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Progress Report

5 September 2020

I wouldn't write a progress report unless there was, you know, some progress to report. And there actually was some today.

PROGRESS

"I put a payment on the dresser to mail," Joyce told me this morning. That's when I hatched my plan.

An hour or so later, I persuaded her to walk downstairs and sit on the patio in the sun. It's 75 as I write this, about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday with highs predicted in the 90s on the coast this weekend.

I put out the umbrella and we sat out there a while before I suggested we walk up to the mailbox with her envelope. And she agreed.

So we did.

It's a short walk but it's uphill. And it was hot. And we forgot to wear our masks. But she made it before we were appropriately chastised. Her first walk outside the house since all this began.

That's progress.

But wait, there's more!

MORE PROGRESS

For lunch, I made spaghetti in a chutney sauce with sauteed shrimp. She didn't want a lot, she told me, so I gave her half a serving. But for once, she ate the whole thing.

That's progress, too.

I learned during lunch that she did indeed get Whitney's1 books in the hospital. I had thought not.

A BONUS

Your bonus for reading this far is the pasta recipe:

  1. Thaw six or seven frozen uncooked raw shrimp (21 to 30 a pound size, that's big ones) in a bowl of water while the pasta water comes up to a boil.
  2. Dry the shrimp and butterfly each one, running a knife down the back from head to tail about 1/8 inch deep.
  3. Season the shrimp with sea salt, pepper, garlic powder and cayenne pepper to taste (which means if you don't like garlic or cayenne, skip it; the world will keep spinning). Let it marinate while, uh, the pasta water comes up to a boil.
  4. Put some pasta in that boiling water. Spin.
  5. With about six minutes to go on the pasta, heat some oil and butter in a skillet at medium and drop in the shrimp for two minutes a side. Remove to that bowl, sprinkle with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and cover with a dinner plate.
  6. Toss the pasta in the skillet of oil and butter (watch that splatter!) with about two minutes left to cook. Swirl a bit and then drop two teaspoons (well, one per person) into the mix, coating the pasta evenly.
  7. Drop the pasta into dinner plates and arrange the shrimp around it. Add some fresh basil on top.

This is also the recipe for a happy life, BTW.


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