Our kitchen remodeling project isn’t quite over, that is if you include the adjacent family room as part of the package (and we do). The ceiling fan in that room was hideous and we always meant to replace it. We finally got around to it this week. I ordered the new one through Amazon and wasn’t too picky about the color, so long as it was some kind of brown. As you can see, it’s not a match for the Curtiss Jenny prop on the wall, but it’ll do.
The old fan wasn’t connected to a wall switch and the pull chain broke off years ago. To control it, you had to stand on tiptoe and reach for the forward/reverse switch on the fan housing. I was just tall enough to reach it, so I was the designated fan operator. The switch on the housing had a neutral position that would turn the fan off, but there was no detent and I always had to trial & error it. The new fan has a remote, and that’s the single best thing about it.
Next: a new flat screen TV for the family room. The current one will go to the master bedroom. At last, I’ll be able to watch Buffy reruns in one room while Donna watches Outlander in another!
I’m going on another motorcycle ride tomorrow, this time leaving an hour later than last Sunday, so not such an early get-up. My friends and I plan to meet at the same McDonalds in NW Tucson as last week, ride north on back roads to the copper mining town of Globe, then on to Lake Roosevelt in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix. There are two ways home from there: down into Phoenix and back on I-10, or doubling back the way we came. I for one will double back, and I’m certain my friends will too.
This is the Palo Verde tree in front of our house, doing its springtime thing. Good thing we’re not allergic to the yellow pollen it produces in such abundance. Many people are. I can only hope my neighbor, butcher of mesquite trees, will be too busy sneezing to monitor our activities in the back yard. By the way, there are mountains on the other side of our tree, but do you hear me bitching about the view?
Speaking of hopes, I pray the speaker of the house is taking extraordinary precautions against contracting coronavirus, or at least more stringent ones than the members of the executive branch have up to now. Jesus, what a shitshow!
Social distancing on tomorrow’s motorcycle ride, as with last week’s, is part of the deal. The exceptions are gassing up and getting something for lunch. Here in Arizona, you can go inside fast food places to order, but you have to eat in the parking lot. We’ll be in deep red Arizona all day, and while we’ll do our best to keep our distance from others, will they return the favor?
I’m venturing out today and the level of risk may be a little higher than tomorrow’s. I need to swing by an ATM for cash, then brave the aisles in Safeway for Mothers’ Day dinner fixings. I also plan to visit the in-store Starbucks kiosk for a skinny mocha frappuccino, a selfish monthly indulgence.
Two or three months ago I never would have considered a visit to Safeway and the Starbucks kiosk the high point of my day, let alone something to write home about.
Like I said, what a shitshow!