BooksRule

That was supposed to be a coral snake, right? Then why did it sound like a rattler? The episode was okay, but I'm just hoping that someone returned the little doggo back to the 'ghost lady'.

I thought for sure that when Bobby and Harry got back from picking a place to plant the tree, they would find Michael either unconscious or dead in the tent. As for the ending, I knew that we would see the guy who assaulted what's-his-name (sorry, I can't remember) again, but I didn't know when or where.

Children's author/illustrator Tomie dePaola has died (from injuries sustained in a fall). Even if you don't know his name, if you have children, you are probably familiar with some of his books. I have several of them in my Scholastic Book Club paperback collection (My favorite is 'The popcorn book', since that's my favorite snack. 🙂 ) So sad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomie_dePaola

It's kind of interesting to see what's been taken and what's left. I know that the last time I went to WalMart, the canned veggie/fruit aisle was pretty well picked-over, but no one seemed to want the canned spinach (I don't blame them), or the French cut green beans (although the 'regular' green beans were gone). Frankly, I thought that the white bread would be the first to go and the 'fancy' 100% whole wheat bread would be left, but it seems to be the opposite (or maybe the store just stocks more white bread so that's why some was left). I still want to know what all of those people who bought dried beans are going to do with them after this is over, considering most of them won't go to the trouble of making a pot of beans from scratch.

A big loud YES! to this. I grew up in the late '60s early '70s and except for meals, TV time, or vacation, we hardly ever interacted with the parents and everyone was just fine. Both parents worked, but if they had been home with us, I'm pretty sure that my mom would be doing stuff around the house, hobbies or reading and my dad always had 'dad chores' to do outside in his workshop. Us kids always went outside on weekends and summer holiday right after breakfast, made a quick return to home for lunch and came back for supper. Then, we could go back outside until well after dark (as long as we stayed in sight of the house under the streetlight across the street. We usually just sat on our bikes and talked). If we had to stay around the house, then we played in the yard on the swing set or played yard games (Red Rover, Red light/Green light, badminton or croquet). Wow! This just brought back a memory of raking leaves in the fall to make outlines of a house (like a floor plan). That was fun. If we had to stay inside, there was TV, board games, jigsaw puzzles, coloring books and the like (anybody else remember Colorforms? 🙂 ). I guess things are just different now. I don't know. I don't have kids (or grandkids, nieces/nephews, etc.) so I can't really relate. My neighbor is working from home and she has three pre-school aged children. I think her estranged husband (apparently, he's come back to live after living apart for almost a year. I don't know if it's just temporary due to the crisis or permanent. I don't know them well enough to ask) has been taking the kids away for the day most weekdays I guess so she can work. I'm not sure if he's working right now, so that's probably good for all of them if they can find separate (but still safe) places to be right now.

Other than a quick trip to Wal Mart a week ago Friday, I've been coming straight home from work every day. So, today was my first 'venture' out in a while. I never have gotten around to replacing my dryer (and it's been many months since it died on me), so I had a couple of loads of clothes to dry. At my local laundromat they had a sign in the window asking everyone to go back out and sit in their vehicles while their clothes were washing/drying (and they took the chairs out of the waiting area). Luckily, it is a nice cool slightly breezy day, so I read my book in comfort in the car. On a lighter note, when I went to use the collar of my t-shirt as a barrier for my fingers when I had to scratch my itchy nose, I felt a tag and realized that I had it on backwards (although probably no one noticed but me that the emblem was now in the back and the picture was in the front). I then went a few miles to a chain drugstore to pick up a prescription. I went in instead of using the drive-through just to see what they had in stock. Although I do have a couple of rolls of TP left, I picked up a 12-pack they had available (I would have been fine with a 4-pack if that was what was in stock). So I'm good for TP for a while. They had tape set in squares on the floor 6 feet apart so anyone in line could keep their distance. It was pretty quiet in there, though, so no problem.

Well, I've finished up my first week of 'not working remotely from home'. I'm considered to be one of the essential people at my work place (academic library), so a few of us are coming in to work. It's actually been kind of nice to work in the quiet, although -- of course -- I hate the reason why we're having to do this. They extended spring break for an additional week, so we've had very few students around. We've also closed the campus (including our library) to all community users, so only those with a valid university ID can enter the building. Anyone who can work from home is urged to do so, but since I live alone, I'm pretty much just as isolated when I'm upstairs in my office as if I was at home. All classes are online beginning next week through the end of the semester, but some of our students don't have internet access at home, so we're staying open (just during the day right now, but might have an evening hour or so if we find that students can't get here before 5pm. No weekends until further notice, though). We've marked every other computer with an 'out of order' sign so that students who come in will be forced to sit a good distance from each other. We're also in a pretty big building with plenty of study tables for students to use without them being too close. Hopefully, the four or five of us who will be working (some will be rotating days and only coming in for one or two days a week and we're scattered on two floors) will be fine. We're distancing ourselves from the few students who have come in this week, and the feedback from downstairs is that a couple of them were a little put out that we asked them to step back a few steps as we help them with their books, questions, etc. I guess young people think they are immune to everything! 🙂 I have the option of working from home if I want, but the lure of being able to wear my grubby clothes, go barefoot, and play with the cats any time I want is outweighed by the fact that I have much more desk space at work, two monitors, and don't have to keep a detailed 'work log' of every bit of work I would be doing at home. On campus, it's just doing my regular job and not having to document everything.

I think the fishing trip story in the description was last week, wasn't it? (With Shari Belafonte and Greg Evigan? Although if you go to imdb.com, Shari is listed for this episode also as well as last week. I'm confused. 🙂 ) The 'bullet in the head' story turned out differently than I expected. I thought we were going to find out that she tried to shoot her husband and the bullet ricocheted somehow and hit her instead (although I wasn't sure how she could have shot herself in the back of the head). Her husband tried to cover it up when she forgot about being shot (so she wouldn't leave him?). I dunno. I loved seeing Patricia Belcher as the neighbor. She's good in everything she does.

I did like Ben and Pruitt's little adventure. Ben: 'If I was gonna give Death a name, it would be...Chad.'

Another department head and I got called into a meeting with our associate dean so we could 'sort' the employees by whether or not they could do essential work from home or could be sent home and not work remotely. I knew it was coming, but the only part I didn't like was that administration has set it up where it's 'all or nothing'. I have lots of projects that I could do from home and only come in two mornings per week to work at my scheduled time at the research desk (to help students who come in in person or who phone because they can't use the online chat for some reason). But, since my WFH projects are considered to be non-essential, I'm on the list as an essential employee due to my research assistance hours (which are only about a third of my job time). That's fine, though, I guess. It would be more pleasant to work from home (in my grubby clothes, snacks at the ready, and with two cats to pet), but I can just as easily hole up in my office with the door closed during my non-research desk hours and do the same projects. Our library is large enough and we have few enough staff (especially if some get sent home for a while) that I can come and go without getting any closer than 'hey, how ya doin'?' hand-waving from across the floor distance.

It reminds me of before, during, and after every hurricane that threatens my area when it seemed like every five minutes on the news someone says the phrase 'hunker down'. It's being used a little bit during this crisis and I hate it as much as I do during hurricane season. It's not a bad phrase (you should just 'hunker down' and stay put), I just don't want to hear it a thousand times during the season.

I wanted to stay inside and do some more spring cleaning (well, 'wanted' probably isn't the right word, but I really, really need to get it done), but it is 74 degrees outside with low humidity (blue sky, slight breeze) so I felt compelled to go outside and mow the yard. I started to put it off until I get home from work tomorrow, but now I'm glad I got it done--even though I had to stop and rest three times (bad knees). I got in lots of good healthy steps, too! Now my yard looks like the neighbors' yards (they had both mowed, which made my yard look worse). Now I'm drinking a big glass of lukewarm water (I was too tired to get ice out of the freezer and just filled up the glass at the sink) and thinking about dinner (which my lazy-bum cats should have been busy cooking for me while I was outside instead of napping, ha ha!).

I'm home today, but not because my work place has closed (I worked a recent Sunday, so I was entitled to a day off when I could take it). So far my campus is staying open, but spring break (which was this week) has been extended through next week and then all classes will be fully online after that (likely through the end of the semester). Campus offices (including the library where I work) will remain open as long as possible, although if someone from my campus (I'm at a regional campus, not the 'main' one) tests positive for the virus it could change. I'm hoping we can stay open as long as possible, even if we go to shorter hours and fewer staff, because some of our students don't have access to reliable internet or any internet at all, and our library and campus computer lab computers might be their only access to their online classes. If the campus closes, I have two possible scenarios. If we are asked to work from home (for those of us where it's possible. Some staff only work directly with the students checking in/out books/DVDs, etc., so they don't have work they could do from home), I've been planning as of Friday to make sure I bring any paper files home with me every day in case I get word not to come back to work. I think I could work from home for at least several weeks before I run out of projects. As long as I have Microsoft Office, an internet connection and access to the library's 'system', I'm good. I can even log in to our 'online research assistance' app and help students during my scheduled times. My second scenario is if we are told to just stay home (but are not officially 'working'). I might still do a little work, but I have enough books to read (or re-read), DVDs, and yard work to do to keep me busy for a long time. I have to admit that I caved and did a little bit of 'almost panic' shopping a few minutes ago. I stopped by the vet's office to pick up medicine for my cats and went by the grocery store to see what was up. Still lots of produce, so I got some fresh salad ingredients and potatoes. The meat section was almost empty (I had hoped to get some chicken to divide up for the freezer, although I do have some frozen). I got some cube steaks instead. The bread aisle was almost empty but I got a loaf of white bread (this was a 'panic' buy, because I've been trying to avoid white breads. I'll put it in the freezer 'just in case'). I also bought a variety of canned veggies (I usually only buy canned tomatoes and the occasional can of tiny potatoes), and a couple of boxes of macaroni and cheese (and I'm trying to avoid high sodium processed foods). I also got a few cans of cat food (even though I should have plenty). I was proud of myself for avoiding the usual 'hurricane stockpiling' purchases such as Vienna Sausage and Spam. 🙂

For those of you who are looking for 'The Closer', I just noticed that Lifetime has begun showing it again. Season 1, episode 2 is airing now I think. Whether or not it is back on the rotation or this is just temporary, I don't know.

I'm trying to stay home as much as possible during my three day weekend, but I did go to the laundromat to dry two loads of clothes this morning. I try to go as early as I can on a Sunday before it gets crowded. I timed it just right this morning. There were only three other people (besides the person working there) in the whole place. It was nice not having to sit right next to somebody. It is interesting how this whole virus pandemic has changed the way I do things. I try to sit right next to the door so I can see the dryers from where I'm sitting in order to catch them as soon as they stop. If someone is entering or leaving and are struggling with the door when their hands are full of baskets, I try to hold the door open from where I'm sitting when I can. Well, today I looked the other way when I saw a couple of people wrestling with the door. I felt kind of bad, but all I could see when I looked over was a doorknob that was probably teeming with germs and viruses (I probably had some hand sanitizer in my purse, but didn't remember at the time). I think I'm pretty good about washing my hands, but I don't think I've usually washed them after I come home from the 'mat. I just don't think about it. Today, I gave myself a good hand-washing when I got home (before I touched anything except the doorknob and the two baskets of laundry I brought inside). And, thanks to a 'timed songs to sing while you're washing your hands' post on Facebook, I had a fun song to sing to myself while washing (The first stanza of 'Bad stuff happens in the bathroom' from 'Bob's burgers'! 🙂 ).