THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Today was a busy day. In the morning, I took Tamar and Oz to a place to get covid tests. It had to be a PCR test and had to be 72 hours or less before the flight. Cost for the two of them was about $150.00.

Then we came home did lunch and Oz had a final pre flight nap.

 
Then we finally did an all-family photo. It is in the front yard. The rose bush had some flowers on it but we blocked out almost all of them. Still it was a nice contrast.

Our next door neighbor took it after George made the request.  It was about a half hour before I took Tamar and Oz to the airport.

Traffic was light on the freeway and the access road. This was true both going to the airport and coming back home.

Also, the departure section wasn't crowded at all and I got a good parking place near section 4 where Tamar was going to check luggage. 

Oz was very helpful and without being asked took charge of one of the pieces of luggage (which had a handle and was on rollers).

 

The second image shows Tamar and Oz at a check in kiosk. Oz is still holding on to the luggage handle.

 

I almost always decline to do mashgiach work at events.

 

However, the caterer had two weddings the same day and also opened the kitchen at 5 am, I decided to be a

good guy and work 5 hours (from 1pm to 6pm).

 

The annoying part was that the client provided his own beer, wine and hard liquor.  There was a beer and an ale that I had never seen before and I had to send pictures and messages to the star K to get confirmation that these were kosher.

 

 

Anyway, at least they had some interesting stuffed birds. 

 

This building and sanctuary is on Jones Bridge Road off Connecticut Ave. just inside the beltway.

 

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 Today I had a conversation with the travel company arranging our Canada Rail trip.

We decided to postpone our trip from October 2021 to late August 2022.  

 

Two major problems were:

1. We haven't gotten our renewed passports back and we need these to sign up for the 'enter Canada' database which is a requirement for entry into that country.

2. Although Canada is currently open, there are people in that country advocating for another 'shut down' based on increasing infections.

The second image is a screen grab on Canada's latest infection metrics. The latest daily infections total was close to 5000.  A similar late summer increase has caused several States to require outdoor mask wearing and various indoor restrictions.

 

First image is Oz with George. 

 

M is watching.

 

 

Second image Ann is reading to Oz

So far I missed several photo ops that I should have gotten.

For example, last week we saw Cheryl and Irwin at Siena and I could have gotten all 7 of us but didn't think of it in time.

Today, I took Oz and Tamar to the car wash (which Oz really liked) and didn't get a picture.

So I'm not as compulsive as I should be.

 These three images are from when Tamar and Oz were at a local shopping area.

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First image is from 2011.

Second image is today.

 

On Aug 12, Trina got out of the house. She was seen by both next door neighbors (one of whom called us - contact info is on her collar). We sent out search parties but couldn't find her. We put out food and her litter box but she didn't seem to patronize them.

Then on Aug 16, at about 500am, there she was at the door to the sun room in the back. Beth opened the door.

She has not been interested in eating much or drinking much and probably weighs less than half of what she did 10 years ago.

 That's what Tamar calls this.

 

Also, no red eye.

 

Also, Tamar actually looks as cute as Oz in this.

 

 

Also, Oz is playing with a broken watch.

 

 

Regarding the weight issue, Oz was recently weighed and was 16 Kg (35 lbs). 

 

According to the graph, this is somewhere around the 90% percentile, i.e., he is big for his age.

 

I brought home more boxes today (I had brought some earlier).

 

Oz was groggy from a long nap.

He decided to use the new boxes to complete the nap.

 

This famous book may be too long.

I began reading it to Oz at about 620pm today.

I finished the first section where the cat is juggling and falls down.

I was in the middle of the "thing one and thing two" section when Oz fell asleep.

Maybe a shorter book next time.

Oz is performing a multi task in the image.

He is following his mom as she reads to him.

He is also preventing junk calls on our land line by playing with the phone.

 

In the foreground is Oz being entertained on the flight between Frankfort, Germany and Dulles International Airport.

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I got a parking space in aisle 12 in the hourly (terminal) parking area. It was near to the international arrival area.  I don't recall parking in this lot before. Even with the decreased air travel, this area had a lot of cars and I was lucky to get the spot.

Tamar and Oz came through the gate about 440pm and we got to I-495 by about 520pm. Surprisingly, traffic wasn't too bad.

It began raining hard on the way home.

Oz moves fast, hence the blur, but he has learned to pet animals gently. 

 

There are still lots of the upside down starburst lilies.

So I filled the vase with some of them.  Remember the vase in 8" high.

 

There are lots more, enough that I could have filled 5 or 6 vases like this. 

 

There would have been even more except for the deer snacking on them.

Back in May I made October reservations, using Orbitz, for flights from DC to Vancouver by way of Toronto  and from ,Calgary to DC by way of Ottowa.  These were to bookend the Vancouver to Calgary trip Ann and I were planning via Canada Rail.

In June I got email saying the flights were changed and I had to accept the changes or cancel the flights. The changes were minor, a few minutes earlier or later.

Then yesterday I got an email saying the flights were changed again.  The flight to Vancouver was only changed a little bit but the change from Calgary was major and impossible.  The proposed new flight from Calgary to Ottowa would get us in to Ottowa 4 hours after our flight to DC departed. Even worse, the flight to DC was from Toronto so we would have had to rent a car or take another flight to get from Ottowa to Toronto. 

It took about an hour and a half on the phone to straighten this out. This included a few call drops and some long holds while the Orbitz people checked the Air Canada flights. We now have a flight from Calgary leaving there around midnight.

 

 

I was at the Red Cross for a donation August 4.  Metrics were: Pulse=94, BP=135/87, Hg=16.3

I was a bit nervous being worried that I would have to wear a mask again but fortunately they did not require that (although some people were masked). That may be the reason for the elevated pulse and blood pressure. We'll see what happens next time.

I saw 4 or 5 episodes of the 2000-2005 iteration of Scooby Doo.  The characters haven't aged since 1969 and Daphne Blake is prettier than ever (her and Mary Jane Parker, Spiderman's wife, are the most beautiful red heads on the screen IMO). Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers is somewhat less of of a cowardly slacker than in the 70s; he even is a putt putt national champion of some sort. I think the Scooby Doo formula (monster discovered, monster trapped and unmasked, person behind monster says "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids"would make a great opera.  The audience could participate in the final refrain. 

The first two images are from  "Frozen Fiend" where a Russian figure skater (right in 2nd image) is the monster and is trying to steal the diamonds that were from the Tzar Nicholas II collection. In one part of the episode, Shaggy and Scooby get trapped in Lenin's tomb temporarily. Also, Velma Dinkley plays the goalie in a competitive ice hockey game. 

The last image is from an episode that takes place in Paris involving flying gargoyles.