Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Birthdays, Sleepovers and Here We Go Again

   


   This past Sunday we celebrated Isaiah's birthday!  It was such a fun time with the family all together.  Isaiah requested my homemade ooey gooey Macaroni and Cheese to go along with the amazing steak sandwiches that his mom and dad made.  Done! 😀  After the party, both Isaiah and Bradley came home with Jeff and I.  They were perfectly content to play outside in the cooler evening air with the old Tonka trucks and things.  They scooped up the fallen apples and dumped them in the compost pile for us and then went wild on the raspberries picking and eating them.  The next day we took them up to our town's pool for a nice cool off swim and boy did that feel good!  They were totally exhausted when we returned them to Heather.  Grammie and G-pa were also exhausted, but oh it was so worth it and we loved having them here!  We were having way to much fun and I forgot to take pictures sadly.

   

   So remember how I mentioned that I was worried about the Delta variant and had been stocking up like crazy again in case we had shut downs or high case rates?  Well folks, my inner nudgings served me well again.  I have been looking at the cases once again climbing.  In the previous 2 week period we had 18 total new cases in our county...in the past few days we have had 14 cases!  The college students have not even come back yet!  The county next to us in Idaho is in the "red", meaning super high transmission and case rates.  The CDC is ramping up it's warnings and our governor announced today that all teachers, staff and students would be back to wearing masks again in the classrooms even if they are fully vaccinated. He is also calling for Universal Masking in all public places.  UGH!  While I understand the "why" behind this, it still is upsetting because:

a.  Wearing a mask in the heat we have here is a recipe for disaster for myself and many others.

b.  Our schools in this side of the state do not have AC and the classrooms get super hot when we have this kind of weather.

c.  This is causing even more resistance to people getting the vaccine because we were told that if we got it and we would not have to wear masks anymore (and yes, I realize this is a very fluid situation and we are all learning on the fly...just stating what I am hearing on the news and in my community).

d.  I am worried about my grandkids who are too young to get the vaccine, and about other family members who, for their own personal reasons, have chosen not to get vaccinated.


    Due to the rapidly increasing rates of this variant, I am also seeing the need to limit my possible exposure to it even though I am fully vaccinated.  Jeff's job now involves lots of contact with customers so that puts us both at higher risk and he works in Idaho, a state that is very resistant to wearing the masks to begin with and even more so in the northern part of the state.  I fully expect another run at the stores on things like toilet paper and canned goods as people panic buy again.  There is already limited inventory on some items and for that and other reasons, I am so glad I continued to stock up on things that we use on a regular basis.   Yes, I really feel like "here we go again!". 


   


   


9 comments:

  1. Yes, the new cases numbers are going up. My county (Los Angeles) mandated wearing masks indoors, even if fully vaccinated, a week or so ago. Didn't bother me at all because I had continued to wear a mask when out and about and I rarely go anywhere anyway! Not even to the grocery store (I order online and pick up curbside). New cases in LA County topped 3,000 last week. Good idea to stay stocked up on things!

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    1. I saw that Bless. I'm glad you are staying safe. I worry because my kids are heading down to San Diego in about 2 weeks for their hanai (adopted by love) sister's wedding. There will be people traveling from all over the USA for it.

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  2. I too am worried about what is going to happen down here. I am upset that more people are not getting their shots.

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    1. (((((HUGS)))) Kim. I understand why you are worried. As much as I hate wearing masks, I think I am going to have to start doing so again. I'm just waiting at this point to see if they start requiring them at Jeff's place of employment in Moscow.

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  3. Hi Debbie,
    Could you post your recipe for your mac and cheese recipe...mine also comes out like a solid unit! I would like the ooey, gooey factor. Hope you and your family are doing well. Those grandkids are so sweet!
    Barb in PA

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Barb! Here is a link to the recipe https://debbie-thenextchapterinmylife.blogspot.com/2012/04/homemade-macaroni-and-cheese-for-crowd.html

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  4. I'm in St. Louis and our Delta variant Covid rates are really going up.We are one of the states on the map that is showing dark red. Our Governor does not support the mask mandates that our county executive has wanted to put in place. Some schools are going ahead and mandating masks on their own and others are not. I worry about my 11 year old grandson and my 7 month old grand daughter. My grandson's school is air conditioned and so is his school bus, I hope that school district will insist on masks being worn. Of course our little grand daughter could/would not wear a mask for more than a minute, she would be putting it on her head for a hat or chewing on it, she goes to a babysitter who just keeps a few children. This Delta variant is so much more contagious to the kids than the earlier Covid was. I know 2 adults in my area who had their vaccinations and ended up with this Delta variant. They were pretty sick for a while but recovered without hospitalization.

    When Covid first started getting a foothold in this country and you wrote in your blog about how bad it was where you lived, I decided we needed to start stocking up on stuff at the store especially TP, I was so glad we did, We are now low on that stock up so I am sure now that we need to stock up again, before shortages start again.. It isn't like TP will not be used at some point. We don't have a freezer, except the one on our refrigerator, but I was totally surprised at how many canned goods that we use that became scarce there for a while, and I was so glad I had stocked good supplies of what we use.

    Most mornings and sometimes throughout the day, the smoke from the forest fires creates a haze in our skies here. The sun gets through, but the sky is not the normal bright clear blue. Many nights we can't see most of the stars because of the haze. I wonder how much our fall and winter will be affected by all of the smoke from the fires going on for so long.

    Take care.

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