Embroidery Stars (Carrie Elkin)

Well, the best part of Feel Good Friday (today!) is that the condo complex pools reopened this past Monday, and I enjoyed it thoroughly yesterday afternoon, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., swimming/exercising in the water, sunning, reading.  I was the only one down there for the first hour, then my husband joined me, then another couple came, and sat at the opposite end of the patio. It had been a month, and I will never take the privilege for granted again.  Delightful!  Limitations (completely understood) are:

Pool decks and pools are to be used only by Hollybrook residents. The number of people allowed in the pool at one time must be 50 percent of normal capacity, which comes to 12 residents allowed on the pool deck at any time; only 6 residents in the swimming pool at any time. Everyone at the pools, unless they are residents of the same household, must follow the CDC's 6-foot social distancing requirement. 

Swimming sessions at each pool are: 
9 a.m. - noon
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Every hour in between will be used to sanitize pool furniture and equipment.


So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy your weekend!  According to my Weatherbug app, we are in for seven straight days of rain, starting Saturday, so I will head down to the pool again later today...  :-)


~ Another livestreamed concert with Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin:  Saturday (tomorrow!), May 9th at 2 p.m. CDT (that's 8 p.m. in the UK). Mark your calendars and come join in the festivities. The first one we did was a really lovely gathering of our community, and it felt really good to "be" with everyone in this way. Let's do it again!


~ View From My Window:  Facebook group offers 'window views' for millions during COVID-19.  While a global pandemic forces most of us to stay at home, the Facebook group View from My Window allows millions of its members to virtually travel the world. (SusanP sent the link to NancyW, who told me about it.  Thanks, friends!)


~ Mattel launches action figure line to honor and support coronavirus frontline workers:  Toy maker Mattel is “playing it forward” to coronavirus frontline workers with a new line of action figures and Little People Community Champions.  The #ThankYouHeroes collection features 16 action figures including nurses, doctors, emergency medical technicians and delivery drivers, the release said. The five-piece Little People set includes a nurse, doctor, EMT, delivery driver and grocery store worker.


~ Special occasion in quarantine? This party truck has a ‘drive-by happiness experience’:  Zombie Ice has created “A Drive By Bday Experience.”  “Bummed because your plans were put on hold by the lockdown!?” reads the ad on its Facebook page. “We can bring back a bit of joy to your day and make it safe for everyone!”  The $45 experience includes six shaved ices, a video with pictures clients send of the child; festive snow shooting from the professionally sanitized truck for the partygoers to play in. There’s even a boomerang photo booth. Touch-free, of course.


~ COVID-19 forces 5 South Florida LGBTQ pride festivals to create a ‘Virtual Pride’ event:  In 2019, hundreds of thousands of celebrants packed five LGBTQ pride celebrations from Lake Worth Beach to Calle Ocho.  This year, though, the coronavirus struck just before South Florida’s pride season got underway — forcing cancellation or postponement of four major festivals, including the region’s two biggest in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale.  In a moment of camaraderie that has surprised the organizers themselves of the five nonprofit pride festivals, they have formed a collective that will present an online “Virtual Pride” festival Saturday and Sunday. 



SONG:  Embroidery Stars by Carrie Elkin

BOOK:  Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling

POEM:  Around Us by Marvin Bell

We need some pines to assuage the darkness
when it blankets the mind,
we need a silvery stream that banks as smoothly
as a plane's wing, and a worn bed of
needles to pad the rumble that fills the mind,
and a blur or two of a wild thing
that sees and is not seen. We need these things
between appointments, after work,
and, if we keep them, then someone someday
lying down after a walk
and supper, with the fire hole wet down,
the whole night sky set a particular
time, without numbers or hours, will cause
a little sound of thanks--a zipper or a snap--
to close round the moment and the thought
of whatever good we did.

QUOTE:  "To live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else." ~ Emily Dickinson