Scorching the World

Tom actually had to go to work today; he had an all-day meeting in Merced. So he left about 9am, after I trimmed his beard a little. With the day to myself, I decided to get a couple more little paintings done. I’m trying to put up some art that has brighter colors. I’m tired of my whole house being light grey and dark grey so I’m adding some yellow, green and other bright colors. They aren’t anything that will ever make me rich and famous, but I like them. It has been so hot lately that Tom and I haven’t gone for our walks in the mornings, but today it was nice and cool again so we got to go walking. It felt so good. It stayed a pretty nice day for a long time so I kept the back door open and listened to birds singing. So nice! Tom got home about 4:30 and worked out in the yard the rest of the evening. It was nice that it was cool enough to do that. Ever since Maggie left on her mission, I’ve been saving all her emails and pictures in a powerpoint file. I decided I should just...

Tom had ward council this morning at 10:30 and I had Sunday School at 11am. As soon as Sunday School ended, I got in a zoom chat with Anne and Carma and we had a really good visit. As soon as our time ran out, we started a new chat and when that one ran out, we quit, but we had some good conversations about what is going on in our lives. We are all dealing with some pretty big stuff. That’s probably par for the course at our age. When we ended our chat, we were ready for Knudsens to arrive and our food was ready, but I got a text from Tanya saying they were leaving soon, so Tom and I went ahead and ate while the food was hot. About half hour later, I got another text from Tanya saying they would be leaving in about 20 minutes, so we were glad we ate when we did. Finally when they got here they ate, and we got to catch up on all the happenings for the past week. Cannon went on a campout, Cannon and Kaden went with Tanya to the Bay Area and got to visit with everyone there, and then ...

Tom and I both had things to take care of in the morning. I was working on my little paintings, and Tom was trying to take down a partial wall in the garage. Tom saw a notification about a funeral of one of our friends from the Spanish ward, and wanted to go to that, but weren’t sure what it might look like during the ongoing quarantine. We knew that the church building had restrictions on it – there are not to be any meetings held there, so we had wondered about the funeral being there, but that was what it said on Facebook. But we got ready and headed down to the church. When we got there, the church parking lot was empty. We wondered where everyone was, so we called Carlos Fernandez. He told us that he wasn’t at the funeral because only a select few were invited to attend, and he wasn’t sure where that was. So this is what a funeral is like during the pandemic. We can’t see a dear friend who passed on or all her family and friends. That was pretty sad. So now we were all dress...

It was just such a nice day. We slept in a little, had a slow breakfast, and stuff like that. Tom left for a while to go to Madera to try to find parts he needed for the Comet. They will come in tomorrow, then he can take them and the Comet to a repair shop to get something else fixed. Slowly, slowly, one little thing gets fixed so that eventually he will have what he wants, hopefully before the money that we set aside for it runs out. He has also had more work lately; his company is trying to use up money allocated to them before the time-limit for the PG&E programs runs   out. It’s tricky, because they can’t go into any mobile home parks unless the resident invites them personally, and they can’t invite them because they don’t know about it, and they don’t know about it because Synergy can’t go into the parks. Yesterday Tom had to do a zoom meeting/class for work, having to do with a new program. So he listened carefully and even took notes. At the end of the class, they to...

I woke up feeling great and got a lot done, but by mid-morning I started to feel the same sick-to-stomach as last week. By noon I had a burning headache again. These headaches are different from my normal migraines and I sure wish I knew what was causing them. I spent the rest of the day trying to avoid any light and holding really still. I am so grateful that I don’t have to go to work or do anything else if I don’t feel like it! It makes me feel so pampered and spoiled; if I just want to lie down and take it easy, I can! We had invited Thompsons to come back to swim again, and by the time they got here, I had started to feel better, so I went out with sun glasses but soon didn’t need them. It felt so good to just float in the water and have it wash over my head! We always have fun visiting while hanging out in the water and by the time they left, I felt pretty darn good. I don’t know what I would do without Tom – he is so good at taking care of me! He tried to contact the city ...

I worked over three hours today, which doesn’t sound like much when compared to a real job, but it really ties me to the computer all day to get 3 full hours. I tried doing a few other little things, but got constantly interrupted by texts and phone calls. It’s good that we are getting busier – the pandemic definitely slowed down the work, but now we are booked a week in advance again. About mid-morning, I was in the family room and Tom was in the office when I started to feel a little shaking. Tom called to me from the office to see if I was feeling it. It only lasted a couple of seconds, then I asked him if it was still going or if I was just shaking on the inside. He said it was over, then it started again, a little stronger. It probably shook for about 30 seconds, which seems like an eternity, but it never got big. I watched the pool water start to make waves. When it was still going after about 10 seconds, and Tom and I were still yelling back and forth at each other, I asked hi...

We had a 7am meeting with Logan, our financial advisor, and we had no problem being up, dressed, awake, and ready for it. I don’t love being so awake that early, but I sure get more done when I’m up earlier. I like talking to him – there are just so many things that seem so incredibly complicated to me, that it is nice to have someone explain and give educated opinions to us. But after about half hour of him throwing out numbers and calculations, my head begins to spin and I remember why I don’t do that for a living. Too many numbers! Still, he has helped us focus on a plan of action and keeps us on track to work out the details to make it happen. It wasn’t what he suggested, but we came up with the idea to build a studio apartment in our garage, then add a new garage. Our neighbor is a general contractor and was able to give us an estimate and said he had resources to make it happen quickly and not very expensively, so we are excited! In the evening the pool was wonderful!

I sewed pretty much all day and I finally FINALLY finally finished 100 masks. It felt like it took a whole week, but it was really only about 3 full days. Now that they are all in one bag, it doesn't look like all that many. I don’t know how so many faithful women have made 100 every week over and over. Amazing people. Tom wanted to put the back seat that has been recovered back into his Comet and wanted Caeli’s help, so he went to pick her up. They worked hard, and he was glad to have Caeli because she had to crawl under the car and into the truck to get to some things. When they finished and were so hot and tired, they came in to watch Quigly Down Under. The got about halfway through it when it was time to take Caeli to her kick-boxing class. Tom stayed with the dog while she did her thing, then they came back to watch the last half. It was a nice day for getting things done. I’m happy to have those masks finished and can deliver them tomorrow. Happy days!

My number 1 priority today was to take Tom shopping for Father’s Day. What he needs more than anything (in my opinion) is clothes, but I don’t dare buy them for him, so he agreed to let me take him shopping. I also planned to cook him a proper Father’s Day meal of what he requested - pork chops, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad, and carrot cake. That’s his all-time favorite meal. He had bought the pork chops and potatoes, but I needed the rest. We did a few things around the house in the morning, then at 10:30 Tom left to go help the bishopric hand out root beer floats to the fathers in the ward in a drive-through treat. When he left, I went to the grocery store and bought what I needed plus some cool pool toys and a surprise Father’s Day present for Tom and Todd. That was pretty fun. When I got home I started cooking and by the time Tom got home I had dinner ready for him. I had used a recipe that guaranteed moist, delicious the pork chops because mine always turn out hard and d...

I worked on the masks for a little while in the morning, then began to have a headache so I took it easy the rest of the day. The thing that helped the most was to be in a dark room. The only dark room we have is our bedroom, so I took my computer in there and watched some good movies on Prime. One was so good I thought Tom would want to see it, so when he was ready to relax for the night, I put it on and we both enjoyed it. It was “I Can Only Imagine”. It was really good. I slept so much during the day that I didn’t think I could go to sleep at night, but I did and felt great. In the morning on Thursday, I felt good again so we went for our walk but by the tine we got back, I had to lie down and didn’t get back up the rest of the day. Tom brought me whatever I needed but mostly just let me rest. In the afternoon, he went to run errands, one of which was to take the tile saw to Todd, then he stayed and helped Todd cut some tiles. They were doing good until the saw broke. Todd said,...

The Just Serve group in Fresno decided to gather 5,000 masks by mid-July for field workers, so I decided to make 100. Yesterday I cut out all 100 and used up almost every scrap of cotton fabric I have, but I only had enough elastic to do about 10. Today I started sewing them, and with the elastic and thread that Tom bought me while he was out and about, I was able to get 35 of them to the “almost completed” stage. I want to wash them because I failed to wash the fabric before I cut it, then I just need to sew in the nose wire and stitch the end closed. All they lack is finishing, as Mom used to say. That took the bulk of my day. I would work on them until I was sick of sitting at the sewing machine, then go rest, then go back to it again and again. We woke up about 5am today, so were ready for a serious nap by mid-morning, and even after that, I felt like I was just dragging all day. Tom, the energizer bunny, just kept going and going. He picked up the back seat to his Comet that h...

Many times when we go for our morning walk we meet a neighbor also walking, or working in their yard. We are always very impressed with the people we meet – they are just so nice! It always feels like they are people we could become very good friends with. The other day we met one old man – turned out he is 87 years old – and he was out digging holes for his sprinklers because he is setting up a low watering system in his yard. Amazing. We stood there and talked to him for quite a while because he was so interesting. Today when we went walking, we saw him on the other side of his yard, cutting back the huge eucalyptus trees! We can’t claim he is lazy! We got talking about his neighbor, who has a very nice yard, and he took us over there to meet that neighbor. That guy is a volleyball coach at Bullard High School and has practices and other events in his back yard. He invited us in to see the yard and it was amazing. He has an acre and has put in a workout room, an outdoor shower, a w...

I love Sundays, but it seems we are busier now on Sundays than before the quarantine even though we had lots of meetings back then. It seems like it has been forever since we went to church. We were in the Spanish ward for almost three years, then went back to Riverview and we were just getting to know people when the ward was dissolved. Then we were just beginning to get to know people in Van Ness ward when the quarantine started, so I hardly remember the people, except for those who join the online Sunday School class or the Tuesday scripture study. It’s pretty much the same people that join both, so there are only a few that I am becoming familiar with. I miss singing in a choir and being with people. But we are so happy and doing so well, that we just can’t complain. We are healthy and have a nice, comfortable house with plenty of food and things to do. I know others are suffering with the pandemic, and I feel so bad for them. Anyway, I had Sunday School at 11am, then got to ...

We haven’t left  the confines of the walls of our home to do something fun since the quarantine began, so we planned today to go to Lindsey to see the murals and have some orange ice cream. The internet said the Orange Works restaurant was open from 10-4, so we felt if we left by noon, we would be right on time. Before time to go, I worked on cleaning up my fingernails – they still had black grout around the edges. Tom had about 5 big projects that he tried to make a dent in before noon, but we took off as soon as we could. We got to Knudsens around 12:30 or 1pm. We had to meet them there because when we talked to Tanya earlier, she wasn’t sure how many of her family would want to go. If only 3 wanted to go, they could ride with us; if everyone wanted to go, they had to take their own car. It turned out all but Todd wanted to go so she needed to take her car, but hers was in the shop. The other choices were the truck we sold them, which hasn’t been running well, or Todd’s car, wh...

Last night both Tom and I woke up around 3am and couldn’t go back to sleep. We finally went back to bed about 5, and slept soundly until my Clean Queen phone rang at 7am with some emergencies. I wasn’t quite ready to wake up yet, but that’s ok. After breakfast we started grouting. Grouting is my least favorite part of laying tile. It is so messy and time-consuming. Usually Tom puts down the grout and wipes it with the wet sponge, and I’m in charge of rinsing out the sponges. So we proceeded like that for 2/3 of the porch, then Tom suggested that it would be nice if someone would invent a grouting tool that would just squirt the grout into the cracks! I thought that was a great idea, so I got ziplock bag and we put the grout into it and I took over squirting the grout into the cracks, then Tom would wipe them clean with the sponges. It didn’t go faster, but it used way less grout and was way easier to clean. Until we got near the end and the grout was drying up; it stopped working...

We needed to let the mud under the tile dry/harden for 24 hours, so we decided not to try to grout it today. Instead Tom did a lot of yard work, cleaning off the back patio and taking care of his garden. I did a lot of Clean Queen work and cleaned the pool. We both needed to go to the hospital to get lab work done, so as soon as it opened, we went. That was quite a different experience from usual. At the entrance there were about 6 people there with masks on and carrying clipboards. They asked whether we had had a fever or other symptoms and what we were going there for. Tom said, “I guess you have to be healthy to go to the hospital!” They laughed. When we checked in at the lab, the lady asked Tom to see his ID, and he asked, “Why, you can’t tell whether it is me when I have a mask on.” She didn’t think that was funny. While we were waiting, a little old couple came in – older than us. It was really fun to watch them. The wife brought the husband to one of the benches and told...

We decided to skip our walk this morning so that we could use all of our energy on the porch. We had laid out the tiles to get a balanced design of the variety of colors and striation in the garage, so we just had to carry a row of 6 tiles out at a time, then lay out 3 rows. Then Tom would mix the mud and we would lay 3 rows. Then we would go get 3 more rows worth of tiles and do it again. It took 9 rows, but then we had the little pieces on the ends and realized that we needed 3 or 4 more tiles! We really thought the boxes of tiles we bought would be enough! It was 2pm by then and we were starving. I made a big salad while Tom finished up outside. We did grab a nap before we were rested enough to think about finishing and went back to Lowe’s. The problem is that the tiles can’t be purchased separately, and we would have to buy another whole box of 10! We went to Lowe’s and tried to buy just 4 tiles, but couldn’t. We decided it was worth the price of the whole box to be able to fin...

Tom had quite a bit of work again in the morning. As for Clean Queen, we had no appointments for today, so I didn’t work much and was able to spent most of the day working on my Chile album. I decided to try to abridge one month of it every day. I only have 15 more months to go. Every time I find a really great memory, I talk to Tom about it; it’s fun to share those experiences like they were just yesterday. We can picture the people, the places, and the events so clearly. We began to prep the porch for the tiles. The old tiles would be super hard to remove, so we plan to tile over them. I cleaned the porch really good, but the biggest problem is that there were three or four that were broken, loose, or had come off completely, so Tom spent quite a few hours removing them all the way and removing the ridges of mud/adhesive under them. Then he had to find some old tiles that he could put in their place so we have an even surface to put the new tiles. Then we laid out the new tiles i...

Tom is pretty much back to work. PG&E has funded their program for another several months, so he spent most of the day setting up MH parks for his marketers. It is so nice that he can do so much of that from home, but it did mean he was in the office most of the day. I woke up to emergencies with Clean Queen but managed to get them taken care of early enough that we could go for a walk before it warmed up outside. CQ stayed pretty busy most of the day. The tiles on our front porch have been coming loose for over a year so we decided it was time to look at putting down new ones. Marc had borrowed our tile saw, and with the quarantine, it has taken many months to be able to pick it up from him. We finally got it last week when Tom went to the Bay Area. Tom has looked for what kind of tiles he wants whenever he has gone to Lowe’s or other stores. Today we decided to go together to look for some good tiles to put there. We went to 3 different stores but everything was too expensive. It...

Yup, we still can’t go to church or to the temple. We can’t go to restaurants or movies or parties or have any social gatherings, but what I miss the most is going to church, singing in the choir, visiting other wards, and going to the temple. In July our Stake RS presidency was supposed to feed the missionaries at zone conference, but we have been canceled from that, too. The  Bishop did send a message that we are allowed to have some church gatherings, but it has to be a group of 10 or fewer, it can't be in the Church building, and we would all have to wear masks. So we probably won't be doing that. lol And yet, life goes on. Tom had ward council in the morning. He got on it all by himself, but soon pressed a wrong button and called me to help him get back on Zoom. When I went to help, of course everyone in the meeting could see me and someone said, “Here comes the weekly support person” and everyone chuckled. They know Tom needs my help with all technology. I was a little em...

Every time we swim, bees come and try to hover around us. I think they are just thirsty and head to anything that is wet. There are usually 3 or 4 bees flying over the pool all the time we swim. They aren’t there when we’re not swimming – I guess it is the splashing that attracts them. Tom and I decided that maybe we have so many bees because of all the beautiful flowers that we have planted and have been nurturing all around the pool for the last several years. So we thought maybe if we move all the flower pots away from the pool area maybe the bees will go with them. Tom spent several hours outside moving the pots. With the pots, he has to move sprinkler lines so they flowers can get water in their new places, and stop up the water lines where they were removed. It wasn’t a simple process, but he got all the pots from one side of the pool moved to the front yard. They look nice there, but mostly we hope it lowers the number of bees in the pool. I spent all day on either Clean Q...

It was cool enough this morning to be able to go walking again; it’s been too warm in the mornings for that the past few days. The trade off is that we could swim in the afternoons, but today it wasn’t warm enough to swim. It was a beautiful day. Ryan called me and we talked for a long time. It was so nice outside that I sat out by the pool to talk to him. Heavenly! I did a lot of Clean Queen today. The sporatic calls and texts kept me connected to the phone and computer all day even though it only added up to a few hours all together in the end. Tom did a lot of his work in the morning, trying to get things set up for marketers In the afternoon he went to run errands and was gone many hours. He is looking for certain parts for his Comet and went from store to store looking for them. He was gone a LONG time. I finished Clean Queen about 8pm so we cuddled up and found a movie on Netflix called “All about the Money” or something like that, with Paul Newman. It was pretty cute alt...

At 7am we had another consultation with Logan, our financial advisor and this time we were ready. He is trying to talk to the companies that are involved in setting up retirement funds, but nobody at those companies answers the phones or returns calls or emails. It has something to do with the pandemic and too many of them not working or working from home, which puts a heavier load on the few that are working. The pandemic truly affects every aspect of life worldwide. I slept good last night but woke up still not feeling well, so I took another day to just relax. Tom took care of me and did all the other stuff he wanted and needed to do. In the evening he went for a ride in his Comet and afterwards we tried to swim, but I didn’t really feel good enough to get in the water. And the bees returned. We started spraying bug repellant, but then the mosquitos started, so we went back in the house to escape nature.

At 7am, we were barely rolling out of bed (rough night for both of us) when my phone rang. I had forgotten we had an appointment with our financial advisor, Logan! Tom and I pretended we were dressed and had a good meeting with him. He sure is smart. We’re trying to get our financials set up so they can support us after Tom retires. It makes Tom really excited! I started not feeling great in the late morning, but nothing describable. I drank LOTS of water and rested. It was nice that I hardly got any clean queen calls and I will never take for granted that I don’t have to function and look good if I don’t want to! Tom stayed home and took care of me, the yard, his work, his Comet, and the cooking. What a nice man. 😊 We went swimming about 6:30pm. I was hoping it would help me feel better, and it sure did while we were in the water. The only problem is that we keep getting lots of bees that won’t leave us alone while we swim. They really want to drink the water and get way too cl...

Tom actually had to go to work today. He had to drive to the Bay Area so he was able to visit all of our kids there. We had a birthday present and brownies for Alissa and Ryan, a little bottle of bath salts, zucchini and brownies for Tami, the music holder that goes with the keyboard for Ravenna, and he needed to pick up the tile saw from Marc. That was besides driving for over 5 hours and passing out flyers on foot at parks for over 3 hours! So he as gone from 7am until 10pm! Since he hasn’t done that for over 2 months it made him realize how hard that is on his body, and we discussed how soon he can retire again! While he was gone, I got a lot done. I cleaned the back yard, the guest room (funny how it gets messy, even when we don’t have any guests staying there) and worked on the computer a LOT. I had become unaccustomed to having him gone! We were both happy when he got home safely! I'm adding this picture just so there will be a cool picture next to the post on the list.

The year is half over and we have spent almost half of it in quarantine. It’s so weird because life doesn’t seem all that different to me, but the quarantine affects almost every aspect of life all over the world. Tom and I both stayed very busy all day. He had a ton of Synergy work to do because PG&E is actually back up in business, so tomorrow he needs to get some jobs for marketers! He needed help scanning forms to send to park managers and creating some emails, and later needed help packaging the bumper he bought online for his Comet so he can send it back. In exchange for all my help, he cooked every meal today. I love it when he cooks! I spent most of the day working on Clean Queen. Lilian sent me a new form that she used to use and suggested I use it for the team leader to report the hours for the day instead of typing up am email. She had an old one that I had to revise A LOT to make it work for how we are set up now. At first I thought it was too much duplication of what...