1.209 apricots, visiting, model

Saturday 6/27/2020

Per the elevator sign (the day’s events as posted in the elevators and also emailed every night), the garage will be open for returning cars this afternoon. So as I stood looking out at a lovely morning I was thinking, oh, where could I go in the car? I was also looking at my plants and thinking how I want to get some larger fuchsia plants (and dang is that a hard word to spell). And that led to thinking how I really would like to find some larger, good-looking, flowerpots. Well, clearly a visit to a nursery was in order.

First, though, I remembered that Saturday is Farmer’s Market day in downtown Palo Alto, and that is a permitted activity, so I put on my mask and a Panama hat and took my shopping bag and went off there. And to my delight, I found Blenheim apricots were in season. The market is in COVID mode now, meaning there are no tasting samples, and you are no longer allowed to touch the wares. You have to stand back of a tape and ask the vendor to bag it up for you. So I ended up with a couple of pounds of apricots because that was what the vendor put in the bag. Oh well; there was a fair mix of ripe ones and green ones, so I can get them all et before they rot.

Back at the apartment I put my ‘cots away except for about three of the ripest which I ate because they needed eating. Then I thought, if I’m going to get the car out, I should go visit Jean, and I can take her some apricots too. So I did that: drove down to Mountain View and socialized with sister in law Jean for a while. She’s doing fine; healthy and a bit bored but like me, she really doesn’t need a lot of society, and she reports several local or church people stop by often.

Then back up El Camino and San Antonio to Summerwinds nursery. No fuchsias. No nice pots. Jean had suggested the Allied Arts place in Menlo Park where there might be artisanal pottery. It was still early so I drove up there — and let me just say how very enjoyable it is to just drive around freely in my car like old times. But Allied Arts doesn’t seem to have anywhere near as much artisanry as it used to. I’ve not been there in lots of years, but I remember it as having quite a few little artist shops. Now, practically none. There was a wedding party, lots of people in sharp clothes with masks on. But no nice pots.

Back home I had lunch, then went out and moved the car from the street into the garage during the 1:30-2pm open hours. I worked a bit on the car model. The clear plastic windscreen does not fit well. I tortured it a bit and made it work. I’m not at all happy with the paint job. I experimented with brushing on the clear acrylic on some scrap parts and left them to dry.

Got an email: they are reviving the “first monday book talk” series, now on Zoom. Back in January I was scheduled to discuss my To Thrive Beyond Belief in this series in April, but the virus killed the series. So now it looks like I will be doing it by Zoom a week from Monday. I have a week to remember what I had planned to say.

Now to watch a movie.