The View from the Hermitage, Day 171

On the pandemic cooking front, I have my first attempt at naan, an Indian flatbread, rising in the kitchen. Why, you might ask, does a flat bread need to rise? Oh, you don't ask that, though it's the thought that occurred to me as I typed the first sentence. Tomorrow, when I get a new 13 x 9 inch pan and some cardamom from Amazon, I will attempt No-Churn Saffron and Pistachio Ice Cream, a take on a traditional Persian ice cream. I got the rose water I needed for it last week, also from Amazon. Fortunately, I already have saffron and only need 20 threads.

With no rain this morning, my head stopped spinning rain songs and instead worked on a list of things I want to or should do once the world rights itself and I can safely interact with it. Besides my family, there are people with whom I want to have dinner. There are other people with whom I want to have lunch or coffee. It's been almost six months since my last haircut and highlights. Since I expect my bangs will have grown out by then, I'll need to decide whether to go short again or keep my hair longer and bangless. My nails have held up surprisingly well without any attention from a nail professional. I trim them or file them and am actually used to their natural color. Older son has done a great job on the grocery front, but once the pandemic smoke clears, there's an ice cream parlor and a pizza joint I'd like to visit. I would call my hand doctor (doesn't everyone have a hand doctor?) about the De Quervain's tendonitis that will not get better without attention, which I'm hoping can be cortisone and not the surgery it may need. I'd also make an appointment with my PCP for a physical not to mention visit the dentist for the appointment I cancelled the same day they closed shop.

I guess I'm going to be busy, though it probably won't be this dumpster-fire year of 2020. I trust Dr. Fauci's suggestion that things will get back almost to what they were. We'll probably never shake hands again, and we may reserve hugs for those with whom we are very close. The election will have happened with whatever fallout there is to be. I will not now entertain what life will be like depending on who gets inaugurated in January. Either way, it will be different than what we have had the last four years, different in one way or another.

The K-12 public schools open here a week from today. I should look at some private school websites and see how they plan to handle things. Okay, I just looked at three, none of which was upfront about how they are handling the upcoming year. I guess you have to pay admission, er, tuition to learn whether it's full-time in-person, all online, or a hybrid model. I would think that the smaller, likely more cohesive student and parent bodies would make in-person instruction a bit less threatening, but that's not totally clear. Possibly even more so than with college, I would not want to spend thousands of dollars to keep my child at home learning virtually. I just checked the website of a fourth school offering grades 5-12. It appears that they are having two grades come for in-person instruction each day. 

Once again, I'm going to defer any political comment here and instead go check the naan. Expect a report on that tomorrow.