Monday, March 19

Today is the last day of winter, though the weather has been spring-like for several weeks now. The crocus and daffodils have come and gone. The Bradford pear trees are going green. The tulips and azalea bushes are in bloom. Gnats are flying, and other bugs are waking up.

We were up at 6:30 this morning, so I could get ready to go to water aerobics. It was a nice, mild morning for the walk from the parking lot to the gym. The pool wasn't as warm as it was last Wednesday, but it was pleasant once I was in it a few minutes.

One of the ladies brought an unusual "show and tell" item today...a jar containing two huge live black beetles. She said there is a beetle invasion that is killing red oak trees in our state. In researching online, I can find nothing to verify this. But the beetles certainly looked intimidating at about an inch and half long. The lady said she'd seen some three times that size. Gad.

We learned today that the only male member of our aerobics group came through his heart valve surgery last week just fine, but is still in the hospital. We were relieved to hear that he's on the mend. It'll be several months, though, before he can return to aerobics.

When we returned to aerobics last week, after the college had closed for spring break, we saw that one of the glass doors to the pool area had been broken. Apparently, someone, or several someones, had decided to go for a swim, and didn't let something as trifling as a locked glass door stop them. Today, in the middle of our session, two guys replaced the glass, making all sorts of racket in the process.
Guess there was no other time of the day when they could have done the job.

Back home, once I was ready for the day, I tried on the new pair of white slacks I bought recently to see what I'll need to do to shorten them. They are several inches too long, so it'll be a chore to cut and hem them. I couldn't face the task today, but I must get to it tomorrow.

Hubbie spent his morning with other Master Gardeners digging plants for the plant sale in April.

Mother stayed home this morning, but Hubbie accompanied her to our house after lunch, where she and I watched a performance of "Phantom of the Opera," from PBS, while Hubbie worked in the yard. He's trying to get everything in shape before predicted rains come in this week.

He wanted me to go out and look at various flowers, and after Mother and I had finished our movie, and then prepared chicken for the oven, I grabbed my camera and went outside. Later, I uploaded some of the pics to my social network page.

Mother spent her time before supper working on her jigsaw puzzle. The chicken, baked with olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, rosemary, no-salt seasoning, pepper, paprika, and a little chicken broth, was good, served with rice and chicken broth gravy, steamed California mix veggies, and biscuits left over from the beef roast meal.

After supper, I accompanied Mother back to her house, and then Hubbie and I watched TV, including the season premiere of "Dancing With the Stars."