Thursday 4/2/2020
Another day of, basically, waiting around for the market to call with the grocery order. About 10am I was bored and went for a walk.
Yesterday I mailed to the CH writers’ group that I would like to find some beta readers for my novel. One person, Susan, came right back with the email of a grandson, Declan, 14. I emailed him yesterday and this morning he wrote back enthusiastically, so I sent him the link to the book. He’s just on the upper edge of the target reader ages, but hey. I will get some feedback. A few more of those and (assuming reactions are not uniformly negative, in which case I’d just pitch it) it will be time to start querying agents.
Today was the day for cleaning my apartment, but we continue to not have housekeeping staff for that, so as usual I got a big plastic bag of fresh linens on my doorknob. So I made up the bed. The carpets really need vacuuming.
Later we got an email blast from CEO Rhonda:
in normal times, it is very difficult to hire Nursing Assistants. And, now, it is next to impossible… Several housekeepers have volunteered to join the Crisis Heroes Team as Nursing Assistants…
In taking on this role, these housekeepers are expanding their skills and contributing at a critical time to Channing House…One of the results of these reassignments will be fewer experienced housekeepers to do apartment cleaning. So, … We are requesting residents to join the resident DIY (Do It Yourself) Housekeeping Team. ,,,
we will provide a housekeeping kit which will include a vacuum cleaner that can do carpeted and hard surfaces, cleaning cloths, cleaning solution, and rubber gloves. These kits are for you to keep during this crisis. They are not to be shared with other residents
I volunteered right away. Later I heard there were 87 volunteers. I am sure CH doesn’t have 87 free vacuum cleaners… would they go out and buy them? Well, we’ll see.
In mid-afternoon I watched the National Theater production of One Man, Two Guv’ners. I put it on the big screen and it looked and sounded good. I’d seen a production of this at Palo Alto Players a couple of years ago, and in hindsight the local players were almost as good as the pros.
At 5:30 I called the market again, and it turned out my order had slipped through a crack somehow and “we’re working on it right now.” So Craig drove me down there in his red Prius and brought back three bags of stuff. I spent half an hour in the common dining room/kitchen area, wiping everything down with bleach solution and setting items out around the table with their order forms.
In the course of all this I missed the delivery of my supper. Rather than call and have it specially delivered, I treated myself to a delicious PB&J&cheese sandwich and some of the seedless grapes that came in my order.
Codgerville 