COVID-19 | Book Chatter

Yesterday we met my son in Solvang. We four (the pup joined us) met him there because it’s about an hour away from him. They have shops, restaurants and Danish bakeries galore! They also have a quaint little book shop. It was so good to see him. Editing note: WordPress got rid of the Classic Editor and the Block editor leaves a lot to be desired. Images and things may be out of whack.

Right Now:

Church and youth group. Possibly a quick lunch afterward and then a long walk for the pup.

This Week:

We are leading up to Easter aren’t we? My daughter requested a typical ham dinner, like we always have. I am now vegetarian so I will do all that and then make myself a tiny Salisbury Steak made out of Impossible Burger meat. The recipe is here but it has a ton of ingredients. I am going to just use it as a guide. All the sides should go well with my addition.

This week I will shop for all the ingredients. Last Easter our Honeybaked Ham meal barely arrived in time. It was such a weird, sad time. No church services. Nobody outside. The delivery guy was way late, it was delivered Saturday at 9pm. Then I worried because the ham was not cold. It was fine but this year will be quite different.

I have a day off from work this week for Cesar Chavez day. If I can help it, I plan to do nothing on Wednesday. Just read and lounge around. Maybe make a special dinner, the kind that cooks all day long.

I’ve got nothing else going on this week.

College Decision:

She will be attending Missouri State University this fall for their BFA in Musical Theatre program.

Missouri State Acceptance Photo — Emma will be a Bear at MSU!

So many things contributed to this. I can’t even tell you. All I can say is that you want your kids to be treated well and you want to know that wherever they go, they are wanted and will be cared for and that she will get the best training she can get. That’s what it came down to. Yay!

Reading:

I finished The New Neighbors. I should have that review up soon.

I am about to pick up this beauty which was delivered to my door this past week. Thank you Henry Holt!

And then, Care and Melissa announced this read-along. #The GreenMileAlong begins in April. I went online and found an ebook version that has all the installments so I am ready to go!

Watching:

I am finishing up WandaVision and then my son wants us to watch Barry.

Our Netflix plan still has a DVD option attached to it which was grandfathered in. It’s good for those movies that aren’t streaming. I had The Big Chill set to arrive but my daughter was playing the song Maniac the other day and it occurred to me that she has never seen Flashdance! So, we have that coming in instead.

Grateful for:

The upcoming Easter services. We will probably attend the Saturday before because of potential crowds but it’s not Easter without a church service.
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service has announced that the federal income tax filing due date for individuals for the 2020 tax year will be automatically extended from April 15, 2021, to May 17, 2021. We already filed but we ended up owing quite a bit more than last year. Not a fan of that but yay for not having to pay it to soon.

Are you reading anything really good right now? Will you be joining this Stephen King read with us? I’ve read The Green Mile before but it was when it first came out so a re-read is welcomed.

I think I mentioned it long ago but I am fascinated with the suburbs and suburbia in general. Much of my childhood was spent in a motel, on a busy street in Hollywood. There was no neighborhood per se. Just a string of buildings crowded together. All day long the parade of cars and people gave me something to look at but I never had the suburban experience that I had seen on TV. Until my adult life, anyway.

The photo above was taken on my walk around the neighborhood. It’s well-established and a mix of old and new but mostly old. We have cul-de-sacs like the one depicted in this famous Bill Owens photo from his Suburbia collection:

Bill Owens, Fourth of July Block Party, 1972

Bill Owens, Street with Boy and Dog, 1999

And the photo above reminds me of the housing boom we’ve had. Houses everywhere. We lost the cul-de-sac at the end of our street due to expansion. They opened it up to improve traffic patterns after we got trapped during a brush fire evacuation. Now there is a lot more traffic on our street but our commute across town is cut down by quite a bit since we are able to access the main road now.

I just love to walk around the neighborhood and during this shutdown I’ve been doing it often. Before then, I never knew my neighbors, or their dogs. Now it’s like a social event every time the pup and I head out. I love to see what they are doing to their homes too because with the shutdown came a renewed focus on home improvement.

There is a section of homes that are all pastel colored and every time I walk by I think of Edward Scissorhands.

Not your typical “What Not” post today but thought I’d break it up a little. Later, I may attempt to stain two side tables because now they don’t match the new couches all that well. Debating if I should do white with distressed brown coming through or go dark, espresso brown. See what walking around the neighborhood does? It sparks creativity.

Do you have any DIY projects you are working on right now?

If you want to take a trip down memory lane, check out Bill Owens and his Suburbia collection. Such fun and interesting photos.

Chatting with friends about books and life…