Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
pandemic, rants, shopping

groceries

I made my first trip for groceries since March on Thursday night. Ironically, my intent was to stay home until things got under control, but Cambria County has had an increase in cases in the past week and a half. The total counts are still pretty low (but we all know there are probably 10 times as many people that have had it), but it seems odd that we’re moving to the yellow phase when the cases are increasing. I’m assuming the cases are increasing because either they are testing more and/or more people are actually getting it because no one’s following the stay at home orders any longer. On that note, I don’t get everyone crying about their civil liberties. What about mine to stay healthy? People are so selfish. This current group of Americans would not have done well during the Great Depression. Or the Spanish Flu. It’s no wonder we’re the worst-hit country in the world.

Back to the store…I felt like I was grocery shopping in an episode of the Handmaid’s Tale. They were still out of so many things. Luckily, I was able to find some of the things I needed online.

At any rate, the move to yellow isn’t going to change much for me, though it will change a few things. For one, as previously noted, I’m going shopping again. And, if the shelter opens back up to the public, I will volunteer there again (I figure that should be a pretty safe activity). However, nothing will change at work–we are still required to telecommute when possible.

do-it-yourself

crumbled

Last fall, I noticed that the side porch was crumbling a bit. I didn’t have time to get to it, so it had to wait for spring. Finally, last weekend, I started on the project. After removing all of the loose materials, it looked much, much worse than anticipated (these types of projects always seem to go in that direction–it’s like pulling a thread on a sweater).

I had some patching concrete on hand but quickly ran out so I had to make another store run to buy some more. Unfortunately, they didn’t have enough at Ace to finish the job, so I’m going to need to make another run this weekend (or whenever I can actually work on it again, damn weather). I was able to get the left side mostly filled in. I need to do a skim coat on it to wrap it up. On the right side, which was much worse, I actually mixed up some aggregate concrete that was sitting around the house and filled the corner blocks with it. I figure it can’t hurt. And then I have to patch the entire thing.

I have no doubt that the porch will need to be replaced at some point (or at the very least, repaired by a mason). There were some other areas that sounded a little hollow, but since the outer coating wasn’t chipping off, I wasn’t about to make the situation worse. But I hope my fix buys me at least a few years–I need a new roof before I can start thinking about replacing porches.

Once all of the concrete is patched, I’ll paint the whole thing after it has cured. In the meantime, I have enough other projects to keep me busy.

tv

chernobyl

I’m watching everything because there’s nothing else to do. This was a pretty great miniseries on the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

I did find the English accents to be a bit distracting at first. I couldn’t figure out why they had a bunch of people from the UK working at a Russian nuclear facility. I get why they did it, but I almost think it would have been better if they just spoke Russian and the show was subtitled (I mean, The Americans did it for the Russian scenes, so why not?). Or maybe hire Russian actors who can speak English so they can speak with a non-exaggerated accent?

It was a pretty crazy story, though. I mean, I was 16 when it happened, so I didn’t realize the extent of what went on over there. Animal lovers, beware: episode 4 is tough to watch.

My rating: 4/5

pandemic, shopping

big day out

This morning, I made my first trip to the store (Dollar General) in over a month. How exciting! It was the first time I had to wear a mask out in public. Needless to say, I’m starting to run low on some things. I’m going to have to go grocery shopping next week, too. I guess I’ll be back to my weekly trips to the store now, unless the case counts skyrocket or something. We have been fortunate to only have a few cases in Cambria county. I hope it stays that way.

Fisher’s Country Store in Bedford has bulk sales (meat, seafood, etc.) multiple times a month. Not knowing what the meat situation is going to be since some of the processing plants are closed, Brian and I split boxes of chicken tenders and chicken thighs, so that should get us through any temporary shortages. But, I occasionally buy these even when there aren’t shortages because they are a really good deal.

books

courting trouble

Like all Lisa Scottoline books, I enjoyed reading this one. Maybe not as much as some of the others, but it was good. And, it was from the Bennie Rosato series, which I really like. There was a twist at the end which I saw coming, but I didn’t quite guess the result correctly.

My rating: 3/5