As the title suggests, passing the time is a very apt way of explaining how we are living in these difficult times. Because of the Coronavirus, we are without the freedom to do just about anything that normally we would do without even thinking about. Even a simple thing like a trip to the grocery store requires planning to make sure that we have the essentials like a face mask and sanitizer and remembering to keep the required distance from other shoppers as we walk around the store. Prior to that, I wipe down the handles on the cart with the sanitizing material that the store provides in the blind hope that the person that previously used the cart wasn’t contagious.

To be fair to the store, in this case the HEB Grocery chain which is very predominant here in Texas, has done everything it can to help allay the spreading of this virus. Staff are all fitted with face masks, carts are sanitized, anywhere there may be a line is marked with social distancing on the floor, plexiglass screen are installed at the check out stands and constant reminders are broadcast over the tannoy system. I choose to use an older HEB located at Oak Hill as it is not anywhere near as crowded as the other, more modern stores around me and I can purchase pretty much the same things. at least that I need.

On the home front, I have started to dismantle the small pond that I plan on filling in. So far, I have removed the 100 gallon Skippy filter along with the plumbing and am currently working on moving rocks to where the many dogs have their final sleeping place. There are at least twelve dogs and a couple of cats buried there and by adding more rocks to their cairn, hopefully new property owners down the road will be discouraged from digging in that spot. This work will carry on until I get all of the rocks moved and the pond backfilled. Incidentally, the fish that used to live in this pond must have spawned before I captured them and moved them to the other ponds as there are at least twenty baby Goldfish and Koi all between two and four inches in length. Before I finally fill in the pond, I will catch them and probably give them away as I already have nearly forty, six to eight inch Baby KOi in the 5000 gallon pond.

We had a new and different snake hanging around the other day. Usually there is the four foot Brown Water snake that hangs out mostly in the goldfish pond helping himself to the occasional goldfish and living a very fat and prosperous life from his point of view. It has a buddy that is about half its size which also hangs out in the same area, another Brown Water snake. May even be one of it’s babies for all I know. Then a couple of days ago, I spotted a Coral snake but didn’t have time to assess if it was of the poisonous variety before it disappeared and then yesterday, as I was working on the small pond, I spotted a very long, well over four feet Garter Snake just cruising around. I have never seen so many snakes in all of the years that I have lived in this house. Except for the Rattlesnake that bit and killed Richie a few years back, I have never seen any of the poisonous variety and even then I didn’t see that one as I was in too big a hurry to get Richie to the Vets. The Coral snake may well have been poisonous but I didn’t have time to assess the colors…red on yellow etc.

Finally, I got some news about the RV that I have on order. Originally, it was supposed to be here at the end of September so yesterday, I called my Sales Rep to see if he had any news. He got back to me tell me that they haven’t even started work on building it yet due to the fact that parts are in short supply apparently world wide and the best he could get out of the manufacturers was they might start work on it in December….maybe. Definitely not the news I wanted to hear. So now it is sit back and wait. I told my sales Rep that if he could find me anything else, to go ahead but I am not holding my breath as RV’s are in very short supply with the demand far exceeding the supply. On the plus side of that news is that it gives me more time to finish the work out in the yard on the ponds and deck prior to eventually selling the property. Maybe by the time that I hit the open road full time, this Coronavirus will be under control. In the meantime, it’s back to working in the yard, visiting the grocery store and walking the dogs…

Written 10/17/2020