Sunday, January 2, 2022, MN

And it is a cold, cold beginning of the New Year where we have dropped below zero for the first time since last January.  I left the house today for the first time in three days and the thermometer in my car said it was -9° when I headed to the grocery store this morning.  As I was coming back home, I spotted a deer in the front yard of a home just 3 blocks from where I live. There was no way I could get to my phone to snap a picture, with gloves on my hands and the phone buried in my jacket pocket. 

I went to the store because I decided to use up a can of pumpkin that I had in the cupboard to make a pumpkin bread. It turned out that I was missing an ingredient, so I headed to the store.  The bread turned out great, but I had no intention of keeping it around.  It sure made my apartment smell good.

I have been staying in touch with Patrick and his experience with Covid 19 has been a roller coaster. He was feeling on the upswing on Day 4 but then today, Day 5 he is back to feeling fatigued, headachy and generally lousy.  He has not developed respiratory issues, thankfully.  He is fortunate to have had the last week off with pay and his boss is giving them an extra two days. I’m not sure if he will be able to go back then.

A few residents gathered in the community room on New Year’s Eve to celebrate our ‘aliveness’ and a few of us ended up playing WII bowling - I didn’t do too bad either, finishing with a score of 143.  When I got back to my apartment, I took Frisco out for his final (brief) walk and then had a nice video chat with Tom.  I didn’t make it until midnight, went to bed about 10:30.

Penny, Elaine, Sheila, Cindy, Betty (longest resident), Me

Karen (chief decorator, photographer, and gardener)

Ben came over this afternoon to hang out while the twins were at Gymnastics and he brought bagels to have with the coffee I had brewed.  I just love the one-on-one chats we get to have every now and then.  The pumpkin bread went home with him.