Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

The main thing I've been doing in the last week or so is online jigsaw puzzles, which seem to be a suitable distraction/entertainment right now. It helps that there's no need to remember what I did so far, it's all on the table (or screen) in front of me.

I had more ice cream delivered today. They didn't reply to my email last week, so I worried; when I wrote to them yesterday, the guy said he thought he'd missed an email from me, and yes they're still delivering.

More text banking this afternoon, to get people in Georgia to register to vote, for the runoff Senate elections in early January. (Mostly the campaigns want phone banking, which I still don't feel up to doing.) This is not a non-partisan effort, so we can tell them that we want them to vote for the Democratic candidates, instead of something like "vote for whoever best reflects your values," which was one of the canned answers for a lot of the previous rounds of text banking.

I have planted some bulbs, though fewer than I was hoping; I might manage some more in the next few days, even though it's going to be colder than in the last couple of days. I ordered more bulbs than I really have room for, and they accidentally sent me some tulips along with the daffodils, crocus, and dwarf irises I ordered. So far, I have planted most of the daffodils, some crocus, and a few dwarf iris.

And I try to remember that staying home and not doing much is a contribution to the general welfare, in these odd times.

I only went outside for a few minutes today, just to be outdoors and look up at blue sky. I found three ripe cherry tomatoes, gave Andy one and ate the other two.

Next year's garden will have more tomatoes and more cucumber, I think. Lettuce in the spring, I think, and I may or may not plant anything else. I should investigate which plants are actually prone to hybridize with cucumbers if planted nearby, since things I'm tempted by include melon and squash.

Other than that, I have called in a prescription refill, and then sent my doctor a message asking whether I should get the flu shot now or wait a few weeks; last year she advised me to wait, because immunity wears off in a few months and September isn't flu season. But a lot is different this year, so it's worth asking.

I am feeling stressed, moreso than I have in the last few days, and I'm not sure why.

Massachusetts is still in phase 2 of reopening, but things are inching back to normal:

A lot of medical care around here is still telemedicine, but I got an in-person appointment by explaining why I want one: a follow-up exam on my wrist, which is still sore after months of wearing the brace that was prescribed the last time I was in the office, and the second dose of the hepatitis A vaccine. For the wrist, I expect a referral either for physical therapy or to an orthopedist (who might then tell me I need PT).


Similarly, I'm still not doing my own grocery shopping, but we were able to get a same-day delivery this afternoon.

I just filled out a pre-appointment questionnaire for that visit Thursday, saying that I have no relevant symptoms, have not been diagnosed with COVID-19, and have not been in contact with anyone who has in the last 21 days. I was going to wait until Thursday morning, then realized that if any of that changes, I can and should call the doctor's office and tell them.

Extremely locally, there are (at least) seven flowers on my cucumber plants, which I hope means we'll get at least seven cucumbers.

I now have two tomato cages, and am not sure I can use both of them, given the size of the planter I put the first tomato plant in. I think I'll transplant the second tomato into a smaller container, that being what I have anyway, put one tomato cage in the ground around the planter, and then see. Maybe it will be useful for the cucumber plants and/or trellis.

I have been coughing a little, and my upper respiratory tract seemed a little clogged earlier, so I should stay home for at least a few days, and wear a mask even in the garden, because I might encounter a neighbor. The chances of me being sick right now, with COVID-19 or anything else, are low, but I will be careful for at least a little while.

I emailed my doctor yesterday, saying I'd like to see her in person rather than as telemedicine last week, for specific reasons, but at this point I would double-check whether "coughing 4 days ago" is sufficient reason for them not to want to see me in person. If so, I won't be getting that second dose of the hepatitis A vaccine within six months of the first, and maybe try to get in to see her in person as a separate appointment for the wrist.

My order of interesting teas from Camellia Sinensis arrived today. Those are for a distributed/socially distant tea tasting Jo put together, for which everyone ordered one tea the same and one or more other teas, hoping for some variety. After talking this over with cattitude I ordered five different teas, spending enough so I could get free shipping. (This doesn't exactly save money, but it means I get more for what I do spend.)

The teas:

• Si Ji Chun (this and the Jin Die are the two teas everyone got, for the tasting)
• Jin Die
• Chai Camellia organic (I selected this from among the several chai options because it has cardamom)
• Dragon pearls (I wanted some last month, and discovered we didn't have any)
• Pu Er Shou 2011 Butang
• Maple tea (black tea and maple sugar, because why not?)

Two more plant starts arrived today, one tomato and one parsley. These came from Burpee, with rather more detailed instructions than GrowJoy sent with the cucumber, leading me to suspect that the problem with the first three cucumber plants may have been that I transplanted them too soon.

I can't really harden things off (get them used to the local conditions by leaving them outside part of each day), because the porch is uninsulated and thus at outside air temperature, but I can and will wait a bit before transplanting. (The parsley isn't going into the garden anyhow.)

I have transplanted the cucumbers into the outdoor planter I bought for them, and fed them. I also made a note, in Evernote, of the date: the plant food says "every 7 to 10 days" for outdoor plants, and it would be nice to feed the cucumbers and the not-yet-shipped tomatoes on the same days. (Otherwise I would just create a recurring weekly event or alarm.)

My shoulder is a lot better today than yesterday, meaning both that it didn't already hurt when I woke up, and that it's been mostly okay today. I am being careful about things like exercise, because everything is connected to everything else, so various exercises from the knee and hip PT could strain the shoulder.

The electric bill arrived yesterday. Normally I pay bills every Saturday, which is easy for me to remember, but given the current "what even is time?" I did that this evening, and then noted "paid 5/28" on the bill.

I watered the cucumber plants that I have in pots outside; they seem to be settling in. I may try transplanting one into a larger container, if I don't need those for the tomatoes.

Following a link to something else, I found that Home Depot will deliver some things free with a $45 minimum purchase. So, I am getting a cucumber trellis, two tomato cages, and maybe a bottle of hand sanitizer.

In a normal year I'd have taken the bus to the garden center and bought these things, possibly at the same time as I bought the plant starts. This year, getting them shipped feels not merely useful but like an accomplishment.

I got over-enthusiastic online about ten days ago, when I got a chance to order some plant starts, and ordered six cucumber starters, three each of two varieties. Which is probably twice as many as I reasonably need or have room for.

Last Wednesday, I got an email saying my order had been shipped, followed by one saying it would go out on June 1. Prompted by jenett's post, I ordered two tomato plants, and one parsley, from Burpee; those will probably get here around June 1.

So, I'm looking around for someone who will deliver garden supplies, in small quantities, to Belmont, Mass. I may also ask a couple of the neighbors if they have anything to spare.

adrian_turtle messaged me this afternoon "Hello again. Check your porch."

On the front porch were three small herb plants, two packets of seeds, some flower pots, and a bag of potting soil.

This wasn't exactly a surprise: we'd talked some about what herbs cattitude and I would like to grow, and she even mentioned that she had a cunning plan for getting them for me. (For coronavirus-related reasons, neither of us is going to the gardening center for a while.)

I brought the plants indoors, and quickly discovered that our tentative plan of growing herbs on a kitchen windowsill would not survive the intense interest of the cats. So, they're on a porch windowsill, and we are going to keep an eye on the forecast: the porch is enclosed but unheated, so basically at the outside temperature, sometimes with a time lag.

The porch mostly contains some overflow storage (canned goods, yams, paper towels) and boxes awaiting recycling. We want to spend time out there when it gets warm, but the coronavirus happened before we had time to shop for porch furniture.

More comments I posted elsewhere in the last several months: ( relationships to books, bagels, gardening, minimum wage, intersectionality, what we overlook and why, ancestry and the complexities of immigration )