Thursday July 16

[PeggyinCT]

Good morning Everybody, rise and shine. It’s going to be a good day. I’m going to make raspberry amaretto jam from berries I grew! I went shopping for the first time yesterday! I was out to get my hair cut and frosted, so I stopped at two different grocery stores. I was looking for two particular items. Knox plain gelatin and small canning lids. My son hasn’t been able to get the Knox gelatin and I thought he was only looking at Jello, but guess what; it’s not to be found. Is it in your stores??? I could Only find wide mouth lids. The small ones have been sold. That’s not unusual.
Keep smiling under your mask.... Peggy

[BarbaraRose]

Peggy, have you checked on-line for those items?

I am still laying in bed with Lola and checking FB, e-mails, etc. I didn't fall asleep until 4am this morning. I think there is a nap in my near future!

Just gonna do some cleaning around the house. I need to sign back up for unemployment today too. Probably do some reading too. I need to do laundry but not thrilled about going out in the heat to the laundry room. I should also go to the bank but that also requires going outside . If I could get to bed earlier and get my butt out of bed earlier in the morning, it wouldn't be so hot yet to do that stuff...

I bought blueberries the other day to make blueberry muffins so I should probably do that today too.

Hope you all stay safe and cool!

[Acadianmom]

Peggy, I have a box of 32 envelopes of Knox Gelatine because Harold was feeding it to his horse. The expiration date was April 2018. I don't know if that stuff would go bad. I have made jelly twice in my life. I usually end up throwing a jar of jelly away before I finish it.

Another boring day. One of these days I might get bored enough to clean house. My ex-DIL is getting a box ready to send me for my birthday. I keep telling her to quit sending me stuff. The only good thing about this virus is that she can't come see me now.

Martha

[OregonLuvr]

I was up and at em early this morning while it was cool. After a couple cups of coffee I headed over to my storage unit to put things from the RV in there. Then stopped at the store for a couple of items. Stopped at the car wash and then vacuumed my car out. Came home watered the flowers, bushes, and garden well. Visited with one of my neighbors. She had her neighbors dog with her so she and Emma got to play for a bit while we sat outside and visited.

I need to clean the inside windows on my car but it is warming up quickly out there so maybe this evening......maybe not. Decided lunch was on the agenda so now just sitting in the cool of the house.

[cnq50b]

Hi all,

It's a beautiful day here. Started out overcast & unseasonably cool (low-60s). Can't beat that for July.

My DD & SIL have been here off & on for the past few weeks. SIL was finally able to go to France to scout out places for them to live once his citizenship is finalized & DD is now pet-sitting for my son so I've got my place to myself again.

Olivia was slated to start kindergarten this fall. They're in Los Angeles county so school will be via distance learning. Her mom is worried about how that's going to work but I'm sure she'll do fine. I feel safer with them not opening the schools - at least not yet. I'm in Orange county & the school board voted to open up all the schools with no facemasks & no physical distancing. Individual districts are making their own minds on what precautions they'll take. it's a crazy world we're living in. I'll have Olivia and/or the baby when my DIL resumes working remotely in Aug. The baby is almost 8 months old & very mobile - yikes!

Peggy, raspberry amaretto jam sounds delicious! hope you find the Knox gelatin or maybe Martha can ship you some.
Barbie, glad you aren't working right now.
Martha, 15 barn cats! wow - you are good person to get them fixed & provide a place for all of them. Hope they earn their way by keeping the mouse population down.
Sarah, hope Zipper comes home soon. Hang in there & take good care of yourself. He'll need you when he shows up.
Good to see some of you are getting to the campgrounds & staying safe while enjoying visits with friends & family.

Well, I'd better find something to do around here.
Take care out there.
Catherine

[BirdbyBird]

Martha, growing up I worked at a riding academy in Jr and Sr. High School. Several of the older school horses got a packet of plain gelatin added to their sweet feed to strengthen their hooves......

The rig is up on Facebook Market Place and getting its share of attention, questions and several requests to schedule appointments to come see it. I am glad that I don't have to make a living selling and negotiating things. The responses do give me hope and I haven't even posted on RV Trader yet. Though I would go low key first. After getting it cleaned up and getting to demonstrate all the convenient features It has I think to myself...yes this is a nifty rig for the right people. Not too small and not too big...sort of like Goldilocks. That knowledge has help give me the confidence to show the things that a new owner may or may not want to worry about.

[Acadianmom]

Tina, yes Harold was giving the gelatin to his horse for her hooves.

Good luck on selling your rig. I had my motorhome on Facebook market place for months. Only 5 people actually came and looked at it. The rest will drive you up the wall asking questions that you have probably already answered in the ad because they don't look at the full ad before they start asking for information or pictures. There were days I would get at least 50 messages.

I need to sell the tow vehicle I bought with my motorhome and just don't know if I want to go through that again.

Martha

[Cudedog]

Olivia was slated to start kindergarten this fall. They're in Los Angeles county so school will be via distance learning. Her mom is worried about how that's going to work but I'm sure she'll do fine. I feel safer with them not opening the schools - at least not yet. I'm in Orange county & the school board voted to open up all the schools with no facemasks & no physical distancing. Individual districts are making their own minds on what precautions they'll take. it's a crazy world we're living in.
Catherine

Yikes. Catherine. No facemasks and no physical distancing. OMG. I can't imagine that this will end well.

I agree with you 100%. If I had school-age children, they would NOT be returning to school in the fall. No way.

There is so much argument on this "open the schools" thing, both pro and con, that it just about makes my head spin.

I was watching one of the talking heads on the news the other night that was arguing that the schools SHOULD, that they MUST open. His reasoning? Because children getting sick with Covid19 is so very, very "rare" that it should absolutely not be any concern. At all.

How rare is it? He said that it is "only about 2% of kids that will get ill from the virus".

2% might not sound like a lot, but when one does the math (as I write this there are 3,599,899 - over 3 1/2 million - people in the U.S. that have been diagnosed with the virus). So here's the math: 2% of 3,599,899 is a whopping 71,197. (Yes, I do understand that "diagnosed" is not the same as being sick - on the other hand, "diagnosed" likely also means "contagious".)

Me, I just don't like those kind of numbers.

My kids would be staying home, even if I had to go to jail for keeping them there.

Anne

[cnq50b]

Exactly, Anne.
I told my son & DIL if Olivia's school opens before a vaccination is available and/or without proper safety guards in place I would have to restrict my access to her & them. Meaning they loose their babysitter. And believe me I don't think they want to do that.

[BarbaraRose]

They opened schools in Israel and they had to close them again because so many kids got the virus there. This could easily happen here. Here is part of the story:

"Two weeks after Israel fully reopened schools, a COVID-19 outbreak sweeping through classrooms — including at least 130 cases at a single school — has led officials to close dozens of schools where students and staff were infected. A new policy orders any school where a virus case emerges to close.

The government decision, announced Wednesday evening, comes after more than 200 cases have been confirmed among students and staff at various schools. At least 244 students and school employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Education. At least 42 kindergartens and schools have been shuttered indefinitely.


So it can happen. Orange County is full of crazy people (except for you Catherine! Lol!). They are the ones who refused to close their beaches a couple months ago when the governor said all beaches must be closed.

I just found out that the owner of the Curves I was a member at, her daughter just died of Covid-19 this week. The owner is the sweetest lady and is about my age, so her daughter is probably in her 30's. So sad. I feel so bad for her and her family!

They just brought in 21 Air Force members to help out at our local hospital because they are at full capacity right now and very short staffed. The 21 consist of doctors, nurses and respiratory specialists. I just don't get how people can still think this is all a hoax.

I got some more stuff organized today, mostly my gourd art supplies. Trying to get it all organized in bins and plastic drawers so I can find things as I need them. I still need one or two small containers for the paint bottles. I put a dot of paint on the top of the caps on each bottle so it will be easier to see what color is in each of them. Now I need to get the stuff gone thru in the porch so I can put the gourd stuff out there. It is all in my living room right now. I will keep the paint inside until fall since I don't think 110+ degree heat is good for it.

I didn't get out to the bank today, but will tomorrow since I need to stop at WM to pick up some Propel water and the organizer boxes I need for the paint bottles.

Hopefully, I can get to sleep earlier tonight. Never did get my nap in today and only had about 5 hours of sleep last night. I am yawning now so that is a good sign!

[BirdbyBird]

The fear of children getting sick is only the tip of the ice berg. For those of us that have worked in schools and have family members working in schools it is also the spread of the virus to all the staff and their families and the extended families of the child when the effected child returns home. Being about keeping children safe should be enough but as Catherine points out this is about so many more. And beyond the danger to public health, the on going damage to economics will be great also......

Oh, and anyone want to sign up to be a substitute teacher? I hear there is a need. To fill in quickly for those educators that will not be able to return to work and will have to make some painful personal decisions to stand down because of their immune systems or those of their family...... and then the need to replace the educators that do show up and then need to be quarantined.......

At least from the news many of the educational systems and some states and cities are making some more rational decisions based on science and caring for human life.

[Cudedog]

"Two weeks after Israel fully reopened schools, a COVID-19 outbreak sweeping through classrooms — including at least 130 cases at a single school — has led officials to close dozens of schools where students and staff were infected. A new policy orders any school where a virus case emerges to close.

The government decision, announced Wednesday evening, comes after more than 200 cases have been confirmed among students and staff at various schools. At least 244 students and school employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Education. At least 42 kindergartens and schools have been shuttered indefinitely.


So it can happen.

Thanks for posting this, Barbie. Kind of sends chills down my spine.

Anne