Nature, work, and COVID

Our baby wrens have hatched!  I know this only because I see the parents (whom I've named Jenny and Ryan), hauling food in there constantly, and every time they appear at the entrance hole, the babies go wild in there.  I wish I could see them, but it's completely dark inside, and the nest is built way up to the top.  I look forward to seeing them when they emerge, but for now, I enjoy listening to their incessant screaming.

I harvested my first tomato of the season a few days ago.  It was big and beautiful, and I sliced it up and gave it to Noah, because he loves tomatoes more than anyone else.  

There are LOTS more green ones on the way, but none of them are anywhere near ripe yet. 

Shiloh scratched off her big, disgusting, fur-encrusted scab and left it on Mike's chair.  Her wound is looking much better, but still has lots of healing to do.  She seems to feel somewhat better, but is more skittish than ever, and is still not acting quite like her old self.

This week, the company that I work for made some changes, and my job is much easier as a result, and I'm making double the money I usually do.  They're using computer-generated scripts, so instead of all the typing I used to have to do, now I just have to edit what's already done.  It's still a lot of work, because the computer doesn't understand grammar, singing, heavy accents, or line breaks, but I sure appreciate being saved all that typing.  Now I'm doing longer videos and enjoying the variety of interesting topics. 

On the COVID front, my mom and dad got tested last week (which doesn't make sense to me, since they have no symptoms and hardly go anywhere).  Dad's results came back negative, and Mom's haven't come back yet.  

But for the first time, someone I'm personally acquainted with has tested positive.  She recently moved to Florida, had their dream home built, lost her job because of COVID, had to sell the house and move to a smaller house, and now her whole family has COVID. 

Here's the latest from the library:

Even when this wicked virus is finally gone (will it ever be gone?), I doubt things will ever go back to the way they used to be.

I've witnessed some strange human behavior with masks, like people alone in their own cars wearing a mask (why?), someone wearing a mask in the pool, or wearing their mask pulled down around their neck (what's the point?), but I saw one today that takes the cake.  A guy was trying to wear a mask and smoke a cigarette at the same time.  He's more likely to set his face on fire than get the virus.