Happiness is an Internet Miracle

~ Jenny

I had a very bad Tuesday. And Wednesday. Thursday wasn’t great, either. There was a major storm (and one of my trees toppled into my neighbor’s driveway), my internet went out (but thank god my power didn’t), when I was in the storeroom trying to restart my modem and router, I heard dripping water in the kitchen and went to try to find the leak which was in none of the obvious places (thank god, I still had power), and then just as I was getting ready to crawl under the sink and find the damn leak so I could go fix the internet, the power went out. I gave up and went to bed, where Emily leaped up and meaning to sink her claws into the comforter to pull herself in, got my foot instead.

Twenty-six hours later, the power came back on (most of northern NJ had gone dark, so it took awhile, thank you very much line workers), my foot had stopped bleeding, and my neighbor said no problem he’d take care of the tree, but the internet was still out. Fixable, said my provider, just go to this website and follow the instructions. (There may have been swearing and shrieking at this point.). I spend all of Thursday driving to free WiFi (that would be MacDonald’s) and struggling with the website until I finally gave up at 9PM and just went to bed. At 2AM Friday I woke up, and I had internet.

It was a freaking miracle. (It’s 2:30 AM Friday as I type this, even though it’s going to post on Sunday. This is what I’m happiest about this week, that’s why.). OMG, I have internet again. Did you know you can’t get most of your Kindle books without internet? Yes, of course, that makes sense, but I never thought about it before. And those random questions that pop up during the day that you can just google for? Not to mention banking and posting blog content and comments and e-mail. It was a damn wasteland here.

But now I have internet. And I’m so happy.

What made you happy this week?

84 thoughts on “Happiness is an Internet Miracle”

  1. That’s why I always buy a 3G Kindle… That way if I am out and about and I need to download a book from my library or I absolutely need to buy the sequel to the book I have just read, I can just do it even if there is no wifi around.

    During my commute along the Devon coast though, there was no mobile phone coverage between two of the stations I went through and I had to wait 15 mins to get to a zone where I had coverage… how frustrating :).

    1. I don’t get cell service or associated coverage where I live in rural upstate NY. (In a power outage I might get one and a half bars if I walk to the end of the driveway…just enough to call and tell them my power is out.) Without working wifi, I got nothin’. (My regular phone is cable, so if the power is out, it is out too.)

      1. Same here. Not quite walk to the end of the driveway, but definitely leave the house. Looking up the electric coop’s emergency number by candle light, then entering it in the phone, then going out holding the phone under my raincoat and trying to call it in….

        1. Oh no, I feel for you. I have a friend who lives 10 minutes from me and has similar issues. It’s made working from home, a real problem for her.

  2. I am happy today because I finally got my new desk chair built and put in front of the computer. Seemed easy in advance, but a) I wasn’t strong enough to pound the caster/wheelie things in, so had to get help; b) I screwed the back support piece on the seat in backwards, so had to unscrew and repeat; and c) I screwed the back support piece on the back itself backwards, so yada yada.

    But I sit on it now, so I have conquered and WON.

    A battle’s a battle, and victory makes you happy in spite of your own prior stupidity. 🙂

    1. I have put together so many desk chairs with so much cursing, these days I buy them at Office Max and pay the extra $15 to have them put the things together. And when I bought my last car, I made sure it was big enough to haul home new chairs.

      on the other hand, I assemble almost everything else myself, so there is still cursing.

      1. Staples instead of Office Max, but same thing. Chair assembled, transported in the dotter’s Routan. I learned to pick my battles.

  3. Anticipatory happiness. My new washing machine is scheduled to arrive Wednesday. My current washer stopped just prior to a final rinse two weeks ago, leaving a load of clothes bathing in soapy water. It has been warning us for years – really since we bought the house – that it was having a hard time. My thought was to use it until it actually died. (I’ll quote myself – the worst thing that would happen if the washer died is we have wet clothes. Meanwhile, the freezer in the garage – we could lose a lot if that goes.)

    So, we didn’t bother to attempt to repair. We went straight out that evening and bought one (along with the dryer, since our current dryer is the same vintage). And they are coming Wednesday! Hooray!!

    I’m also extraordinarily happy that I have a friend I was able to call and ask “can I borrow your washer?” She ran those wet, soapy clothes through her washer – and popped them in the dryer for me too. What a winner! I think I’ll keep her.

    As for the clothes we’ve dirtied since the washer died, my DH has been carting them down to his mother’s place and doing the laundry there. I’m really happy that I didn’t have to find a laundromat – and as a bonus got a two week vacation from doing the laundry! (DH is a winner too – I think I’ll keep him around.)

  4. Happy here was a few “neaten, clean, and organize” projects. I bought two organizers that hang on the wall and hold brooms, mops, stick vacuums, and also have hooks for dusters, etc. Put them up with my nifty mini drill (Black and Decker, battery-powered, lightweight enough for me to hold up and small enough to get into the restricted spaces I always seem to end up needing a drill for–best thing I ever bought) and level, and voila! No more messy piles of cleaning tools. So much happy. I’m in the middle of reorganizing and redoing my mudroom, which doubles as the laundry area, storage, and the entrance to my house because I live in the country and no one uses the front door. (Also because the mudroom acts as an airlock between the outside door and the inside door to the kitchen, so cats don’t escape.) The windows there don’t open and have been cracked since I moved in almost 20 years ago, and the door is rusting and worn, so they’re up next. Oh, and new shelves that fit the space better, although they sit in front of the window, so I can’t load them up until that project is done.

    Then I weeded the small herb garden near the back door and neatened it. I think doing these kinds of things makes me happy because it gives me the illusion of control in an otherwise frustrating life, and also because I just like things neat.

  5. I had a mini meltdown about work but I feel better now. It motivated me to set some goals for myself, which I have been terribly lax about this past year. So I finally finished setting up my society six shop. The accomplishment felt huge and that makes me happy. I don’t know if it will produce any income, but I got to cross it off the list.

    Also, I am looking for recommendations for all day wear shoes that are business casual. Anyone have a favorite brand? Please and thank you.

      2. I’ll second Alegria. The first time I wore mine, it felt like I had bedroom slippers on – and yet the arch support was there for my incredibly flat feet. They are great.

    2. I use sky soles, designed for airline staff to walk and stand in all shift, and to help with swelling at altitude. Presumably that means they also help with swelling on the ground? I’m not sure if they do overseas shipping, but your dollar is generally favourable to ours.
      https://www.skysoles.com.au/

    3. I’m not sure of biz-casual parameters these days since I don’t spend any time in offices, but I wear these shoes all the time, including to wherever I feel I need to be more dressed up than jeans. I have very difficult feet to fit, and these shoes are crazy comfortable, easy to slip on/off, removable insole, come in a large range of widths/sizes, and also in multiple colors — I have black, beige, and gray, and just saw that there’s also navy, so I may need another pair — and they’re sturdy and longlasting. https://www.zappos.com/p/easy-spirit-traveltime-black-suede-white/product/7876100/color/5236 This link only has some of the colors, so look around if there isn’t one you like. Some are all-suede, some are a mix of materials. The black ones have white soles/bottom-edges, which looks weird in the pic, but the white doesn’t stand out as much in actual wear, although I wish they made them with black soles, my only complaint.

  6. I’m going to make crispy smashed baby potatoes, I have cold boiled baby potatoes in the fridge, I need happiness today…everyone else is watching wimbledon and later on football

  7. Happiness this week was helping a dear friend who is completely overwhelmed by her house renovation and insane job to get her new garden habitable for her greyhound. We had to go around with a metal detector digging old nails and bolts (and in one memorable instance a storm drain cover) out of the dirt and leaf mould, but she looked so much less stressed afterward that her happy made me happy. Also, I got ice cream out of it. Coconut and black sesame sorbet, with chocolate sauce swirled inside the cone. Delicious.

      1. I know. There were bike chains and tent pegs and random metal grilles, some shallowly buried for reasons unknown. It’s ex-public housing, so there could have been anything down there.

  8. I didn’t get around to Thursday’s post until today, so now have a bunch of new samples to try.

    I made cupcakes for guest yesterday, and have lots left over – which may not actually be a ‘good’ thing, but does make me happy. I ate two for breakfast.

    Until a minute ago, I had a cat sleeping on my lap. Now he is looking out the window to the deck where the bird (squirrel) feeders are. Reality tv for kittens. Our new kittens continue to delight, though I can’t believe how much bigger they are in just over a month.

    Yep, books, food, kittens; add loved ones all doing ok, and can’t ask for more.

  9. The History of ‘APRONS’

    I don’t think our kids know what an apron is. The principle use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

    It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

    From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

    When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids..

    And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

    Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

    Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

    From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

    In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

    When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

    When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

    It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

    Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma’s aprons.

    REMEMBER:

    Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

    They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

    I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron – but love

    Today my granddaughter is coming over so we can have a brownie bake-off. That post about aprons was found in our town’s facebook page. This morning I checked the one of the million photo albums and found a picture of her when she was five. She was wearing one of my aprons doubled folded and the strings wrapped twice around her waist while she was making breakfast with her grandpa and standing on a kitchen stool.

    I inherited my grandmother’s aprons and wore them till they shredded. Time to drag the sewing machine out of hiding. I do remember that was my first lesson in Home Ec.

    I suspect that the brownie bake-off is our son’s attempt at family history and memory making. He seems to be making sure his kids know about family stories and this is one way to engage.

    1. I don’t wear aprons myself, but my next-door neighbor does, and she had a bunch of her grandmother’s 1950s tablecloths that were made of fairly heavy cotton in flower/fruit prints, so she asked me to make them into aprons for her, so she’d have something that reminded her of her grandmother on a daily basis and also was a functional thing, not stored away and forgotten. It made me happy to be able to do that for her.

      1. I am a stain magnet so I always wear a bib apron to limit the damage. Since the ones Grandma made have log since disintegrated, I now buy the kind with snarky sayings on them from my friend, Dave. Today’s apron says, “Parsley, sage, rosemary and fuck off”. The fact that it coordinates with the orange top I am wearing (also purchased from Dave) is yet another level of happy.

          1. It is made by a company called Blue Q if your neighbor wants to look for it. And Dave’s store is hazelchicago.com, but I bought the last one with that design.

        3. Even I, old fat white guy that I am, own aprons. Three, if you count the barbeque one with “XXXX the Cook” on it. (Literally. No bad words, just “XXXX.”) The other two aprons are more of a big bib, plaid on one side, vinyl on the other.

    2. Rectangle of fabric hemmed on three sides and gathered on the fourth, with a waistband stitched together on three sides inside out, and then the gathered side stitched to the band. My mother may even have saved MY home ec apron, first sewing project.

      My only current apron is from CafePress and says (in grammatical Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs) “Of course I speak Egyptian, doesn’t everyone?”
      https://www.cafepress.com/+i_speak_egyptian_bbq_apron,293698560

    3. Aprons are still a very big thing when you bake with kids. For all participants.

    4. I can barely get through a day without spilling something on myself, so I definitely have aprons. When I was a kid there was a older woman in our suburban neighborhood who would periodically walk around the neighborhood selling aprons she’d made. My parents always bought a few from her. They are long gone now, but I bet they would be appealingly retro if I could find one!

      2. I met a relative’s new girlfriend just before the pandemic started & she looked exactly like the Cranky Agnes illustration. It was hard to focus on small talk.

  10. Shrek is going on right now, and I’m doing well in it. No screwups, yay. But hey, I ALSO GOT INTO ANOTHER SHOW! The director of Shrek is bringing back the show that got canceled for Covid and a year+ later, some folks have dropped out. It’ll be super crazy quick rehearsal time, but I’m just ensemble anyway, so what the heck. I’m really excited at getting into another show.

    I will note that they’re having auditions for another show right now, but it isn’t a show I particularly want to do (I am not a perky Mary Poppins person), and I have no idea how to audition with a live accompanist now that they are going back to in person everything, so that skips THIS problem.

    So I have a couple more plays in the hopper after this–a ten minute play and then this new one. Huzzah! I was feeling bad for not wanting to audition for Mary Poppins, especially when there’s not a lot out there right now, but now I don’t feel too bad. Also gives me time to go back to karaoke. So, woot!

  12. I am in a home which is not my home where we spent the night and visited with our friends indoors! We ate delicious pizza, mine had aged Parm on it!, watched The Tomorrow War (plot points all had Wile E. Coyote pointing at them while holding a sign that said This Is Important! but the aliens were creepy AF). Then we watched episode 2 of The Night Manager which was good.

    Today we are going to brunch and a movie and then home again for at least 6 weeks so I can recover from all the peopling.

    1. Peopling is a word I needed. I do not people well. Now I have a way to describe it.

      1. I love “peopled out”. I get to the end of the week and I’m definitely peopled out.

    2. https://www.instagram.com/p/CRNTOMer1-S/

      Found this when we got home. I bought this as a bare root about 5 years ago and the root turned to mush but apparently not all of it. I left it in the ground in one spot and the next year it had tiny little eyes. I was reworking that bed and moved it to its current location and it has flourished. This is the first flower. It’s a Bartzella Itoh peony.

      2. I love peonies. I think this cottage had peonies all along the drive, but a lot of them had given up by the time I moved in. The half dozen that are left are gorgeous.

  13. The new Leverage series made me happy (binged it as a treat after an otherwise trying week, although not as trying as Jenny’s, and we need a spoiler-allowed thread on Leverage: Redemption soon, please!), and so did getting the most adorable cover art in the universe for the Crazy Cat Lady Chronicles (post-apocalyptic cozy mysteries) I’ll be publishing in the fall, and Dru at Dru’s Book Musing just agreed to do a cover release post for it in August, so yay me for doing some promotional work for the series. If anyone ever needs cover art (or formatting or website graphics, etc.), Kim Killion and her team do amazing work.

    1. YESSSS!!! I have been rationing myself on new Leverage, and in between dancing around in circles singing “New Leverage! New Leverage!! NEW LEVERAGE!!!”

    3. I am halfway through. Trying to stretch them out, but I’ll be done by the end of the week. And will then rewatch to catch any inside jokes and throwbacks that I missed. And then maybe I’ll start a full Leverage rewatch.

  14. Well, you’ve certainly had some adventures, Jenny. Glad everything is okay now.

    A few months ago I stubbed my baby toe on the back edge of my daughters couch. It turned blue, swelled, and took ages to heal. Today, I’m back at my daughters looking after the dog, and yes, I stubbed the same toe on the same damn edge of the couch. That will teach me to wear shoes. Hope the ice bag works.

  15. I’m happy that not only I got the shot (second one), but the kids had the chance to get their first shot last week. DS on Monday, dd on Wednesday after she was sent home on Tuesday because the National STIKO (vaccination commission) doesn’t recommend it. But the doctors in this practice had a meeting and decided to change their approach: the garden where we sat for the follow-up 15 minutes had more young ones doing the same.

    I’m very happy for the family members who cannot avoid public transport and larger groups (school!).

  16. The week started well, with a lovely woman at DK helping me to set up InDesign via screen sharing, since their program designed to do this doesn’t yet work with the current Mac OS. I do love being able to see and chat to people after years and years of work being email only.

    Had fun doing some more brainstorming of the content and structure of the rose book – even dashed to the library for some reference material.

    And had another film night with Pam yesterday. She loved ‘Bringing up Baby’.

  17. I was reading an article about a fourth language in Scotland and had a brainstorm that made me happy. Why not go to Scotland when I go to Europe this fall? I emailed my brother to ask his opinion and he thinks it is a wonderful idea. Of course, he was talking about extending my trip, which I do not think my non-refundable ticket will allow, but it still felt wonderful to be excited about the trip. Until now, the planned vacation hasn’t seemed real enough to cause any excitement, so the fact that this seemed like a real possibility was a delightful change. I once dated a Scotsman living in London and had hoped to go there with him, but first his vacation was cancelled and then we broke up, so I haven’t thought about the possibility in many years. Also, if I get across the Atlantic and don’t visit my brother many feelings will be hurt. So I don’t know if this addition to the trip will be possible. But the fact that it even occurred to me means that I am beginning to believe that this time I will be able to use my ticket. And that I think I won’t be too depressed to explore anything once I get there.

        1. Aunt Snack, What part of Scotland will you visit? What sorts of things interest you?

          Edinburgh and Glasgow are very different, manageably sized cities. Otherwise, you can travel around. The entire country is fantastic.

          If you have only a few days, I suggest visiting Edinburgh because of the variety: tour old Edinburgh Castle, which is different from one of the Queen’s current residences, the Palace of Holyroodhouse; walk up to Arthur’s Seat; wander through the National Museum of Scotland (see some of the Lewis Chessmen, especially the one chewing his shield), and shop along the Old Town/Royal Mile.

          Alexander McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street and Isabel Dalhousie series of books might inspire you to explore more contemporary places than I’ve suggested.

          1. Since I don’t drive, I thought I would start with a short bus tour and then spend the rest of my time in Edinburgh and Inverness. My interests would be meeting people, history, architecture and bookstores. I’d also love to find a good pub. I’ll know more once I contact my travel agent as I’m not sure this add on is even possible yet.

  18. Life in Portugal continues to make me happy. This week’s adventures included a trip to a local yarn store (spoiler: I bought some Portuguese organic cotton yarn to knit a cute t-shirt) and today’s lunch at our local beach cafe: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRMOU7xIgi8/ . Oh, and scouting an apartment for my bff, who is moving here with her husband later this year. 🙂

    Lost another couple of pounds (after a 4th of July bump up) on the walking a lot/eating local diet. This place agrees with me.

  19. Sorry you had such a bad week. Glad your power is on and the internet is back. I’m happy to be down the shore with my family. We rented a house on the beach for the week and it will be nice to relax.

  20. Jenny, I hope Emily was suitably apologetic for stabbing you, albeit accidentally. 😉

    1. If it was accidental. My cat’s favorite winter time game was to pounce on my toes through the covers.

      1. It was accidental. She doesn’t even bite down when she bites me.
        She knows where all that cat kibble comes from.

        1. That must be because she wasn’t always regularly fed. The extremely overfed Quaker didn’t care that I fed him.

          1. I think it’s because she’s a stray, not feral. She took to domesticity pretty fast after at least two years on her own. She sleeps curled next to me at night, and she just drank the water in my bedside cup, so this is definitely her turf.

  21. Charged the batteries to my drill and hung all of the pictures I had sitting around for too, too long. Next up is repairing some extension cords. And the yardwork will always continue. (Did I mention I found my Cape Cod weeder a day or so after its replacement arrived?) Ot was so nice getting those little projects done.

    Nothing frustrating happened to me this week and that makes me grateful.

  22. I celebrated my 42nd year of birth, so far no fatalities. Today, I’m celebrating my son’s 14th birthday, same sentiment. It’s cloudy and rainy and gross. My Yorkie, Ronald, is pretty well pissed with the rain situation as he had to have a bath because he was such a mess. Power (A/C), Wifi, and all other bougie services I require stayed intact. Phew! The week was pretty good, overall!

  23. I’ve had a great birthday week. On Thursday, my actual birthday, I worked on mixed media projects at home, went to a great new brunch spot in the neighborhood, then drove to the beach for a several lovely hours of relaxation. After sunset, I stopped at the new H Mart (Korean supermarket) in SF; it was the next best thing to travel. The next day, my friend drove four hours to spend the night, take me out to lunch, and do an at-home escape room puzzle with me, which was really fun. After she left, I started organizing art supplies, always enjoyable. Today I’m going to go to a flea market then take the ferry home. Tomorrow I’ve got a hike/lunch planned with another friend.

    I’ve finally accepted that my job is basically over and I need to move on. Just acknowledging that has been a huge relief, and I’ve let myself enjoy birthday time before starting to worry about what to do next.

  24. This week we had TWO VISITORS. A close friend of mine, who I had not seen for two years because pandemic, came up from Huntington Beach on Tuesday. We spent nine hours happily gossiping + binging ‘All That Glitters,’from BBC. Then last night one of the husband’s oldest friends, who hasn’t lived in L.A. for a long time but was in town to see her family, came over for dinner and more gossip.

    I also exploded the hoard again and sorted out some things to send to my sister for her church’s fundraiser ‘yard sale.’ Had to order some priority mail boxes because there is more to send than I had room for in the one box on hand. Getting rid of stuff makes me happy, I guess. 🙂 For one thing, once these boxes of old collections and things I’ve made have gone, I will have space to make and store some new things if the urge should strike. For a long time I haven’t felt the making urge except with writing, and possibly knowing I didn’t have a destination for anything I made was part of that.

  25. I woke up early (for me) with leg cramps and decided to walk them off at Wally World. I might have overspent my budget with impulse shopping. Got a new digital bathroom scale, because the old one died after I weighed in this morning. I’d have taken it for a sign, but I’d lost 0.2 pounds overnight, so I didn’t kill it, it was old age. It dates back to 2014. I don’t know how old that is in scale years. Changing the battery didn’t help, so new. (And it said I’d last 0.4 pounds.)

    But that wasn’t the big impulse. Oh, no. I saved that impulse for a new All-in-One desktop confuser. In fact, I’m typing this on it. I still have the laptops, but looking at a 23″ screen is such an improvement.

    Speaking of improvements, I went to work wearing uniform pants that I had never worn, because I was too fat. Now they fit. 🙂

    2. Congratulations! My replacement last year was an all-in-one, and we liked it so well that when the other one died, I gave my brother another for his birthday last month. Our only problem is encouraging them to communicate with our antiquated printers, but I regard this as A Challenge.

    1. I think I owned non-digital bathroom scales when I embarked on the Great Diet of ’79. Now, THAT was a diet! 220 down to 145. Size 38 (tight) down to 32s. High protein, low carb, with massive amounts of exercise. Having my own scales didn’t matter because I dropped by the health physics office every day and used their balance scales. I was in the official navy weight control program for an entire week, because they weighed me before I dropped below their limits.

  27. We had Muffin Church! Sunday afternoon has always been “Drop in on Grandma Day” in my family, which we called Muffin Church for various reasons. We meant to keep Muffin Church going after my Grandma passed, but then the pandemic happened. This weekend was our first Muffin Church in over a year and a half, and it was so much fun to see everyone.

  28. I spent Sunday afternoon with the cousins, as usual, and they produced a cake for my birthday, which is coming up on Tuesday. I was informed that the cake has a name: “Death by Chocolate.” It was certainly very rich, but I had one piece and with any luck it will be gone by next Sunday. Of course, there will be another cake on Tuesday at home, but I usually get one slice of those and they’re always gone by the next day.

    Happy making: The Feds decided that the best way to deal with a drought-affected high fire risk area by reintroducing Beavers. Miracles ensued.

    Binx the cat was retrieved from the Surfside apartment disaster site and reunited with his ninth-floor family. Luckily a neighbor recognized him. Now down to eight lives.

    The project to identify Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA is progressing satisfactorily: while he died childless (so far as we know) and only his father can be identified with certainty (his mother was a peasant woman named Caterina; research suggests that Caterina was a 15-year-old orphan at the time of Leonardo’s birth), the da Vinci family descends from Michele da Vinci fl. in 1331, who has fourteen living male-line descendants. This gives a DNA profile which researchers are hoping to use to identify Leonardo’s possible remains — he was buried at the Château d’Amboise, but the chapel went during the French Revolution; however, what were thought to be his remains were moved elsewhere at that time. DNA may show a match to surviving da Vincis. If it does, it can also be used to authenticate Leonardo artworks and other memorabilia which still retain minute remains of the artist’s DNA.

  29. I made spreadable butter, because the only ones I can buy either cost ridiculous amounts or contain palm oil. I didn’t make it quite soft enough so I’ll need to have a second go, but overall it was quick, easy and a satisfactory solution to one small environmental problem in my life. That made me happy.

  30. Yay for internet!

    We spent several days Up North with a crowd of family (32 people at peak) we haven’t seen since 2019. A few remain unvaxed, creating a thread of tension, but overall it was delightful–especially because our son and daughter came. AND I did zero work.

    This weekend I made paper for the first time in three years. It was fun but even wetter and messier than I remembered. Turns out my 30-year-old Rubbermaid dishpan/pulp vat is cracked! I thought those things would survive the apocalypse, along with Little Tykes cars.

  31. Last week I got go to my first fencing tournament in 18 months, the U.S. Summer Nationals, and see a bunch of people I hadn’t seen for a while. Many of whom I had trouble recognizing with face masks on.

    And this week I get to go see my parents for the first time in 3 years! We were planning to go for my mom’s 80th birthday last spring, and then Covid.

  32. I’m happy that my kids both got new to us beds. My nieces made platform beds for themselves when they were in high school and 2 of the beds survived. They’re sturdy and have cubbies in the base. I only had to buy a mattress for 1 bed and bedding since they’re full size beds and the kids had twin beds. 1 niece got a king size bedroom set and shipped the mattress over with it. The other one was in storage.

    My Mom, bless her forever, took most of the twin bedding to Goodwill for me. And I cooked a real meal of chicken marsala and mashed potatoes for dinner. I started back on chemo again so eating is a good plan. Tonight is going to be fish. We’re so tired of the same old meals so I dug thru my cookbook looking for easy recipes involving chicken and fish. My husband is gluten and dairy free, which can be trying at times.

  33. If you download your books to your kindle and then keep it on airplane mode, just going out of airplane mode whenever you want to download more books, then you have them all the time whether or not there is internet. As a bonus, your kindle battery will last about four times as long. Don’t read them in the cloud, download them. I only realised other people weren’t doing this when they said they never had the book they wanted to read away from wifi.

    1. My Kindle app is on an iPad. Not sure it’s the same.

      No idea why you were in moderation unless it’s that fancy plus sign in your name. Argh.

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