Five Things Friday: just five things I’m thinking about or things that made my week, or things that I otherwise feel like sharing.
Phew, what a week. Tr*mp was convicted of sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll and the next day, CNN allows him to spew lies and nastiness for an hour in a live town hall on their national television platform. And the audience – mostly Tr*mp supporters – laughs and applauds him for the unchecked lies and nastiness. A Tr*ump rally on a major national US news outlet. It’s truly unreal!
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On a more uplifting, palate-cleansing note, we noticed that we have a pair of finches nesting in our backyard. Even though they’re apparently native to the Western US, I have never seen finches in our yard. They’re pretty – well, as often in the animal world, especially the male with a reddish head and chest – and they sing beautifully. They just showed up recently in our yard and it looks like they’ve built a little nest under the roof eave by our patio. I hope they’re going to be some babies soon!
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I am happy to report that my second round with Covid was a very mild and very short affair. I felt physically fine the whole time and only had mild cold symptoms for maybe 5-6 days. I only tested out of precaution because I was supposed to go into the office (on Wednesday of last week). That was “day 3” after my symptoms had started and I already tested negative again 4 days later (on Sunday). So overall, it was a short stint and I am so very thankful that I was through with it so quickly.
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Guess what? I felt an earthquake again yesterday. Cue the excitement! The last time was two years ago. Yesterday afternoon, there was an M5.5 earthquake near Lake Almanor in Northern California, 160 miles to the north of here. I was talking to Jon when it happened. I heard the door creak, then felt a slight vibration in my office chair. Then I looked up and saw that the hanging baskets in the kitchen had started to sway back and forth. I pointed it out to Jon and said: earthquake! He hadn’t felt a thing. Two minutes later, I received the earthquake alert via email. My nerdy little heart was so thrilled. I immediately went online to report that I had felt it.
As you can see on the shake map, the seismic waves were pretty mild down here, but it was apparently felt all the way in the Bay area.
Don’t worry, we’re ok. We live in a part of California, where earthquakes are possible, but with no major faults nearby. While there are many earthquakes in California every day, they’re hardly ever felt – even locally – because they’re relatively small in magnitude. It’s very rare that we actually feel something here in Sacramento. We usually only feel any shaking when the earthquake is a larger event (M5+), like the one yesterday.
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Kitchen tile update! Thank you for all your kind, empathetic comments on my last post. It seems like you’re all invested in the outcome of this now. So, I voiced my concern to the landlords on Wednesday about the handyman doing the work in our kitchen. (Yay me!) They responded that the guy was out (thank goodness!) and that they’ll be sourcing the tiles themselves. I am not sure yet what that means in terms of who’s going to do the labor. They came by today with a sample tile that they got at the home improvement store to see if it matched our tile (it did not). I refrained from pointing out that, if they only want to replace broken tiles, this should probably have been the first step before giving the job to someone. Oh well. The landlords said that they would keep looking for matching tiles (and asked me to look, too) and mumbled on the way out that if they can’t find matching tiles they’d have to think of something else. I wonder what that could be.
Now tell me, was your week as eventful as mine?
Elisabeth
May 12, 2023 at 6:28 amThe thought of an earthquake TERRIFIES me. I shuddered when you talked about your experience because it freaks me out! (Weather in general scares me; giant storm surges, hurricanes etc – it’s incredible how devastating natural disasters can be)!
I’m really, really, really hoping you have a wonderful follow-up to the tile story and you are able to source perfect matches or – better yet – they replace the whole floor!!!
My week was bizarre. I went in last Friday to have a traditional Lasik procedure for my eyes, but ended up learning day-of I wasn’t eligible and opted for the only option available to me (PRK). The pain was pretty intense for a few days and basically, the last week consisted of being in dark rooms most of the time. Thankfully the pain is 100% gone now (about a week post-op), but my vision is very blurry. This is normal, but still VERY hard to wrap your head around – especially since I can’t put on glasses to make things clear so I’m literally walking around not being able to see properly which is weird (and a bit scary, if I’m being honest)!!! So…yeah, it was quite an unusual week for me, too!!
Melissa Stebbins
May 12, 2023 at 7:10 pmMy week was mainly taken up with normal household activities and work, but I did get a really good run in that made me more hopeful for my race coming up.
So glad to hear you are over your bout with COVID already.
Hopefully the landlord will quickly realise they can’t get matching tiles and decide to redo the floor properly. Fingers crossed!
Nicole MacPherson
May 13, 2023 at 8:02 amOh San, my week was very eventful. I went to my parents’ for my mom’s 70th, drove home early the next morning to take my son for dental surgery, which ended up being much more complicated than expected, and…I don’t know what else. Oh! New students in yoga, still no heat in the yoga class…
Ally Bean
May 13, 2023 at 9:49 amI’m with you, CNN was crazy wrong to feature tRump. Talk about a circus.
I’m glad your Covid experience was not too awful. I’m sorry you got it, of course.
I’m invested in your tile saga. I await the next installment.
Happy Weekend!
Ally Bean
May 13, 2023 at 9:56 amAlso, I follow you on Feedly and it says that your blog is “unreachable.” I came here directly, using a link to you from a comment you left on my blog. Don’t know what to make of Feedly’s message, but thought you should know something isn’t working correctly.
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
May 23, 2023 at 12:52 pmA number of posts showed up in Feedly today so now I am playing catch up! The week you wrote this post I was in Denver for work so that was the excitement of the week for me! I had a good trip although it was terribly rainy!!
Anne
June 7, 2023 at 4:18 pmSan, you and I would have a field day talking politics, I can tell. That was my reaction, exactly. Thank you for having the courage to voice it and share it here. I have very, um, strong political opinions so tend to hold off on the blog. Now I know, though, that I have a kindred spirit in you. :)
Dude. They just need to replace the whole. dang. floor. Wake up, landlords… Sigh. (Times when renting isn’t that great, unfortunately…)
San
June 7, 2023 at 8:24 pmOh, Anne, we’re definitely kindred spirits in many ways, I think :)
Tobia | craftaliciousme
June 11, 2023 at 6:53 amSo you felt an earthquake… While I find it exciting and somewhat want to. have that experience (a mildoneobviously) I really don’t wish for it. Glad it was only a minor one. How exciting that finches are nesting at. your yard.Having wild life so close is fun.