Life During Covid-19 Part 10

Bring Back the Sunday Drive

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

Our daughter began working from home last Monday. Due to furloughs of most of her coworkers, she was assigned the evening shift all week but day shift on Saturdays. My husband and I teased her that now she would know what  “Safe at Home” really felt like.  

All went smoothly until Saturday. Once her shift was over she was restless and I thought she was exhibiting signs of safe at home-itis. Finally she said, I’m going for a drive, do you want to come with me? Of course I said yes.  As she drove she began to relax. Her normal work routine involves an hour commute. Turns out the commute was her post work decompression time.

Sunday morning we watched a couple of church services before deciding what to do with the rest of the day. I suggested a Sunday drive. The day was beautiful and I thought getting safely out of the house would be good for all of us. We filled water bottles and grabbed our cameras and headed out to drive the Merritt Island Wildlife Drive.

The drive is an unpaved one-lane road. Unless it is prime birding season it isn’t heavily traveled.  Sunday, it was heavily traveled. It was good to see families out enjoying nature. I’m glad that even though the bathrooms were closed due to the shutdown, the drive was open.

There was another drive we had wanted to explore for quite a while but we didn’t want to drive it in our car.  Fortunately, in early March we made a quick trip to North Carolina and exchanged our car for my husband’s truck. (That’s a whole other story) The unpaved road aptly named Gator Creek Road winds through the marshes between the Indian River and the beach.

  It is two-way traffic but in places, it is barely wide enough and one vehicle has to pull to the side. We expected it to be deserted. We were wrong.  There were a lot of families fishing, sunbathing and enjoying the water.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.  The couple had their fishing poles cast out and had everything they needed… a cooler, tackle boxes and each other.

On our way to the wild life drive, we drove past a riverside boat ramp and park. Both were packed with cars. I snapped a picture of the park on the way home. It was still packed. People were not 6 feet apart but while their car were jammed they weren’t jammed together outside of their family. A lot were on jet skis or cooling off in the water. I was happy to see families enjoying spending time outdoors together. 

Monday and Tuesday were safe at home ho-hum.  The bright spot for me on Monday was I made my first beef brisket.  I cooked it for 6 hours at 250 degrees. It turned out really well. Next time I hope we can cook one in our new smoker. That is if we can get meat by the time we return to North Carolina.  I also made bacon jam. I couldn’t imagine how it would taste but it turned out delicious and went well with the brisket.

Tuesday wasn’t a good day for my husband. I had placed a pick up order at Sam’s Club and he drove me down there, then spent the remainder of the day resting. The warehouse club is in a nearby city that has a higher number of virus cases than our town and I didn’t want to spend time in the store.

Our grocery day seems to have switched to Wednesday while we are safe at home. My daughter and I went to Target first to pick up some grocery and non-grocery items.  I feel comfortable shopping there as it is not crowded and social distancing is adhered to. The previous week I wanted to buy two packages of parchment cupcake liners but there was only one on the shelf.  ( Target is the only store in our town that carries them) I was hoping to get another one. I can order online but it is double the price. Have you shopped in the baking aisle of the grocery stores? Target’s shelves were almost empty of cake and cookies mixes. Apparently there is also a shortage of yeast. Americans are baking as never before. Boredom baking or baking with the family? I am curious, is it this way in your town or country? 

By the way, have you noticed all the families riding bikes? I have heard that bicycle stores are doing a booming business. When we were in Target the bike section only had two for sale. I hope this trend continues.

Our next stop was Aldi. It is a smaller store so I wear a mask and carry hand sanitizer. They have done an excellent job of keeping food on the shelves. Eggs were scarce for a couple of weeks but seem to be fine now. I was even able to buy potting soil they had as a special deal. Their meat choices were limited so I placed a pick up order with Wal-Mart.  Fingers crossed that when I pick it up tomorrow, the meat will be there. Wal-Mart is always busy and I haven’t been brave enough to go inside once the virus began spreading.

Wednesday our Florida governor shared his plan for business to resume.  It is going to be a slow roll beginning May 4^th. To my despair, hair salons are not included. I am now looking for an underground hair stylist.

I’m not sure why, but Thursday Hobby Lobby announced that it would be reopening in our town. Oh happy day!  Later in the day an email arrived announcing the reopening of Tuesday Morning on Friday. My daughter has been pining to shop there. I’m sure she will be there when they open, socially distant, of course.

That’s the story of my week, well except for books I am reading, social media work and an online Bible study on the book of Job. What was your week like? Have you discovered a favorite restaurant for take out, a new hobby or a television show to binge watch>

After my retirement, I decided to re-learn the canning and preserving skills I learned from my mother but hadn’t practiced for twenty years. I titled the blog Old Things R New to chronicle my experience.  Since then I have been blessed to have six other bloggers join me, DiVoran Lites, Bill Lites,  Judy Wills, Louise Gibson, Janet Perez Eckles and Melody Hendrix

In addition to blogging, I work as the publicist/marketer/ amateur editor and general  “mom Friday” for my author daughter, Rebekah Lyn. I also manage her website, Rebekah Lyn Books  where we frequently host the best in up and coming authors.

My 2019 goal is to use my love of photographs and words to be an encourager on social media. You can visit Real Life Books and Media You Tube Channel if you would like to view some of the mini-videos I have created for our church, Gateway Community in Titusville, Fl.

Tags: Ho-hum days, Living in the Covid-19 world, Safe at Home, Sunday Drives