June 10th - hot and stormy

I woke in the middle of the night last night, 3:25 to be exact, because I realized the ceiling fan was no longer on. The power was out - again. This is the third time in the past few weeks that we've lost power. It was very windy last night, so maybe a tree branch took a line down somewhere. I got up and was concerned about the strong winds (a tornado swept through the area in which I grew up in 1979 and I still get a little bit cautious when the sky looks ugly, or hot and cool fronts come together - no the tornado did not damage our home, but did damage some in our general area), and closed some windows for fear the rain would come sweeping in. I think I woke again when I heard the hydro truck just down our road - I could hear the workmen talking back and forth.

Well, I did manage to get back to sleep, and then slept longer than usual this morning, but of course was awake in time to open up my virtual learning page and get onto my work email and start my day. It was very, very hot today with heat warnings. Then as I was putting the sausages and a chunk of beef on the barbecue for supper, the sky got dark grey and the wind picked up and there was a general flurry of securing things and closing up the chickens, and I kept the meat on the barbecue as long as I could, moving closer and closer to the house under the porch so I didn't get hit by the rain or by spruce cones that were flying off the blue spruce at the back of the house. I managed to get everything cooked enough and we ate supper and the worst of the wind died down and then we moved to the other porch and enjoyed the cooler temperatures and the rain was falling gently. Still, the hummingbirds came to their feeder and we watched gold finches flit around and a robin with something in its beak called and chirped and hopped around, but whoever it was calling for didn't show up while we were watching.

I received notice just a couple of days ago that we could return library books to the library in the town closest to me, but only by putting them through the book return slot. We could go online and reserve books and then we would be able to pick them up "curbside" - which is now a regular term, isn't it? Business being done "curbside". I still can't see my own family doctor and have to wait more than a month to even talk to him on the phone, but I can do other business "curbside". Anyway, I reserved two books and got notice just one day later that they were ready for pickup. The lady from the library called me and told me which entry to drive to and so after I picked up this week's groceries, I drove to the library, pulled my vehicle up, a girl was in the entry way, she held up a paper bag with my initial and last name on it. I gave a nod and a wave and she came out, masked up, I put the window down on the passenger side and she basically tossed the bag of books in and I said thank you very much and off I went. Life is so strange now.

We can now have gatherings of ten humans as long as we distance between people with whom we do not currently reside. No dentist appointments or doctor appointments, but I think we can get our hair cut. I got two hanging ferns for the front porch and I wove my way through a literal maze at the garden center. I was stuck behind two individuals (I actually knew them from years and years ago) and a garden center cart and they were completely oblivious to me standing there, waiting while they pondered over every herb on every shelf, and because it was set up like a maze, I couldn't just jump over to the next aisle. Eventually they started to round a corner and move over to one side, so I scooted past them and continued through the maze until I got to the check out.

Coming up this week, I am to go to my work place (my school) and assist in parents coming to pick up their child's or children's belongings. We left for March Break and never came back, so running shoes, desks full of notebooks and pencil cases and doo-dads are still at school, as the virus made it impossible for anyone to just nonchalantly pop into the school to grab some things. The older students will have lockers full of things - and oh yes, there will be sandwiches and apples, and heavens knows what else in those lockers... There are very strict guidelines and protocol as to how this is going to happen, and likely not everyone will come. I get one hour before people start to arrive to make sure that text books and classroom reading books don't go home with children's belongings. I have fewer and fewer students visiting my virtual learning page, which is understandable as it basically feels like summer and it was never business as usual, or a continuation of our classroom learning, but I still provide activities, and videos of myself explaining things, and assignments for those whose parents are no doubt nudging them in the direction of the computer for something to do for an hour or so. They will all still receive final report cards - mailed to their homes I would imagine.

My vegetable garden is now all planted and I've gone out a few times looking carefully at the rows to see if I can see anything sprouting, but all I see is a couple of random potato plants where last year's potatoes were! Obviously something was left in the ground and not rototilled too far away. I don't know if I'll leave them to mature or not - they are messing up my "perfect" rows! But with this rain and heat, I should be seeing something soon. Bye for now.