Day 43 - Governor Newsom imposes new restrictions
Not exactly my patio cover, but you get the general idea…
Today, Governor Newsom extended the 30-day ban on all restaurant dining. We’re not even allowed to eat outside!!! - we can only get take-out. A California reporter for one of our local newspapers noted that the restaurant ban may extend until February. February!!! As usual, retail remains open. Our indoor mall is packed and now is the perfect time to use the Kohls’ Cash you’ve been saving to take advantage of the year-end blowouts. at our local Kohls. As usual, none of this makes any sense.
12/28/20. Monday
9:30 – It’s still raining. No bike ride with L. today. (sad-face emoji)
10:00 – 10:45 - I go downstairs and say good morning to the dog. She vomited on the couch ‘throw’ so I clean it up and put the blanket in the washing machine. We go outside and I can tell she’s shocked by the rain. She quickly goes potty and back inside for coffee and treats. I unload the dishwasher then do the dishes in the sink from last night.
Sections of the canopy cover over my patio table are filling with rain – if too much rain collects on the tarp, the whole makeshift gazebo could collapse – so I run to the garage and grab a broom in order to use the handle to push the water out of the canopy. One of my plants looks miserable so I move it out of the rain. I place one of the patio chairs on top of the table – the chair leg looks waterlogged and I don’t want it to collapse.
It’s trash day and I realize I forgot to put the compost can out. Back outside I go, to move L.’s car so I can squeeze the trashcan through the garage and put at the curb. It’s a torrential rain! When I’m back inside, I see that the dog pooped right next to the front door. Great. Since it’s so gloomy outside, I turn on all the Xmas lights inside and light a pine-scented candle. I return upstairs to my room, with my coffee and a cookie, to read Law of Innocence.
11:00-2:00 – I finish Law of Innocence. This book was sooo good!!! How will I replace you? I’m sad that it ended. I go downstairs and discover that, somehow, the dog was able to pull a paper towel roll off the counter and completely shredded it throughout the house. I clean it up (sigh).
2:00-3:00 – I make a plate of leftovers – cheese cauliflower, cranberry sauce, spaghetti salad, mashed potatoes, broiled vegetables – and eat every. last. bite.
L. leaves for Starbucks.
3:00-4:30 – Shower. Lotion. Covid-19 uniform. I braid my hair in multiple, tiny braids and read Unraveling Oliver at the same time. I also listen to Lisa Woodruff’s Organize 365 podcast series on time management. The rain continues.
L. returns with a Starbucks for me.
4:30-8:30 – I go to work. My class at College No. 2 is under-enrolled and there is no way it will run on 1/4/21 (I think I mentioned this in a previous blog). Unfortunately, because my dean decided to leave it open, I’m forced to prepare as if I’m actually going to teach the class. Protocol dictates that I email the students a welcome email and the syllabus a week before class, so I’m creating the syllabus now. This is a special 5-week online class and I have no idea how to condense 16 weeks into a month because I’ve never done it before. It is slow going and a complete waste of my time because I won’t recoup an hourly wage for this because the class is not going to run. I’m not happy.
8:30-9:00 – I have what’s left of L.’s cheese board and ask L. to look over my syllabus, since she has taken several online classes of late. She gives the syllabus her blessing.
9:00-9:30 – Talk to B.
9:30-12:30 – I catch up on blog posts.
12:30-1:30 - I do a 1-hr HIIT full body circuit with 5-lb weights
1:30-2:00 - Night time routine. Bed.