spring

I know it's not officially spring according to the calendar, but...

• I cut grass today.
• There is pollen all over the top of the pond.
• The turtles are coming up.
• The geese are laying.
• The hardware stores have chicks.
• The irises are up and daffodils (which in the south bloom in Jan usually) are dying
• Goldenrods, crocuses, peach and pear trees and the kiwi plants are all blooming.
• Amaryllis plants are poking their heads out of the ground.

I'm calling it spring.

the talk of the town

Last night was the monthly "gathering" (the name and meeting of one of the quilt groups I belong to). It is usually a very upbeat group, with interesting discussions. Last night was a little more somber. We had a LOT of discussion about COVID-19. No matter what else we discussed, it seemed to always rotate back to that subject.

A few interesting tidbits - one read a text from her daughter in Switzerland with the list of things everyone should buy or have on hand in case of a quarantine. The daughter is a therapist at a hospital, and she reported situations of people bringing water bottles into the hospital and pumping out all the hand sanitizer into their water bottle. I've heard reports from the US of people stealing face masks and it makes me wonder if these people have a brain. Why would you steal from the very people who might eventually be taking care of you? If you take their supplies, what will they use when everything they have is gone and you come in and truly need it?  It makes no sense. At all.

And of course at lunch the Governor for our state has issued a state of emergency, though the advice remains the same. Wake County public schools have now cancelled all field trips for the remainder of the year, a private school in Raleigh (Trinity Academy) has cancelled classes for one day as a parent has it and they want to disinfect the school just in case (not necessarily a bad thing) while meeting with health officials. Meanwhile the health department has released the early voting site where one of the five infected persons voted, as well as listing the restaurant twhere the person ate.

Some of the nurses in the group last night were very concerned; others were intrigued but not concerned much.

One thing we all agreed on - the quilt shops need to be open extra hours if we are going to have an extended quarantine period. 

mixed messages

Covid-19, also known as the newest coronaravirus seems to have everyone in a bit of hysteria.  It is disconcerting. It's a new virus with (currently) no vaccine and limited means of treatment that has a longer lifespan than influenza and the common cold.  From the CDC's website:

"The virus has been named “SARS-CoV-2” and the disease it causes has been named “coronavirus disease 2019” (abbreviated “COVID-19”).

Everything I've read about the illness from the CDC or medical sites state it is an upper respitory disease whose symptoms cause fever, cough and shortness of breath. Yet the media gives symptoms for the flu in all of its reports.

Because of the length of time the virus can survive on a surface, the quarantine for a person with the disease is 14 days AFTER the virus is gone. Because of this, the media has suggested people be prepared to be quarantined at home for a month (An estimated two weeks with the illness, then two weeks afterwards for the contagious period to end). So people are stocking up on flu medicines (because of what the media is reporting in the above paragraph), toilet paper, and disinfectants. People are mocking that on Facebook, and saying people are in hysteria. I think there may be some hysteria, but they are also simply following the directions of what the news media are saying people should do.

There's an extreme shortage of facemasks. The CDC is saying it really doesn't help the spread or prevention of the disease any more than not touching your face does, and yet doctors and nurses are supposed to wear them if they treat a patient with it and governments in Asia and the middle east are REQUIRING citizens to wear them. During the outbreak in Wuhan, residents were allowed to go to the market one time a week, and if they were not wearing masks or gloves, they would be fined. Citizens of Taiwan are using water bottles and bras as face masks since there is such a shortage. So there is definitely a lot of contradictory information out there.

There's also be an emphasis by the CDC and media doctors (the doctors who appear on local and national news stations to give the "expert" opinion) on hand washing and sneezing/coughing into a tissue or your sleeve. So of course there has been a rush on kleenexes according to the media, though I've yet to see that in the store. What I have seen is all the Lysol, sanitation wipes, and hand gels depleted. I don't think it's any different than when a snow is predicted. Everyone grabs, milk, cereal, bread and peanut butter because they know their kids will be home from school and the power might go out. People want to be prepared.  Is some of it overkill? Absolutely. But would I call it hysteria? Not exactly.

I don't have children. If I did, I would sorely be tempted to overstock on a few things. Can you imagine a family of three or four being quarantined for a month or more?  It's just me and Bobby, so I think I could easily order what we needed at the store, pay for it online, and get a neighbor to pick it up and leave it on our doorstep. But not everyone has that luxury.

One thing not being reported is what after effects the virus has, if any. We know that the elderly and sick are the most vulnerable to it, which would also explain why Asian and middle eastern countries have such a high death rate from it - smoking is extremely common in those countries and everyone's lungs are severely compromised.

At this point, the flu and pnumonia are more of a threat to our household than COVID-19 is. While we've both had our flu shots and Bobby has had the first round of his pnumonia vaccine, there's never a guarantee that some inconsiderate person who has it will expose him to it. We choose not to dwell on that nor to live in fear. We can't.

So I'm trying to scroll past all the memes and stories and reports online and even skeptically listen to what I hear on the news. I trust the CDC a little more than I do social and news media, but even they are a government agency that are made up of fallible humans.

At the end of the day, there's really not a whole lot more we can do than wash our hands as often as we an when out in public. Our hope is in the LORD, not hand sanitizer or soap.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.  ~ Psalm 20:7

in like a lion

I survived my 19 hr day yesterday (with only 5.5 hrs of sleep from the night before).  I strongly believe in our electoral process, so I think such days are worth it. Granted, I was rejoicing this morning that Bobby is retired so we could crash this morning, and I was constantly reminding myself that many of my coworkers got up early this morning and headed into their regular jobs. I guess that makes me spoiled that I was able to sleep until I woke up today. 

So much of the last two weeks have been trying to get ready for the next thing that I've enjoyed resting today. I know tomorrow is back to schedule and routines, but I so needed a day of rest today.

Updated my project list for March. I'm only carrying over two from February...the cleaning list (I cleaned light fixtures and deep cleaned most of one bathroom instead of doing what was on my list in February) and my Bible study. I have learned some very helpful and insightful things as I trod through this study, but it's heavy on group work and homework and hands on lessons, which is not really my thing.  So on the one hand I'm moving through lessons a lot faster because I'm not doing 1/2 of it, but I'm also not going to it as much because it's just not appealing. I've thought about giving up on it altogether, but I think I'll give it one more month before throwing in the towel.

Middle Tennessee was hit by tornadoes Monday night. We heard a little bit about on the news while I was getting ready Tuesday morning, but dawn had not yet arrived and little was known. Between precincts I kept hearing reports from workers or voters about the increasing death count. I finally stopped and texted my sister-in-law and sister to make sure they were all okay. As I suspected from reports, everything was south of them, but a lot of heartbreak among people they know. Several students at my alma mater, Welch College (and where my sister and brother-in-law work) lost their homes. One of the Christian schools where some of the students do their student teaching lost the building for the elementary school and the ballfield was destroyed. One of the first graders told his Dad after seeing the mess that if it had been 1pm instead of 1am when the storm hit, he would have been crushed but would finally see what Jesus really looked like. One of our Free Will Baptist pastors lost everything. After the storm passed he and his wife found themselves beside their bed on a concrete slab. He found one pair of dress pants in the rubble and had a jacket in his truck. He was able to shake out all the glass (from all the windows). His wife was able to find clothes and a neighbor gave them socks. She said she had never been so thankful for used socks before. Another neighbor down the street had shoes they both could wear.  The bathroom where they normally went during storms was totally gone; not even debris there. The family next to them, a young couple with an infant, all died. This area has been through so much through the years - the flooding, a round of tornadoes that changed so many lives, and now another tornado that gave them no warning but altered so many lives in the blink of an eye. I'm so thankful for the body of Christ and how it stretches out its hand to those in need.

nearing the end

It's startling to look at the calendar and realize how long it's been since I posted as well as how little time is left in the month.

Training classes for the primary election are now over. I still need to sit down and read through my manual and make a phone call to a few Chief Judges before the big day, but no more driving into Raleigh until the weekend before the election. And while I miss the extra money that comes from working early voting and the excitement of assisting people vote, I am enjoying being at home these next two weeks.

I printed out a sample ballot for us. I thought I could glance over it, research a candidate or two, then we'd be ready to head to early voting. I was quite shocked when I didn't recognize but one or two names on the ballot!! So I'm now about halfway through reading up on the all the candidates.

Finally finished painting our bathroom. It's not professional, but it looks way better and it is done. Now to finish cleaning it!

After many, many months of thinking, pondering, worrying, debating, researching, deciding no, getting an email and starting the process all over again, which involved rearranging my sewing room, I finally  made a decision...I have ordered a longarm quilting machine. I still don't have all the space I would like for it, but am fairly confident I won't feel so overcrowded that I hate being in the room. It was a huge decision and one I'm still a little nervous that I made, but mostly I am excited. I still have some cleaning to do in my sewing room before it comes the first of next month, but I'm already debating which quilt top I'm going to load on it first. :)  And I've already named it, even though it's not here yet. Bobby thinks that crazy.

But in the midst of cleaning out my sewing room, I've actually completed three quilt tops and started two more. Three of them are for the guild, but are using up scraps/fabric I already had. I did manage to empty one small shoebox of fabric and have put a small dent in another bag. (Sadly it's not the half off a bag I was hoping to see!)

My nephew was injured Friday at work. While unloading empty oil barrels the pile toppled  (not uncommon) and one hit him in the back at an angle. It messed up a lower muscle in his back and he could possibly have a fractured vertebrae. It was a rough weekend for him, but he sounded good on the phone Sunday afternoon.  I didn't talk to him yesterday to see how his first day back went.

We also had three chicks hatch on the 8th of this month - one pale yellow with stripes; one light brown with stripes, and one black one with a white belly and one white spot. Other than them not being able to get back into the hen house at night and it being low 40's and upper 30's, meaning they'll freeze if not under their Mom or a heat lamp) and me having to crawl in the mud under the hen house to attempt to get them two nights in a row, they are doing well. It's not exactly the right time of year for a hen to hatch out chicks, but I guess the springlike weather in January had her in the mood.
We also took 3 of the 5 that hatched last fall to the butcher since they were roosters and were starting to cause problems. I hated it, as one of them was very pretty, but I'm not going to have them fighting to the death.

And life keeps moving on!

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Bobby is still running a fever, so I took his Mom to Germanton, NC this morning to see her great-great-grandson make public his faith through baptism. Due to many things outside of my control (and a few minor things within my control) we left late. Thankfully traffic was light, and we made it to the church at 11:11. The youth choir was singing. I was so relieved. We quickly used the restroom and went inside at the end of the song. Two hymns, offering, children's sermon, another youth choir song, then the sermon...where the pastor referenced Luke's earlier baptism.  We were eleven minutes late...and we missed it. But it was a good service and we were able to spend a little bit of time with family at lunch before heading back.

January projects...pecans are still not totally shelled, but they have downsized from the bushel basket plus one more to half of a gallon-sized bucket.  So that's progress. Maybe by the end of February I will have them totally finished.

I'm not totally finished with the quilt for the guild, but I do have the squares done. They just need to be ironed, pieced, bound, then quilted. Nor did I get the Christmas quilt completed, but I have totally rearranged my sewing room with a little more work to go, finished 2/3 of another project and quilted a QOV quilt plus spent one day at a QOV sew-in where another lady and I tag-teamed to make a quilt top. So a lot has been done in this area, even it if is not what I had envisioned. So for February I hope to finish organizing my sewing room, including making a decision about whether or not I can fit a longarm quilting machine into the room. If all goes well, the new sewing table goes in Tuesday night.

Bible study is progressing, though a little slower than I thought, and I'm actually ahead in reading the non-fiction book. I'll continue both of those through February.

The bathroom has still not been painted, but I did get 2/3 of the garden annex raked and prepared. I need to purchase more ant killer before I can finish the last 1/3. So hopefully the bathroom will get painted, the garden readied, and the grapevines trimmed this month. Hahaha! A little ambitious for such a short and busy month, but there is always a chance it will all get done.

This week will also be my last week of teaching training classes. Then I think the remainder of my work days are assisting in classes through the next two weeks. This Saturday will be the last training class I have to take. Early voting, which I am not working this year, begins on the 13th. While I've struggled to get everything into my time slot this go around, it has not been a difficult or demanding schedule. I'm very thankful for that. The downside is that the staff thinks the likelihood of a second primary in the spring seems very likely. I really truly hope not. Second primaries/run-offs are never well attended by voters and are eternally long days.

So February is here and rolling, even though I'm not exactly ready for it.

a bit puzzled

I've rearranged my sewing room, and in the process of trying to make a very big decision, we've ordered a new table for my large Janome sewing machine and my Bernina serger. We placed the order the evening of the 26th; it was processed on the 27th from Maryland, and the next listing was around noon on the 28th...in GEORGIA!!!  Not just GA, but south of Atlanta.  I think whoever is in charge of this company's shipping department needs to learn some geography. 

So it leaves Maryland by truck, passes through VA, then NC, then SC, and arrives in GA.  We could have had this table yesterday!!! As my husband reminds me, it may be that everything has to be processed through Home Depot's warehouse or something, but it makes absolutely no sense. Sometimes I think modern technology that is supposed to track our packages makes things worse because we see things that make no sense whatsoever. 

And for the record, Home Depot said from the getgo that my package would arrive between Feb 3-7 and it is currently slated for pick up here in NC on February 3rd. So they'll most likely meet the deadline.  But why they had to drive this delivery 10 hours south of the pickup point is beyond me.