Timely Paste Art

Saw this pasted up in South Austin. They are quoting the governor of Texas. And maybe implying that he is sacrificing decreasing the spread for, um, money.

Day 42-Inside Day

I carefully got the papers in from the hallway and unwrapped and washed my hands. That will be the only outside contact for today save perhaps sitting on the balcony in the evening. And maybe a step or two outside earlier if opening the door doesn't warm up the apartment too much after the sun goes over the top. As we navigate the apartment this is one of the paintings we see in the living room. It is by Doug Whitfield. We have six paintings by him around our apartment.

Day 41-Clouds Have It

This is how the Frost Bank and clouds looked at the end of our daily 'sit outside and observe' moments.

Day 40-Pastimes

Our niece sent us this. I'm working on it while having a whiskey cocktail...a Manhattan on the rocks.

Day 39-Sunset Reflected

The sunset reflected on the Frost Bank Tower. I was going to show those three white immovable cars on the parking garage, but then this caught me eye.

Day 38-Partriotism

What do patriotism and our current situation have to do with one another? The residents of this condo seem to think that the flags show solidarity. But viruses are global with no respect for borders really. So it goes. I understand that we are going to stop immigration to solve the crisis. Forgetting that farmworkers, health care workers, and lots of essential underpaid foodservice and grocery workers are immigrants. I hope the out-of-work line up for these jobs. Puzzling.

Day 37-Inside with Our Stuff

This was taken a while back, but it shows one of a cool pair of bookends we have on the shelves surrounding our platform bed. I know it wasn't taken recently because there is no dust and it looks too neat! We continue to mostly stay inside. Provisions arrive at the door. We go to the lobby for mail and packages and lobby delivery occasionally. We venture out to the trash chute, down the elevator to our parking level (where we try to start our cars and take recycling). We drive around the neighborhood a bit. If we don't go to the lobby, we sometimes don't encounter another person. We wear masks and handle the doors and elevator buttons and such with a sanitary wipe. We come back and ditch our shoes at the door, wash our hands, put our clothes in the laundry, wash our hands again, etc. And so it goes. We know that we will eventually get it, but hope treatments and testing make the thing more knowable before it has a vaccine and we move through herd immunity (if it will exist for this) and vaccines and on to the next crisis. We are pretty resigned to not outliving the after-effects of this. But we are old. And we won't get all these books read before we die either.

Day 36-In a Fog

 

Woke up to a reasonably cool morning with drizzle and lots of fog. On the right, between the last two tall buildings shown, we can usually see Rainey Street buildings. People higher in our building and others were looking out into a cloud. Now the sun is shining out there and temps are headed to 90 degrees. I prefer it cool, even if foggy.

Day 35 - We Know It's Saturday

Even though we won't venture down there we can see the Saturday Farmer's Market. And we know what day it is! Also, our friend who lives on the 43rd floor did go down and dropped some farm fresh eggs at our door.

Day 34 - Inside

I'm cheating a little. I didn't post this on the 17th. Shut up in here, it's easy to forget to do things. This is a snap of some bookshelves in our office where there are a few books and some small collages by Laurie Frick. We are fans of her work. She is based here in Austin.

Day 33 - The View Again

Was sitting outside earlier. It's quite pleasant out there. Decided to put up a view picture again. Taken while sitting in my chair. Made sure to include the three white cars which, yes, do not move. The cranes in the picture, though. They do.

Day 32 - What's Inside

We are inside with a lot of books, art, and artifacts. This little painting cheers me up. It is by Jennifer Balkan who is a local artist we like very much.

Day 31--What's Inside

Enough with the views from the balcony, right? Inside our apartment are many shelves with books and knickknacks and little works of art. High on a shelf in the second bedroom (which we've turned into an office) are some old Eiffel Tower souvenirs and an ancient paperback and some literary magazines. During this confinement, I should be sorting through all this stuff. But instead, I'm trying to exercise by walking laps around the apartment just looking at the stuff. I took this one a while ago while dusting the shelves on my ladder.

Day 30

It's quite cool here today. I'd like to be sitting on the balcony but with the wind, it was a little uncomfortable earlier and we are all in shade now since we are east-facing. The peak on the shadow is, I believe the needle on our building. For those following along, yes, all three white cars are still there although only one is visible here.

Day 29

I actually took this day before yesterday. We can't see the sunset from our apartment. And therefore we can't see sunsets at all right now. But the sunset is sometimes reflected in our view.

Day 28, Half-Hearted

Actually, I'm using a picture I snapped last evening looking north from the balcony. A few days ago we noticed the set of windows lit up in the gray-striped building that formed a curve. Looking at other pictures from other vantage points, I realized that they have made a heart and we can only see half. It's the Wyndham Vacation Resort on Eighth Street, I think. I guess not too many people can vacation there. It's amazing what the restrictions on our views have caused.

Day 27 But Who is Counting?

Nothing much going on, but note the cranes keep moving. Progress for office space and such for people who may work from home forever or never work again?

Day 26

No big changes. Due a storm later, but didn't wait for interesting clouds.

Day 25

Promise to end this soon. Yes, the three white cars are still there. Yes, construction continues. It was very hot today (record 95 degrees) so I didn't open the blinds and snap this until late.

Day 24

View today.