Random 5 for April 18, 2021 – Dining out, socialization, projects, walking trails, risk averse

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This was my favorite photo from this week. I captured Gracie sleeping with the beloved husband. It’s rare but it happens.

Dining – This week we met friends for breakfast. It was our first time since the pandemic started. I was leery but the very few diners (we went at the crack of dawn) were spaced very far apart. I felt safe but I would not have done that without the vaccine. My craving for pancakes has been sated.

Adjustments – I have never been good at lingering at the table after a meal but I am much worse now. Don’t know why but it just is. I have a 90 minute butt and that’s all it can take sitting in one spot. All these months of no socialization (the beloved husband doesn’t count because he doesn’t talk much) have taken their toll. I thought I’d get overly chatty but it seems the opposite. I still enjoyed the company. That too has been sated.

Scope creep – This is a real thing. It happens on everything I touch. It’s like painting a wall and realizing that made everything else look dingy. I’ve decided to repaint the staircase trim so it’s not a blazing bright white. You won’t need sunglasses to look at it anymore but staircase trim is not my favorite project. It’s not like a wall which you do in large swaths. This is done with a tiny trim brush! Maybe I should get therapy. Do they have sessions for people prone to scope creep? Is this considered a medical condition?

Teasing – The weather has been odd. Some days really nice and some really cold. On the nice days, I have things scheduled so I can’t enjoy the great outdoors. I still haven’t investigated the local trails. My sneaks are itching to go.

Weird things – I would never jump out of my car and keep it running to go into a store even for a short errand. I find that people do that at Starbucks all the time. Sometimes they are gone longer than a few minutes. It may be low risk for theft but I wouldn’t do it would you?

So how was your week?

 

58 thoughts on “Random 5 for April 18, 2021 – Dining out, socialization, projects, walking trails, risk averse”

    • The photo is great. It was around 10 p.m. and both were fast asleep. It’s not only SoCal. I wouldn’t do it here either. We had our first senseless killing (although most are senseless) here. Some guy randomly killed people at a gas station. Anger and guns do not mix.

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  3. The original weighted blanket was a cat.
    I am so ready to have lunch somewhere that is not the house. All those times laughing with friends on the busy patio of a comfortable Greek restaurant or neighborhood Italian place loved for years – all that seems like a dream.
    A nightmare to me is painting trim work and tiny brush work – I’ll do big highways – even managed ceilings in the past – but tiny brushwork? Just hate it.
    Only a fool here leaves cars running;/keys in car. It’s the monster filled city. Those moms who leave purses or worse, kids in the cars while they run into for coffee, pay for gas, or drop an older child off at preschool – at least once a week there’s a story on the news with tearful eyes. The world isn’t what it used to be ( but even as a kid, Dad said it was best not to tempt people: lock the car every time.

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    • I realize when a toddler is peacefully sleeping, you just want to run in and not wake them up but it’s dangerous. We have a lot of those stories too. The good ones end with the toddler sitting on the sidewalk a few blocks away when the thief realizes they had a passenger.

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  5. People keep their cars running while they go inside somewhere to buy something? I’ve not seen that but think it’s weird behavior. How long does it take to start up a car again? Why would anyone do this? I’m flummoxed.

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    • I’m flummoxed too. It’s literally seconds and you can sometimes get stuck in SB because they don’t have your order ready. I was raised in a rural area and we didn’t do this. Nor did my dad keep his beer in an unlocked garage for the local teenage boys to get into.

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    • Here it seems like people who are very busy or far too comfortable and not aware of life in the big city. We have “sliders”. That’s when you pull in to a gas station and get out to get gas/pay at the pump ’cause it’s safer, but as you get out of the car on the left, another car pulls up by the passenger door, a slider gets out (or reaches across through your open window) and grabs purses on your passenger seat – or actually jumps in…maybe drives off in your car if keys are there. Always hard when a kid is strapped in the back – the parent often tries to grab the car door or jump on the hood to stop that, but ends up getting hurt. Usually the kid is dropped off somewhere. Life isn’t fun anymore ( and far too many people are texting and not aware of surroundings…)

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  6. I absolutely hate lingering at the table after the meal! As well as it being quite uncomfortable – dining chairs are designed for us to just eat and go – it’s pointless if no more food is coming! 🤣 Cat Daddy’s family are real ones for extended lunches and dinners. We’ve been known to sit at the table with them for 3+ hours, but luckily he has started to read my fidgety signals …

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    • Some of my husbands old friends can sit for 3 hours easily. I did it once. I was being polite (I know hard to believe!). After that experience I get up after 90 minutes and announce I’m ready to go. Don’t care if it seems rude. Butt can’t take it and I have yet to sit on a chair in a restaurant that is so comfortable I wanted to stay.

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  7. Very cute picture! So glad you got to get out for breakfast with friends – what a treat! I am also prone to scope creep, but my DH usually manages to talk me down 🙂 No, I would absolutely not leave my car running while I went in someplace.

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  8. I would NEVER leave my car running. But I’ve always lived in the big city. My Ex-Stepmother in small town NH leaves her keys in her car at night.

    We went out for sushi this weekend. First time in 14 months. it was soooo good. It’s a small place, but they had limited seating. Just two other patrons.

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    • That is limited seating. It must have been like being at someone’s house. My last neighborhood was relatively safe. Two doors up some young people (30 somethings) moved in. She left her purse in her unlocked car parked on the street overnight (they have a 3 car garage). Her purse was on our lawn the next morning. It was a fluke but it happens. People cruising looking for opportunity. I worked in our local big city so I’m just like a New Yorker. Don’t trust anyone! Purse tucked in armpit and around neck. Always checking surroundings and this was back before it was a thing to do.

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  9. Oh! Eating out for pancakes! That sounds wonderful. We ate out for lunch on Friday, a delicious lentil soup, cheese and cold cuts. It was on our trip to see the tulip fields. A safe spot, out behind the little cafe, along the canal, eating at picnic tables.

    Our weather has been strange too–sunny skies all week and warmer than usual.

    No, I would not leave my car running to go into Starbucks.

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  13. Great picture! I have gone out to eat a few times. The places weren’t crowded, and when the weather got warmer, we sat outside. I used to paint but these days being on a ladder seems unsafe so, now I hire a painter. As for my week…it was normal or what passes for normal in my world. 😼

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  14. I keep looking at that picture of the Beloved and jealous of how he can sleep with two pillows! Every time I try that I get a neck pain. 🙂 Congrats on making it back to a restaurant. I’m still too skittish, but I sure we might do that by summertime anyway. Leaving a car running without my being in it? Never! – Marty

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  16. As someone who works for the police department and gets hundred of BOL’s on stolen car left running each month…don’t do it! Criminals look for opportunity. Don’t make it easy for them. This should be Driver’s Ed 101. Great photo!

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  19. Off and locked when doing errands, anytime really except when she is in the garage. I would never risk Olive getting stolen 🙂 “Awww” from me for your picture today. We haven’t done inside dining since last March and I don’t see it happening anytime soon… too peopley here in the land of vacationers.

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    • I would agree with you. We went at an ungodly hour and there were very few people there. Our friends were at a different restaurant earlier in the week and said it was jammed. They didn’t feel safe and won’t go there again.

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  20. I lock my car any time it’s out of my garage. Just something my Dad told me when I first learned to drive – one of the few things I absorbed from that experience. HAHA I have noticed that I am actually becoming comfortable with being at home and NOT being out and about as much as I used to be since the pandemic. I’m not sure how I’ll handle being in a restaurant again but I’m sure by the second time I go, I’ll be more comfortable with it. We already have plans in place to fly to Maine in October for our “missed” annual vacation there so I guess I’d better loosen up on that “getting out and about” stuff!!! Happy painting – I honestly don’t have the patience for it. Funny I say that yet I was an active artist 20-30 years ago. Of course painting a canvas and painting a wall are (at least for me) two different things!!!!!

    Hugs, Pam

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