Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 13 June 2021

Lots of good news from you all today.

Heather, the cut grass makes it all look much tidier, never mind the weeds. You should see ours!!

Annette, glad you're not suffering too much in the heat!

Enjoyed an outside coffee & cake today. H u g e toasted teacake!

We could see the sea from where we sat, and some of the small local mountains. 

The sea is on the horizon and looked very blue today. 

Bonnie posing by her favourite walk by the sea. Just after this, she rolled in something quite disgusting & smelled so badly that she had to be washed, later!

Evening all: Took the time to read our new Homeowner's Insurance Policy today; prices have shot up due to all the fires in the northern part of the state last year. Meanwhile, was also concerned to read that the policy no longer covers domestic stashes of gold bullion (should I bury my bullion in the garden or what!?) and that interior damage caused by critters only kicks in when it's caused by wild bears and deer..... Does that mean I now have to sit on my porch with my rifle at the ready? :-))

ANNETTE – How many bears, wild or otherwise, do you keep in your interior? And please let us know where you bury your bullion (just in case you forget where, of course).

Phone call today to invite me to make booking for 2nd covid jab, late July. Yeay! Meanwhile OH has received a letter from PM & Health officials reminding him he has not had the jab. Water off a duck’s back!

I must have walked 3 times as far than usual in supermarket this morn. Refurbishment has been underway for weeks and nothing is where it was 2 months ago or even last week. Some stock obviously let run low. However the stacker-removalists are very helpful & pleasant in answering “where is it now? queries.

Just a thought

Everything is funny as long as it's happening to somebody else. (Will Rogers)

AQ:  No wild bears; just tame ones (which are covered by the policy - phew!)  As for our gold bullion, we've painted it brick red and built an extension to the patio.  :-))    Of course, right after we got the renewal notice for the Homeowner's policy, we got the renewal notice for our Earthquake policy -- will probably find out it only covers earthquakes in the Southern Hemisphere.    OK, silliness aside, my favorite supermarket has just expanded and they've been moving the various sections around for weeks.  I used to be able to shop on autopilot; now I need an explorer's kit.

Hope everyone has a good Wednesday.  It's noisy day here tomorrow with trash, recycling and garden waste bins all being picked up....lots of beeping and banging.

Good Morning. Dull and drizzly here, but it was forecast to be damp.

Sympathies with those who have reconfigurated supermarkets: we don't realise what creatures of habit we are once we have learned where things usually are, and as Annette says, we go around on autopilot. Great that your 2nd jab is coming up, AQ.

Have a good day everyone.

Clare: Those photos are fabulous!!! Very professional! Love the beautiful gannets and the guillemot. Happy belated birthday to Limpy! Congrats to Helen for her job interview,

Lindy: That's a lovely location. Bonnie is such a pretty dog. I can't remember whether I told you how beautiful those peonies were. (They are the official Indiana State Flower and a lot of the old farms have heirloom patches of them.)

Heather: I guarantee that I have 1,000 times more weeds than you do. I'm not even mowing, because I'm not going out there while the cicadas are thick. No one can see my place, anyway. Don't care. Don't care. Don't care. LOL

Annette: You can send all that gold bullion to me. I'll be happy to take it off your hands! LOL! A decade ago, we had a 5.6 earthquake here. (The floor rolled!) For a while, I kept an earthquake rider on my homeowner's insurance policy, but I let it go when nothing more happened. We can get flood insurance only from the government, and it's wildly expensive. I can't begin to afford it. The deer don't seem interested in getting inside my house. Some nights, I can hear them brushing up against the outside walls as they walk to the creek for water. Good luck with the freelance project. I hope you and your family will be safe from that ghastly heat. The temps in some places are astonishing.

AQ: I shop at a giant superstore (it's the only big store in 5 rural counties). They are always moving things, and I'm always exhausted when I get home. Good news that you will soon have your second jab. What a relief for you. 

Speaking of the virus, numbers in my county are increasing again, and we've been placed under a yellow advisory. We had 37 new positive cases between 7 June and 13 June. That may not seem like much, but my rural county has a population of only 38,000 (spread over 505 square miles). The rise in cases isn't surprising. Only 39% of people have been fully vaccinated, and that number is largely stagnant. Everyone who will take the vaccine has already gotten it. The rest have dug in their heels in resistance. We have appointments available at all times of day, and walk-ins are welcome. The Delta variant is now spreading here, and the July 4th holiday is coming up, when people will gather in very large numbers to see fireworks displays. Sigh.

Great news this morning. I met up with my friend in her new high tech wheelchair and we had coffee at Tiso. She had originally been told that she was unlikely to be fitted for a prosthetic before the end of the year. Everything is healing much quicker than expected and she is now going to start the work on Monday. How good is that!!!