May 18, 2021 - May 31, 2021
The last two weeks have been very eventful. On Tuesday Morning I picked up the ten ft. UHaul truck I rented to drive out to Oak Park. Bob and I loaded all of the items I was delivering to Rachel from our storage locker and I was ready to hit the road…..except, I had accidentally locked the truck keys inside the cab. Bob suggested that we drive back to the gas station where we rented the truck and get their extra key. Unfortunately, it is not the policy of UHaul to keep an extra key so that was a dead end. Our only recourse was to call a local locksmith. Once the arrangements were made we waited for the locksmith to arrive. He was there in about 30 minutes and had the door unlocked in five minutes. I left Annapolis at around 10:30 am and stopped in Pittsburgh for the night at my sister Becky’s house. It was great to see her and her husband AL in person again. it’s hard to give hugs in a Zoom meeting. Al grilled lamb chops on the grill and Becky made a cucumber and tomato salad and rice. We ate the delicious dinner and relaxed watching some TV.
On Wednesday morning, after loading the truck with baby things given to Rachel from Allison (Becky’s daughter) I left Pittsburgh heading to Oak Park IL. It was the hottest day of the year so far and I couldn’t figure out how to work the air conditioning. If I had stopped the truck and looked carefully at the controls I would have seen the snowflake symbol which I should have turned the control to. After seven hours of bumping along in the hot truck ( I have a new found appreciation for what the pioneers experienced in their covered wagons) I arrived at Rachel and Juan’s apartment. Besides being happy to be out of the truck I was super excited about seeing them and my granddaughter Lili. I was surprised at how tall Lili has gotten, she is definitely growing up.
During the week, I was able to peek in on Lili’s remote school sessions. As a former educator I was very interested in how the process worked. Since her school is doing hybrid learning with some students in class and some remote the teacher is filmed teaching and the video is live streamed to the remote students. Lili is thriving on remote learning.
We had fun eating, playing games, walking, chatting, watching survivor reruns and movies, and making a lemon mobile for the baby’s room.
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| Lili helped us pick out all the materials for the lemon mobile. On Friday and Saturday Rachel and I worked on creating the mobile. |
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| The mobile looked great when Juan hung it above the crib. |
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| I was also able to photograph the quilt I made for Rachel last fall. |
On Sunday we had Rachel’s virtual baby shower which I had planned and hosted. My sister Laurie set up the Zoom meeting and my daughter Jessica helped me with the planning. I had sent a box of refreshments (pink lemonade and Herr’s Old Bay Crab chips), games, and an acrylic cup to all of the attendees ahead of time. We had a few technical glitches in the beginning but, between Rachel and my great niece Hannah we got things running smoothly.
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| These are the items I shipped to everyone to enjoy during the shower. |
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| Here are all of the participants in the shower. first row - Laurie, Hannah, Sarah, Lili, Juan, Rachel, me, Jessica, Aliya |
The shower went well and it was great to see most of the family all together. I think we should plan some more family Zoom events.
I took lots of photographs after the shower all taken in the baby's room, of course.
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| Lili, Rachel and Juan |
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| Lili, Rachel, and me. |
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| Juan and Rachel |
On Monday afternoon I flew from Chicago to Baltimore. I was surprised at how normal everything seemed. Except for the mask wearing it was just like any other flight I have been on.
It was good to be back home on the boat. Bob had made every effort to have the boat clean and uncluttered with boat project paraphernalia. But, of course, the boat projects and chores started the next day. Also, I started the Keto diet that Bob had started while I was gone. At first the diet was a struggle, but we have developed some great recipes this week. We have also found that using Carb Smart tortillas in place of bread or other high carb foods makes the diet doable.
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| This was our first attempt at making pizza using a low carb tortilla for the crust. It was delicious. |
This week I completed the project of cutting down the thickness of the navigation station seat back. It went from five inches to two inches thick. I helped Bob construct a screw jack to use in removing the leaking auxiliary fuel tank. Walking every morning, doing laundry and cleaning were some of my other activities.
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| The modified backrest makes sitting at the navigation station more comfortable, but it will take us a while to get used to its appearance. |
We had been looking forward to the pool opening on Memorial day weekend, but Saturday was cold (51 degrees) and rainy and Sunday wasn’t much better. :( On Monday we awoke to sunny skies and a weather prediction of 70 degrees by the afternoon. Still a little cool for swimming so we decided to go to Annapolis to do errands and buy groceries. Of course, that meant eating lunch out. We chose Lemon Grass II since we could easily stay on the Keto diet if we skipped the rice and dessert. By the time we got home it was pleasantly warm and people were enjoying the pool and hot tub. Maybe I'll go to the pool tomorrow.
Thank you for reading my blog and stay safe.
