Another quiet day around our cabin. Jim went to the big grocery store to pick up a few things we needed. I stayed behind. We are going back to taking more precautions against COVID. We aren’t seeing lots of mask wearing here and decided only one of us would go in the store at a time.
I went down and folded towels at the laundry department again today. The volunteer working was so grateful. They are struggling to keep up with demand this year as they are so short staffed. It made the afternoon go by quickly for me and I felt like I was useful.
I fixed a casserole of sorts from leftovers for dinner tonight. Cleaned out three leftover containers and a leftover baked potato. Sure made for an easy dinner. I like using up leftovers and not wasting food. I have some hamburger thawed for tomorrow so I think I will make chili in the crock pot before we leave for the day.
I managed to get a 11:00 – 1:00 Bear Lake Pass for tomorrow. I attempted to get a 9:00 one but didn’t have any luck so grabbed the 11:00 time slot and was successful. It sure makes planning what you are going to do the next day hard when you don’t know if you can get a pass or not. The problem with the 11:00 pass is the trail we want to hike on has limited parking so we would have to take the shuttle bus to get to the trailhead. I’m not sure I am comfortable doing that. I don’t know how crowded the bus will be and if others will be wearing masks. Guess we will decide tomorrow if we want to chance it or not.
It got up into the 80’s today and is forecast to do so again tomorrow. 80’s in the mountains feels hot to me. It is to cool down the high 60’s for the rest of the week as we have a chance for more rain. I trust the rain will clear out at least for part of the time next week while Jim’s sons are here.
If I get up early tomorrow I may go back down and fold towels for an hour or so before we leave to go hiking. It gives me something productive to do and it seems to help out the volunteers.
Tomorrow night or Thursday night I want to go into RMNP late at night and get away from the light pollution of the city and watch for meteors. Jim has been seeing a few off the deck already even with the lights around. I bet the night sky is amazing away from the city. You don’t have to have a pass to get in to the park after dark.
Today is my baby brother Keith’s birthday. It is also my cousin Molly’s birthday.
I am sitting in our cabin looking southwest at the afterglow of the sunset. The colors are pretty amazing this evening. We still haven’t gotten a clear view of the distant mountains due to the smoke in the air from the wildfires in the west. The sunset is outlining the far mountains tonight and giving us a pretty view.
I am almost done with the second of four books I checked out from the campus library. I am so glad I found out about the library here. It saved me from having to purchase some books to read. I’m reading a John Grisham novel now. His books always capture my attention.
I brought four skeins of cotton yarn to make 50 washcloths while I am here. I have only made four. Reading has seemed more interesting to me this time than knitting. I may get tired of reading and switch to knitting yet but so far reading is more fun for me.
I’m so discouraged about the COVID situation. Things are really getting bad in parts of the country. This all could have been headed off if only more had gotten vaccinated. I’m getting concerned this new outbreak will allow a new variant to evolve that won’t be stopped by the vaccination. I’m starting to prepare myself mentally for another winter of lockdown and not seeing the kids or grandkids.
Guess we will all take this one day at a time and see what happens. One has to learn how to live with COVID. We all get to make choices that feel right at the time. No one has a crystal ball that will tell us ahead of time what the consequence of our decisions will be.
Grateful to have found a way to be in service while we are here, grateful for leftovers, and grateful for books to read.