The heat and humidity has finally arrived big time in North Carolina. We wait anxiously for the news of Hurricane Ida on the Gulf Coast. So many catastrophes are in motion.
I got out and did a bit of socializing this weekend. It made me nervous to do it, but I did it, because if I don’t, I create the danger of becoming agoraphobic again. Preventing it when you see the warning signs is much easier than getting it, believe me. My brain convinces me that it just feels more comfortable to stay at home, nothing to see here, move along. It’s tough when there really is danger out there that you can’t control other than masking and getting vaccinated.
This time I went to a department party outside at Oden late Friday afternoon, where we were drinking and eating so no masks. Then Sandy and I drove to Cedar Grove on Saturday afternoon and visited some friends. We spent some time inside and outside. They have a beautiful home on a lake, but they are both in precarious health situations, and I worry about unknowingly taking Co-vid 19 into their home. We didn’t wear masks because we are all vaccinated and careful.
Apparently there are a lot more breakthrough cases than reported.
When the state of the world is so fucked up that you hardly know where to turn your awareness to next, it’s pretty easy to get agoraphobic. Especially when we are lucky to have a home in a good neighborhood with power and clean water and comfy furniture and it’s paid off.
Today, however, I am staying home. The heat index is around 106 today, and there is a food truck festival downtown where a friend’s band is playing. Sandy wants to go. I am not going. Sorry, it is too damn hot.
Sandy now says that he doesn’t want to move overseas, but he wants to travel. This is disappointing, but it may be my reality.
I spent some time on Google maps and Rome2Rio and AirBNB and Booking.com this past week and it would be so tempting to go ahead and make all the reservations and buy all the travel tickets and tours but that would be too soon. I did jump on a couple of reservations that were inexpensive and cancellable that I was afraid might get away. People are making a lot of reservations for next year already.
I found a 19th century apartment in the old part of Tavira on the southern coast that I booked for five nights. It was $65 per night, plus the AirBNB service and cleaning fees, so I ended up paying less than $500 per night for a large apartment overlooking the river and town full of antiques with rave reviews. The only sticking point may be the two flights of stairs, but I showed the photos to Sandy and he said to go for it as long as we can cancel it.
Then I found a super cheap apartment near the river and downtown Porto that had excellent reviews for $34 per night plus fees, so I nabbed it for two nights.
The plan is that we’ll spend five nights in Lisbon, five nights in Porto and the north/central area, then five nights in the south. We spend the last night in Lisbon to be near the airport, then a short stay in a Dublin airport hotel to catch a nap on a short layover home. We might take a bus into Seville, Spain for one night while we are in the south. It’s not far from Tavira. From experience I suspect that we will have to take a day of rest every few days, so I’ve tried to look for places with good views.
Now I’m going to do some house cleaning and I should have some art to show in the next few days. My neighbor across the street who is a very successful painter sounds enthusiastic about including me in his next open studio sale, so I mostly need to get a few pieces finished and display ready or ready to hang. That is the hardest part – finishing! I especially tend to never finish a collage. All I have to do is drop some potential piece of material somewhere near a “finished” piece and off I go again. I have the Seth Apter embossing powders to play with now, too.
My friends in Cedar Grove gave us a lot of sweet grape tomatoes so I need to put most of them in the dehydrator. This is the first year in a long time that I have not had volunteer cherry tomatoes, and so I only bought one plant expecting the volunteers. These dehydrated tomatoes are so good in the winter when they add a big punch of flavor to sauces, soups, and chili.
slowly she turned 