Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Tuesday, July 27, 2021 -- Mattie died 617 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2009. Mattie was home between treatments. His art therapists made a special plastic bin for him. They called it Mattie's ocean. Inside the box they created things that looked like water and waves and there were all sorts of magnetic fish inside. They then gave Mattie a magnetic fishing pole so he had to work his arms and body. In other words it was a creative form of physical therapy, as they designed the activity around the specifications provided by Mattie's art therapist. To this day, I still have this bin in my closet. Now I use it to store many of Mattie's mementoes. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 34,577,203
• Number of people who died from the virus: 611,254

I have been working with the flooring professionals on selecting the new color for our floors. These were the original wood floors to the house. We just had them sanded and they will be stained and sealed so that all the floors (despite the different kinds of wood all over the house) on the first floor will match in color. Certainly the floor looks lovely in their natural wood state. But personally, I prefer a darker wood stain. Something that has more red than brown tones. I finally selected a color, it is shown in the middle column, on the top. It is a combination of red mahogany and chestnut. The other reason why I can't go with a natural color is because all the floors have a different type wood.... either maple, cherry, or oak. When you sand all these woods and then seal them naturally, the woods will look completely different in tone. Therefore the first floor of our house could never remain as a natural wood color, because each room would look completely different. Which is why I needed to pick a stain, and then they will doctor the stain for each wood type, so that all the floors on the first floor will match in color at least. 

We had a professional landscaper come over today because we have several trees in need of care and the weeds in our flower beds are out of control. Literally we can pull weeds out and a week later they are back with a vengeance. It is very infuriating, so I know I need the help of a professional. He told me there is no way Peter and I could maintain this property on our own, unless we both had NOTHING else to do all day long. 

While walking around the property, we came across this hive like structure in the magnolia tree. A very live and active hive, or wasp nest. 

I called our exterminating company about this nest as I do know that some bees are protected by the state of Virginia. Wasps aren't one of them. So someone is coming over on Thursday to remove the nest for me. Everyone has a different philosophy about either removing or keeping these nests. Given I was recently stung and my arm blew up and turned bright red for a month, I am opting on removing the nest. 

But I have to tell you the whole structure is fascinating. It is comprised of wood pulp and bee saliva. I am not making this up. Check out this four minute video below on wasp nests. It is actually fascinating and truly a miraculous type of structure.