Cop Car's Beat

Picking up our groceries

Since mid-March, I've been grocery shopping at the small WalMart Neighborhood Market that is just a mile (as one walks or drives) from our home. In addition, I set up an account with walmart.com and have been having delivered to us things that the small store (or, even, that WalMart) doesn't carry. On the 22nd, I did our normal grocery shopping at 6am (which the store sets aside to allow us really old people shop on Tuesdays, before they open to the public). As I walked toward the store from my car, I noticed a large notification sign about their newly instituted shop online/pickup service. With the 100% occupation of COVID-19 ICU beds in all Wichita hospitals, the new variant of COVID-19 that spreads more rapidly, and the schedule that seems to place HH and me in line for getting vaccinated no sooner than early April, I decided to take advantage of no-contact delivery to my car. OK.

Yesterday's being my established grocery shopping day, I tried to place an order for pickup last night. Nope. They weren't having any of it. Some of my order they would ship to me; but, most of my order was "buy in store, only". Grrrr. I gave up and toddled off to bed. This morning, while waiting for it to be time for me to go to the dental office, I decided to try again. I switched from using IE11 to using EDGE to try to place my order. I can't remember how I got there; but, I do recall searching with DuckDuckGo on how to pick up groceries from WalMart. Eventually, I did get my order placed - for pickup between 1pm and 2pm.

At 1:00pm, WalMart sent me an email to let me know that my order was ready for pickup. They wanted me to text them or to download their app on my phone to let them know that I was heading out to make the pickup. Well...that doesn't work. I don't have either capability. I tried to call the store, but received no answer following 10 rings. I drove the mile to the small WalMart store. Upon arrival, I couldn't find any of the specially marked parking spots that I had been advised to use. Around and around I drove. Eventually, I tried calling them, again. Fortunately, I received a prompt response, and they told me where to find the special parking stall - around the corner at the left side of the above photo - up against the building in the employee's parking section rather than in the customer parking lot (foreground of photo). A special phone number to call upon arrival was listed on a sign at each of the four parking spaces.

Jay brought out my groceries, loaded them in my trumk, and I was on my way home.

Now that I know how to work with the system, I like it. I may never go inside another WalMart store in my life! BTW: WalMart does not allow its employees to accept tips. I had learned that some time ago, but I tried to tip Jay nonetheless.

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Disclosure: WalMart has no knowledge of my blogging nor am I encouraging people to patronize the company stores or online presence. While I own a few hundred shares of WalMart, that holding does not comprise a significant percentage of my net worth nor produce a significant percentage of my annual income. I do not/have not/will not/shall not receive remuneration from WalMart for my posting(s).

Some days things go well

At about 11pm yesterday, I placed an online order with WalMart. They immediately sent confirmation with the information that the order would be split into two parts - one to arrive today, the other to arrive tomorrow. Good. This morning, I received another email saying that the item that was supposed to have arrived tomorrow would be delivered today. Well and good.

Hunky Husband and I drove up to Wichita to leave a box of stuff (mostly family's Xmas cards) on Dudette's front porch. As we were leaving her place, I texted her that we had left the box. (We knew that, although she works from home these days, she had wall-to-wall meetings today.) A few miles down the road toward home, HH's phone binged to let him know that he had a message. Dudette had acknowledged retrieving the box. (No, HH didn't read the text. He handed me his phone to pick it up.) A few miles farther down the road, there was a loud ding. I ignored it thinking it was a different type of notification on HH's phone. When the loud bing repeated a couple of minutes later, it dawned on me that the bing was telling me that I had received a voice message on my own phone. Digging my phone out, I saw that I had received a couple of phone calls from an apparently local number. I would have, as usual, ignored those calls were it not for the fact that I had also been left a voicemail. In order to pick up a voicemail, I must delete the phone numbers that had been displayed.

The voicemail was from a (young-sounding) woman saying that she was trying to make a delivery to me from WalMart, but had not been given my address; thus, she wanted me to return her call to provide the data. Oh, me. She was smart enough to not rely upon my phone to tell me who called and gave her phone number, verbally. The big question was: could I remember that number long enough to call her back. Victory! I contacted her, gave her our address, and our journey proceeded. I checked the front porch upon arrival and...there was the package - one bottle of olive oil. I shake my head that someone was actually dispatched to deliver that single bottle!

The photo at the top of this posting is one that was included in an email that I received from WalMart confirming delivery. Cool beans.

One of those mornings

It can't be our uniqueness that, on rare occasion, we have one of those mornings. Everyone has those. For instance, this morning....

5:45am - I emerge from my basement lair to find the upstairs bedroom hallway light on (above the hallway closets). That's a very unusual occurrence as Hunky Husband uses that light so seldom that he can not remember the location of the switch that controls that light. Do I check in his bedroom to assure that HH is alright, or do I leave to do the grocery shopping and let the light go? I decide to don shoes and hoodie to leave for the groceries.

6:04am - HH opens the doorway into the garage just as I am ready to punch the button on my sun visor to open my overhead door to start my car and back out. HH just wanted to check that everything was OK with me. He had arisen, read my note about my going to get groceries, and checked the garage - surprised that my car was still in. After assuring HH that all is well and opening the overhead door, I drive down the dark driveway noting that, although it has usually been delivered by this time, there is no Wichita Eagle newspaper in our driveway.

6:32am - I return home to find the newspaper still has not arrived, HH has returned to bed, and the hallway light is turned off. After unloading and putting away the groceries, I go back to bed.

8:30am - I arise to find HH in a stew because we still have not received a newspaper, for the second day in a row. He has called about the omission and received the same satisfaction as he had received yesterday - an imperceptible amount. It has been a few years since HH last had to fight this battle - a battle that lasted for two or three weeks at that time.

8:40am - Being a complete klutz, I knock my bottle of water over, spilling 1/2 cup of ice and water over my cluttered computer desk.

8:45am - HH comes up from his den in the basement, handing me his check book and two most recent statements from his credit union, and asking me to figure out whether his $538 check to the Wichita Eagle that he wrote on 10/10/2020 has cleared. (Unfortunately, it has been about 15 years since that particular credit union's online services have been available to me - partly because I tend to procrastinate and partly because they make it difficult to communicate with them.) It takes me a few minutes, but I finally find the appropriate entry that confirms that the check cleared on 10/16/2020.

8:55am - HH readies to visit the nearest convenience store in order to, again, spend over $2 for a replacement newspaper. HH cannot find his wallet. I spot it on the table next to his reading chair - in the spot on that table which is diagonally opposite to where I would have expected he might have laid it, regardless of the fact that he never puts his wallet on that table.

HH and I agree that the rest of the day can only be better.

Week in Review - 10/17/2020

Raking:

As we were unthinking enough to build a house on the southeast side of a street, at a bend in the road, I have been paying the price. (Since this house is compass oriented the same as our previous house, I should have thought about that!) The winds manage to scatter the leaves that the neighbors don't get raked up, into our yard. You may recall that, this summer, our sugar maple and redbud trees were removed from the front yard leaving only a gingko tree. The gingko tree has not yet started to turn. Within a few nights of its leaves' turning yellow, the leaves will all fall off.

In the photo, below, which shows about one-fourth of our front lawn, one can see that I've started raking in the foreground. It took me two days (and filling/emptying my 28-gallon leaf bin several times) to "clear" the yard. "Clear" is in quotation marks because the wind has already replenished the supply. BTW: I must admit that there was one (green) gingko leaf in the raking. Raking is part of my exercise program during the fall months.

Yellow Rose:

This is a blossom on the mistakenly-labeled rose that was supposed to have been a (red) Mr Lincoln. I really like it!

Carolina wren:

At least two Carolina wren are year-round residents. That species is one of the few bird species still hanging around. The hummingbirds left a couple of weeks ago, at which time the Eastern phoebes also disappeared. The house finches haven't put in an appearance for a while; but, they are probably still in the area - someplace.

Redbud trees going, going....

When Benny & his crew took out our dead sugar maple, they also (at my request, of course) took out the clump of redbud trees in our front yard - shown, below, as they bloomed this past spring.

A couple of weeks ago, neighbor Fred's dead trees fell into our yard. When he finally got them cleared away (except for a 20-foot limb that remained hanging from one of our trees), I could see the damage done to our redbud tree near the steps to the woods - shown, below, as it bloomed this past spring.

Below are photos showing how Fred left the little redbud tree - with a less-than-adequate attempt to splice back the main header.  Note the duct-taped "splice" that Fred attempted to hold one of the main limbs to the header and to let the split header grow back together - to the left of the pink tape.

Tell me how well you think a splice works that is attempted more than one week after the damage. In the photo, below, the split extends 20-25 inches to the right. The photo was taken after I started unwrapping the tape to assess the damage (two weeks after the damage and one week after Fred attempted the splice). As one may see, the main branch had been held to the header by a couple of wraps of the tape. Note that the split of the header extended down-trunk (to the right) for about two feet and that, at best, there was a half-inch air gap between the two surfaces of the "splice" - with bugs already eating away at the heart wood.

There were two other branches that could have benefited by the timely application of a real splice. IMHO, by the time the dead trees were removed, only some very fancy sawing and fitting and splinting could have saved the three branches and leader of the little redbud. Well...bless his heart...Fred tried. The tree was a volunteer that I had nursed for at least 15 years, so it has only emotional value.

I clean-cut the header below the end of the split and lopped off the three main branches that were hanging. It doesn't look like much, but it should be healthy. In time (which, at my age, I don't have!) I'm guessing that the tree will become lovely, once again. BTW: The apparent offshoot from the trunk, about a foot off of the ground, is actually a stump from a tree that I sawed down. It is marked with yellow paint to tell Benny & his crew (scheduled to do their annual work, this coming Monday) that the stump is to be taken out.

There is one more redbud of concern in our yard. It is the only redbud that I actually paid for and paid to have planted - in 2000. Unfortunately, it grew...and our neighbors changed...and our latest neighbors decided (rightly) that they should install a fence to corral their small children and dogs. Further, the neighbors decided upon a dog-eared board fence and set it just enough closer to the property line that my redbud tree was in the way. Adam asked permission to take off a couple of branches. I suggested that, since he is young and strong and owning of a chain saw, he take the tree down, totally. He chose to remove the two branches and that section of the fence was pretty much installed that day.

This past spring the tree bloomed, beautifully - as in the photo, below.

Do you see the problem? The fence had been installed in February. The added weight of the blossoms (and, later, the leaves) caused the large branches to rub against the fence. Monday, I will have Benny and his crew remove the tree. I hate to lose the tree; but, I cannot have it troubling our neighbors. I had thought to ask Benny to just remove the half of the tree involved in the interference with the fence; but, I've decided that such an operation would be difficult and that, at some later time, the rest of the tree would become bothersome. I will have another redbud tree planted 20-40 feet from the fence. I'm sure that it will become just as lovely and, who knows? I might, at least, live long enough to see the new tree bloom if I can buy a large enough tree to start with.

Health Update:

Flu Shot

When Hunky Husband got his Flusone quadrivalent flu shot in early September, I did not go with him. I habitually wait until October on the theory that the shot is only effective for a few months and I want to cover the deepest part of the flu season. I got a Fluad quadrivalent shot on Monday (the 12th). The following two paragraphs are taken from Cover-Tek.

Trivalent

There are hundreds of A-strains that are mutating constantly and hard to predict, while there are only two B-strains. The trivalent vaccine protects against three different flu viruses: the two most common A strains (H1N1 and H3N2) and one B strain (either Massachusetts or Brisbane), whichever is predicted to affect citizens most strongly in a given year.

Quadrivalent

This form offers the same benefits as the trivalent vaccine, with the added bonus of covering  both B-strains, so four strains total. Experts see this as beneficial since both B-strains have been detected within the United States in the past 10 years.

Tooth Crown

Friday (the 16th) I had the crown re-cemented on my #9 tooth. I had been warned by Dr Shahzada that the installation might not last long since, this being the 4th crown to have been installed on the tooth since 1966 there wasn't much tooth left on which to anchor the crown. The original installation of this 4th crown, accomplished five weeks ago, had always felt wobbly and didn't seem to me to be properly aligned. I was led to wonder if it had been seated properly and/or if the cement had not properly cured around the perimeter. Thursday night, in cleaning my teeth prior to going to bed, the crown had come off.

I must say that, although Dr S wants to have an implant put in the #9 position, and is consulting a colleague who does implants, this cementing job feels different than did the original. I'm wondering if this installation will prove more durable.

Cecil's been at it, again.

When, first, Handyman Cecil came by, I gave him a list of things I wanted done around the house. I made sure that he understood I was seeking a long-term relationship, not just that he would do a job and disappear forever. He could work in my jobs around the jobs he had to do for other people because there was nothing urgent on the list. By the time Cecil could start on my list, COVID-19 had become a "thing" with which to contend. I told Cecil that he could do any/all of the outside jobs; but, he could not do any of the inside jobs - until a vaccine or a cure was developed.

Cecil started on the outside jobs by installing a permanent ladder (of which the bottom two rungs may be seen in the photo, below) in our basement escape window well.

A little later, Cecil installed a new storm door at the personnel door to the garage (photo, below), new gaskets around our three over-head garage doors (no photo), and a window well and bubble at one of my (basement) bedroom windows (no photo).

Cecil's next venture was painting the house - shown in this posting. Unexpectedly, we needed a new dishwasher installed and Cecil came to the rescue - shown in this posting.

This past week, Cecil and his son installed window wells and bubbles on the remaining seven, small, basement windows. I had wanted to try out the installation on one of my bedroom windows for a few months before committing to the time/effort/expense of having Cecil make installation at the other seven windows.

Photos (below) are with window wells, only, installed. (The one bubble is the "trial" installation.)

        

Photos (below) are with window wells & bubbles installed.

    

   

Advantages of having the window wells & bubbles installed: 1) The windows stay clean much longer (You know that I spent a lot of time cleaning those windows, don't you?) and 2) I can have the windows open - even while it is raining (There is an air gap between the wells and the bubbles.) Another thing that I've noticed is that I don't hear the nocturnal critters (voles?) or the early morning critters (usually, wild turkeys) rubbing up against the screen fabric that is the outer-most of the three layers (inner pane, storm pane, screen) of each window.

One last thing that Cecil wanted to do this week was to have a safety grid made for installation over the top of our basement escape window, intended to prevent someone's falling into the deep window well. He called me about it several times; but, I finally turned him "off" on that project - for now. I was getting too stressed over the whole thing. He was talking about a 50-pound welded steel grid which I thought would be a bit heavy since I would, while on the ladder, have to move the grid with one hand. Unfortunately, I had Cecil install the ladder at the end of the window well that would have provided me a clear space to slide the grid into. The other end has the gas meter and the sprinkler system's back-flow protection valve installation that prohibit sliding the grid that way - the shorter slide. (Cecil had wanted to put the ladder to that end, but he didn't give this as one of the reasons: he just wanted to put it opposite the stationary pane of the window.) My fault. I had told him to check into having welded aluminum, instead; but, that requires TIG welding, of course. So...I'll think it over for a while. It may have to wait until Cecil and I can sit at a table with pencil and paper for drawing sketches.

Cecil did have a point that I really needed to get that window well covered - its already having been uncovered for three years. In the meantime, I fished the old grid from under the compost pile, hosed it down, re-drove most of the nails (yes, our builder had used nails), and re-installed it over the window well (photo, below). After a few rains it will look a bit better even if it won't cure the slat that is slightly decomposed. (The grid was shown under a pile of masonry in this posting back in August, 2017.)

What was in the box

Handyman Cecil made it out, today, to install the dishwasher that had been hiding in the box in our garage. Now, to learn how to load the racks and work the controls. I would know more about either issue by reading the morning newspaper than by reading the owner's manual. Not at all informative!

Note that the design provides three racks, the middle one of which is adjustable vertically. I must say that two things about the machine please me: 1) The old dishwasher, like the refrigerator, gas range, and electric oven, was a baked on enamel finish in off-white. As far as I could tell from my online forays, no one offers that finish/color these days (nor do they offer the avocado, sunflower gold, or Coppertone enamel finishes of previous generations.) This dishwasher was offered in black stainless or satin stainless. Having opted for the satin stainless, I feared that the dishwasher might stick out like a sore thumb. It does not - probably because it blends in with the stainless steel that is above and to the right of the dishwasher. 2) As the dishwasher that I bought is middle-of-the-line in price, the apparent quality of the appliance is high and the machine is quiet (advertised as 44 db).

 

Hunky Husband and I hid in the basement while Cecil worked in the kitchen and I wore a mask to let him into the house and to pay him. I hope we didn't exchange any vital viruses.

ADDITION OF 7/26/2020 - 12:24PM - In response to Liz's comment

With 2.7 days' worth of dirty dishes loaded, this is how the three shelves appear.

 

Week in Review - 7/18/2020

Such fun I had last night - NOT - 7/17/2020

Since we are waiting for Cecil to get out here to install our new dishwasher (item at bottom of page), I have been washing our daily dishes by hand - just before toddling off to bed. Last night I finished up a rather goodly batch and toddled down the stairs. Hmmm...what is the strange odor tinging the air as I reach the bottom of the basement stairs? I look around. Good grief! The kitchen sink had obviously met a clog, and taken the path of least resistance - flooding the bar sink, inundating the whole cabinet/drawers/doors/contents/carpeting with relatively clean water that had chunks of green floating about in it. Two hours later, the scene looked like that in the photo, above; but, my oh my what fun I had getting to that point - bailing with a quart measuring utensil into the waste basket that had been under the sink, moving stuff off and away, and sucking up water with the wet Shop Vac. I went over the wood and stainless steel parts with ammonia water, sopped more water out of the carpeting with towels, and set up a fan to (hopefully) blow away some moisture. And...oh, yes...I turned the air conditioner down to 76 degrees. It had been set to 78 degrees; but, the outside air temperature was 78 degrees (at midnight) and the humidity was about the same and I wanted the air conditioner to help dry out the area.

This (photo, below) is about 40% of the stuff I took out of the drawers and cabinets - stashed on a table at the other end of the room. (Bogie, is that your Monsster Energy Drink?) The only real use that the bar sink gets is when HH uses it to mix up a few quarts of Gatorade from powder every week or so. He keeps the Gatorade in pint-sized bottles in the basement refrigerator. When he goes for a run/jog/walk and/or works out with his weights, he re-hydrates with that Gatorade.

The one good thing to have come from all of this is that it convinced Hunky Husband to let me recycle a bunch of plastic bottles that he had been saving (forever) - photo, below - which comprised another 40% of what I removed from the cabinet.

 

 

What about the other 20% of the stuff I removed from the drawers and cabinets? It is in the sink or on the washing machine in the laundry room. I had neatly folded HH's bar towels and the towels with which I had soaked up the water from the carpeting after washing and drying them, last night. It was about 2:30am when I fell into bed. You can imagine my joy when, an hour later, I was awakened by HH standing at the top of the stairs yelling down to me, "[Cop Car!] Is everything all right?" He had been met with the sight in the photo, below, when he had gone into the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. It was one of those mornings when he had awakened early. Not early enough to help with the cleanup, mind you - lol. At any rate, I had not wanted him to use the kitchen sink, causing another overflow of the bar sink. The plumber is due to be here between 4pm and 6pm, today. Just in time, since Cecil may install the dishwasher, tomorrow.

 

UPDATE of 7/17/2020 - 3:12pm -

 

The Plumber arrived early. He had finished another job, early, so called to see if he could come on over. When I opened the front door to him, I asked him if he would like a mask (I was wearing one, of course). He cheerfully returned to his truck to retrieve his own mask, donned it, then used the hand sanitizer that I keep near the front door before donning his gloves. Thirty minutes later I paid him and sent him on his way. He did his job well and efficiently, and he was pleasant but not chatty. (I stayed upstairs while he worked in the basement, of course.)

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Slashdot.org (News for Nerds) reminded me of a report I had heard, yesterday, on the radio. - 7/15/2020

BTW: I can't be the only one to have noticed that, always, an after action meeting/review includes at the top, "Problems with Communications".

Bottleneck for US Coronavirus Response: The Fax Machine (nytimes.com) 179

Posted by msmash on Monday July 13, 2020 @11:32AM from the closer-look dept.

Public health officials in Houston are struggling to keep up with one of the nation's largest coronavirus outbreaks. They are desperate to trace cases and quarantine patients before they spread the virus to others. But first, they must negotiate with the office fax machine. From a report: The machine at the Harris County Public Health department in Houston recently became overwhelmed when one laboratory sent a large batch of test results, spraying hundreds of pages all over the floor. "Picture the image of hundreds of faxes coming through, and the machine just shooting out paper," said Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of the department. The county has so far recorded more than 40,000 coronavirus cases. Some doctors fax coronavirus tests to Dr. Shah's personal number, too. Those papers are put in an envelope marked "confidential" and walked to the epidemiology department. As hard as the United States works to control coronavirus, it keeps running into problems caused by its fragmented health system, a jumble of old and new technology, and data standards that don't meet epidemiologists' needs. Public health officials and private laboratories have managed to expand testing to more than half a million performed daily, but they do not have a system that can smoothly handle that avalanche of results.

 

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Eye exams - 7/14/2020

 

Today was interesting. Hunky Husband drove me to my appointment with an eye surgeon up in northwestern Wichita. My visit with the surgeon was delayed by my undergoing various types of scanning/photography of my eyes. Although it was my left eye that sent me there, every test/photo series was accomplished on both eyes. Having been given a heads up by Bogie, I asked to see the images of my floaters. The images were not at all what I expected: they were actually profiles of the retinas (see image, below, from Internet). There was a definite difference between the right and left retinas. In the image from the Internet, below, the "pinched" area at the center is a normal feature of one's retina; however, the other hills and valleys are peculiar to the individual eye.

 

 

The most interesting procedure was an eye angiogram (image, below, from Internet).

 

Eye Angiogram

Test Overview

An eye angiogram uses fluorescein dye and a camera to take pictures and evaluate the blood flow through the vessels in the back of the eye (retina).

See a picture of the structures of the eye.

During an eye angiogram, the dye is injected into a vein in your arm. Once injected, it takes about 10 to 15 seconds to circulate through your body. As the dye enters the blood vessels in your eyes, a series of photos are taken to chart the dye's progress. More pictures are taken after most of the dye has passed through your eyes to see if any of it has leaked out of the blood vessels. Any dye that leaks out of the blood vessels will color the tissues and fluid in the eye. Filters in the camera allow the areas colored by the dye to show up in the photos.

Unlike other angiogram procedures, an eye angiogram is not an X-ray procedure, so you are not exposed to any radiation.

Fortunately, the technician warns her patients of an untoward side effect of the dye injection (other than 16 listed possible side effects). The technician said that the dye turns urine bright yellow. Had she not told me, especially since the effect lasted for at least 30 hours, I would have panicked - thinking that I had pancreatic cancer.

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Who would believe a Sunday delivery? - 7/12/2020

 

When I placed my online order for a dishwasher, on 7/2/2020, I shortly received notice that it would be delivered on 7/12/2020. I didn't even think about the 12th's being on a Sunday - especially since the email also mentioned that they were having a hard time filling all of the orders during these times (normally, I should have expected delivery within three days of placing the order.) This morning, I just happened to check my phone for voicemail - a rare occurrence. There was a message left yesterday that I should expect delivery after 3:00pm, today - perhaps as late as 6:00pm-7:00pm. Hmmm...

 

At about 2:00pm, as I was closing my eyes to take a nap, I heard a truck outside. Thinking that perhaps deliveries were running ahead of schedule, I peeked outside. A Lowe's truck was parked up-and-across the street - offloading a clothes washer and dryer. About 45 minutes later, when the two guys had loaded the old washer and dryer for hauling away and seemed to be ready to leave, I caught their attention, asking if they had a dishwasher for me. "I don't know. We do have a couple of dishwashers in there. I'll check."

 

They checked. They carried our dishwasher across the street and deposited it in our garage. I was happy to get the delivery and they were happy that they would save the extra driving that would have been required had they needed to come back. Who knew that the truck hadn't been loaded with an eye toward efficiency of travel. Amazingly unthoughtful of someone.

Catching up - 6/19/2020

Fresh Paint

             

The house is looking fresher these days - not from the front, but definitely from the back. Cecil, the handyman, painted the three sides of the house that comprise rough cedar siding (although, one of those sides is nearly as much brick veneer as siding). The back side of the house faces southeast and the garage side faces southwest, so those two sides really take a beating from the sun and from the prevailing southwesterly winds. The whole house had been painted when it was built in late 1999, of course, and again in 2008. The front of the house, facing northwest, is nearly all brick-faced and gets little sun and wind, so I decided not to bother the environment by having it painted this time.

With the heat as bad as it has been, Cecil was smart enough to have himself and his helper here at 6:30am to work until a bit past noon each day - plus - the first day, Cecil worked for a couple of hours in the afternoon on the side of the house that faces northeast - in the shade. They were so quiet that we never knew when they were here or when they were not.

100' of hose - Front Yard

200' of hose - Back Yard

It seems that all I've done for the past few weeks is water, water, water. Except for one day, the temperatures during the past two weeks have been in the mid-to-high 90s (Fahrenheit) and I don't want to lose our new little trees. On Sundays, I water all of the trees that have been planted within the past 18 months - plus - rose bushes and the three largest tomato plants. That is accomplished by stretching out the back yard hose and setting it to water the base of each of 13 trees for four to twelve minutes, depending upon when the tree was planted, how large the tree is, and the species of the tree. The roses are watered using a separate 75' hose, for four to six minutes each, depending upon how distracted I get in watering the trees. Wednesdays, the three trees that were planted in May get two 9-quart buckets full of water each, and each rose or tomato plant gets one bucket full each. The front hose is used to water the tropical plants that are summering on our front porch, the plantings along the front of the house, and the plantings on the far side of the driveway. [I note that, since 2:00am, today, we have received over one inch of rain - and the heat is supposed to abate somewhat for today and tomorrow. Yay! I shan't need to water plants this weekend. The rain stopped for a bit a couple of hours ago, but it is again coming down. The sump pump has been activating every minute or two since I woke at 2:00am.]

Note that in the left, bottom area of the above photo there are small (tropical) airplane/spider plants coming up beside the sedum. Last fall, I gambled that those plants would come up from roots that had over-wintered for several years now and did not re-pot any of the plants to over-winter inside. Not only did the "established" roots over-winter; a root from a plant that had established itself from a potted plant that I had put into my basement escape window well (see the photo, below) did as well. The window well root took so long to come up that I had given up on it; but, there it comes.

The photo, below, shows the tropical plants that I am summering in the window well this year. Too small to show up in this photo, the airplane plant is in the far corner.

First visitor since February

For the first time since February, we had someone inside our home: Elder Brother (above photo from a visit in 2018). As paranoid as he is (and who wouldn't be who had experienced two heart attacks and about five cardiac arrests?) we felt that he would be as safe as anyone to invade our spaces - and that we would be a much greater risk to him than he to us. EB had phoned a few weeks ago to let me know he would be birding in Kansas. (He had promised me to always let me know, rather than visiting Kansas without letting me know.) I had consulted Hunky Husband, and we had invited EB to stay with us for a night or two - with the proviso that, should he die of CORVID-19 after catching it from us, he wouldn't haunt us.

EB drove in just after 4:00pm, on a Friday, and left at 8:00am, on that Sunday. We enjoyed his stay, but none of us left the house in the time that he was here. Normally, we would have eaten one or two meals out; but, we had pizza for dinner, Friday; leftover pizza for lunch, Saturday; and I put together a chicken salad for dinner, Saturday evening, with EB opting to have a shredded turkey breast sandwich, instead. We had soft-serve ice cream (vanilla with fresh, sweetened strawberries for EB and me and chocolate with chocolate syrup for HH) for the two meals. EB always has the same breakfast, to which he helps himself: bowl of shredded wheat cereal and four ounces of orange juice. He also helped himself to the treats (photo, below) scattered around the house - dark chocolate coated almonds, brownies, etc. EB eats very little and has always been so thin that it is painful to look at him when he doffs his shirt; but, he's a big boy (84 years old) and can take care of himself, I think.

  Left-to-Right: plain M&Ms, lemon cookies dipped in dark chocolate & almond pieces, and pecan candy made from left-over dipping chocolate

At our ages (and with the state of EB's health), HH, EB, and I find that our risk factor is not as worrisome to us as the thought of our not getting to see one another. It should be understood without my saying so that HH and I went into isolation for 14 days after EB's visit. OTOH, EB went on to spend a few nights in motels in Kansas and Texas, his intended locales for birding. EB also isolated himself when he arrived home from his journey.

Birds Fledged

The wren nest among the foliage of a house plant that is summering on the front porch has one egg left in it - abandoned AFAIK. It was probably not viable. The second brood of five house finches in the miniature swing on the front porch all left (the two laggards are shown in the above photo), and a second brood of bluebirds was fledged. I don't expect any more action in the nests during the heat of the summer. I was properly amazed at that second brood of bluebirds since we have been in the mid-to-high 90s during all of June (but for one day when it was 89 degrees Fahrenheit).

Strawberry Moon

We had few strawberries, this spring, my having ripped out our strawberry patch in order to plant HH's roses; but, I did get to watch the Strawberry Moon rise. As you can see (photo, below) the moon had to rise to about 20 degrees above the horizon to clear the tall trees along our creek.

Week in Review - 6/5/2020

Health: For a few days, I kept having a new "symptom" to think about each day. As of this morning...no symptoms. I lived through 'em all and I'm pretty sure they had nothing to do with COVID-19 or any other virus. I think it was a combination of age/heat/food choices/hydration. The age and heat are still with me, but I've been doing better on the food choices and hydration for the past week.

Heat: The heat has about knocked me out. After doing yard work (mostly deep watering our nine newest trees - requiring uncoiling, dragging about, and re-coiling 200' of garden hose) a couple of days ago, I was beet red. That's not unusual for me when the temperature is over 80 degrees F, let alone when it is in the upper 90s. I come inside; drink a cup of water; splash water all over myself; swab my face, arms, and legs down with alcohol; and sit under a (ceiling) fan for 20-30 minutes. * The two, new dogwood trees were looking wilt-y, so I daren't wait until morning. Otherwise, I've done yard work in the morning when it has been cooler. I still get hot, but not beet red. (I think it would be nice if I could perspire!) Hunky Husband even found it hot. He was dragging when he came in from his jogging this morning.  (Maybe he just walked this time?) HH perspires enough for the both of us.

Politics: A long-time lurker has emailed to ask, once again, why I try to refrain from political discussions on my blogs. The Dilbert cartoon (above) in this morning's Wichita Eagle (I would provide a link, but it is behind a pay wall) pretty well sums up a major reason. I'm sure that I could be the person in the red shirt or in the blue shirt, in that cartoon, depending.

As I always believed during my working days, just because something can be done doesn't mean that it should be done. Similarly, as was quoted in an article headlined Ill-considered posts lead to lost jobs amid protests, crisis in this morning's paper, "You don't need to always say something." There are times when one must speak up; but, one must address the right audience when speaking up. I choose, in my blogs, to remain silent and be thought a fool, when it comes to politics. (Apologies to the late President Abraham Lincoln.)

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* I am reminded of a time in July, 1980, during a long string of triple-digit temperature days, when I had taken a TR-182 [turbo-charged, retractable gear Skylane] prototype out for an operational test flight. It was 104 degrees F, that day. After refueling (using a step-ladder) and parking the plane, I walked into the experimental hangar and stuck my head under the circular-troughed hand washing station to cool down. The mechanics found me a sight to behold, I'm sure; but, they were kind enough not to give me a bad time. They were good people.

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ADDITION OF 6/5/2020 11:30AM - More from Slashdot.org

Does this posting (below) mean that we Yanks are, in general, hypochondriacs? Perhaps I had no "symptoms" (see, above) at all? I was just fooling myself!

COVID-19 Pandemic Causes 42% Drop In ER Visits Nationwide, CDC Says (upi.com) 74

Posted by BeauHD on Friday June 05, 2020 @06:00AM from the striking-decline dept.

schwit1 shares a report from UPI: Visits to hospital U.S. emergency rooms have dropped by more than 40 percent so far in 2020, compared to the same period last year, according to figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC researchers compared total visits so far this year to the same five-month period in 2019. The number of ER visits declined from a mean of roughly 2.1 million per week between March 31, 2019, and April 27, 2019, to a mean of 1.22 million per week during the "early pandemic" period of March 29 to April 25 of this year, according to the CDC. ER visits declined for every age group, with the largest proportional declines in children 10 years old and younger at 72 percent and children 11 to 14 years old at 71 percent, the agency said. Researchers found the largest declines in ER visits occurred in the New England states at 49 percent, as well as in the mid-Atlantic region at 48 percent. That region includes New York and New Jersey, which has been the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak.

ER visits related to abdominal pain and other digestive problems fell by more than 66,000 per week from year to year, while those among patients reporting musculoskeletal pain -- excluding low-back pain -- dropped by more than 52,000 per week, according to the CDC report. Visits for "sprains and strains" declined by nearly 34,000 per week, and those related to "superficial injuries" fell by nearly 31,000 per week, the researchers said. Conversely, ER visits for "exposure, encounters, screening or contact with infectious disease" increased by nearly 19,000 per week from 2019 to 2020, the analysis found. Specifically, some 18,000 ER visits occurred per week across the country for COVID-19 symptoms through the end of May, the researchers said. The researchers say more research is needed to determine whether the decline in ER visits could be attributed to "actual reductions in injuries or illness [due] to changing activity patterns during the pandemic" lockdown, or if Americans simply delayed or declined emergency care.

More from Slashdot.org - How ignorant can we get?

'Murder Hornet' Meme Inspires Stupid Americans To Kill Pollinators En Masse (latimes.com) 159

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday May 10, 2020 @12:34PM from the bug-hunt dept.

An anonymous reader writes: You really can't make this stuff up, but Americans across the country, out of fear of "murder hornets," have begun killing all kinds of bees en masse. According to Doug Yanega, senior museum scientist for the Department of Entomology at UC Riverside, a national panic has led to the needless slaughter of native wasps and bees, beneficial insects whose populations are already threatened...

"Folks in China, Korea and Japan have lived side by side with these hornets for hundreds of years, and it has not caused the collapse of human society there. My colleagues in Japan, China and Korea are just rolling their eyes in disbelief at what kind of snowflakes we are..."

"I don't want to downplay this — they are logistically dangerous insects. But having people in Tennessee worry about this is just ridiculous. The only people who should be bothering experts with concerns about wasp IDs are living in the northwest quadrant of Washington (state). And really, right now, nobody else in the country should even be thinking about this stuff," he continued.
"The facts are, experts said, two dead hornets were found in Washington last December, a lone Canadian live nest was found and wiped out last September and no live hornets have yet been seen this year," reports the Associated Press.

And when they spoke to the Washington Agriculture Department entomologist working on the state's response, he issued an additional correction for all the journalists covering this story. "They are not 'murder hornets.' "They are just hornets."