Who Was That Masked Man?

It seems like every time I go online I see somebody complaining about how bored they are and how they are climbing the walls and don’t know what to do with themselves while self-isolating. I’ve never been able to relate to that, even as a kid. I always had books to keep me company, if nothing else. These days people have books and televisions and computers and video games and all kinds of electronic toys to occupy their time. I don’t get it.

We have certainly been busy around here. On Monday I wrote 9,000 words in my new John Lee Quarrels book, and I’m getting very close to the end, now. Yesterday was spent doing a read through and making corrections to it. I’ve been using a free program called Grammarly lately. After I proofread and make any corrections I see necessary in a chapter, I run it through Grammarly and they always find a few things I missed. Of course, there are also some things it flags that don’t need to be changed. For example, it’s not good at all with dialects and accents and the John Lee Quarrels series is set in the South, where some folks definitely speak with an accent.

For her part, Miss Terry has been busy making masks for when we do have to leave the house. She did a lot of research into patterns online and their effectiveness, and decided what she thought would work best for us. Yesterday she laid out some heavy material and a pattern she downloaded online and got busy sewing.

Here is a link that will take you to the pattern she used https://www.unitypoint.org/filesimages/COVID-19/UnityPointHealth-OlsonMask-Instructions.pdf and you can access a You tube video showing how to make it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnVk12sFRkY

The masks are hooked around our ears with an elastic, they have heavy duty wire folders from bags of coffee beans in the nosepiece for a tighter fit we can adjust, and are really heavy material that you can’t see the light through when you hold it up. Terry doubled the fabric and sewed a pocket into each mask, which holds doubled coffee filters. That was another tip she got off the Internet. I think she looks pretty good in hers, don’t you?

As for me, if I walk into a store wearing this, they might call 911. It actually fits pretty tight even with the beard.

Just because we have masks does not mean we plan to go anywhere anytime soon. I do need to get out sometime between now and the 12th to pick up a prescription and may make a quick stop at Publix for milk, if they have any, but then it will be right back home. And when we do go out, we want to be as prepared as we can be to stay safe.

I appreciate the many blog comments and even more emails and text messages I received from people in response to yesterday’s blog, in which I talked about losing two friends to the coronavirus and another to heart problems, while my cousin Bob is still hanging on and fighting to stay alive. Your words of comfort meant a lot to me. I will try not to be so depressing in the future.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This one is courtesy of our pal “Cool” Judy Rinehimer.

Thought For The Day – I thought I was losing weight, but as it turned out, my sweatpants had come untied.