Pandemic Progress

Gary reported that two businesses have actually improved during the pandemic--construction and IT.  IT because of the need in almost every industry to use a variety of platforms to connect and to get work done remotely.  Between the phone and the computer, I spend about 20 hours a week on them, just for work related things--then there is all of the other typical reasons we use technology.

We are part of the construction stat--well, Gary is as he works on repairing and updating our basement.  This week's task was baseboards.  Gary even used technology for that job as he watched YouTube videos to learn the needed skills to hang baseboard.  I am so proud of his progress and skills as he works to fix the issues caused by the flood in the fall and just wear and tear over the years.

I think we spent almost two hours at Home Depot wearing our masks and  cutting the boards by hand (Gary's hand) and getting them ready to transport home.  Gary has gotten them all painted and started installing them in a bedroom closet yesterday.

My parents always told me to marry some one that can fix things.  I got very lucky with Gary in that regard as he is a hard worker and willing to tackle new things.

I mostly finished the garden including planting only one tomato plant and some pumpkins.  It should be a busy summer and fall getting ready for a mission so I didn't want to over commit to a vegetable garden---flowers, on the other hand, are every where!

Another fun task we had this week was trimming some trees at Mom Hall's.  It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect.  And Gary was SO excited to use his new chain saw!

He is posing here.  I would hold the ladder
when he would actually use the saw!

After he trimmed trees there, he came and trimmed our backyard tree as well.  New tools are fun!

For Friday Family Movie Night, we watched "Valiant" and half of "Pollyanna."  We also had a fun "intermission" with the Arizona Halls.  This is James and Scarlett showing me how the snake they found on their hike this week moved along the ground.  (Excuse my wet hair)

This is one of the games that Chantel has on her phone-  "Don't wake the Cat!"

I also had some Facetime with the Magna Halls:  Jessica took this photo.

We had a bit of a storm come through on Friday night.  We actually lost power for a bit at our house.  Fortunately, I have a new phone which has a flashlight feature so I could read the scriptures by "phone" light.  I discovered that my two flashlights in my night stand (the ones for emergencies) had dead batteries.  In line with my resolve to do better to be prepared as these little emergencies occur, I actually replaced the batteries in both of them on Saturday.  We were only without power for 5 minutes at most, but it was a reminder that light is important to us.

Saturday was a big event for Jena.  For the first time since mid-March, she donned her mask and headed to the store with me.  There is some concern that people with Down syndrome might be more at-risk than the general population so Jena has stayed home from everywhere except for brief drive by treats or food pick-ups.  However, she needed some supplies for her upcoming FHE "Painting Night by Zoom with Bob Barr."  How lucky is that!  So I decided to let her come with me to pick up the supplies and make a stop at Walmart for a few items.

This is our selvie in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby.  Look at the cloud cover!  As you can imagine, it is a bit difficult for Jena to keep a mask up on her tiny nose.  This is her first time actually wearing a mask and even though it made her face hot, she said, she was a good sport about wearing it.

Jena took this photo on Saturday as we were driving to the store.  In the background, see the mountains decked in new snow from the storm.  In person, it looked so beautiful with the green of the mountain growth and the fresh white snow.

I found out that a friend of ours has a young adult son who has the Covid- 19 virus.  That is the closest connection that I have to someone with the virus.  She said that it has been a crazy week and she is an emotional wreck.  They have all been exposed so are in the self- quarantine  time at the moment.  Her son has asthma and had been super careful to not pick up the virus.  They have no idea where he got it.  I am sure that there will be more and more stories like that.  I understand that a certain amount of the population has to get the virus at some point in order to moderate the risk for pandemic levels of illness.  It is hard to know exactly what you should do or not do.  Talking to her reminded me why we are taking this precautions and moving slowly towards more normal behaviors and activities.

So, all in all, another week trying to be wise and cautious and get things done is in the books!