Thursday 8/13/2020
By the time I finished the 7:30 aerobics, showered and dressed, it was time to start walking to meet Harriet for coffee at Midtown, and to return a book she loaned me weeks ago. What with that 3-mile round trip and other activity, I see that I now have 4.6 miles on the day. Which understates it, because the times I have remembered to have the phone in the pocket of my shorts during the aerobics class, it has registered almost half a mile in that half hour. So, a 5-mile day. I am impressed with myself.
On return I addressed two open issues with volunteer coordination: the newspaper delivery and trash pickup. For the newspapers, I only have four names, and I expect that is not enough to cover a demanding, 7-day 5:30am round. Of course we could do fewer than 7 days. But key is to know what the job actually entails. I lucked into info on this. One of the four is Selma, who is in a way an oddity: she has no computer (other than in iPhone) and doesn’t do email. I have not yet learned whether that is a philosophical stance or what. Anyway, I had to call her up to chat and she said she likes to be up by 5am, and had talked to the staff person who does the newspaper round. We agreed that tomorrow she will shadow that person on their complete round, and report back on how it’s done and long it takes, etc.
I went down to the lobby at 12 to make sure the meal delivery was alright, there was one newbie to orient. While there I talked to Marcia, who is charging ahead organizing the gardening volunteers. She has scheduled Facilities Manager Chris B (there are two managers, both named Chris, but this is Chris B not Chris H) to meet with the garden volunteers on Sunday (Chris B works Wed-Sun, overlapping Chris H), to learn where the gardening tools are kept, and what he wants them to do and to avoid.
Well, Chris B is also the keeper of the trash pickup tools, and I happened to be standing there when he came by to pick up his lunch tray, so I was able to arrange with him to orient the trash volunteers on Sunday afternoon.
So that was those two categories settled for now. One of the lunch volunteers was late, but did arrive and I showed him the ropes and sent him off with a cart. With the lunch delivery in full operation I could return to my room and wait for my lunch. After lunch I had a short nap and then set to work on cleaning the unit. Change the bed, wipe down the bathroom, sweep and swiff and vacuum.
Which almost brought us to dinner time. I went down again and fortunate that I did, as the first cart came out of the kitchen early, at 5:05 instead of 5:15. I took it around, and by the time I got back, the other vols were there, so I could retire again and put my feet up. Thus, a 5-mile day.
Maybe I’ll watch one of those movies that have stacked up.
Codgerville 