Thursday, October 21, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken on October 5, 2008. That evening we went over to our friend's house for dinner. As you can see, Mattie was having a great time with his "girlfriend" Charlotte. They were pretending to be an animal with Mattie as the head and Charlotte as the tail. Mattie and Charlotte's friendship was instantaneous, as they bonded during the first day of kindergarten. I would say they brought out the best in each other and as Charlotte always said, the plan was they were going to go to the same college and even be roommates. It was very cute! At the tender age of 7, Charlotte taught me a lot. She showed incredible courage, strength, and love for her friend, Mattie. Even when he would push her away during cancer treatment, she found a way to put it his feelings into context, and kept coming back. Mind you visiting a PICU is intimidating even for an adult, but clearly the human spirit is a powerful force and I am glad I got the opportunity to observe it.  

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

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 45,270,236
• Number of people who died from the virus: 732,718

After doing some Foundation work today, I decided to try to get the painting in the garage done. I hate that every weekend involves one big task after the other. What was left to do was to the paint the outside of the door leading into the kitchen as well as paint the stairs. I am not sure why the former owner painted the stairs brown when the floor in the garage is grey. The grey and brown next to each other was driving me crazy. I won't tell you how much a professional painter was going to charge us to paint the door, banister, and stairs. Needless to say, we took on this project ourselves. 

Doesn't this look better? To me it was a natural choice. 

Meanwhile this was delivered to our side door today. I have to tell you I am still not used to the fact that UPS, FEDEX, and the mail truck drive up our driveway to deliver boxes and things. Frankly I have never lived in a house where this has happened. Certainly I am used to them pulling over and walking up the driveway or front walk way to get to a house, but around this area, all trucks seem to know..... drive right up the driveway!

Any case these three boxes do not belong to us. They belong to the previous owner, who did email me a few days ago telling me that they accidentally had luggage shipped to their old address. It happens! But the funny part is I played musical chairs with these boxes all day. First I brought them inside, thinking they were part of the Foundation's candy and item drive (yes there are literally boxes being delivered daily.... THANKFULLY). I was about to open them but then stopped to look at who they were addressed to.... NOT me! So then I carried the boxes back outside and into the garage. Of course that was a waste of time, because the former owners emailed me that they were going to pick up the boxes tonight and that I should leave them on the side steps. Back out I went and carried the boxes from the garage to the porch. This comedy show is not unusual around here. In fact if I had a step tracker on me today, I have no doubt it would tell me I walked miles just around the house.