A new word for me ~ derecho

On Monday, we had a sudden storm move through, bringing a wall of rain so heavy that I couldn't see the buildings in Clayton above the trees — and they are only a mile away.  There's a leak somewhere above me that trickles through the wall and into my kitchen, so Scott called to ask if I had water in my kitchen floor.  I went to investigate, and I did have.  It was only a small puddle, so I told him I'd mop it up myself.

Neighbors, however, began inquiring on NextDoor (the neighborhood connection), if others had lost power.  Yes, a lot of people did.  Today, we got email about the electricity still being restored, three days later.  Trees were down all over the place.

Word of the Day

de·re·cho / dāˈrāˌCHō / noun US = a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.

This morning we got a "Restoration Update" online that included my new word.

"More than 800 co-workers have safely restored power to nearly 90% of customers impacted by Monday's weather event, which has been categorized as a 'derecho.'  Crews have continued to make progress overnight, but the remaining outages are extremely time-intensive and require difficult repair work.  Additional resources have been called in to help from neighboring utilities, and will be working through Thursday in neighborhoods to complete restoration."

Le Rousset

WindowSwap

I am looking across fields and rolling hillsides, as I peer through Jean-Yves's window in Le Rousset, Burgundy, France.  I looked it up and learned that Le Rousset is a small village, with a population of 253 in 2007, with only 178 houses, and some of these were "second or occasional homes" or vacant homes.

Sebastian's window in Copenhagen, Denmark, overlooks a nearby apartment building beyond his balcony with its potted flowers and watering can.  As you  can see, I'm once again traveling the world by clicking on WindowSwap.

Weather

Uh-oh, while I was taking a look at France and Denmark at 10:15 am, it suddenly got very dark outside and thunder is rumbling around us.  It's 76° and raining.  The buildings of Clayton have once again disappeared, so I'm going to post this and turn off my computer.

Down and Up ~ and in between

Surprise!

In mid-afternoon, I was playing a rousing online game of Solitaire when there was a knock on the door.  Scott delivered a bag full of surprises from my "secret admirer."  After Clawdia had tackled the paper wrapped around these things in the gift bag, she came to investigate the other contents.  On the left is the bag with a big "Embrace Hope" sticker on it.  At the top is the card of a monarch butterfly on a flower, with these words written inside:  "Have a Beautiful Day from your Secret Admirer."  Beside it is a mug inscribed with these words:

I AM ONLY
TALKING TO
my cat
TODAY

You can see the MEOW wall hanging across the middle and the envelope below, but can you make out the six tiny dots under the sign?  Someone — correction, my secret admirer — had taken a hole punch along the top of the paper bag and punched out six tiny kitties walking with their tails held high.  Maybe there were more that fell to the floor when Clawdia tackled the wrapping paper.  Clicking on the image will enlarge it.

Library Loot

You're Only Old Once!: A Book for Obsolete Children ~ by Dr. Seuss, 1986, humor

"Is this a children's book?  Well...not immediately.  You buy a copy for your child now and you give it to him on his 70th birthday."

In the middle of this pandemic shutdown, I thought a little humor would be good.  I am, after all, an obsolete child.  Old folks take pills and more pills, but I'm not so sure these quotes are funny:

• "When at last we are sure you've been properly pilled,
  then a few paper forms must be properly filled
  so that you and your heirs may be properly billed."
• "...you're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in."

Word of the Day #1

shut·down / ˈSHətˌdoun / noun = temporary closure of a factory or system due to a malfunction or for maintenance.  An example is turning off a computer.  My example:  "We need humor in the middle of this pandemic shutdown."

The pandemic shut down whole communities, states, countries, the world — so the whole world has malfunctioned!  By the way, when used as a verb, the correct form is TWO words:  shut down.

Bookish Puzzle

1. The Geezer and the Caribbean
2. An Elm Develops from a Sapling Where the Dodgers Once Played
3. While I Was in Bed Croaking
4. The Muscadines Belonging to Anger
5. Tremendous Anticipations

Can you figure out the names of any of these famous books whose "titles" have been slightly re-worded?  Have fun grappling with these five, and I'll give you another list of books next time.

Buck Up

Don, who sends daily "flower of the day" email photos, sent a couple of young bucks today.  "Looking out my window this morning," he wrote, "I saw that the kids are growing up.  At least they were munching on the grass and not the wildflowers.  It will be interesting to see how their growing from young bucks to adults will be handled in this settled neighborhood."  Thanks for sharing these, Don.  And thanks for adding me to your daily emails.

Word of the day #2

buck / noun = a male animal.  Example:  Those two young bucks in the photo were munching grass, not wildflowers.

Word of the Day #3

buck up / idiom = to buck up someone's spirits, you say or do something to make them more cheerful.  Example:  Don's photos of flowers buck up the people he emails.  Including me.

Feast of the Found Blue Bag ~ REJOICE

Feast of the Found Blue Bag ~ REJOICE

Luke 15: 8-9 ~ "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?  When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.'"

Have you ever hidden something from yourself?  I've done it before, but this one "takes the cake," as the saying goes.  Lauree brought me a gift bag full of goodies, as I wrote on my blog three weeks ago.  I put the cranberry chicken salad in the fridge right away and opened a bottle of mineral water.  I put away the graham crackers for me and the treats for Clawdia, who soon ate her cat food gift.

Then one day, I couldn't find the blue-and-white gift bag.  Thinking "it has to be here," I searched for days.  I hate it when I do things like that.  "It's GOT to be here," I'd think, "but it's NOT."  I couldn't have thrown it away, could I?

Last week, I woke up thinking about the lost bag of goodies, and I had a thought from somewhere (the back of my mind, maybe?).  I got out of bed and went straight to that spot.  Yep, I had hung the gift bag on a handle where I later hung the empty plastic bags from my Instacart order, completely hidden under many brown bags.  It was right there in front of me all the time, but buried.  Now that it is found, I invite you to rejoice with me at what I'll call a Feast of the Found Blue Bag.  All of you readers are my friends and neighbors, right?

Preparing the Feast

Here's the Crown Center crew packing meals for residents last week.  Left to right are Kari, Genevieve, and Judy.  Notice they are all wearing face masks as well as gloves.  Below are the individuals at work.

Judy in the kitchen putting it all together.

Kari in the kitchen cutting up the bread (sounds like lyrics for a song, doesn't it?)

Scott ready to deliver, with the list in his hand.  The delivery person varies, and that was the day Scott brought mine.

More Feasting

Just before noon, as I was taking my blood pressure for a medical study I agreed to do, I got a text message from my buddy Sharon at the other end of my hall:

"Purple people eater blueberry muffin.  I tested it this morning.  Fit for human consumption.  Outside your door."

Sorry, people, but you don't get this at our Feast.  I have devoured it, even the crumbs.  It was so fit for human consumption that every single crumb is now gone.  I didn't even think about taking a picture of it until I was down to the last bite.

While I was typing this, my neighbor Galina knocked on my door and backed away after handing me a small, unopened container of carrot-raisin salad.  I had given her the carrot sticks from one of our recent meal deliveries because it's hard to crunch big pieces of carrot with my dentures.  She thoughtfully gave me shredded carrots which I am able to eat.  Such thoughtfulness among neighbors here at the Crown Center is very common, maybe more than usual during our lockdown.  Like today, Donna got an Instacart delivery and shared her grapes with me, along with some of her fresh bread.

Lest you assume those meals being delivered from the Crown Center are just our normal fare, it isn't.  This is an independent living retirement center.  We have our own kitchens in our apartments.  This is something special they are doing to keep us happy and healthy.  Those who choose to be part of this program during the lockdown get five meals each week, whether we have ever been part of the food program in the dining room or not.  No charge.  We can make a donation later, if we like, but for now they are taking care of a meal for each weekday, if we want them.  Thanks, Crown Center.

Cousins together

My closest cousin is Carolyn, who now lives in California with her son's family.  We had a nice conversation this afternoon by phone, catching up on family news.  She's a year older than I am, but for two days every year we're the same age.  My 80th birthday was Sunday, and she's 81 today.  Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

A nice surprise

CROWN CARE PACKAGE

I was playing a lazy game of Solitaire just after 10:00 this morning, when someone knocked on the door and yelled, "Maintenance."  I jumped up, since I hadn't yet bothered to get dressed or even brush my hair.  It was Floyd, already two doors down, leaving something at each apartment door.  Galina, across the hall, was wearing a robe when she opened her door.  With nowhere to go and nothing much to do, we are in no hurry to "look presentable."  I reached down and picked up...

...a cellophane bag with several items in it:  a small of bag of Cheez-its, a fresh orange, Planters peanuts, small package of trail mix, a single pack of Quaker Oats (maple and brown sugar), a sealed cup of juicy cut-up peaches, and one small piece of Hershey's Krackel chocolate, like the ones Donna gives people going by the link desk when she's the volunteer on duty.  It isn't much, really, but it brought tears to my eyes.  (That surprised me!)  Then I unfolded the paper that was in the goody bag.  "You've Got This!" it says.  It's a Crown Care Package (Bubbe Approved!) to send us support from the staff.  "It's just a small way to let you know we are thinking of you and know you can do this.  Stay positive and, if you have time, call a friend and make their day a little brighter."

On the back of the sheet is a Word Search puzzle.  Crown usually puts out stacks of Word Search pages every weekday in the library, so seeing this didn't surprise me until I read the list of words.  There are names of twelve staff members on the list:  Amy, Donna, Floyd, Katie, Laura, Megan, Nikki, Randi, Scott, Theresa, Tim, and Yoram.  Ha!  The first name I found was FLOYD, who delivered this care package.

Oh, yeah, Clawdia enjoyed the pretty green ribbon.  I bounced it in front of her, and she tackled it.  She batted it around.  Then she bit it, getting it stuck on her teeth when she chewed through it.  I had to almost tackle her to take it away when she couldn't spit it out of her mouth.  But she had FUN with it.  She thanks you, too, Crown Center.

LAUGH A LITTLE

Before you leave, I'm going to send you to a 2012 blog post I entitled "Monday Madness ~ you can't fix stupid."  If you read on down into the comments, you'll find the "stupid" thing I did on the day I got my first computer.  (Hmm, I need to tell Andy it was his dad Joe who was my computer gugu back in 1984.  Andy probably needs a laugh today, too.)

Self-isolating and staying fit

Self-Isolating Questions

1.  What am I grateful for today?

It's raining, so "I will define the rainy day as a cozy day," as my friend Joy wrote.  I'm grateful for a cozy day.  I'm grateful for all the Crown Center is doing for its residents, like cleaning doorknobs (see #3 below).

2.  Who am I checking in on or connecting with today?

Sandy called to check on me this morning, and I later talked to Donna when an ambulance pulled up at our entrance.  It happens often here, but it seems more ominous now.  The ambulance left within ten minutes, meaning they didn't have anyone on board, no lights, no sirens.  Dora hates staying in her apartment, so she was glad to hear about the SilverSneakers exercises online (see #5 below) when we talked on the phone.  I saw Scott in the hallway earlier; he's doing fine.  Dorothy came to the door of the laundry room when I was there, and she's okay.  I got texts from Donna's sister Jane and from Sharon down the hall, and both are well.

3.  What expectations of "normal" am I letting go of today?

I had thought, as people fought over toilet paper, that I could always go downstairs.  So far, the public restrooms in my building are still open.  (I confirmed it with Scott, who was cleaning the doorknobs in my hallway as I typed this, another good thing the Crown Center is doing for us.)  I took this photo of the closed signs yesterday, when I went to Donna's apartment in the other building to pick up the groceries she had ordered for me along with hers.

4.  How am I getting outside today?

It's raining here today, so the only thing I plan to do "outside my apartment" is go to the laundry room.

5.  How am I moving my body today?

I managed to get up in time to do the SilverSneakers exercises that were live-streamed.  The instructor went very fast and bouncy, so maybe I'll look for their YouTube programs instead, next time.  They have now posted a video of what was live-streamed this morning, so click here to watch it and maybe actually do it yourself.

6.  What beauty am I either creating, cultivating, or inviting in today?

Here's our bulletin board.  Compare this "before" photo with the "after" that I took today (at the top).  You can see how we are coloring our world, maybe brightening it a bit for others as well as ourselves.  I love it.  Okay, I'll sit down this afternoon and finish coloring one of the pages myself.