Shopping and COVID19

 Now that the numbers are lower in Pima County.  I am venturing out to the supermarket very early to do a quick shopping trip. I mask up and hope for the best.  For the most part people are respectful of my need for space.  It is still weird to see people older than me not masking up.  The snowbirds seem to be the worst.  When they should be the very people who should be wearing masks.  I just make the assumption that they do not have the vaccine either and give them A wide berth. I have also noticed that these same people seem to be the ones that ignore the no pets allowed only service animals.  Also very few people use masks in the bakery area. When I get back to the car I use hand sanitizer before I get into the car.  After I get the groceries away I am worn out.  I can literally do nothing for a few hours because I worry about space around me. Who is spreading the virus. It is all very trying.  It may sound really weird but I long for the pre COVID19 days when people would just turn their backs to me because they did not know what to say after Eric died.  At least shopping was leisurely and relaxing back then.  

I am also wondering how low the COVID19 numbers need to go before we can resume outdoor dinning for lunch   Dinner is out of the question because the science has shown that the numbers go up as the day goes on. Then when will it be possible to meet up with friends.  Maybe even go to an event with people outside first. Then inside  I am hoping that Omnicron is the last major variant. 

Another thing I noticed is that I had a very bad sinus headache for most of the day.  It was very windy. However when the wind died down the headache went away and I had energy again. I am going to have to ask the doctor about that one.  I have know for years when the barometric pressure went crazy I would always get a headache.  I wonder if the wind thing is related.  

Absolutely no knitting was done today.  It was to windy to walk outside.  Remember the days when the weather was to bad to walk outside and we went to the mall to walk and then have a quick bite? We are still not there yet.  I did get 45 minutes on my Cubii2 though.  

A Bit of Everything

 I saw the dentist earlier today and got my tooth fixed. The crown is now back in place.  I always get a little tired and loopy after the dentist even with out pain meds. So after a very late breakfast I took a long nap.  I was still a little bit loopy but I made it through the day.  

I did spend the afternoon knitting.  I am happy to say I am almost done with the 3rd pattern repeat. The knitting is perfect just don’t look at my pattern notes. They got kinda wonky towards dinner time.  Knitting this pattern is ridiculously easy for me but writing down what I do line by line is another thing.  I still don’t know where I am going to block it or photograph it yet.  I should not try to get ahead of myself, I still have rows to knit before I am done.  The next question is to fringe or not to fringe.  That’s not a rush because I can do that after I am done blocking.  

With the post holiday COVID19 surge I am back to staying home.  Yes, I have enough yarn, fiber and fabric. Thanks for thinking about it. Also please do us all a favor. If you have not had the vaccine for COVID19 please start the vaccine series. It’s no different from getting the MMR, Poliomyelitis, tetanus, or any other vaccine that you had as a kid to go to school.  Also I highly recommend wearing an N95 or Kn95 mask when out and about.  Just in case you were wondering, yes there is a new variant of COVID19. So we all need to work together to end this pandemic. 

98 Down 2 to Go

 I finished my 98th project of 2021 and actually thought it was project 99.  Oh well, 2 projects in 7 days easy peasy.  Much easier than getting served at lunch today.  We have a new to us outdoor patio dining. After a 20 minute wait the hostess seated us at a table outside the patio where we normally sit.  The only problem was that there was no server assigned to our table.  After 15 more minutes John got up searching for our server.  The bartender took pity on us and took our order and brought the food.  Does this happen to anyone else or do the crazies just seem to find me? 

We took a walk at Tohono Chul Park after lunch and actually found an area that we had not explored yet.  I wanted to look at the indoor exhibits but there were too many people without masks.  It’s not like we’re in the middle of a world wide pandemic with a variant that spreads faster than the measles or anything like that.  We wore our mask all the way through even though we were outdoors.  This also had the benefit of screening out the ragweed.  We could not believe the number of monarch butterflies that we saw today, just a few days before the end of the year.  The butterflies really should be down in Mexico this time of year instead of flying around Tucson.  I believe that this is all because of Global   warming. It’s the end of December and the high was 75 instead of the low 60’s.  I predict another very hot summer.  

Masks

 Masks. What could be more controversial in this day and age. Yet it was weird at the super market today. Only about 10% of the people were wearing masks.  Half of these were store employees.  John and I decided to divide and conquer today.  John stayed in the bakery area to get his bread sliced. The only people in that area wearing masks were John and the employees.  Forget about social distancing, they were packed in like sardines. John moved over to the cheese area to get space.  

On the other hand I went to the produce and fresh fish area. Almost totally deserted.  Everyone was wearing masks and keeping good social distancing. By the time I filled the cart with fresh fish, fruits and vegetables, John was just finishing up.  We meet up at the milk section and John just wanted to leave.  His only comment was no more Sunday afternoon shopping until the stores were less crowded.  This will be about May when the Snowbirds  and college students leave town.  

My very unscientific take on this is that people who choose healthy foods tend to make better health care choices.  You also have to remember that we had 6,000 new cases of COVID19 reported yesterday with only a few ICU beds left.  There is also a new variation of COVID19 out and about.  

So my take on this is wear your masks. Choose a healthy diet.  Get your vaccines and boosters. Avoid large indoor crowds and if in Snowbird area shop really early in the morning.  

Boredom Has Set In

 I have gone to the doctor about my hand.  I got 3 shots.   If my hand is not working in 2 weeks we might try something different.  Meanwhile, I am board to tears.  I can think more clearly now that the pain level is down.  

I finally figured out that I really crave sweets and coke made with sugar when the pain level is high enough. Oh, I did not go out and get a coke, the COVID19 numbers are rising in Pima County.  I also managed to keep surgery foods to a minimum too.  It was just to much work to wake up very early, find a mask, get in the car to drive to the store. When I get there are there too any cars in the lot.  What about other people wearing masks? To the massless I just want to scream that there is no ME in PUBLIC HEALTH.  It’s very exhausting, the snow birds are so judgmental.  I had one following me around the supermarket today,  I wonder if she thought that I had to many fruits and vegetables in my basket.  You know the type, dresses up to the 9’s to go to the grocery store.  Looks down on the rift raft who don’t meet their standards.  Oh well at least she did not say she was 50 something and shove her way ahead of me in line, because I was younger.  Many reasons to avoid the stores.

There is still no knitting, spinning or weaving going on.   I have been doing puzzles of all kinds on my pad  .  Thank goodness I found jigsaw puzzles at the App Store   I have been doing a couple a day, I can’t imagine what John would think of the mess of cardboard puzzles   I have also been play card and word games. Today I even managed a little cleaning until you hand stopped working.  I am still board. I would like to be board at a coffee shop so I could at least people watch.

 

Just Puttering Around

 Today was spent doing errands and puttering around the house.  Nothing massive got done unless you count an overflowing basket of hand spun yarn sorted into bags by color to add to the scarfs I am weaving with 1 off and partial skeins of yarn.  The ideal is to make the scarfs as color cohesive as possible and still be one of a kind works of art.  The mini hand spun skeins add a pop of color between larger skeins of yarn.  These should make nice presents for the kids   The clothing bank usually skims off my hand woven scarfs for holiday gifts. Since I know it will be the only gift some kids receive I try to make them special   

I have started a new hat today and am almost finished with the brim   

I still can’t figure out this COVID19 mask thing.  There are so many different numbers floating around and cases are up in our state.  So when out in public, I will continue to mask up even though I am fully vaccinated.  In matters of health and people being sick in public, is that if I had a nickel for every time someone got sick at home from an allergy, I would be rich.