Home church, home-work, home bound, stress test

This last weekend was not necessarily a great weekend. Mama and I sent the morning running. Delivering eggs. Delivering homemade biscuits to Mr. Plumley. Filling the gas and diesel cans while the price is so low. Meeting Alex to pick up some rice. We are still not able to find any rice on the store shelves, so we called Alex to see if had extra since the restaurant is closed right now. He did and we now have a full supply of rice in our pantry. That saved us a trip to the Asian Market – which is not close to us. Then stopping by Lowe’s to get a piece of plywood and some screen to finish the beehive bases I am building. We were back home by 12:30. I told Mama that I did not feel well. I did not feel sick, I just did not feel well. I think it is the blood pressure meds that at causing me to feel this way, but I will keep going until I eliminate everything else.

Saturday, I cooked one of the Rock Cornish hens we had raised here on the farm. The person who told Mama they were the most tender chickens you would ever eat was telling the truth. We cooked it in the pressure cooker but on the crockpot setting. It only took about three hours to cook. Much faster than I had expected. On Sunday we took that chicken and shredded it to make chicken quesadillas. Mama made tortillas for the first time. I told her they were more like gorditas than tortillas, but they had a good flavor. I had brought home from work some salsa from a local restaurant left over from a recent lunch at work. We had a great lunch. I put on some beans to make charro beans, but they were not ready at lunchtime. When they did get fully cooked, they were very good.

Our church services yesterday were broadcast via Facebook. That was a first for our pastor but fortunately, we have a few teenagers in the church who are very tech savvy. They were able to help the pastor pull off both services without a hitch. There were several people in church with the pastor so that he did not have to preach to an empty auditorium, but we did not go. I still feel that we are grossly overreacting to this contagion, but I do not want to offend those who have been scared into believing that this is a fatal infection. The way it is being portrayed in the media paints this iteration of the coronavirus as 100% fatal. It clearly is not. Still, we made the most of our day of confinement. Because of the time difference, we were able to watch Somerset Bible Baptist services as well. One of those times when technology works to our advantage.  

I will continue to work from home this week. It is not too disruptive, but I do lack the resources – especially the internet resources – that I can access from work. I am working on a project that will stretch one of our classes into a two-day class for those who wish to take a hands-on training associated with that class. Once it is available for marketing, we will have to rename and reformat the current class we are teaching, but it will meet a need that has long gone unmet in the industry. Whether my vision for this class will meet the expectations of my company remains to be seem. I seem to have a different focus on these types of needs than my management does, but I will do my best to get a class organized that would be both helpful and fun to take. Time will tell.

We do not have it so bad here in the US even though there is such fear mongering on the airwaves. Nate, Cori and the kids are homebound. By government edict they are not allowed out of their homes. Stores are closed to the public. The country is locked down. There is some mechanism for groceries to be delivered, but no one is allowed to shop in the stores until next week. Sunday, I believe the sequester is lifted, but I am not entirely sure. I know Cori and the kids are going stir crazy. It is not like they can risk an outing just to see what life is like in Honduras while everyone else is forced to stay home. After all, there are armed guards at the entrance to their neighborhood. I am not sure they would be turned back from the gate, but it is not worth the risk to challenge the government mandate.

I am fasting this morning. I do not believe I have to fast necessarily, but I am not allowed to drink anything with caffeine in it, so coffee is out this morning. I have an echo cardiogram scheduled for 9:30. I do not think there will be anything noteworthy come of the test, but I cannot know for sure until I complete the test. I recently balked at a breathing test when I found out that the copay was excessive, but this test has a reasonable copay.

That is the only reason I agreed to it.