Shopping without Mask

 

I went shopping this morning.

I noticed people coming out of the store without masks but I carried a

mask in with me in case it was still required.

I didn't see a 'You must wear a mask' sign on the entrance. 

Then when I went in I saw that some of the store employees were unmasked (some were masked).

So I shopped unmasked.

Sort of a moment of joy.

I also overcame a moment of OCD. 

After shopping I had 487 fuel points and I could have gone back in the store and bought $13+ dollars worth of product and reached the 50cents/gallon off  level when purchasing gas at BP (second image).  Somehow I resisted the urge to do this. 

 

Another partial replacement of flowers

 

Once again some of last week's flowers are still robust and usable. The two pink parrot lilies (one sticking out to the right) made it. So did the white trumpet lily (facing the wall). So did one of the red pink/red lilies (top).

To these I added a little branch of the red roses (just below the high lily). I also added some tall phlox which is the pink florets on the left.  Also appearing new are some red cone flowers and one purple cone flower (with the ball like center).

Panda and Pengy are guarding the vase.

Click to enlarge.

Last Weeks Lilies with some New Ones

 

The lilies from last week are still good. The top flowers bloomed the bottom closed off. The color of the lilies also got a bit less red and a bit more purple (click to enlarge).

 

However we have so many other lilies in the yard I decided to add to the vase.

 

The two pink lilies are called 'parrot lilies'.

 

The white one is called a 'trumpet lily'. 

For some reason Panda decided to hold the vase.

 

Last week's lilies are in the second image.

The Israeli Navy Gives My Grandson a Big Gift

 

Oz Yehuda's second birthday was 12 June.

First image is of Oz and Garfield in Convertible which I think was taken in Ramat Gan at the Boulevard of the Children a few blocks from Beth's place. 

 

On 10 June 2021,  the Israeli Naval Service put into service, the INS Missile Carrier Oz.  The ship is a twin of an earlier missile carrier.  It probably cost at least $50 million.

 

 

More from the Jerusalem Post about the Missile Carrier is here. 

 

Also wikipedia has a site on this ship..

Carrot Eating Varmit

 

I took this image just an hour ago.

I thought that our infestation of foxes had gotten rid of the infestation of rabbits but,, not having seen any foxes for many months, I suppose the rabbits found our neighborhood again.

While watching these critters it seems to me that they like nibbling on the clover and the wild violets, which, if this was all they ate, would be no problem.

However, I'm pretty sure they snack on flowers in the flower's early stage.

Street Resurfacing

 

It took about two weeks but we did get a new road surface.

 

The first image, taken June 14, is the final, or near final product (and also shows a lot of cracks in our driveway).

 

The second image, taken June 8, is after the top few inches were scraped off (this after a few days of preliminary work). 

 

A few days before the project ended we got a brochure (dated 12 June) from the county. 

 

The brochure announced that we would soon get a new surface (if I felt like this I could complain about the timing but I decided not to). 

 

The third image shows the situation when only about a fourth of the road was resurfaced, thus after the second and before the first image.

As I watched the project it seems the asphalt mix that was scrapped off was recycled into new asphalt concrete mix. So, it seems the county saved some $ on  material, although taking much longer (and probably more $ on labor) than it would to simply place a new surface. 

A .pdf of the brochure is here. The brochure did not describe the pavement recycling that seems to have occurred but I'm not bothered by that either.

Lunch Visitor Ewwwwwww

 

We were eating lunch 12 June. 

We did wine and bread.

We finished the salad and main course.

 

We were getting ready for dessert.

A large cicada landed on Ann's plate. Since it was the Sabbath I don't have an image of my own.

The cicada must have gotten in when I opened the side door coming home from Shaharit or maybe earlier when I got the newspaper.

As in the title, Ewwwwwww.

Lily Flowering Season Begins

 

I planted the lavender that we had the two previous weeks. It was a good day to do it, cool and rainy, which reduced the cicada annoyance to nearly zero.  The lavender, once it roots and starts growing is supposed to be a deer repellent.

There are a lot of lily sub species in the yard and this one is an early bloomer.

I can see a lot of bulbs on other plants where the deer did not get them.

Oven Repair Brings an Eritrean Story

 A few days ago our oven door broke.  The oven was still usable but with difficulty (first image).

We had it repaired today. The fellow who fixed it (although he needed our help to gather all the parts together and to hold pieces together while he tightened bolts) could tell we were Jewish (lots of books, etc.). 

He said he was from Eritrea and that from 1944 to 1948, there was a prison camp for proto-Israelis there.  I didn't know that but upon looking it up I found this to be the case. 

The second image is from a book called "The Book of Imprisonment and Exile."  The prisoners were those found by the British to be especially dangerous members of the Stern Gang and Irgun. 

The image and information about this is at: 

https://blog.nli.org.il/en/hoi-exiles/

I also found some information that a dissident group in Eritrea wants Israel's help in overthrowing what they call a dictatorship in that country.

Amoxycillin - one soon off, one now on

 

Ann has been taking amoxycillin to resolve an infection where she had recently had a root canal. She has only one more day to go.

 

Our cat, Trina just began an amoxycillin and steroid treatment. 

 

 

Her sinusitis had become so bad it was interfering with her eating (she has lost 30% of her weight in the past 2 years) and her coughing had damaged her nose (at least so we think).

Another Platelet donation - with an issue

 

I was at platelet donation June 1.  Metrics pulse=92, BP= 120/84, Hg=15

While wearing the mask I became very uncomfortable about 2 hours into the procedure. The technicians allowed me to take off my mask and by the time I got going I felt a lot better. I got a new T-shirt and some argyle style Red Cross socks.

I saw the MST version of the 1987 movie Cry Wilderness which is about Big Foot. I didn't recognize any of the actors. The various sub plots don't hang together very well but a little boy has a relationship with a Big Foot (second image which I got from romansreviews@blogspot.com). There are some nice scenes of wildlife and scenes in various national parks, e.g., Yellowstone, Yosemite. Early in the movie the Big Foot gives the boy a necklace with a large stone. At one point in the movie the stone glows on and off. It meant the Big Foot was nearby but a robot said, "Hey looks like our table is ready."

Another comment was when the boy and his father were at a

park ranger office and a ranger said, "Yup. This is what they call Big Foot country."  A robot says, "Darn I missed the billboards"

Visiting a Sick cat

 I came home from some work and there was an orange tabby cat in the driveway.  

I said hello and the cat followed me in to the house.

The cat then went into our kitchen, then our dining room and our living room then the family room (eschewing the opportunity to snack on the cat food we have in the family room).  Then the cat went to the front door. George opened it and the cat left.

Our theory was that the orange tabby heard that our grey tabby was sick and was making a comfort visit.