Pictures of the day

First I wanted to share what has changed in Germany this week. For the first time ever, I saw "hygiene centers" at two grocery stores. Basically a shopping cart with a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle of window cleaner. Which we liberally used, I was totally thrilled, "Just like America!"

And then this rent-a-cop stopped us as we tried to enter. His Italian accent was thick but he conveyed that each and every person must have a cart in order to enter the store. I wanted to buy one item, but suddenly were two people with two carts *lol*

There are masking tape strips on the floors at checkout, to remind people to keep 2 meters apart (and yet, they still have trouble, this is Germany, bodily contact in shopping lines is the norm). J didn't have to ram someone with a cart today, hooray!

There is no hand soap anymore. (Also, no TP, no sani....) But I found a bottle of shower gel and I figure that is soapish, so I bought it. Score! (TP countdown: 4 rolls left, after 4 weeks of buying none.)

Our favorite local Turkish restaurant (with our favorite Kurdish owner) closed its doors before we could support them. So there is no delivery food for us (grocery stores don't deliver in Germany, at least, nothing perishable).


     
Mag savoring his trees. TREEEEEES! Bellis digesting in the sunshine. They  nap nose-to-tail every day in the full sun on 72. It's adorable. We joined them as a family, and Bellis eventually crept over to J and stood directly on top of him as he sat on the ground. *lol* You can't ever, ever sit on the ground around the donkey. You will be stood upon, very slow and gentle, but still crushed.





     
I mentioned the static electricity from a month without rain. This is a poor example of Mag's hedgehog tail, it was half stuck to his body. Sometimes it's up on his hip, stuck there after swishing it. I've never seen such a thing.




     
Every day he shows up with a variety of plants in his tail.




     

Today it was just moss!






     
J and I are doing a lot, a lot of this lately. My average is improving. Before Covid19, I only won 33% of the time. I'm at  40% now! The game is called Dominion and we have a shocking number of expansion sets (still not as many as my sister's friend Martha - when stacked, taller than her eldest child).


     
This happened today. FINALLY. We are the last field to be dragged in the entire town. I was just itching to get it done, cuz everyone else had pretty soccer stripes.



     
Mag and Bellis are staring over the fence. Soon, very soon, they'll be allowed out on the perimeter strips. But to be honest there just isn't enough there yet.


     
Every Spring I'm amazed at these colorful Heide plants on our wall.



     
This little Magnolia is agonizingly slow to grow, not for lack of love.

I had a dream last night, as I often do, about being a medic. Arriving as a first responder and taking charge, and doing it right. I'm watching Dr House again and cracking up about the similarities between it and Scrubs. Anyway the medical stuff has me jumping up saying, "I know, I know the answer!" which is tragic because I know in my heart I would be a great paramedic.

And my dream illustrated that to me with full credit to reality. In RL, I had patients in pain, and I'd hold their hands. And more than once as we "abandoned" the poor things to the ER, they'd hold onto my hand and say, "God bless you" and "Please don't change" ...the people were always so grateful to me, an intern listening to them talk endlessly and holding onto their ice-cold hands. (As I monitored their vitals and filled out the data sheet when the Notartzt requested it).

In my dream this morning I was holding onto the head of a trauma patient to keep it still as he answered my schema of questions. And as we got him into the ER, he gripped my hand and said, "Please don't change." Like that one lady in RL. Then it occurred to me about Corona and I backed away and used a massive does of hand sanitizer all the way up to the elbows. I woke up thinking it was real. I could feel his hands on mine.



     
J said I was too early in putting up the eggs, but the neigbhors told me otherwise (keeping a 2 meter distance from me).



     
OK Aarene, here goes. I planted 4 zucchini seeds. ONE sprouted. Since we are isolating except for groceries, I am not able to go to the plant store and get more seeds/starter plants. So, I have ONE zucchini sprout. All my hopes and dreams are in this plant. (Next to it you can see the sign for Tagetes (marigolds), and zero sprouted from 15.

Last year you said to use 1. Sun and 2. Horse poop. Got it. We finally have a full sun location on 72. Still deciding which sort of planter to fill with non-composted poop. That won't matter, right? That it's not composted?



     
I had better luck with the tomato seeds.


     
This is a wonderful place to be trapped, J and I agreed over a game of Dominion. As Teresa said, the secret to a happy marriage/quarantine is separate buildings. My husband has his office (and he's still working from home). I've got my kitchen to watch cooking videos and cook something new every day. I learned authentic carbonara yesterday.

We've been enjoying Picard every Friday (both of us, in tears yesterday) and this article was on point. Do you get the Star Trek: Generations quote? Well written, dude.