A friend here shared a house with her grandchildren for several years - she is about 80 now, though, still ambulatory and drives some. It isn't an easy choice. Most recently she moved back in with her daughter. She tried a retirement apartment but during the 2020 portion of COVID she was so lonely she couldn't stand it.

The lovely thing about the preparations for having guests here is that for the next few days the house tidier than usual. I wash the dishes as I work leading up to the meal, so the stand mixer and cake pan were washed and put away before I got out the food processor to make the falafel, and that was put away before the small deep fryer came out. The sink wasn't heaped with cooking stuff and everything that was in the sink went into the dishwasher last night.

We had a good visit, the friend who is most susceptible to being knocked over by the dogs wasn't able to attend so at the point when they started fussing in the back yard because it started raining, three wet dogs came in and enjoyed visiting. (They were just damp and I toweled them dry.) One of these friends is so in love with the dogs I think he'd come over to see them even if I wasn't home. :)

And speaking of guests and going out, I'm back to my personal contact-tracing notes for each occasion I'm indoors with people, and we talked about the types of COVID-19 tests out there. One of the guests here still teaches in person so the couple have decided to set up a voluntary twice-monthly rapid COVID test. It's done by a company that sends nurses out to do the tests at your home and is funded by the federal government. I think that might be a wise move for me if I'm going to be volunteering at the museum twice a week.

This morning I've had to turn off the public radio station in favor of classical music. I need a news-free day today, and I need a no-spend month this month. As Dorothy mentioned, it's part of a self-care strategy.

I'm going to make more granola this afternoon, somewhat modifying the recipe I used (adding more seeds and nuts). More self-care - my future self will say "thank you for the breakfast!"