More randomness this week...
- My plants have taken a beating lately, but there are some survivors. The immense amount of rain these last couple weeks has been one problem. I think it was the cause of a bunch of brown spots on most of my zinnias, both leaves and blooms. It was only the ones in the backyard, and since the protected front porch ones are fine, my guess is the constant onslaught of rain. They're still blooming, but they've taken a beating. I think some of them might have been snacked on by the deer, or maybe just the hard rain knocked petals off? I think the deer also snacked on my coral bell and hosta flowers, too. The Japanese beetles have been relentless as well, stripping some zinnia leaves and really doing a job on my string bean leaves. Fortunately the beans are intact, and I've harvested a ton this week. My snap peas seem mostly done but they've been fun. My zucchini plants are struggling with a fungus but I'm hoping they'll be strong enough to kick out a few more. At least my cukes are really getting going, even though my mom and I determined the store mislabeled the type--these look more like pickle ones, but they still work! The hydrangeas are still amazing, although officially weighed down after days of being wet.
Blue! Also, I'm not a huge fan of daylillies (they just look disheveled to me--I like symmetry a bit too much, I think), but this one was quite pretty.
And last but not least, the pumpkin patch is coming back to life! Three plants survived the deer and have new growth, and the six extras I planted in my post-deer sadness are growing! They even seem to have survived being completely flooded out over the weekend.
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| A few of them already have additional leaves since I took this picture! |
- Speaking of rain, it poured for a lot of the weekend, which wreaked all sorts of havoc throughout Western New York. Carter's last weekend of soccer was over the week weekend, and despite my hope that they'd cancel on Saturday when it was supposed to pour all day, I guess soccer isn't like that! While Craig and Jacob were at a basketball tournament in Buffalo, Carter and I headed off to the fields in pouring rain after a full night of pouring rain. The fields were shockingly decent, but it was wet! By about five minutes in, I think the kids would have been just as well off jumping in a pool and hopping back out to play soccer. On the sidelines, parents were employing every possible way of staying dry. Admittedly, it wasn't working too well. I had a poncho, canopy chair, and umbrella and still ended up with a giant wet spot on the back of one leg, along with a wet sleeve.
After we went home and cleaned up, we went out to a special lunch. One of our longtime favorites, Carmine's is apparently closing this week. It's not confirmed anywhere except certain people on social media who claim to be in the know (likely friends and family of employees), but the owner passed away and his wife can't handle the restaurant, and a buyer hasn't been found yet. I figured we should go there and get a chance to say goodbye while we didn't have to worry about Jacob. We had a lovely lunch--Carter had a hot dog and fries, I got a chicken finger sub, and we took home a pizza to go. We will really miss it there, and it makes me sad Jacob's Celiac has prevented us from eating there more often these last eight years.
Fortunately, the sun came back out Sunday morning, and it actually got downright hot by late morning when Carter started soccer again. My parents were able to come in for his last two games of the season, which was nice since Craig and Jacob were back in Buffalo again. Jacob did get 11 points in his last basketball game of the season! Carter's team unfortunately suffered their only loss of the season against the only team that was competitive with them, which was a bit of a bummer. One bad quarter was all it took, and it didn't help that a couple good players were absent, which hurt comeback chances. But they've beaten that team previously, so if anything they ended up even with them on the season. We killed time between the games by grabbing a snack at the concession stand, talking to his best buddy/teammate, and checking out the rather damp playground at the fields. Turns out that his buddy's mom and I each put down the other's kid on our own kid's school info sheet where you could request classmates. They may get into trouble together, but I think just having that good friend in a new school could be a huge help. They won their last game handily, and while Carter didn't have any goals, it was fun to watch one more good game. Afterward, he got his medal for completing the season, which he was excited to hang on his wall with the one he got two years ago. I look at it less as a participation trophy and more like a keepsake from a season well-played. Both of his soccer teams were good, though, so they both felt well-earned regardless.
- I am getting REALLY nervous about COVID now, particularly with a wedding to attend this weekend. Cases are going up, even among the vaccinated. My college friend who works in New York City had his office shut down this week. Almost half of his vaccinated team has tested positive, and a lot have pretty serious symptoms. It's really concerning. And yet, everywhere we go, people are still unmasked. It'd be one thing if kids were safe, but they're not. I feel like I'm being gaslighted or something--like I know that the virus is out there, I know everyone is at risk despite vaccination status, and yet the rest of the world is acting like nothing is happening. I've commented on a couple social media posts that I'm not so much upset with the people that don't want the vaccine--I mean, here we are still hesitating getting Jacob vaccinated, so clearly we understand that it's a new vaccine and brings up questions--but I do have a problem with the people who refuse to get it AND refuse to take other steps for protection, like masking, social distancing, or even any sort of acknowledgement that this is an issue. Am I worried about death? Not really, but I am concerned about being sick for weeks, being quarantined in the middle of summer, and facing down long-hauler symptoms. A healthy college friend of mine dealt with them for months, and my high school friend has weird ones like perpetually pink cheeks and vision changes. I'd like to avoid that, thanks. But I know when we walk into that wedding we would stick out like sore thumbs if we choose to mask. It's so annoying to feel that way when we know that what we're doing is the wiser choice, and I'm just at a loss that everyone seems to think this is done. Maybe not everyone has a friend like mine with a very real, very concerning story, but you can bet I'm going to plant that seed with people where I can to try to get some support. All of this has made me question whether our return to work can even happen in the coming weeks. In two weeks we have to do one day per week at the office, which is probably doable since we won't all be there at once, but if cases continue to rise and it becomes clearer to the powers that be that being vaccinated doesn't mean you're safe, I am curious whether the hospital will start pushing more conservative setups for non-essential office workers again.
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