Vaccinated

My second shot of Pfizer vaccine was yesterday, April 30. Done. No serious side effects -- just a sore arm and it's no longer sore this evening. Of course, for the full effect, I have to wait two weeks. That is not a big burden. 

I think I mentioned that some of my Girls High classmates have written a book. It all started in our mini reunions on Zoom a year ago as we started dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. We talked: what we were doing or no longer able to do; politics, as we got ready for the 2020 elections; George Floyd and Black Lives Matter; our families; and anecdotes. As the lockdowns loosened after the first wave, we then hunkered down again in the fall with new lockdowns. We kept talking and, from memories of who we were 50 some years ago, what we felt then, who we are today, and what this pandemic with Zoom meetings has meant to us, forty-three of us contributed to this book "Unmute Yourself, Girlfriend". It's not yet ready for the pre-publishing hoopla-la. I'll give the link when it's ready.

I'm in France and these periods of restrictions are called confinements, here. We are now entering the de-confinement, which is in stages from Monday, May 3, to mid-June. It's gone much faster in the U.K. and in U.S. We looked at the calendar and determined we might get on the road after May 19. Since we'll stay at a hotel, we need to have the possibility to have dinner at the hotel. We have some appointments and will have to wait a few days past the 19th. Before the end of the month, though, we should be off! It's exciting!

It's all anyone is talking about, still!

First, family news.
We haven't concentrated so many phone calls in a single week in a long time.

• T & B, in San Diego, have been confined to their apartment since before the governor issued the lockdown for the whole state. Meals are delivered to their door and the aide is checked for temperature upon entering the building. It sounds as though they are ok. 
• J & T, in Pittsburgh, also sound ok, although J was on an errand to the pharmacy when I called. I had a long chat with T, who was still able to go to her physical therapy sessions at an ungodly early hour but that means she's the only patient there. Their son D, in California is keeping in close touch and son E, in Philly, is a nurse on the front lines of this pandemic.
• K& S, near LA, also sound fine. They have a wonderful hillside garden to get their exercise and K, even though he retired, is still teaching at CalTech. He hasn't been to the campus in weeks and is doing it all online, as is being done at most universities. I got caught up on their kids and grandkids.
• G, in Florida, also sounds good an caught me up on her kids, grandkids.
• P & G, in Six-Fours, are in good shape, missing their daily evening walk down to and along the seaside, but otherwise carrying on normally. The scheduled surgery is off until further notice, of course. Again, caught up on kids and grandkids. 

Now, for our gang.

• C, G, and the girls are safe and sound in Northampton. C is keeping the kids occupied with learning new family recipes (cornes de gazelle was the latest) and G is thinking of setting up office in the caravan parked just outside. The question is whether the wifi signal is strong enough. Of course, we cancelled our trip to see them this week. 
• E and G are carrying on as usual -- nothing new for them; they've been relatively isolated up on their hilltop for 6 years. Usually, they do go down to St. Antonin Noble Val and meet up with neighbors and friends and that is off, for now. E has gotten the veggie garden started and will be working on the walls in the gîte, now that the hay insulation is all dry. G is also keeping busy and doing fantastic artwork on the computer with the graphic tools he got recently. 
• A is working from home and seems to be the only one from her office who was set up for telecommuting. Others don't know how to log on and are skittish about downloading new applications and having documents filed remotely. Her balcony is starting to bloom.
• L & G, who, as I reported last week, just managed to move into their new apartment the weekend before the confinement started, have settled in to some sort of routine with both of them working from home and trying to keep the kids occupied. They have nice long balconies on the east and west sides, so they've done some gardening with what they had on hand. They've also discovered a floor of the garage that was apparently empty for work to be done. The kids have this gigantic underground playground and there don't seem to be other kids, so there's no problem about sharing time down there. There's also a large garden on the property, but not set up for play. We've still got lots of their boxes, here, so I don't know what they are missing. 

Here I am, trying on one of the masks.

That brings us up to us. We're fine. It's really not too different from normal. P was going out for walks, but has not gone out in the past few days -- the mornings are cold. We've got plenty of food in the house. I gave up trying to repair the back of the cardigan and started to make a replacement. But I don't do much at a time. I think I need to do some hand knitting to keep busy. I made some cloth masks.
I know they are not efficient, but there's something calming about making them. Next on the list is to make reusable disinfection wipes. I've got plenty of fabric to make squares and vinegar, but I don't have 70% or 90% alcohol. I wonder if vodka would do? We don't have that, either, but it might be easier to get at the grocery store. Also, since we might not be able to get together to do our US tax filing, I want to make a tutorial for them.

Speaking of tax tutorials, AARO's tax committee chair, Monte Silver, is organizing tax professionals to create short tutorials for AARO members (https://aaro.org/events/event-videos). So far, he's posted a few for those who have corporations and have to deal with GILTI. Other, more general tutorials, will follow. It might be worth it for some readers to become members of AARO (https://aaro.org/membership/how-to-join).

As of today, I'm going to try to be less online. The constant barrage of Facebook postings is too much.The kids have already turned off notifications from our family WhatsApp group and I agree; it went overboard last week. A daily post, and a little video call is enough. I did enjoy playing yahtzee (yams, in French) with C the other day. She had her dice and I had mine and we showed each other our throws so there was no cheating. She kept score, which is a great activity for addition and learning multiplication tables! I hope we get to do it again, this week.

Now it is time to go outside in the back yard. It's sunny and warm. The plum trees are in full bloom and the cherry tree is just starting to bloom. The plants we bought 10 days ago seem to be thriving and I can't wait to see the seeds we planted start to come up.

Then, lunch. The corned beef I made (from scratch!) turned out fine. My second loaf of rye bread was not as good as the first. It's too flaky. But we got some sandwiches out of it. About half the meat is in in the freezer and the leftover from our sandwiches will go into a "hachis parmentier" tomorrow.

It's all everybody is talking about

Last night, French president Macron also talked about Covid19.
In French, with voice-over in English; 
It was a good speech. So says all the pundits and politicians except Marine Le Pen.
People 70 years old or more are asked to stay in. Within reason. We can still shop for food. This morning, we went to the garden center. I figured that we might as well get the veggies raised boxes in shape for planting and buying seeds and sturdy plants that can live through a light freeze if we get some more. Normally, planting in France is late April and May.
This little ones will not go back to school on Monday; no baseball practice or games until further notice and I bet it's the same for the pony and piano lessons. The parents will work from home or be on "technical unemployment" if working from home is not possible and the president promised that that will be covered. Still, it would have been nice if we could have taken the kids off their backs, but since the whole reason for closing the schools is not that kids are sick but rather that they are healthy carriers of the virus and we belong to the "at risk" population.
Meanwhile, I've still got to finish that cardigan. There is a visible mistake in the back in the ribbed center section. Really, it would probably be faster to take the cardigan apart and knit a new back but for two weeks, off and on, I've been trying to repair it by hand. I think I'm about to give up. But the thought of taking it apart, including ripping back the collar, and knitting the back for the third time is just too discouraging. However, I do have the time to do it. Once that is done, I need to clean the machine I've been using. I received the special brush to clean the unreachable area in the needle bed. I imagine there must be a ton of fluff, there. I think I need to use the other machine for a while -- so it doesn't get jealous! I have plenty of yarn stash to go through. Let's see if I make any headway.
The trip to the U.K. is off. I can't get through to the Eurostar customer service and their website says traffic is normal. However, we have been instructed to stay home and, for such a short visit, it seems ridiculous to risk going and getting stuck in England, to risk taking the virus with us or contracting it there, from the kids.
Stuck at home -- but with a yard. Stuck at home -- but able to go out for walks when the weather is nice. Stuck at home -- with FaceBook. Stuck at home -- but able to go to the corner store to get fresh food. Stuck at home -- but with tons of TV channels with all sorts of programs and YouTube, which can be addictive. Boredom is out of the question. This is not hardship. Not for us.