses, ears, and lips, but last week I did the few rough guidelines for the head of a model taken from a magazine. Today I completed the drawing and mostly finished shading it with charcoal. I only have the hair to do, which I will finish on my makeup class Friday and take a photo of for this posting next week. It really looks a lot like the photo, and my instructor Oksana told me she was proud of me. After this, I guess I get to draw hands and feet.

Oksana told me I can go back and do the other people-oriented exercises for practice later.

Luke is due for his shots, and our vet is making appointments in the most inconvenient way possible. You have to call the day you want to bring your pet in. I tried calling last Monday, but I didn’t call until 10, and all the appointments were already filled. She told me to call between 7:30 AM and 8:30 AM. Later in the week when I talked to Maja, who has the same vet, she told me that I should call right on time at 7:30 and that I would have no choice of appointment time, and that when she called, she had to jump in her clothes and grab her cat and go. My problem is that four mornings a week I have classes of some sort, and my only free days are Monday and Friday. So, on Friday morning I got up earlier than I usually would have on free day and called the vet on the dot at 7:30. They gave me a 9:40 appointment.

Wayne and I had planned that he would go along with me and we would stop at the farm store on the way home so he could buy bird seed on sale. We go through a lot of bird seed, and he likes to go to the store as early as possible. So, we got to the vet early (because Wayne was driving and he insists on leaving for any destination much earlier than needed). They took me in almost immediately and weighed Luke, and the technician examined him, but then Luke and I sat there waiting for the vet for at least an hour. I am not sure why a visit with a vet was necessary when we came in for shots, but I finally left with the information that Luke needs his teeth cleaned and is overweight. They gave me an estimate for teeth cleaning that is over $1300! Wayne is ready to move to another vet. They certainly need to do something about their scheduling.

I asked Christine what her vet charges for teeth cleaning, but it turns out she has a deal where she pays $50 a month, which includes almost any service. She takes Duchess in to the vet frequently, I have noticed. For our part, even if the bill was $50 a month for Luke, which I doubt, so far we have spent no more than $200 a year on him most years, except the first. On the other hand, it would certainly be worth it to have a fee like that as long as it wasn’t too much more, as with the pending teeth cleaning, it would pay for itself for two years. On the other hand, Wayne has bought a doggie toothbrush and toothpaste, but I notice he hasn’t actually opened them up yet. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

Having had to get up early on Friday, I decided to skip tai chi on Saturday morning and sleep in. A week ago on the way home from tai chi I saw the Yakima peaches booth, and every year I buy a box of their peaches. But this year their setup was very small and they weren’t taking credit cards like they usually do. I didn’t have the amount of cash on me to buy the peaches, but they said they would come again this last weekend. However, on Wednesday after class, I dropped in to Bi-Zi Farms to see what they had, and they had boxes of peaches for $10 less (although not as full, so probably not a bargain). I decided just to buy theirs. So, each morning, I had been sorting through the peaches, taking out the most ripe ones, splitting them, depitting them, and freezing them. (Also eating them.) On Saturday I had the last batch to do, and when I was putting the peaches in the freezer, I realized that I still had three bags of frozen peaches from last year, not the one bag I thought I had. So, the baking of a peach pie was in order.

If that wasn’t bad enough, last week I bought a bag of Hatch chilis, and I had been procrastinating too long about preparing them. So, after I finished the peaches, I started roasting the peppers. When I worked at a Mexican restaurant in my youth, we just dunked them in a deep fryer for a few moments until their skin started to separate. But I assume that, although that method is fast, it’s not as healthy as roasting them on my gas stove (and also the peppers aren’t as tasty), which is what I have done for the past 10 years or so, since I found Hatch peppers were available in Austin. (Here, even my friend who does a lot of Mexican cooking has never heard of them, but in Texas, we have a festival when they show up in the stores.) I wouldn’t normally have bought so many, but here instead of being able to pick them out, you just buy a bag.

Me roasting chilis over my dirty stove. Don’t look at me. I have tried to clean it with heavy duty cleaners several times (you can see the scrape marks in the black part), but it is old and was like this when I moved in.

Anyway, roasting them all took about an hour. You have to try to get into all the crevices and do an especially good job at the bottom. It always seems like there are places that don’t want to be roasted. I have to say that I did a fairly poor job, which you can’t always tell until you start peeling.

Then peeling them took about another hour. Like I said, I didn’t do the best job roasting them. I didn’t take the seeds out yet except for the ones we were going to eat that night, but I’ll have to do that today and freeze them, or all that work will be for nothing. Frankly, I forgot about them, intending to do that on Sunday. (Oh, yes, I remember now. I ran out of freezer bags, which presumably Wayne bought yesterday.)

Was my cooking done? Nope! Next, I did my peach pie, and then finally, about five o’clock, I made my first batch of chili rellenos. I tried to do doubles, but they fell apart in the pan because when you flip them, each pepper tries to go a different way. Next time, I will have to restrain myself and do singles. They looked pretty messy when they were done, but they were delicious, so anyway, no food photos today.

So, I basically spent my whole Saturday cooking, which, believe me, is not a normal state of affairs.

My latest review copy

On Monday, I got my most recent shipment of review copies from the British Library. I have finally gotten onto the list for the Crime Classics, but have not received any Women Writers books for some time. I think maybe my contact is a Crime Classics guy. Anyway, this time I only got one book, but over the last three months, I have received six or seven. This one has a lovely cover, I think.

Also, I have requested some books from Dean Street Press, and they should be here soon.

Our weather all week was really nice until today. Most days we were able to just have our windows open, and it didn’t get too hot. Then during the night, it cooled off more. However, today and tomorrow the high is supposed to be 100. Last time I looked it was in the 90s, and it probably won’t get to triple digits up here, but it may be close. Tonight the low is only supposed to be in the 70s, which means we won’t be able to have our window open at night.

And now for our county Covid statistics. This week we had 662 new cases for a total of 102,722. We had 5 more deaths for a total of 887. However, the rate of new cases per 100K population continues to go down, 32 to 121.2.

Hotter, then cool

This week the county reports an increase of 1044 Covid cases for a total of 98,772. The number of deaths has gone up to 6, totaling 851. Our rate of new cases per 100K population is up 37 to 196.1.

The last few days, the temperatures have gone up higher than normal, in our area in the high 80’s and low 90’s. That’s hot for here, but my Texas friends will think it is relatively cool. And now this morning, again, it’s only 55.

I had a fairly normal week. Doggy Day Camp has been closed on Thursdays, but Tuesday was Luke’s new day at Day Camp. The camp “counsellors” report that he played in the pool but most of the time just sat and watched all the other dogs. That’s my Luke. Last week our only entertainment was for Luke and I to visit Duchess and Christine. We had a nice visit in her garden while I tried to take a decent picture of Luke in the hopes of painting him. My painting is almost done, and I have to pick another subject. So far, I don’t have any very good photos of him because he is jealous of my phone. I hope I don’t need something today, because I’ll be sunk.

My purple roses started blooming a few weeks ago, but I was hoping to get a picture with lots of blossoms. What happened, though, was that the early blooms starting falling off before the later blooms came out. Actually, I still have a lot of buds. Anyway, I finally gave up getting a good picture of the bush and just took a photo of a clump of the roses.

My purple roses. I actually think they look more pink than purple, but they get more purple as they die. Maybe I’m doing something wrong with the soil, because the catalog photo looked a lot more dark blue than these. You can see that there are lot of buds just in this photo.

I just realized I didn’t take a photo of my latest batch of free books from the British Library Crime Classics line. I already have quite a stack to read, and I got two more. It looks like I am finally on that list, but they haven’t been sending me the Women Writers books, which I would prefer to have.

I had a regular doctor’s appointment yesterday, and I was supposed to have another one with a different doctor today, but she postponed it to next month. So, I’m not as busy as I thought I was going to be. However, I need to start doing some art makeups. I have been lazy about scheduling them.

Loads of books

The county numbers continue to rise. They have reported a number of new Covid cases at 779, for a total of 91,120. The number of deaths has gone up 2 to 801. The rate of new cases per 100K population is up 27.6 to 149.6.

I wasn’t very active this week because I have been suffering from back pains. They started out as a muscle ache in my right rear but migrated to the small of my back, probably because it felt good to lie on my stomach, but I did it too much. I felt that my back had improved by Saturday, but on Sunday it felt worse. Exercise classes made it feel better, as did walking the dog, but it is still there. I probably made it worse because I wanted to finish a long book I had been reading (Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope), so I sat for too long a time. I have also lost the capacity to just stand around for long periods of time. I can walk for miles, but I can’t just stand around and do nothing.

So, I made all my classes this week but didn’t do much else. Luke and I were supposed to go over to Christine’s on Friday, but she was having back trouble, too, so cancelled. Aside from that, on Wednesday after art class, I planted my vegetables. I have one empty bin, so I may plant something else later. The tomatoes arrived a few days later, so yesterday Wayne pumped up the tires of my tomato wagon. We dumped the dirt out of the big tree-sized pots I plant the tomatoes in, as you’re not supposed to grow tomatoes or other nightshade plants in the same dirt more than two or three years in a row. However, we only had enough soil to fill one and a half of the pots, so could replant only one of the tomatoes. We’ll get some more potting soil and replant the other two tomatoes sometime this week.

The weather was rainy most of the weekend and early this week, but Monday afternoon and Tuesday were nice and sunny. It also warmed up closer to the usual temperatures for this time of year, so that we’ve stopped having fires in the wood stove every day or even every evening. However, this morning it is raining again and colder than it has been.

After several requests, on Saturday (just two days after the last request), I got a package from the British Library Press with lots of review copies in it! I am very excited! I would have liked more of their Women Writers series and fewer of their Crime Classics, but you can’t knock free books! I finally finished the Trollope and started on one of those.

Here’s a photo of my haul from British Library Press.

Then on Friday I posted a review of one of Dean Street Press’s Furrowed Middlebrow series and got a note from them thanking me for a nice review. I said, “Send more books!” and by golly, they did! On Monday I got a package from them. It was mysteries rather than Furrowed Middlebrow, but again, I can’t knock it. So, the future for my reading looks bright.

My review copies from Dean Street Press.

I have spotted the male duck in the pond almost every day, but the female is not to be seen, so she is probably tending ducklings. At times, there seemed to be another male around, perhaps one of their ducklings from a previous year, but he is gone now. Also, after not seeing deer in the neighborhood for quite some time, we had two sightings. One came up into our side yard the other day and drove Lukey crazy. The other sighting was more amusing. I took Luke out in the morning and spotted three deer in our orchard. I stood still and watched them, and Luke poked around the yard and never even noticed they were there, about 50 yards down the hill from where he was standing. (To be fair to him, he is quite a bit shorter than the surrounding vegetation.) One of the deer was aware of me, but as long as I stood still, they were fine. However, I moved slightly forward, and they all ran off across the road. Finally, as they do every spring, the rabbits have been running around our yard and up and down our driveway. Luke spends lots of time barking at them through the window.

And that’s about it for last week.

Exit the baker man

Oops! I forgot to post this blog this morning!

This week the county shows the number of Covid cases up 781 for a total of 90,341. There have been 3 more deaths for a total 799. Our rate of new cases per 100K population is up over 100 again to 122.0, a jump of 51.7 in a week. Masks probably won’t be going back on, but I’m going to continue to wear mine at least in exercise classes.

Here’s our sleet storm, in the midst of coming down. We still had ice melting on the roof and the back deck on Monday.

We had one day a couple of weeks ago when we didn’t need jackets, but since then, the weather has continued to be 10 degrees lower than normal, the weather people keep saying. It rained most of the weekend and finally cleared up on Monday, but Sunday afternoon we suddenly had a freakish sleet storm that deposited piles of ice everywhere. Some of it hadn’t melted even by Monday afternoon. I thought it was going to wreck my tulips, but they still seem to be doing well. It was bad enough to have the late, wet snow two weeks ago bend all my daffodils over.

My classes went normally the past week except I skipped Tuesday’s exercise class. I woke up on Saturday morning with an aching muscle in my back and rear, so much so that I considered skipping tai chi class. However, I decided to go to that, and for the first time she concentrated on a part of the form I don’t know, one that involves kicking out on one foot several times. I was really bad at it, because my balance isn’t back to what it was when I was taking lessons before. The ache continued, though, so that Monday night I took some Tylenol PM before I went to bed, to both help with the ache and make me sleep better. I hadn’t tried it before, and when I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I felt kind of odd. I didn’t like the feeling, and I didn’t feel well in the morning, so I slept in a little instead of getting up and doing my things before class. If I’d rushed, I still could have made class, but I decided to take it easy.

Later in the day, I finally went down to the farm store and bought some seeds and vegetable plants. I’m late with my lettuce, but I haven’t felt like thinking about it because it’s been so rainy lately. We thought we were going to stop having fires in our wood stove a few weeks ago, and we did for a week, but then we had the snowfall, and we’ve been having fires every day since. I like to stay in by the fire when we have one during the day, especially if it’s raining.

My middle brother and sister-in-law were here for the weekend, so my niece invited us for a family dinner on Saturday. It was Wayne’s birthday, but he told me not to say anything, so since I had already given him his present when it arrived a couple of weeks ago (a Consumer Cellular phone), we saved the birthday cake and ice cream for Sunday. I made peach pies as my contribution to the dinner. We had fun as usual. John and Lucie walked over on Sunday for a visit, and Luke and I walked them back. However, the next day I was unable to get Luke to go for a walk, so on Tuesday, I pulled out the leash. When he saw it, he went for the walk just fine.

When we were at the seaside two weeks ago, John mentioned that he was on the lookout for a cookie jar. Since the pandemic, he has started baking, and he makes cookies almost every week. That made me think about my fat baker cookie jar that sadly doesn’t get much use anymore, because I only make cookies once or twice a year. He used to belong to my grandmother, and my youngest brother remembers that he always had windmill cookies in him, although my memory is more that he had homemade cookies, probably molasses, in him, but Steve is enough younger than me that perhaps Grandma Billie wasn’t baking anymore. Our grandmother moved in with us for a few years after I was already in graduate school, and after she died, my mother moved to California. She put just about everything my grandmother had owned into a yard sale. At the time, I didn’t have a place of residence because I was working in a youth home 24 hours a day 5 days a week and just spent weekends at home, so I couldn’t take much, but I tried to salvage some of my favorite things from the sale, and the baker man was my first rescue.

The baker man ready to go into his box

I have carried him from home to home for 40 years, trying to keep good care of him, although he has one little chip in his apron from bad packing for a move. When John said he needed a cookie jar, I decided it was time to pass him on, especially because when he saw the baker man in my apartment years ago, he said, “The cookie jar!” and was excited that I had saved it. I know he means a lot to my brother, too. I offered him then, but had the impression that they weren’t going to take him. However, apparently John was waiting to talk to Lucie about it, and on Saturday, he said he was surprised by how enthusiastic she was about the idea. So, with a few mixed feelings, I washed him carefully and Wayne packed him into a box for his departure. He deserves to have cookies in him more often, so I said goodbye to a beloved possession.

Finally, I was again in touch with my contact at the British Library Press, and he said he would ship me a box of their books. For some reason, the last two times he has said this, I’ve received nothing. I’m not sure what is going on, whether he gets busy and forgets or whether they are getting lost in the mail. The last time we talked about it was January, so I gave it a few months, because last summer it took some bulbs three weeks to get from New Jersey to here. However, either none were mailed or they were lost. I’m hoping to get a shipment soon.

Story of a box

Ouch! This week the county reports the total number of new cases of Covid up 2219 to 83,011. The number of active cases is down, though, by 1122. There have been 18 new deaths, and our rate of new cases per 100K population is down 610.6 to 1017.

Perhaps partially because of these numbers, we got an email that our tai chi class is starting up again at the end of March. We have to drive farther to it. The original class was handily in Battle Ground but this one is in Vancouver. I hope it really does start back up this time, because we got a similar message in January, and then the Covid numbers went back up so they postponed.

And speaking of exercise, I went to both my exercise classes during the past week. However, I won’t be going on Thursday. It is Wayne’s last appointment from his second cataract surgery, and technically I’m supposed to drive him. He’s been driving himself, so I could go with Maja, but because Doggy Day Care is starting back up again, I decided, just for once, to have the day at home lazing about (except for doing the laundry and dishes) like I used to spend each Thursday. Maja was actually planning to stay late and work on the machines, which bores me silly just thinking about it, so everything has worked out.

Last week I missed my second art class at the new time because Luke and Duchess had their grooming appointments. Christine and I schedule these together so we can do something fun while the dogs are gone, but this week she had an appointment. So, it was just the timing that prevented me from going to class. My class is now 10 to 12 noon, and Luke’s appointment was at 10:45. So, with one car, no way to get him there and me to class, too.

Over the past couple weeks, I have been trying to replace my art box. I have always been a little unhappy with it. It is like my old art box, only much larger, in that it hinges open and there are three levels for paints. In the older designs of this type of box (like the much smaller one I have from taking art 30 years ago), the hinges are metal and quite strong, but nowadays they have been replaced by plastic, so that when I open the box, it sort of flops over and doesn’t sit evenly. The plastic hinges also make it heavier. When I had art class at the Salmon Creek school before it closed, I had a space next to my seat where I could open up the box on the floor and easily get things out of it. But in the larger school, there is no place like that. I have to open it on the counter, and it takes up the entire space of the counter for about two feet of its length. That’s because of the other problem—that to get anything out of it, you have to open it up completely. Given that each person only has about three feet of counter space when the class is full, you can imagine that this is a problem.

A few weeks ago, I saw that another student who was working in oils had an upright box with drawers. I have seen similar boxes to this, but they were all really small, but this one was larger. I started looking for it or some other solution by going to Craft Warehouse two weeks ago, but whereas a couple of years ago they had a wide variety of art boxes, and some of them were large, nowadays they only have a few small boxes. So, I began looking online, and I could only find two of what I wanted. One was on eBay for $30, so I started to buy it but noticed that the shipping for it was listed as $96 from Iowa. That seemed ridiculous, so I sent the seller a message asking if there was a mistake. That place never answered me. The other box was in the U. K. on sale for about $50, which I think is the original price, and the shipping was listed as $50. That’s a lot, but it’s what I wanted, so I ordered it. The next day, I got a message from the seller saying that the postage had gone up to twice the amount that they estimated, so he was cancelling my order.

My new box. Yes, it is pink, but I didn’t have a choice of colors.

What a pain. I finally found a different type of box on Amazon that cost about twice as much (but with free shipping), but I thought would work. It is similar in shape to my current box, and it actually takes up a few more inches horizontally, but since it has drawers, it can at least be shoved to the back of the counter, where I’ll only have to open the drawers I need and then close it up until I need to open it again. I’ll be able to use the space in front of it, so I won’t be taking up two people’s space myself, which is basically what I have been doing, although no one has complained yet. Sarah, in fact, made a point of giving me more space, as I was her only oil painter for much of the time I was there. (However, my last class with Sarah was so full that I had to put my box on the floor again, where it was in the way and difficult to get to.)

My new box arrived, and it is quite a bit bigger than my original box, has little drawers and cubbies all over the place, and nicely holds all my art supplies except my apron and table easel. (Before, I was carrying both the box and a tote, but now most of the tote things are in the box.)

It is probably going to be quite a bit heavier. My sister suggested getting some kind of rollers or cart, maybe one of those things with bungie cords.

I have been in touch with my contact at the British Library Press. I was supposed to be on their list to receive review copies of their books from both their Crime Classics and Women Writers imprints, but I did not receive any books in January when I would expect them. I thought at first they were just taking a long time in the mail, but in about mid-January, I wrote to my contact and didn’t get an answer. I was thinking that maybe the postage had gone up so much that they were no longer shipping to U. S. reviewers, or something like that. However, perhaps he didn’t get my email. This week, I looked at their page again to see if there was a new contact, and the name was the same. So, I wrote again. This time I got a message from him saying he thought my name was on both lists and asking me to tell him which books I received last. Apparently, he is going to have ALL of the books that were published since then sent to me. That will be riches! I think they owe me three or four Women Writers books and slews of Crime Classics!

I have also been in touch with my contact at Dean Street Press, wondering if they were interested in some mistakes I’d noticed on the cover of their books. I found two instances where they had misspelled the name of the main character and one instance where the cover said the book was set in the Highlands when it was actually set in Southern Scotland. He was very nice about it, told me they had already corrected one of the errors, and asked me to let him know if I noticed anything else.

On Friday I found my sister on the road fixing potholes, so we had a chat. Then she came over briefly afterwards. It was nice to see her.

Our weather since Wednesday was at first very nice, sunny and fairly warm for the season. However, it turned rainy over the weekend, and then on Sunday night we had just a bit of snow, which melted within about an hour of stopping. However, it is much colder today, in the low 30’s, and last night it was supposed to get down to 20. I think it got colder, because right now it is 21 with the sun up, and our pond has a thin skin of ice over almost its entire surface.

And speaking of our pond, for several days this week, we had quite a number of ducks hanging out in it. One day I counted four, and the next day six! Then on Tuesday Luke and I were walking on the road, and I saw four ducks, not on our pond but on the much smaller pond right next to the other side of the road. I tried to squeak by them without disturbing them to get home, but just as I thought I had made it by, they flew off. Those may have been our ducks, because I haven’t seen any on our pond since then. I suppose it’s good they’re not there today, when it has partially frozen.

And that’s it for this week.