Pandemic Week 112-113: Mother's Day & the Million Mark

 Theresa celebrated Mother's Day on May 8 in Ohio with her mom for the first time in many years.  Joe and Anna stayed behind, which meant no required Mother's Day planning for them (Anna remembered to send her mom a text about 3:30 on Sunday).  The weather turned out nice, resulting in a lot of quality time in the yard over the long weekend.  Grandma is stuck in a boot thanks to a torn Achilles tendon and Grandpa is dealing with fractured vertebrae, so there was some variety in activity.  One of the neighbors lent Theresa & Grandma his golf cart for an evening drive around town.  Theresa went with Grandpa in the 1965 dodge truck (aka Maudine) on Sunday morning to pick up a load of mulch.  Rather than dinner out, they opted to spend Sunday cooking out on the grill and decided to go out for breakfast on Monday morning followed by a trip to a local greenhouse to pick up flowers.  Grandma's friend, Mary Lou, also joined in the festivities.

Grandma and Mary Lou are regulars at Cracker Barrel, so that was the breakfast destination.  The lesson for the day was that going to a restaurant on a Monday following a major dining-out holiday day may not be the best idea.  There was hardly any help and those that were there seemed rather exhausted.  They got most of their order.... eventually.  The highlight of the day was the trip to a HUGE greenhouse run by a local Amish family.  It is a good thing that Theresa flew to Ohio because if she drove there would have been A LOT of flowers coming home.  It was a lovely day to do some planting and Theresa closed out the long weekend working in the yard.  It was a nice getaway!  

The rest of the week was busy.  Theresa had a 3-day management retreat - the first in-person meeting for her colleagues in 2 years.  Anna is winding down the school year, which means numerous projects and finals for completion.  Joe is still riding the long-haul COVID roller coaster where he alternates between feeling better and feeling terrible - sometimes within the same day.

Speaking of COVID. this week marks 1 million COVID deaths in the U.S.  This makes COVID the largest mass casualty event in U.S. history, exceeding the Civil War (Governing Article).  The numbers are inching up again in the Northern Virginia area.  The number impacted far exceeds that.  How did we get here?   So many questions...




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