The View from the Hermitage, Day 119

Seventeen weeks! Yowza! I decided to copy these posts and comments into a Word document so as to have a bit more permanent record. In doing so, I occasionally have something I wrote (or a commentator wrote) jump out at me. For example, on Day 56, I wondered about the odds I'd still be doing this on Day 112. Guess what. I am! How naive I was to have even wondered such a thing. Should I now question the odds that I'll be making an entry on Day 238? Oops! I may just have jinxed myself.

Covid-19 cases in Virginia continue to inch up. CNN even cited Virginia as one of more than a few states that were not spiking but were slowly rising. The last time the seven-day rolling average on number of cases for the entire state was as high as it is now was June 10. The seven-day average for that part of the state not considered to be in "Northern Virginia" is the highest it has been since this all started. Older son questioned this morning whether the governor might react to the increases by saying they were all due to Hampton Roads, the beach area, so things need to be scaled back there but not the rest of the state. We both think such a decision would backfire big-time.

At least we don't live in Florida which recorded almost 15,300 cases in one day. Chances are that I would never have chosen to live in Florida but, having done so, I'd be giving serious consideration now to relocating. I do believe that the governor there has said that schools would be opening normally, in-person instruction five days each week. Home schooling would look mighty nice were I to be living there. Who knows. It might look mighty nice to someone living here.

We took the family dog to the park for her Sunday stroll. We went early; it was 8:30 when we got home from having walked almost three miles. She likes walking alongside the river. Today she even waded in a bit for the first time. She also drinks the river water. Fortunately, she just got her leptospirosis booster.

There were more than a few of the sign below in various places that were not there last Sunday. They were likely put up for July 4 and never taken down. Given that alcohol consumption has been rising since the pandemic began, they were probably really needed last weekend.

Alcohol is permitted in city parks as long as it is kept inside picnic shelters. It's a huge no-no in the parks in the county. The couple of times I've helped put together an outdoor gathering, I check shelter availability at city parts before I even think about looking at county parks.

Park crowds were picking up as we were leaving around 8:20. There was even a group setting up one of the shelters for a social gathering (I hope they weren't serving bloody marys or mimosas). We were they only people wearing masks other than the woman cleaning the rest rooms. We saw no one else even carrying a mask, though we did see a couple of sets of two people who were maintaining good social distance as in two people walking, one on each side of the road but still carrying on a conversation.

Speaking of masks, look what I found in the "Parade" section of this morning's newspaper.

It seems only natural that someone would seek to profit off the pandemic other than someone in HWSNBN's inner circle. I do like that the ad says, "Use twice a day to keep your breath, and your mask, smelling great." I wear a washable cloth mask over either a paper mask or an N95 mask from the construction sections of Lowe's. The cloth mask gets washed after each wearing.

As for pandemic kitchen antics, I made blueberry scones when we got back from the park. They'll be better then next time. The first time I bake anything is very much a trial run. Dinner tonight will be Mongolian beef, from a recipe I discovered because of the pandemic. That one is definitely a keeper.