Daily Notes- Cloudy with good chance of rain

 My exploration of the Use By Dates on canned goods.  Open to Interpretation.  Rather than judge the contents by date alone- we should notice the exterior of the can first.  Dents, discoloration, bulging etc.  Then opening the can and noticing the contents for color, odor and appearance. Bubbling is a bad thing.

Anyway, back to the cans.  My red kidney beans -three cans- were in good shape.  When opened and dumped into a colander to be rinsed (I never use the thick liquids) they looked perfectly okay.  They tasted like kidney beans.

So I made vegetarian chili. Carrot, onion, spices, beans, canned tomato soup (with it's own expired date and inspection) and it cooked and looked okay.  But....so I cooked some small macaroni and added it to the pot.  Chili Mac.  Needed cheese when I dished it up.  I didn't die.  so...all good.

No reading.  I needed a period to ...... not get over the book I just read- but let go of it.  I get involved. And then there is separation from the characters and often...I don't do well with that. I miss them.  Which is why I re-read so many books.  Just to be with them again.  And..I don't know which book to read next. I stand and shuffle thru them but can't make up my mind.  So then..I go visit the Magic Attic and shuffle thru things up there.  Paper.  Paper is sort of on my mind.  Drawing. Painting.  Faint noise..not pressing yet.

And television is a dead loss these days.  Netflix--- I miss it.  Or do a few trial weeks on several platforms. See what I may be missing. Anyway.  It's Saturday and I have six fresh new tubs of dark chocolate caramels from Trader Joe's to medicate myself with...  Daughter and George drove down to Portland on Friday.  She said it was very scary driving with George.  She said she kept thinking of my reaction to George's driving.  Like SCREAMING!!!!! but I certainly would have opened windows.

Another day of RISING COVID cases here in Maine. And rising hospitalizations at the large hospital where husband and I got our vaccine.  Maine has one of the highest percentages of vaccinated people.  Dr Shah is on local TV every single day talking about COVID vaccine. At some point the vaccinated and the population of non-vaccine people will collide.  Perhaps it's already happening.  We still aren't back to normal. Not even close.  Nearly 600 new cases per day.  Every day.  In this small state with 1.2 million souls.   Nearly all cases are under age of 30.  Children.  On respirators.

If old people alone in ICU on a respirator made you cry-- think about a child or teen in ICU. Fighting to breathe.  Get a shot.  Wear a mask.  Stay home.