Well, for one thing, Curtis and Anna have come to Marble Falls for a few days from Houston. They’ve both been working from home and wanted to look at some different walls. We enjoy it when they visit because it gives David and me a break from having only each other for company. Also, Anna loves to cook and we love to eat, so it works out great for everybody.

As for Sam and Julia, they’re in the UK, in Plymouth. Sam’s starting at Cambridge in the fall and he currently lacks clarity as to whether he’ll need to travel to the US and back in order to meet the visa requirements. Also, as of yet, they have no place to live in Cambridge and the current climate of social distancing makes home-hunting difficult. His time there will most likely mean a trip for us to the UK in the spring to cheer him on as he receives his MBA. More relevant and outstanding news is that Julia was recently interviewed by the BBC about the Chinese/American/UK cyber relationships. She was quite impressive.

Though David continues with his volunteer work, it’s been scaled back due to different circumstances. The community garden that funnels veggies through the Helping Center is winding down the summer crops and resting a while before prepping for the fall planting. His work for Habitat was stalled for about six months but is scheduled to begin a new project in September—though he and the rest of the crew have continued their weekly “union meetings” at the local brewery. Also, his involvement at the church has lessened simply because the Sunday worship services are now online. He received a Komodo Joe grill for his birthday—looks like a spaceship—which has prompted get-togethers on our back deck, wherein various friends come over and we all chow down on brisket and talk about how we’re all staying home and not seeing anyone, except when we’re not. As to this issue, it’s no exaggeration to say that every person I know has recently visited family or friends in other towns, or has hosted family or friends from elsewhere—at all times wearing masks of course, except when they’re not. Social distancing. We’re all for it; but we’re so very bad at it.

I’m content with writing, reading, and sewing, so staying close to home isn’t a burden at all, but we lost two really great trips that would have taken us away from here for a while. One was to the Grand Canyon, where I’ve never been and have always wanted to go. And the other was to Toronto, which included a trip to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls; and then, from Toronto, we were to take a Great Lakes cruise, stopping at the Canadian shoreside towns and, between the outings, eating good food and drinking good wine. So, considering these cancellations, we’re disappointed, which sounds whiney and selfish because others are suffering through truly devastating times while the only hit we’ve taken is the loss of a couple of vacations.

And on the happy side, Marble Falls offers all sorts of distractions to keep us interested. For one thing—and this is exciting—a Seven-Eleven is going in on Highway 281. Most people in this area don’t know what I know about the significance of Seven-Elevens in other parts of the world. For instance, in Singapore, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur, the Seven-Elevens are thriving centers of commerce that are linked to several social infrastructures. There you can pay your cable bill and your electric bill. Also, you can buy your mass transit passes and pay your car taxes. You can buy and receive international money orders, which is a big deal when a transient population is continuously sending money back home. At the Seven-Elevens in the states all you can do is buy junk food, get gas, and use the restroom, which, by the way, will be clean. You’d never want to use a Seven-Eleven restroom in KL.

In addition, Highway 281 has been undergoing construction for the past year—they’re widening it from the intersection of 71 all the way into Marble Falls, so about six miles. The construction ends at 2147, the turn-off to our house; and the way the traffic is rerouted with cones and signs is confusing and dangerous. I’ve personally witnessed two bad wrecks. Also, the lane lines have been tarred over and redrawn in such a sloppy way that the Driver Assist function on my new car doesn’t know what to think. (New Lexus—I’ll post a picture!) This road work is intended to add lanes, and what’s worrisome about that is that five or six lanes ending at the four-lane bridge’ll cause a bottleneck, and there’s no widening that recently restructured bridge that we cross at least twice a day. There’ll be long lines at the light. I’m losing sleep over it.

Another absorbing situation is what’s going on in the central residential portion of town, where the houses are a hodgepodge of shabby shacks, remodeled stately homes, spec homes, kit homes, flat little ranch houses, and houses that’ve been added to so often that stuck-on rooms just sort of drift all over the lot. For Sale signs are always going up and coming down. One fascinating thing that happened a couple of years ago is that someone cut the roof off a house in some other location, loaded the roof and the house on to massive flatbeds, hauled them to a lot in town, and brought in a crane to unload them and to place the roof back on the house. When the house was again in one piece they added an addition and deck to the back. Then, also in the back, they erected a vast two-story red barn which takes up the rest of the lot. While it was fascinating to observe a roofless splintery house being transformed into a charming home, I found the project befuddling. It would have been cheaper and easier to simply build a new house. And what are they doing in that huge barn? I have to know!

Renovations, too, are drawing my attention. Right now in the one square half-mile area, six houses are being remodeled or rebuilt. One of the older homes has been gutted and is going through a complete revamp, and because it’s one of the historicals, it’s being closely monitored because it’s required to adhere to the design of its era—although it’s two shades of purple trimmed in red with a gigantic painted cow in the front yard, so how important could the design of the era actually be?

So, as you see, intriguing things going on in Marble Falls. Or maybe it’s just that I enjoy creating intrigue out of stuff that’s basically boring.