I've Joined the Crowd

Anemone

Just like clockwork, five days after Ward came down with COVID, I tested positive. This is my second day, and it's not too bad. I had a fever that broke last night, and I feel better today than yesterday. Now it's just the common respiratory symptoms, a runny nose, a hacking cough, and some achiness.

Ward is on day seven and is feeling much better. In fact, according to the CDC, he's free to move about with a mask, so he's out getting some groceries for us. He is very happy to be out of the house, and we are both happy that we do not have to keep up the vigilance of staying apart. In fact, the first thing we did was sit together on the couch - a welcome change from the past week.

To get some fresh air this afternoon, I looked at some of the flowers in the yard. Even though the cats protested, it was good to get off the couch. Below are a few pictures.

These mums are quite the show-stopper every year.

A lone surviving zinnia among the mums.

Various vincas are still blooming around the yard, but our first frost last week has slowed them down quite a bit.

I put these marigolds in late, so they're just starting to bloom. 

These mums were some that Miss Landers was throwing out. I take seasonal mums that people don't want and plant them with varying success. I can usually get a couple more seasons out of them before they die out.

Same story with these mums.

Until next time...

We've Joined the Majority

Ward tested positive last Saturday for COVID, which means that our family joined the many other families who have had a member with COVID. In April, over half (58%) of the US population had already had COVID infections; no doubt, this number is even higher now. In the almost 3 years since the coronavirus was discovered, our family has been able to dodge getting infected. However, even though we have been careful, the coronavirus is so widespread it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Ward missed Family Day at Theo's
work because he was sick.

So far, Ward's infection is no worse than a bad cold. He feels well enough that he is getting bored because he has been sequestered to just a few rooms in the house. In the mornings, before I go to work, I make sure he has food, drink, and activities to fill his time until I get back since he's not allowed in the kitchen, the basement, our bedroom, or the den. He's working on a puzzle right now. I anticipate that in a few days, he should be good to join the world again. But this virus, if nothing else, is unpredictable. So we shall see.

In the meantime, Theo and I are symptom-free and are testing negative. And with every day that goes by, I feel more confident that things will stay that way. But we shall see.

We all feel lucky that we have been fully vaccinated and boosted because things could be much worse.

Home Again

One of our rest stops. 

We drove home yesterday from our vacation. The original plan was to do another sightseeing stop on the way home, but the weather convinced us otherwise. The first four hours of the trip were in cold rain and fog before letting up to light rain. And after about an hour into the trip, our minds had switched out of vacation mode into home mode - meaning we had stopped thinking about hikes and ice cream shops and started thinking about what we left undone at work and the chores waiting for us. Also, we missed our purring, demanding cats. So other than bathroom breaks, we powered through the trip without stops until we were home. 

We've emptied our suitcases, done the laundry, and gone through the mail. And now we have to deal with the annoyances of everyday life. For example, within the last week, Wally, Theo, and Ward and I have all had our credit cards compromised. We wonder what's going on. Is credit card theft so prevalent that this is just a coincidence? Or are we all in some database that was compromised? Whatever the case, it's a big hassle. 

And on that cheery note, 

Until next time...

Travel Log, Day 4, Finger Lakes, NY

The temperatures were in the 30s this morning, so we decided that it was time for some indoor activity, so we headed to the Corning Museum of Glass, a little over an hour away. We visited the museum many years ago and weren't sure if we wanted to go back or someplace new. However, every place we were interested in was closed on Monday, so Corning it was.

And I'm so glad that we went because the place is spectacular. As the name suggests, everything in the museum pertains to glass. There were glass art exhibits, history of glass exhibits, and glass technology exhibits, as well as glass-making demos. We had hoped to make our own glass pieces, but the workshops were filled for the day.

After a few hours there, we headed back to Ithaca with a stop at Robert Treman State Park along the way, where we hoped to take an easy hike. Information on the trails in the park was sketchy, but we started out along another gorge trail with a plan to take the rim trail back as we had done at other parks. The plan worked out, except it was not the easy hike we had hoped for. I climbed many more steep steps from one trail to the other than I had planned. I describe this as a hike that is good for me because it forces me out of my comfort zone. I probably wouldn't have gone if I had known about all of the steps before I started. But once I was in the middle of it, I had no choice but to move forward, resulting in good exercise and views I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Back in Ithaca, we did a little more sightseeing while driving around Cornell University and the city center. An interesting drive during which we probably dodged more than 100 students. I know that the students have the right away, but it would be nice if they put their phones down every once in a while and look up while walking, she says like the old person she is.

We picked up dinner from a local Italian place to eat back at our cabin in the woods. Now everyone has spread to their respective corners of the house for some downtime after being together all day. Have I mentioned that we are a family of introverts who need our alone time?

A few pictures from the day.

Corning Museum:

Wally examining an exhibit in the stained glass section.

The history of wine bottles with bottles dating back to the 1600s.

These were casserole dishes showing how the glass transparency changed at different tempering temperatures. This exhibit explained the discovery of glass ceramics.

A piece from the current art gallery.

Ward's favorite exhibit in the art gallery.

A family selfie taken in front of a thermal camera showing the effectiveness of different glass coatings and heat transmission.

Robert Treman State Park:

It's hard to get perspective in these pictures. Lucifer Falls, shown here, has a 115' drop.

Travel Log, Day 3, Finger Lakes, NY

It's the end of a long but good day, and I'm tired. We're back to our home base, and it's only 8 pm - too early to go to bed, so I'll see what I can remember about our day today.

Several years ago, we came to Ithaca to tour Cornell University with Wally, and as part of that trip, we visited Cornell's Botanical Gardens. I remembered them as the best botanical gardens I had ever visited, so I wanted to see them again. That was our destination for the morning. This time, as well as exploring the botanical gardens, we visited the adjacent arboretum. We had a pleasant few hours wandering around both of them. 

Soon enough, lunch was calling, and after a few misses with recommended places, we ended up at Purity Ice Cream for burgers and fries, which were pretty good. Purity had been recommended for the ice cream, so we planned to come back for it after another hike. 

Next, we visited Taughannock State Park (Thanks, Janet Wood, for the recommendation.) to see the 215' Taughannock Falls. The hike through the gorge was on a wide trail with a steep hill on one side and a wide flat stream bed on the other. Quite a pleasant 1.5-mile walk, especially since the weather continued to cooperate with temperatures around 60 F.

The other side of the park ran along Lake Cayuga, and we took a walk along the shore after we saw the falls. It was not quite as windy and cold as our walk along Seneca Lake yesterday, but windy all the same. Just windy enough to work up an appetite for ice cream, so back we went to Purity Ice Cream.

Purity Ice Cream has been in business since 1936 and was on almost everyone's list of places to go to in the area. During our visit this time, Wally had a huge milkshake, and the rest of us had hot fudge brownie sundaes of various kinds. Purity did an excellent job in living up to its reputation.

Then it was back to our cabin in the woods for a catch as catch can supper with the various things we had in the fridge. No one went hungry, and some were still not hungry after their ice cream treat.

And here we are once again back at the beginning of the post. As it turns out, the TV where we're staying has several streaming services we don't get, so we're enjoying some shows as we relax from our busy days. So I think that's where I'm headed now.

Below are some pictures from the day. 

The Botanical Gardens

Not surprisingly, these are called waterlily crocus.

I'm always inspired by the layering and variety of textures I see in gardens. But, of course, It never looks quite the same when I try it.

A possible idea for another way to do our split rail fence.

These naranjilla leaves had spikes on both the top and bottom of the leaves. 

Ward and Theo examining the allium sculpture.

The Arboretum:

Maple trees

We could hear frogs in this pond.

Theo at Newman's Overlook

Birch trees

Taughannock State Park:

There were other falls along the way to the tall ones.

Where the stream was shallow, there were expanses of rock exposed.

Taughannock Falls

Lake Cayuga

Purity Ice Cream: