Day 10 - Los Angeles lifts its vaccine mandate. A vax card is no longer required.

Birdwatching today…we see several Bushtits…

Watched this movie today…what the hell is going on?…

4/9/22. Saturday

6:00-6:30-My alarm goes off but I stay in bed for transition time. The right side of my neck is stiff and sore from yesterday’s car accident…it was just a tiny fender-bender so why am I so sore? I attribute it to old age.

6:30-6:45-I have to get up so I drag myself out of bed to say good morning to the dog. It’s too early for her and she looks at me “side-eye”, but doesn’t bother to turn her head in my direction. When I start the microwave, the dog jumps off the couch and places her paws on my legs in greeting. I grab my coffee and we head outside so she can go potty and I can admire all the work I did on my yard yesterday. Return inside and cheese for her. I go upstairs.

6:45-7:45-Shower. I wash my hair, then sit in the shower, drink my coffee, and ice my eyes. Lotion. I get dressed in my “Athletic Housewife” hiking attire: cargo pants, black tennis shoes, razor-back tank top and sports bra, zip-up hoodie, etc. I put my make-up on in the car and have apples and almond butter for breakfast.

7:45-8:15-I’m late, but the Birdwatching group walk the same path every Saturday so I walk down the trail, alone, and catch up to everyone. Awshook is in attendance and Cliff brought his 8th-grade son, Bryce, who could be a botanist, he’s so excited and energetic about plants. While on trail, Awshook recommends the Carpinteria Salt Marsh. He and his wife plan to go and there are supposed to be some interesting birds at this location. We see several Bushtits today and I eat some walnuts on trail.

8:15-9:30-The second half of birdwatching begins at 9:30 but, lately, I’ve been leaving at Part II because I don’t care about walking on a cement path, through a service tunnel and drainage ditch, en route to The Tree of the Golden Dream. The best part of birdwatching is walking through the canyon and Part II is decidedly NOT in the canyon. I leave.

9:30-10:30-Driving and I listen to the New York Times Book Review. Home and I load old paint cans, batteries, and a few other hazardous waste items in my car so I can drop them off at the Hazardous Waste Round-up, at College of the Canyons.

- L. is in the process of leaving for Otis to pick up the poster that should have been ready yesterday. More gas and more time spent on this project. Poor L.

10:30-11:30-I’m in line, in my car, at College of the Canyons for an hour, waiting to drop off my hazardous waste. I read Women in the Picture while I wait.

11:30-12:00-Drive home and I have a few pieces of dark chocolate.

12:00-2:30-I pick up dog poop, then ready my pallet for additional staining in my backyard by leaning it against the wall. There are a few patches on the pallet that I missed and that still need to be stained so I finish the job. It’s very hot outside and I wear an N95 and goggles. Because I’m batch tasking, once I finish the pallet, I set up two pots for spray painting on my driveway. I spray paint the plate of one of the pots, as well as L’s mini-clay pot that she made at Otis. I clean up everything while still wearing an N95 and goggles and sweating. I leaf-blow the garage.

-Next, I plant several succulents in one of the pots I spray painted last week. These succulents came pre-planted in a pot that I was forced to buy, so I break them down and transfer them to the pot I painted for L.’s Art Studio.

2:30-3:00-I phone in an order for the barbecue pork lunch to Woodranch and change my clothes. I’m afraid to order the barbecue chicken because I read about a swine flu outbreak yesterday.

3:00-3:30-I pick up the food and come home.

3:30-5:00-I watch Alone with You and eat my lunch. The food is so good, but somebody please tell me what is going on with this movie. This is a pandemic film, meaning that there is only ONE actor in each scene. Did somebody kill somebody? I don’t know what’s going on…

5:00-6:30-I am so exhausted. I make a cup of coffee, then vacuum my entire room, bathroom, closet, and the upstairs landing. L. said she saw a spider in the garage / art studio yesterday and wants pest control to come, but I can’t afford it so I vacuum the entire garage, then use the vacuum attachment to vacuum the sides of the garage walls and the floors.

6:30-7:00-I have some momentum so I clean the paintbrushes that I’ve had soaking for a few hours, fill the backyard fountain with water, and clean and trim a bush that was blocking the water flow of one of my sprinklers.

7:00-8:00- I take the dog for a walk, then;

8:00-9:00-I do a 10-minute Insanity Ab workout, followed by a 30-minute Insanity-Pure Cardio workout.

9:00-1:00-I spend the rest of the night writing blog posts.

1:00-2:00-Upload blog posts, then kitchen duty and I ready my coffee.

2:00-2:30-Nighttime routine. Bed