Saturday, July 10, 2021

Saturday, July 10, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2008, only a few weeks before Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. We took him for a nature walk and as you can see he found a stick along the way. This was a very usual occurrence! Mattie loved to find a trinket on all his walks, and would bring all sorts of items home. Anything from pinecones to sticks and stones. We had quite a collection for years in our commons area. 

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

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 33,847,207
• Number of people who died from the virus: 607,135

Last night, our upstairs neighbors invited us over to their home for drinks. We have known this couple for years, but ironically we have never done anything socially. But now that we are leaving, they wanted a chance to say goodbye. We had a lovely time chatting and spent six hours with them. In fact, they said, they were almost sorry they had us over last night, because it points out what they missed all along, and what they will miss when we are gone. I thought that was a lovely comment. Given how sad I am about all the things changing rapidly before me, last night was very appreciated. It was also fascinating to hear their insights about me, mainly because we haven't spent much time together in the past. Yet it reminds me that even in brief interactions and conversations, we make an impression and impact on people. 

My neighbor reflected on the fact that she doesn't have other neighbors over to her home. She said that Peter and I are probably much more social.... meaning that we most likely invited neighbors over to our home over the years. I told her the answer is NO! Clearly it isn't because we are not social. Instead, I feel it is the nature of living in the city and in a large complex. I also think in the city we are all trained to be more cautious and as such that provides a built in social distancing!

We spent a full day at the house today! What did I accomplish? I would say just a lot of running around to paint stores. First to get paint chips (those small samples of paper that display the paint color), and then to get actual paint. We wanted to see what the paint color looked like on the walls, before the team begins this week. 

Meanwhile, the king of the house is settling in!

It's like finding Waldo! I would say the only one who has absolutely taken to homeownership is Sunny!

This is a Saucer Magnolia. I haven't seen one of these trees since I was a little girl and living in New York. My grandmother had one in our front lawn. This house has three of them! When I saw this blossom a few days ago, I immediately thought of my grandmother. 

Peter bought a big sun hat, as he spends a lot of time outside weeding and pruning trees!

So I narrowed down the walls colors to one of these ivory colors. It was later in the day, so the natural light was fading. Therefore, I will go back at it tomorrow, as I have to pick all colors by Tuesday. The color on the right is called Navajo White by Benjamin Moore. This was a color my grandmother swore by, in fact, I think her siblings also gravitated to this color. 

The left is Medici Ivory and the right is Navajo White. It is hard to tell, but the Medici has more yellow tones and the Navajo has more blush tones, but it is still a solid ivory. 

Sunny's got the life!