Spring on Friday

WPSH Alt C: View from my front door

It's been a cloudy, overcast day, today.  But, no rain and my asthma is better.  The photo above was taken yesterday afternoon, when we had some sunshine.

I called friend R this morning; I knew she would be at home because her place of work is closed for the duration.  Spoke with her for a bit.

Then, I called the Temple and left a message to ask the monks how they are keeping.  They usually depend on people to provide them with alms and I don't know if any arrangements have been made for their meals during this time of sheltering in place.  People usually bring stocks of supplies to the Temple when they visit and they have a fully equipped kitchen on site.  Later in the evening, the abbot of the Temple called me back.  He said that people have been bringing them meals and leaving them on a table that it placed outside the main sermon hall and the monks take the food in and warm it up.  He also said that, if things reach a point where people can't bring them meals, they have the basics such as rice and lentils and can cook themselves a meal.

I debated between making French toast and milk rice for brunch, today, and in the end, I had neither!  Instead, I had lunch!  Freshly cooked rice, leftover shrimp curry, and some of the green beans I cooked yesterday.  I cooked enough rice for a couple of meals.  I can always add some milk to a portion of it to make milk rice for breakfast, tomorrow.  Later, I wasn't very hungry for dinner, so I had a roast beef sandwich and I'm having a bowl of blackberries (sprinkled with some sugar, I admit) for dessert (midnight snack!)

I did my 20 minutes of walking outside, in the late afternoon.  It was still cloudy and there wasn't any sunshine, but, it wasn't raining and I got some fresh air.  I opened the windows to air out the house, too. 

When M came to tend to the garden, he brought me two individual cups of yogurt!  He had brought me one, earlier, too, when he brought the bags of cat litter!  I told him he shouldn't give all his food supplies to me, but, he said I was family!  Aw.  I made him a cup of tea, in return!  He planted the succulents cuttings he brought over last week, thinned out the peaches that are forming on the little tree, raked up the front garden, and mowed the grass at the back.  The back yard, which was looking a bit overgrown after all the rain, is nicely manicured, now.  It will get watered, next week, when it rains, again!

A couple of my cousins called in the evening.  One of them has a daughter who is a doctor at one of the hospitals in Boston, dealing with the virus outbreak.  His other daughter was doing aid work in Rwanda and managed to catch one of the last flights out of the country before their airports closed; she and her family are in quarantine for the next two weeks.  I'm so touched that he took the time to call and check on me. 

I did some knitting and practiced the piano in the evening.  Later, I video chatted with my daughter.

Today, I am grateful for:
- A cloudy, but, dry day.
- Being able to walk, outside.
- M sharing his cups of yogurt with me
- Phone calls and video chats
- My yarn stash

Today's joyful activity was video chatting with my daughter.

How was your Friday?  What are your plans for Saturday and the weekend?