Groceries

Grocery day! We used to love going to the grocery store, but now each trip is fraught with peril as we get to participate in our own little personal pinball machine with other shoppers. Fortunately, Publix has gotten wise and has marked all the aisles as one way, but the produce section is still a free-for-all. And that's my favorite section!

We made it a full 10 days without shopping or driving (with the one exception to visit Ace to repair a damaged sprinkler). This week, we're going to try for two weeks. We went in with our new masks, our list, and were concentrating like we were taking the SAT. In that hyper state of focus, you tend to grab everything because it's hard to think and you don't want to slow down the other shoppers on your aisle. As a result, we are fully stocked, again.

Each visit, we notice an added layer of protection. At the checkout, customers must wait behind the line that puts them on the other side of the plastic shield protecting the cashier and the customer, and six feet away from the bagger. Shoppers must wait to insert their card after the bagger has moved away from the credit card terminal. And the supervisors were diligently enforcing customer behavior.

We picked a good time to go--early morning in the rain. I was glad to get back in the car.

Our morning walk was delayed by rain. The yard really needed it. We passed by this funky tree on the way to the Pinellas Trail.  The country club is making progress with the new cart barn and pro shop.

 After lunch, I did some more yard work, and my friend returned to supervise. That pot contains some plants my mom put together.

We took another neighborhood walk. By this time, the temperature was in the high 60s and the sun finally came out, at least a little bit. I caught this bird gliding over Lake Saundra. We totaled 10 miles of walking for the day, which is about a mile and a half below our monthly average, but pretty good for a rainy day.

 This bed of ferns is amazing.

This is one of the prettiest yards in the neighborhood. Perfect beds. Perfect trees. I never see anyone out working in it. How can that be?

And here's that same house at night. Pretty nice, huh? The landscape designer deserves an award.

We ended the day with our new favorite meal: 3-ingredients: lentils, caramelized onions, and garlic over rice with a side of butternut squash. We splashed some apple cider vinegar over the top to give the lentil dish some zing. OMG, it's delicious!