Stir Crazy Saturday

[Acadianmom]

The cases of the virus have gone up a lot in my parish so I'm trying really hard to stay home. All the rain has my grass in overdrive but it's too wet to mow. I'm trying to social distance from the kitchen. There's nothing to do but clean house and eat. It's too hot to go fishing.

One of the cats brought a grass snake up on the carport and is trying to get it to move. The snake made his escape when the cat wasn't looking. One of my friends had posted something about using a minnow trap to catch copperhead snakes. I don't think I want to be trapping snakes. I don't know if alligators eat snakes but I haven't seen any snakes at the pond lately.

Hope everyone is having a more exciting Saturday than I am.

Martha

[MandysMom]

Not much excitement here. Going to be warm again, it's already 87 and won't peak for another 5 hours! Such a helpful kitty you have,Martha, fetching his own live toys! Nope I wouldn't be catching copperheads either, unless you were sure you could feed em to a gator! Your statement about gators and not seeing any copperheads is a bit unsettling!
Son, who fell earlier in week still has painful knees. Sure hope he improves because getting him to car and Dr would be difficult! I just had him begin using CBD cream on his knees. I'll let you know if he thnks it helps.
Just received my missing Amazon order, which had watercolor markers, brushes, and watercolor paper, to go with the new stamps which arrived last Monday or Tuesday. The paper, markers, and brushes package was to be here Thursday, but by end of the day, Amazon said the package was running late and If I didn't get it by Sunday, ask for refund! I thought it was gone forever , but this morning, before I climbed out of bed, I heard the guy on my porch. Grabbed a robe and trotted out there, and low and behold, there was my box and only slightly roughed up. All intact and good shape. Have no idea where it went since it was scanned onto a truck Thursday morning headed to me from Rocklin, only 8 miles away! Just glad it got here. These stamps, by a company called Art Impressions, use line stamps ( with outlines not flat filled in) to lay down watercolor from watercolor markers. Then you use the brushes to pull and dab the color over the image, shading as you go. I've been watching their tutorial videos and the watercolor art is amazing! I've long wanted to do watercolor, but I'm no artist at drawing or imagining where to put color to actually achieve an image/ painting. So this drew me in. I'll show you once I start accomplishing something. Today between decluttering and cleaning, I'll reward myself with play sessions. Today's task will be color swatching, where you lay out a grid on paper, then paint each square with your different markers and label with that color name or number. Ideally you use the exact type and brand and weight of paper you plan to use in your projects, so you get a real idea of how that color will look when dry. I've been stamping a long time, and card making even longer. This is a new way to bring beauty to my cards, with stamps. Mel was always supportive of my crafting, and I always appreciated that he was.
Hope charities open soon, as my piles of big bags to donate are taking over my room. The interesting thing to me, is, at nearing 2 years since Mel's death, I'm having a renewed feeling it's ok, good even, to finish getting rid of his clothes, papers, and collections of stuff I won't use. I had gotten rid of much of his clothing, but sentimentally hung onto certain shirts that brought memories. I'm getting where I no longer need those as the memories of the horror of his last months fade and the better memories come back. Now to figure out how to sell stuff like the expensive juicers he bought for his cannabis juicing, but never used. Where have you had best luck selling stuff?
Off to get started. Have a good day.
Velda

[Acadianmom]

Velda, you would enjoy the group I camp with and they would enjoy your watercolors. Most of them are crafters. Someone usually comes up with a project at every campout. I am not a crafter. For Christmas last year the "smart alecks " gave me an apron that said Craft Supervisor.

Martha

[Colliemom]

Afternoon from Northern Michigan. Beautiful day here, sunshine, fluffy white clouds and nice NW breeze. Temp is around 83 in the sun, but doesn’t feel that warm. Supposed to be a pretty warm week coming up and not a drop of rain in sight. Wish I could get some of yours Martha.

i’m relaxing now that my chores for the day are over. Spent about 4 hours, with a kunch break un the middle, trimming, blowing, mowing etc. in my yard and our HOA properties. So that’s done for the foreseeable future. Need rain before I mow Then took the dogs for a short walk. Tine to stop for the day. I can’t push all day long like I used to, especially when it starts getting too warm.

I finally pulled the cover off my trailer and will take it to get dewinterized next week. Bought a new power cord through Walmart. Was here in 2 days. My cord p,ugs into the side of the trailer, so bought one that has a 90 degree handle on the female end, so the cord will hang straight down and not bend like the ones that plug straight into the trailer. Also order a new water filter from Direct Filters and it arrived toddy. Fast service. Ordered Wednesday and it was shipped on same day. I have two camping reservations lined up. But the first one might happen until the end of next month. However if the virus starts to get too serious again I figure I can always cancel them. Our stae counts starting to spike again. We were in the 100 per day range for quite some time but now we are going up into the 300 and some a day range. So far they are able to keep up with it. But it is now vacation season and people are coming north by the droves. I’d like Judy mention yeah other day, Makkena Island in those areas up there, can be an undated by hundreds of thousands of tourists. There are way too many people around here too. All those who have second homes that are up here right now seems like they have two or three more than normal in the driveways. Traffic has been pouring across the Mackinac bridge. So I’m kind of seeing trouble on the horizon. There have already been some Covid hotspots in Traverse City from out of town people who had the virus when they went to about eight different wineries and a couple of bars.They started feeling sick while they were up here and when they went home and got tested they found out they were positive. So now everyone who may have been in those places around certain times and certain days are going to have to self quarantine for two weeks. I am not going to start being careful where I go. Will probably be staying closer to home other than taking some drives places where I don’t have to be around people. We shall see what happens tomorrow after this weekend is over. But I think a lot of people are taking this whole week because the Fourth of July is next weekend.

So that’s about all that’s going on around here. Haven’t been in to anything exciting just doing odds and end stuff. I hope you all have a good remaining day and stay safe.

[JudyJB]

Glad I did not go into any wineries or bars in Traverse CIty, Sue!! There were apparently some real idiot-students in East Lansing who went to a very crowded bar, and then all went home to various places in the Grosse Pointe area and had another party, including one on the beach. Now 85 new cases in the area, and the student-idiots AND their families are now under quarantine!! Maybe their parents will talk to them about responsibility???

And the bar is closed for remodeling to add more safety measures. The owner ought to also be quarantined and fined. Check out the photo here of kids lined up to get in: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/ ... 268551001/ One mother posted that she was furious because her daughter did not go to the bar or the party, but went to a beach bonfire and caught it there. The governor is considering closing bars in Michigan again. Seems like you open things and the idiots come out of hiding.

And Michigan was one of the states that was doing very well at lowering the curve.

By the way, I was planning to take the Pictured Rocks boat tour today, but decided to just drive to the national park tomorrow on my way to Houghton to my next campground. Safer and cheaper as boat tour is $38 per person.

[snowball]

Am on my eldest daughter's wifi for the next week but sometime I will need to get my mifi fixed so that I can use my computer in the trailer on my normal time frame
didn't have any problems coming down yesterday... no check engine light so am hoping that what they were telling me was projecting into the future... appointment isn't until Tues though
and get to see the baby tomorrow doubt that I will get to cuddle him but seeing is good...
I wouldn't want him to get the virus because of my wants... we have to shower have clean clothes on and not to stop anywhere on the way reasonable to me
not done anything today showered read scriptures and visited it always takes longer to do things when you are visiting
you all take care
sheila

[Bethers]

We hit 90 again here... Not normal for Keystone. It's still mid 70's, so not the great sleeping weather I like. Oh well. The store is quite busy this weekend. We'll probably get a lull before the surge of people show up for the 4th festivities. I think it's going to be crazy.

Time to run Ty out for a final potty and get us ready for bed. He'll be out quickly. I'll read.

Here's wishing everyone a great Sunday.

[BarbaraRose]

I worked all day. Was on a split shift with a 2 hour break in between. I didn't want to go home since it takes half an hour each way so wasn't worth the time or the gas to do that. So I went across the street from the shop to the mall. I ate lunch in the food court and did some shopping. Lots of good sales going on in the stores that are open. Got a few tops for $6 each, got some Cinnabon rolls, and a few other little things. It was fun but was on my feet walking the whole time, so my feet didn't get much of a break. When I got back to work, we just sat around for the next 4 hours talking. My feet were happy about that! I have tomorrow off. My paycheck looked pretty nice for the last couple weeks with all the hours I was putting in. Am back to part-time now but tips are really good yet so that will help.

CA flattened the curve until Memorial Day and opening up more businesses and the beaches. We are spiking now quite a lot all over, but the county in southeastern CA (Yuma area) is really high and they are maxed out at the few hospitals there and sending some patients to San Diego and here. The governor told the mayor there to issue another stay-at-home order but the mayor never lifted the original one, and no one is following it there. So not much more he can do but remind people to stay home. There are a lot of farms down there and a lot of workers from Mexico that are not able to social distance very well while working, so that doesn't help either.

Have any of you tried Diamond Painting? It isn't actually painting but gluing shiny, tiny rhinestones to a picture to make it look sparkly. It is really pretty! My neighbor does it and showed on to me. If I didn't have the gourds to work on, I would try that. I actually have a kit but haven't had a chance to try it. Maybe I will see if my neighbor wants to do it for me. The kits are pretty cheap to buy, if any of you are interested in trying it.

Speaking of gourds, I ordered a cat face mold several months ago from China and I have been waiting and waiting for it only to find out that it got lost along the way. Was hoping it would show up eventually but now I don't think it will. I think I will have to get creative and make my own cat face for the cat gourd. I need to get that done and move on to other projects.

It has been pretty warm here, around 110+ but will be cooling off into the 90's tomorrow with high winds. The wind has already picked up quite a bit this after noon. Tomorrow night and Monday night will be in the mid 60's at night so might be nice nights to open the windows. It has been nice to get these occasional cool breaks lately. Didn't have any of them last summer at all.

I frosted my hair yesterday evening. It turned out pretty good altho the bang area didn't get frosted enough. But it looks OK for now. May get another kit and do them later. There is a mini frosting kit the is only $8 that I can get for that. My hair is now grown into a nice wedge cut (think Dorothy Hamill). Will grow it down into a bob like I had it before.

I mentioned on here recently about a woman, Michelle, who contacted me a few weeks ago on FB who recognized my last name on a mutual friends page. Turns out her parents live a few houses from my dad's old house and I know them well. My friend keeps her horses at this woman's property. Anyways, I found out that Michelle's boyfriend went crazy the other day and burned her house down and then committed suicide inside a horse trailer on the property. Very tragic! He meant to do her in as well but luckily, that didn't happen, but she lost everything in the house. The fire department was unable to put the fire out because this guy had a gun and was threatening to shoot anyone that went near the house. Crazy situation! Luckily he didn't mess with the barn or horses so they were OK.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

[BarbaraRose]

Beth, are there still fires going on there? Are they still planning to do the fireworks for 45?

[Acadianmom]

Barbie, sorry about your friend's house. She is lucky the guy didn't kill her too. The world is going crazy.

One of the ladies I camp with does the diamond painting but I never paid any attention to what she was doing. Sounds kind of tedious to me.

Martha

[Bethers]

Barbie, terrible about the fire and what your friend is going through. How lucky though that she survived.

The fire at Custer State park is out. Whew. Of course the fire works are still on.

[snowball]

trying to spell something right and it all disappeared
So sorry Barbie about your friend and her boyfriend simply awful but she is alive and as well as the animals
as to the diamond paintings my granddaughter does and is quite addicted to them..
sheila

[Cudedog]

And Michigan was one of the states that was doing very well at lowering the curve.

Michigan was also the state where armed protestors - protesting the governor's corona virus shut-down of the state - stormed the statehouse.

Where are they now, I wonder?

Anne