Quarantine Journals - More of the same

Penny had a very cute little zoom birthday party yesterday. They dropped off a craft kit in the morning, and I wiped it all down and sprayed it with Lysol before the party. It was during Oliver's nap, so I didn't get to see it myself, but they made a little birthday hats and LED candles and plates and stuff for stuffed animal. It was very cute. And she said she had fun.

We've been playing a lot of just dance and getting some good exercise in the evenings. The last several days have been heavy with rain, so I had to go out on a daily basis And bail water out of the hydroponic totes. But other than one cucumber plant getting broken off of the stem, everything seems to have survived the weather so far.

I think we have over 100 green tomatoes in the house, and it seems like we're going to get a good 20 or 30 peppers out of the pepper plants in the aero garden alone. I'm not holding out any hope that the tomato or pepper plants outside are going to do anything.  Our lettuce crop is pretty much done, so we're starting a new batch.

The high today was 82, and I was eager to get outside, but the world seemed against me. The kids were preoccupied on their iPads this morning, and I got stuck in a loop of trying to get some Diflucan from somebody. I was trying to set up an E visit through Blue Cross Blue Shield with some random doctor, and I even tried to set up an appointment with the PA that I hate at my doctors office.  But, eventually, I just emailed my OB/GYN again, and explained once more why I couldn't come in and asked why they weren't willing to call me in a Diflucan. The nurse practitioner wrote back that she had called it in, but if it didn't work I would need to be seen because she doesn't think it's a yeast infection at this point. I hope she's wrong.

I got very stressed out at the idea of Richard going to the pharmacy now that we're seeing my dad again, but he said he would wear a mask and wipe everything down and go through the drive-through, so that's what we ended up doing. But not before I called Carmen to see if she would be willing to grab some groceries and a prescription. Today is her birthday, and her family told her that she was an allowed to leave. LOL. So I wished her happy birthday and let Richard go on his way.  I put some feelers out on DFW craft house for some local Bath and body vendors, and I'm going to put together a gift basket to leave out for Carmen the next time she drops off our order.

Did I mention that Penny has a penpal now? My friend Sara's daughter, Lucie, who is the same age as Penny, has been writing to her from Richmond Virginia. Penny got her first letter from Lucie today, and she was super excited.

I will be calling Texas pecan's, where we got Gilbert those birthday gift delivered, and ordering some nuts for my dad for his birthday tomorrow.

I tried to call Brandon today to wish him happy birthday, but he didn't answer. So the kids and I saying happy birthday into the phone and left him a voicemail. I also sent him over an Amazon gift card.

Richard called a couple of the places that I had sent him with mobile units for car repairs today, but it turns out that both of them only send out vans when they're doing a new tire installation. But, he found a place that does all car repairs Mobley, and left a message. My hopes are that he can come out and patch the tire and a no contact situation. It is so stressful to constantly be so strict about not in countering anyone ever so that I don't have to worry about putting my dad at risk.

The kids and I went for a walk earlier, and a woman walked my way to class with her dog. She was still probably 12 feet away, in the middle of the street, with her dog right next to us, but it was still too close for comfort for me. I don't wanna make the kids wear masks when we're walking around outside. And some research is starting to show that Cove it is less likely to spread and outdoor environments, especially ones with airflow, and especially just in passing versus standing in having a conversation with someone. So I keep trying to tell myself that.

I watched a lot of disgusting videos of people being racist today, and it really got me down. Coupling that with the hour long hearing at the Weatherford courthouse deciding whether or not to remove the confederate statue, I'm feeling really down about humanity. The meeting was supposed to be to agree to move the statue. People have been protesting for it, and lots of people surrounding it day and night with their assault rifles to defend it from "the Black Lives Matter people."  But one of the first people to speak in the meeting was supposedly the president of the Texas chapter of the daughters of the Confederacy, and she said that the letter asking that Parker County let them remove the statue that they own was written by the Parker County president and she did not have authorization to make that request. So, she's telling them to disregard it.  Parker County has no record showing whether or not the statue was donated or who owns it, and they're refusing to take any action until they determine ownership. The president that was there for the daughters of the Confederacy stated that they owned the statue, and they didn't want it moved. But then later she said "whoever owns the statue" and cast a big shadow of doubt over her claim. So Parker County has asked the daughters of the Confederacy to provide documentation showing that they own it.

At that point, they opened the floor for about half an hour to 45 minutes to whoever wanted to make a statement regarding the statue. It looked like the courthouse was packed, and they were several rooms broadcasting a live stream. You could hear people cheering in the background as they watch the videos on delay. I think I probably watched 40 people stand up and give a one minute speech on why they thought the statue should stay or go.  in the beginning, most of them were for getting rid of it, and everyone was very eloquent and provided fat full commentary. But then the people who want to keep the statue started coming out of the woodwork's, and some of them got really accusatory and nasty. You were guaranteed the new one started their sentence with "these people keep coming into our town" we're gonna have a lot of racist stuff to say.  One woman even pointed at the Black people in the room and asked them "where were you when we were all lined out to protect the statue? If this is so important to you, where were you?" As if the smart decision in that scenario would've been to confront a bunch of rednecks with assault rifles.  Sigh.  So, anyway, the meeting establish nothing, and still so we wait. I connected with a guy named Tony Crawford and Weatherford who is kind of spearheading a movement against racist in the town, and between the two of us we've identified quite a few of them. Including a woman named Linda Mitchell to whom I sent him a screenshot of, who was calling people the N-word and really making a scene. Tony's made several post about quick print a tire company, and other business posting BLATANTLY racist BS. 

I feel bad for Penny. I get the gist that she's craving more activity and some kind of Bridget schedule on her day. She's announced multiple times now that she wants to spend Sunday sitting down with me to come up with a schedule for the following week. I think she's putting more faith in me than she probably should because at this point I'm pretty much just winging it. And not necessarily doing a great job. But it's been a rough few weeks. I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint her with her scheduling helps, as she wants to make meal plans and go all out. But, I'll do the best that I can, and we'll see what happens.