I was planning a brief foray to a local thrift store today, after not going on Monday because of the holiday (more shoppers possibly out and about). Then yesterday afternoon those plans lurched to a stop - I got a text from the County with an appointment for my first vaccine shot on Wednesday afternoon. It will continue to be face masks and physical distancing for a long time to come, but I'll wait and make my next shopping trip after I get the first dose. These do take time to take effect and a couple of weeks after second dose seals it, we hope.

A lovely letter from a friend arrived today, and has triggered an idea for the next blog post to do with these face masks. And yesterday I was hunting for something on YouTube and on the right side of the screen it offered up videos that might interest me - and one had to do with making small quilt blocks to build out for larger items, assembled from small pieces, the smaller ones referred to as "crumbs." FROM SCRAPS TO BLOCKS This video will give you the crumb trail (pun intended) to see the videos of various things she teaches. I put a few more masks in the mail today, along with an eBay package. For being retired and stuck at home (I used to have a robust volunteer schedule, prior to knee surgery and then COVID-19) I am keeping busy.

Jon, I love your description of your walk and your photos and maps. And your rationale for avoiding certain roads is common sense, and something I keep in mind here also. I walked the dogs yesterday and ended up avoiding the park because there was a woman walking but had her dog off leash - and the tangle if that dog raced up wasn't worth the bother. I turned around and walked back down the hill and paused to talk to neighbors I haven't seen in ages who were out walking their little old deaf dog (who still has a perfectly good bark when he spotted my dogs.) It is lovely to talk to people that way, all the more precious when we can't see people safely very often. From there we walked down to the woods across the road from my house and the dogs got a good session of sniffing in. We said hello to another family passing by on the road as we exited the woods. Speaking to six people in one day - nice!

Dorothy, I hope you get your heat pump. They are a good investment and if you decide to sell that wonderful old house a pump means less money given back to the new buyers for a new system. (I have two, actually, so you may decide to build up a system based on zones.)