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WHOLE NEW WORLD: Well, because we here at MPA don't have quite enough going on, I thought it would be a great time for me to get a full time job. (What was I thinking?)

It's kind of ironic - at a time where unemployment is at an all-time high in my lifetime, I somehow landed a job. I'll be helping process unemployment claims for the state. I used to work for the Employment Security Department back in the day (early 2000s), and a former manager told me about the need for help now, so I applied, interviewed, was offered a job and yesterday I drove down to Lacey to pick up my equipment. Annabelle rode with me and we made a fun little trip out of it. After getting the gear, we headed a half hour further south and picked up some Papa Pete's pizza - a favorite of ours when we lived in Southwest Washington. We had a little time to kill before the pizza parlor opened, so I had Annabelle do an Internet search for a nearby park. Turned out there was one just a block away. 

It was a really pretty spot. Nice big playground (closed due to COVID), pristine softball fields, a 44,000 square foot skatepark, paths, enormous trees, and . It's called Rotary Riverside Park.

The 4.5 acre park is along the banks of the Skookumchuck River. This park is now home to the city’s 44,000-square-foot regional skatepark and provides a wide range of active and passive recreational opportunities

The best part about the park? It had a bathroom that was open!

So, these are things you have to think about these days, when you're road tripping during a pandemic. Where can you use a restroom? I was not wanting to go into a Walmart or similar to use a public bathroom. Too many people, too much air-borne ick (picture a COVID volcano every time a toilet with no cover flushes).

I was actually thrilled to see the 'normal' bathrooms were closed and portable toilets were on site. No flushing. No COVID volcano! That, and we drove back into the park and found a toilet that appeared like it hadn't been used at all. Plus, we were prepared with paper towels, a spray bottle of disinfectant, hand sanitizer, gloves, etc. 

The trip was brief - we left home about 8 and were home by 12:30. I went right to work, filling out all kinds of 'paperwork,' checking the technology, reading about the agency, etc.

Today was hours of mandatory training videos (everything from ethics to harassment to mental health). Tomorrow, I get to learn about the actual work I'll be doing. In an 8-hour Skype meeting. :0

THE LOOP: The kids each had online classes this morning (Japanese for CJ and Annabelle, and then a writing class for Bee), but we all had a little break around noon, so we did the loop around our neighborhood.

I want to take this moment to say how beautiful the shrub along our driveway is. It's absolutely exploding with papery pink blossoms.

I'm going to have to use Google lens to try to find out what it is. Or, does anyone out there know?!

We were also surprised by these orange beauties. We have some other orange poppies, but I think these are California poppies, from what I've seen on a couple of gardening lists. 

I honestly don't remember having these before this year. But they're all over they neighborhood. Glad some wound up in our yard.

One of our neighbors has a showplace type yard. These pink pretties were blooming there today.

Do you see the blurry bumblebee in the foreground?

And then had this flower tower. At a distance, I thought it was foxglove/digitalis, but it's some crazy spire of purple flowers. I need to research this one, too. 

Somehow, MPA has turned into a bit of a gardening blog. Guess that's what happens when we can't go meet astronauts and go to concerts and ball games and so on.