Still Readin', Just Not Many Pages; Still Eatin', Just ALWAYS Food Cooked By Moi

     . . . . We continue to read books, meaning books that are not pixilated, but have covers, often with footnotes, indices, appendices, Forwards and Afterwards, with lavish or not illustrations, glossaries, maps, and even graphs and family trees.  History is like that.

But there isn't much time to read generally, because by my usual reading time of the day, we are thinking fondly of shutting off the lights and sleep.  We do a few pages or two of our personal reading, and then default to the reading aloud for a few more pages.  Light are out soon, sometimes after only a few paragraphs or pages.

So we continue so happily with the Diaries of John Quincy Adams.  We are up to 1825, the jiggering with Great Britain and the Holy Alliance.  This is the period in which JQ, while sparring with UK Foreign Minister, George Canning, will essentially guide and prod President Monroe into what becomes the Monroe Doctrine.  As JQ had sparred with Canning many times before, during periods of personal / official contact, and doesn't like Canning at all, as he's a blustering sob, rather like Senator John Clay (who is currently on hiatus to make money to pay of horrendous accumulated personal debt -- none of these guys were any good with money, and that includes JQ). JQ's adamant policy was that in this hemisphere the United States was The Power, the leader, the arbiter, and the UK had to follow, rather than being director of policy and actions with Europe in Latin America that Canning was assuming. 

Particularly for us, as the Monroe Doctrine was strongly about Spain wanting back her colonies in spite of revolutionary era independent Latin America, this is particularly of interest to us.  Plus we get such a delight out JQ's daily reports of his 'bath' in the Potomac, which got quite dangerous around now, due to higher water levels and stronger tides.

The jostling and competition for the nomination for POTUS to follow Monroe was already in play.  There is quite a bit about Florida and Andrew Jackson too.  At this period JQ remains still a strong supporter and admirer of Jackson.  And long before this time, and during this time he demonstrates his prescience the slaveocracy would divide and destroy -- via war -- these United States.

     . . . . What am I reading, or trying to read, personally?  Still locked in with The Perfect King: The Life of Edward II Father of the English Nation (2006). He has managed to get rid of Mortimer, become king in his own right, not a boyish figurehead, and be at war with the Scots.  It's early in the 1330's still.

Continuing too, with Herbert Hoover (2009) by William E. Leuchtenburg, in the Times Books Presidential Series. Learning a whole lot to fill in these, for me, blank decades in the history of the US. What a quite horrible person was Hoover, But Lordessa, was he an effective organizer on vast scales, from feeding Europe and Russia after WWI, to pulling a good third of the country together during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927-1928. Which was how he got to be POTUS, and the very worst one we could have skippering the ship of state in 1930.

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   . . . . We strive to keep as much to our normal schedule from Before as we can.  It helps immensely having the Zoom History of Cuban Music course twice a week, and the once a week faculty cocktail party.  But Zoom is awful for parties, because only person can talk at at time.  At parties there are all kinds of conversations going on at once, that's why they are parties.  Sigh.

Today's normal was the usual 7 or so AM wake-up (for me -- el V will always sleep later if possible; plus I am sleeping much better now, possessed of masks, gloves and not having to Go Out Where The People Are for a while). 

Got half of the accumulated laundry together as first task of the day. Laundering is more time-consuming and difficult than one might think, because of all the steps involved from "suiting up",  disinfecting and so on, which has to be accomplished every time one goes to the laundry room, plus then the disinfecting and washing when returning between washer and dryer loads -- or even to pick up mail. Beyond that, one wishes to pick a time when the other tenants seem more quiet, not running up and down the stairs, making sure nobody else is down in the laundry facilities, and so on.

At the same time we entered for the first time the thickets of ordering groceries online for home delivery.  I'd been declared the Greatest Goddess of the Hearth who ever lived, as we ran out of milk -- producing already thawed a quart of nonfat that I'd put in the freezer some weeks ago (still better than Parmalat, of which we have 3 quarts too).  We are going through milk much faster than Before, with el V home all the time, making coffee here all the time, and so on. We were also hoping not to do Morton Williams this week due to the massive number of deaths and infections online for this week, and April generally, but particularly last week and this one -- and nobody has a clue as to how many are positive, are sick, seriously sick, dying, dead, at all, as we still have no testing, and the medical people are still without PPE and supplies.

However the more pricey and specialty Gourmet Garage does local deliveries with its own people, not a service.  So we put in an order, which should arrive tonight between 5 and 7 (Wine Wednesday, o o).  It's pricey for delivery, and then we tip very good the person who brings it. But it is so worth it for us at this time, in easing stress, blood pressure (mine, according to the home testing machine, is still in the lower-healthy range), and keeping Isolation and Distance.

Goddessadamnit we are privileged.

Ha! the order is being delivered right this minute!

So, now the items have been disinfected.  We have washed and washed ourselves, and put things away. It's nearly time already to start thinking about what to do for dinner.

Only two items they didn't have.  But now we possess again, yellow corn tortillas!  With ample rice and beans on hand, and until we eat it or it goes bad, now we can always eat well.  Ya, boy, howdy, are we every lucky and privileged.  But we're looking at living like this very likely at least until September . . . .