Scorching the World

We believe in celebrating as long as we possibly can, because – why not! It hasn’t been an easy thing to stay married for 53 years and yet it has been more fun that pain, so we should celebrate all year! But we can’t afford to celebrate all year, and that would be a dumb thing to do. So last night Tom took me to what he called the “best Bed and Breakfast place that had the best breakfast in the world – our own home!” We slept so good in the bed in this B&B, and the breakfast was pretty terrific. After I had done about an hour of Clean Queen, we went for a walk. Then Tom worked on finding a renter for when ours leaves at the end of this month, then did some yard work. I worked on computer stuff, did my nails, practiced the organ and did 3 loads of laundry. At 2:30 we left to go to lunch, then went to see 355, which was a very action-packed movie! We both liked it with all the different plot twists. We have now turned off our heat to conserve propane because we don’t want to ...

We got up early enough to get all dressed and packed before our Sacrament meeting started on Zoom. We also watched a Follow Him podcast. We enjoyed watching the Sacrament meeting, It’s nice to watch while lying in bed and relaxing, but the big drawback is that we didn't get to take the Sacrament, which is totally the point of the meeting!! As soon as the meeting ended, we left our room. The maid had already checked on us twice to see if we were gone yet. We got in the car and I thought we were going to drive around San Francisco a little more before finding a place for breakfast, and heading to Castro Valley to see the grandkids ride horses. But Tom headed north. He didn’t totally seem to know which way he was going because he was surprised the GPS took us over the Golden Gate Bridge instead of the Bay Bridge.     I love going on the Golden Gate Bridge! So pretty! When we got to the other side, we stopped at the vista point:    There are these bronze plaques...

I had a very full and fun day planned for today but before we could start Tom needed to get some Bishopric stuff done   like calling people for appointments and getting it all organized, and I had a little Clean Queen to do. We had a team working today, so I couldn’t do payroll until they finished the day. About 9:00 we headed out walking. The Wave Organ was within walking distance – about 10 minutes or so, so we headed there. The path that my google maps on my phone took us, took us right in front of the Palace of Fine Arts, so we did a little detour and walked all around that. It is such a beautiful bunch of structures and water and greenery! We loved it so much! There was a group of people there doing yoga – it made me wonder how much it would cost to take a yoga class that is located at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Beautiful! Then we headed to the wave organ. It was quite a little walk, but it was such a nice day, and so pleasant with families and people with d...

Happy birthday to my little sister!   She has always been someone I have wanted to be like. We had hoped to leave by 8am, to get to San Francisco by 11am so we would have almost a whole day to play. But things always happen, and I had some Clean Queen I had to take care of first. But that’s ok. Going on a fun trip doesn’t need to be stressful; whenever we leave is fine because there are no deadlines! But I was getting a lot of messages about one girl who wanted paid today. My payroll spreadsheet was such a mess, and that girl’s hours and pay rate had been given to me wrong, and I had missed some calculations. All that combined made it so I really needed to spend some time looking at her notes and comparing it to what I had before I could tell Jeramey how much he needed to pay her. He already had a check filled out for her and was waiting in his car for me to give him the corrected amount. By then we were ALMOST to Los Banos, so we stopped at a Wendy’s and I tried to get on th...

We are so excited to go to San Francisco for our weekend. We are calling in our honeymoon – our 53 rd honeymoon! So exciting! I had some Clean Queen messages as soon as I got up, and they kept coming. I had wanted to take a shower before going to Laurel’s class, but I barely was able to get dressed before leaving. I continued to send and receive messages until the class started, and I refused several calls during her class. The class was on Noah, and was super interesting. I can’t wait to type up the notes before I forget what she said. Another miracle – Tom was coughing all morning and even had to pause before going into their house, but never coughed during Laurel’s class! Amazing! As soon as we left, I got back on the phone and dealt with things as good as I could until we got home. I worked pretty much all of the day. Tom took a nap, but I kept working, trying to get next week set up and move things around to match the teams to the days we will have them. It is pretty tricky...

Our appointments at the temple started at 9:30 this morning, which meant we needed to leave by 8:30 to be there by 9am. I listened to Talking Scripture while I was getting ready. SO GOOD! I always learn things I would never have on my own individual study. I’m so grateful for the people who put in the time, energy, and expense of sharing their knowledge, experiences, and testimony! Tom slept pretty good; it seems the lemon water/vitamin C regimen is working! Now he just needed to be able to make it through a whole session and sealings without coughing. He has never yet made it that long without coughing a lot, so we are praying hard. We left later than I wanted so I was stressed that we would be arriving to the endowment room at the last minute, but of course we had plenty of time. Tom always tells me not to stress and that everything will be fine. After 53 years, I should really start listening to him. Again, the new protocols for Covid made everything a bit different, but it wa...

Today was all about preparing to go to the temple. I finished sewing my bags and am pretty happy with them. Tom focused on drinking his lemon water and taking vitamin C and kept assuring me he would be fine. I had very little Clean Queen today, which was really nice. They are trying to build up to two full-time teams, and are getting the employees for it, so now the pressure is on to get lots of appointments for them. It is tricky for me and quite a bit more complicated. But I got to sew most of the day, and mostly uninterrupted. Except that Tom needed help getting appointments set up in the Church calendar for the Bishopric for tomorrow. We had set alarms so we wouldn’t forget when to get ready, and I had taken a shower and was getting ready when Tom told me we needed to leave half hour earlier than I was planning. Good thing for reminders that don’t forget the actual appointment time! He needed me to help him trim his beard. He had wanted a haircut too, but it was suddenly too la...

We decided to begin celebrating our anniversary. At our ages, you never know how many more anniversaries we will have together, and even one more is not a guarantee, so we decided to take advantage of the need for a trip to the grocery store, and went out to breakfast. We found a place called Batter Up only because we had coupons from donating blood. It made us very grateful that we donated blood last year so we got the coupons to a place we had never been, that turned out to be such delicious food! We split an omelet that was so flavorful! We spent the day making sure Tom got lots of vitamin C, lemon juice, honey, and zinc in the hopes we can go to the temple tomorrow. All day I kept thinking I should cancel our temple appointment because Tom kept coughing, but we were praying hard that he could be better enough to do initiatories, so I kept reminding myself to have faith in that. I decided I wanted to make new shopping bags. Mine are so old and don’t make me happy anymore, so whi...

I changed my mind over and over when trying to decide if I wanted/needed to visit ward conferences in person or on zoom. Tom coughed so much yesterday and today that he decided not to go to church at all. I finally decided when I woke up to go in person but wear a mask, even through the linger-longer. I was glad I went in person to the Alluvial Ward. It’s nice to see friends and be able to greet them. The talks were really good, and the musical number was beautiful! During the linger longer I picked up food but didn’t eat it until I got to the car so I wouldn’t have to take off my mask. I was talking quite a while with 2 friends who are both not vaccinated and who weren’t wearing masks. Not sure how I feel about that. I think mostly I feel jealous. Neither has been sick either! Next was the YSA ward conference, but since that didn’t start until 1pm, I ate my lunch in the car, then went back home for 1 ½ hours. Our ward was just finishing up on zoom when I got home. Tom and I just...

I guess all the days have been pretty much the same. I work some clean queen, we watch movies and take it easy, I work on some Family History, we feel better but are still coughing, Tom built a fire each night and then we always end up back in bed. Today Tanya came over to watch The Amazing Race, 2 episodes, and This Is Us, 1 episode. It was fun to have her here for a little while, all to ourselves.

Today was a Clean Queen disaster from the beginning. As soon as I got up, I got a text from the 2 nd appointment of the day, cancelling. It was a 3-hour appointment, which was going to be very, very hard to replace. I told them we would charge them a cancelation fee and to let me know if they tested negative so we could put them on tomorrow. I started texting lots of clients to see who would let us come within an hour, and rearranging the schedule. I did lots of contacting and rearranging and tentatively got something set up. I texted the team, but it took them nearly half hour to begin to respond to me.. About an hour later, the original cancellation said that we could come after all and wondered what time we could be there! So then I began canceling everything I had set up and re-assigning people to other days. It was such a mess. I was glad that our new owner, Jeremy was willing to step in and talk to the hardest clients. Besides that, one client never had answered any messag...

We slept well and did our usual today. Tom did a little yard work that was much needed, and I did quite a bit of Clean Queen. For the last week, Tanya has been doing a lot of Family History, then passing to me some things to do, so I worked quite a while to catch up with her. In the morning, we listened to Talking Scripture while exercising. It is SO GOOD! So many things I’ve never heard or considered before! In the evening we watched the first part of Follow Him, which took the same scriptures from a whole different viewpoint! Amazing! I got to talk to my sisters for a couple of hours. It was so fun! Sisters are one of the best parts of life! We can talk about things I sure wouldn’t talk about with anyone else, not even my husband. I love that part of the week and look forward to it for seven days, every single week! As soon as we hang up, I’m looking forward to the next one! Tom’s doctor called from Kaiser to check up on his Covid status. That was nice because we had some que...

I had a hard time sleeping last night because of breathing issues. Tom slept well but woke up at 4am, so we were both not looking so good in the morning. I am sure that the worst is over! I had plenty of Clean Queen to keep me busy for all of the sitting up time I was interested in. We both had desires to be more active, but would end up lying around again within a short time. Still, we both feel we are on the mend. By evening we both felt much better. I even practiced the piano a good amount of time for the first time in over a week. Hooray for better. We just have to remember as we get feeling better that we may still be contagious, so we don’t want to go out or see anyone quite yet! For FHE we did FaceTime with Marc & family, and Mike and Becky. They are feeling the effects of Amy moving out in preparation for her wedding. Suddenly there is a lot more space in the house and in the driveway!

Because I took a decongestant last night, I slept really well and woke up feeling much better! Tom is feeling much better, too, so he was ready to schedule a new test to see if he is negative. Unfortunately, Kaiser won’t let you schedule a new test so soon after testing positive. He was silly to think he could test negative after only a week anyway. Anyway, I woke up feeling good enough that I was ready to clean and sanitize the whole house. I cleaned up the kitchen then quit because it was Sunday and because by then I was exhausted. It was extremely pleasant watching Sacrament meeting reclining and in our pajamas. We had the video off, of course. It was a good meeting and I was so very grateful for technology that allowed us to be part of the meeting while convalescing at home! Since we had nothing to do and nowhere to go, we just watched good things on tv all day. Tom felt pretty good, but I was tired and enjoyed lying around. It was amazing how many good things we found to wat...

I felt much better yesterday and thought that was a good sign, but last night my fever returned along with congestion so I really couldn’t sleep. We don’t have any medications in the house for fever or decongestants, so we will need to find a way to get some right away. It was a pretty miserable night and Tom woke up feeling a little worse this morning. I know we will kick this, but it is stubborn! It really threw Tom for a loop knowing he was diagnosed with an illness that is literally killing thousands all over the world. He mentioned it several times. He wanted to be sure our “affairs are in order” and thought about what he wants to do before dying. It didn’t affect me that way. I just feel like I have a bad flu and will kick it any minute now. We didn’t do much. Tom wanted to be more productive, and did get all the bishopric interview appointments set up, which he needed my help to enter on the tracking list and then onto the calendar I set up for them. He has no idea how to do...