Grateful for Wednesdays

On Wednesdays, Alex's school district has virtual days. No kids go to school, so buildings and buses can be deep-cleaned. It's a day for teachers to host virtual office hours, for kids to take online tests, work on projects, do homework, and for my kid, to practice music. 

I love Wednesdays. I didn't think I'd miss him quite so much when he went back to class face-to-face earlier this month. Don't get me wrong, the alone-time at home is a treasure, too -- but it is so noticeable when he's gone, after having him here every day since March. I walk by his room on M, T, Th and Fr and can't quite believe he's not there, sitting at his desk.

It's good preparation for the impending college years and beyond, when he won't actually live here anymore (I presume).

On Wednesdays, we watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine at lunch. It's the smallest thing, but it's one of my favorites. I would never have had this time with Alex without the pandemic. I hate the pandemic, I wish it would go away. But I am so, so grateful for the time.

Forward, but How??

It is my policy not to discuss politics in polite company, but what else has been on anyone's mind lately?! (Covid.) I can't decide if it's my age that makes me suddenly more interested in it, or if the news is just louder with politics now than it was when I was in my 20s and 30s so that I can't NOT be interested. I mean, I know that every generation has its huge political issues and battles. But last week, watching the election returns (not) coming in, my gosh, it was long. I couldn't stop refreshing my Twitter feed for those 4 days, and felt like I HAD to know the minute there was a result. And there was such relief on Saturday morning! An answer, an end. (ha, ha, ha)

I feel despondent today about the way forward. Will there be an actual coup? Will the military be involved? What the heck is happening?! Where are the GOOD PEOPLE? AND: How can we possibly work together to understand each other when there are 2 different "realities," based on which news you believe? How in the world can we resolve it? Make each person who speaks publicly do so while wearing a lie detector? (Then the Machines are in charge!! Although, I think that'd be preferable at the moment.) Do away with ALL the news outlets and social media sites, and start over with what?... how...? ...there's no way to do that. News is ruined forever, I guess. Or, put another way, everyone has an agenda. My brain goes in an infinite loop about this. I hope someone out there is smart enough to create a plan to really fix this broken, broken nation.

Meanwhile, I will continue to live my privileged life, typing out weekly dinner menus for my own satisfaction. I guess I can move forward in my world, in some way. 

After cleaning out the fridge and freezer from the hurricane, it feels like we have lots of space and breathing room in our culinary life, lol. I mean, I can see the back of the fridge! There are no olives, no maraschino cherries, no jellies or extra jars. And for a while, there were no Tupperware containers, either! But then, I made a few meals. ;)

S - Jambalaya with chicken and sausage. Family recipe and it is THE BEST. I forgot to buy white beans to put on top, but it was still amazing and made a lot of leftovers.

M - These new-to-us Pork Chops, with green beans and mac and cheese. Our family, aside from me, is not big on vinegar -- not even Balsamic -- but I think enough of it burned off in cooking, or was outplayed enough by rosemary and thyme, as rosemary and thyme do, to not be offensive. I thought they were delicious if slightly overcooked. I'll try them again, probably. 

T - Taco Tuesday on a Tuesday! We like them best with trashy Nacho-flavored shells. :)

W - Creamy Italian Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup and garlic toast. It was a perfect night for it, too, rainy and dark. It only made 4 servings' worth, and I'm bummed about it. Note if you want to try this: Make the pasta separately. Something about cooking the pasta slowly makes it come out gummy and weird. I think it'd be much better if you cook it separately, then put a little serving of it in a big bowl, and then cover that with a ladle or 2 of the soup.

Th - Homemade pizza

F - nothing planned. It's a football game night, but supposed to be cold. Hmmm. Will we or won't we? (Probably will.) 

Other things on my mind include the Holidays... we are supposed to visit Shawn's mom for Thanksgiving - just told her this week, in fact - but I am feeling hesitant about it as cases go up and several older people in my circle (my parents' generation) HAVE Covid right now. I don't want to miss out on seeing her, and I know she needs to feel loved and cared for and visited, but I just am really unsure.

Lastly, grocery shopping. I think I'm ready to give it up in-person for a while. Wearing reading glasses, plus the mask, plus just being around so many people... I don't HAVE to do this, there IS another way. I'm going to try an online order or two this weekend, and see how I feel about it. Maybe it will keep me from picking up extra things I don't need, too (on-sale Cheez-Its, I'm looking at you).

Who Knew?! Tropical Storm in Georgia and its Aftermath

Tropical Storm Zeta came through here in the wee hours (4:30 am) Thursday morning. Wind gusts were up to 60 mph -- they woke me up. Power flickered on and off for about 30 minutes and then went out completely... and stayed out, unlike myself, who was wide awake for the duration. According to Wikipedia, nearly a million people were without power the morning after in metro Atlanta. 

Sorta put a damper on our weekend, not that we had a whole lot planned. School was cancelled Thursday, and we basically sat around the house wondering when the power would come back on. We took a neighborhood walk and saw some debris in the wooded areas, a few small pieces of siding ripped off some houses, and one tree uprooted outside our subdivision. At that point we didn't have cell service, either, which really felt isolating! But the power crews must have restored cell towers early, because that didn't last as long as the rest of the power outage did. We were lucky our stove is gas, and our hot water heater. I made coffee by candlelight, using the lighter to start the stove. Thank goodness for my French press! We got out cards, read books in the daytime (until my Kindle died), and just waited, thinking it wouldn't be long before we were restored. It was sunny, we didn't see much wreckage like you'd expect, and... yeah. You just don't think of north Georgia when you think of hurricanes. Shawn had gone in to work, but by 1:00 he gave up, since there was no power there, either. At 3:00, after a short nap, I felt like I'd need to at least TRY to work some, so I took Kate with me to my office. She was bored and wanted somewhere to go! But no internet there, either. Waste of a trip.

We ate Spaghetti Ohs for dinner and went to bed early, because what else could we do? Surely power would be back on by the morning. 

Except: it wasn't. Kate's school had power, and announced a late start Friday, so I drove her in and then went back to my office. (Thank goodness for: Pop Tarts for breakfast, peanut butter sandwich for lunch! Our food was all slowly going bad in the fridge which we tried not to open.) There, internet was back and I got some work done. Funnily enough, Shawn had taken that day off. So he and Alex were at home, still waiting. Alex's school is still virtual, of course, so a no-go. And again, by the evening we still did not have power. 

The days get really long when there's nothing to do. You don't realize how dependent we are on electricity. Not content for another pantry meal (it would have been soup or ramen), we ordered Subway. We played some Sorry! and cards. I cleaned out some of the fridge and freezer. 

Saturday was more disappointment. I swept off the remaining debris from the front and back porches. With a broom, old-school! Powered by me! (Usually Shawn uses the electric blower for stuff like that.) At noon, we'd had enough hardship-living, and needed to charge devices, so we went to a friend's to do that. Most everyone else we knew had things back up and running -- even in our neighborhood, half of the people did have power, but not our side of the street. Our friends made us pancakes, and then chips and dip, and we watched football and plugged in. Kate was funny -- she took her headphones and sat down with her iPod and barely spoke to anyone for the whole 3 hours, so starved was she for her friends and TikTok. 

We dragged that outing as long as we could -- dinner out (pandemic be damned), walking around in Best Buy, driving around to see if we could find the major damage causing this upheaval (we couldn't)... and we came home at 7:00. Still no power. It was Halloween, and we had no plans to do anything except watch a scary movie and eat candy, but we couldn't even do that. All of us were feeling defeated and depressed. Like, really, with tears and emotions from some of us. 

And then finally at 8:00pm, the angels sang and the fridge starting humming. We were scared to believe it at first. But it stuck. We had lived to tell the tale, and were so grateful for it. We met neighbors outside to cheer and congratulate each other. 

Gracious, what a weekend. Sunday I finished throwing nearly everything away, cleaning the shelves in the fridge and freezer, and then grocery shopping to fill it back up again. (It's nice to NOT have all the extra stuff in there, though.)

We won't forget Halloween 2020 --88 hours in the dark. Just another anxiety-inducing experience in this weirdest year ever.