Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The View from the Hermitage, Day 163

Needing a new appliance during a pandemic is not for the faint of heart. Just as lots of other things, appliances are having supply chain issues. Best Buy has several refrigerators that are of the size and style we want; however, the earliest any of those is available is early October. Ditto for Lowes. Davis Appliance can get one that fits our needs and wants but not until November. And the only old-fashioned appliance store in town is sold out of refrigerators but will get a new shipment in three weeks. The husband visited Davis and the local appliance store; the Best Buy and Lowes availability came from their respective websites. The husband will now attempt to diagnose why the smallish refrigerator that worked at older son's house does not want to work here. If we can get that working, waiting three weeks or even until October would not be the problem only having the dorm refrigerator is.

The Washington Post's Health and Science section had an article on coronavirus fatigue. The more we hear about the coronavirus and covid-19, the more desensitized we become. It morphs from being something novel (the novel coronavirus) and notable to something more common, and that is when we might stop taking the needed precautions. We leave the house without a mask and gloves (as the husband did when he left to go look at refrigerators; I caught him in the act of forgetting and corrected the situation), or say yes, we'll come to some social event without checking whether masks and distancing will be expected there. I say "we" there, but I have it easy since I go nowhere but the park for the Sunday dog walking expedition. It's easy to remember safety things once each week.

I've walked for three days now with no canine issues. I can pretty much do a mile loop without going by the homes of the two dogs that I've had trouble with. Much shorter than that, and doing five or six miles would be too tedious. I'd been leaving water in our mailbox and stopping to drink every time I went by it. Today, I tried one of older son's hydration vests, and it was wonderful not to have to stop, drink, then start up again. I'll be using that every day from now on.

I actually stayed up until 10:00 last night, which was when NBC coverage of the Republican National Convention began. There was no way I was going to stay up any longer and watch any of it. The few clips I saw on the network evening news about turned my stomach. HWSNBN claims that the only way he will lose is the election's being rigged against him. And he throws out there to think about 12 more years rather than four. I worry about the state of our democracy should he be reelected. 

My mom's assisted living facility is doing another point prevalent round of covid-19 testing tomorrow, and yet another one next Wednesday. The state health department recommended two tests a week apart. If all of those results come back negative, then they can start to allow residents to eat together or have some in-person social activities. I must admit that playing bingo by sitting in your doorway with the caller at one end just wouldn't do it for me. 

I have made a dent in the large cube of bankers' boxes in the basement. Most of the boxes of books that were in and will return to two bookcases in the living room are now spread out on the floor. Older son will bring a couple more up tomorrow. Then the trick is to organize them a bit better than they were before I packed them all up. I did set aside all the Audubon and nature guides for younger son to have at his cabin. When we were staying there, the question often came up of what sort of tree, what sort of insect, what sort of bird, and so on. Now they'll have the guides there to help answer such questions. I also put a box of books aside for older son, a set of classic works I remember going through as a child. The Works of Doyle, The Works of Longfellow, and so on. There is another set of books my parents had when I was a kid that will also go to older son.

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of Refrigerator: Yay or Nay?


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