Frog and Goat

Omicron is running rampant. I looked at the NY Times COVID map yesterday and nearly every state is brick red or purple. That’s not good. We made plans back in the summer to go to Key West at the end of January/beginning of February and I’m very pessimistic about our chances.

We are finally getting rid of the Christmas decorations around here. I’ve been slowly putting things away, but the tree goes today and we’re taking down the lights on the garage. The garage wasn’t going to be any sooner since we had snow a couple of days ago. Now that it is mostly gone we can wrap this thing up.

I’m helping my parents next Friday; she’s having knee surgery so I’ve stopped contact with the world. We went to the grocery store on Wednesday and now we’re done until after next Friday. I’m very lucky to be able to say and do something like this. My next scheduled day back in the office is the 19th. After that, I’m still not sure what I’ll be doing as far as heading back into the building. My set-up at home works just fine as it did for the last year and a half?, two years?, decade?

It’s the middle of November and it finally feels like it here in central Virginia. Yesterday, I swapped out my dresser drawers subbing in sweaters for my t-shirts and shorts. As I said to the better-half yesterday, people drive to the mountains to look at the leaves changing color, but we don’t have to do that. The neighborhood was amazing yesterday with the oaks and maples putting on a show for the Richmond Marathoners.

Last week, our CEO gave my team a shout out during his town hall. I ran up the back stairs and knocked on his door to thank him. We’re a small enough organization and the building was running on mostly empty so I felt fine with doing that. I told him how much that meant since we’ve really been trying to build ourselves out and up. I’m glad people are noticing all the work we’ve been putting in.

I don’t have a clever way to tie these two paragraphs together so bye

The condo is straight out of the 80s but the view can’t be beat.

We are close enough to the harbor that we get to see all the ferry traffic. There are a bunch of baby stingrays, some crabs, and small fish hiding in the grasses in our part of the sound. It’s incredibly shallow until it is suddenly deep and that’s the channel used by boats and the ferries.

Yesterday we helped a friend of mine from work move a huge dresser out of her house and over to Rick’s aunt’s thrift store (his aunt’s church runs a thrift store as part of their community mission). Then we picked up end tables and a smaller dresser and helped her get those into her house. Finally, we went for one beer at a local brewery which turned into 3 beers and the best time hanging out. I really thought we’d be a couple of hours and it turned into an afternoon. It was also hot and humid and our truck has no air conditioning so we enjoyed the heck out of the A/C at the brewery.

Today we were up early to see this exhibit at the VMFA. I’m proud of our museum as it stands up against other museums in much larger cities.

And, to round out the totally local scene. We took a bunch of gift cards to our closest Lowe’s so I could buy a new weed eater and ran into a couple we really like. Well, to be fair, I work with one of them, but we’ve had dinner together so I think I can say we really like them.

***The bathing suit order from LL Bean arrived in time for vacay!***

Somehow, it is the first day of August. Which means 27 days until vacation. As usual, I find myself in a weird spot of being halfway through the year and I’ve taken about 6 hours of vacation all year. There’s something wrong with me. So, I’m taking this coming Friday off just because.

With the thought of going on vacation only a few weeks away, I pulled out the pile of swim suits. It dawned on me that I don’t think I’ve purchased a swim outfit since before 2013. I threw all of the pieces away and am betting on backorder at LL Bean. I will sit on the beach and go in the water. We’ll see what I end up wearing come the last week of August. The beach is spacious, not populated and I DO NOT CARE. A woman in her 50s has very little fucks to give.

With the Delta Variant, we’re wondering if we’ll be hauling the big cooler to the beach again this year since restaurants may shut down and we’ll be on takeout or buying supplies at the local fish market. Either way is fine. Honestly, just being able to jump in the car and 5-6 hours later being at the beach is a privilege. I’m aware we are lucky to be able to do that and to pay someone to pet sit while we’re gone. We are fortunate. You can bet I’m prepared with images of our vaccination cards in my phone and masks in my bag. Speaking of protection, I do need to buy some sun screen.