taco tuesday on a friday!

Wanting something other than a game show with breakfast, I dipped into the stash of movies that Comcast has rewarded to me.

Oh, yes, "The Lego Movie" would work!

It did, too, with its lying promise from President Businessman to give the people tacos on a Friday, just like it was Taco Tuesday - but then he sprayed them with adhesive to glue them in place so they couldn't move.

Such a dastardly act!

However, it did help me decide on what I wanted to order at the Smiths & Kamerons Friday Fiesta at Jalapenos of Sandfly!

Then I went on AARP to rack up some Reward Points for playing games.

Here's what I chose for "Song List"!

I'd started with the one word - "tacos" - and found those three songs.' 

Thanks, Spotify, for helping me win some more points!

Woohoo!

When it was the new time - that would be 5:30, not 5 PM - for the weekly dinner with brothers and others, I arrived after everyone else was already there.

Just the usual eight of them this time, as Addison was back at UGA for her last year and Laura's two grandkids were back in Missouri.

Alrighty then!

Just the two high-top tables for us!

And when all was said and done and the orders had been placed before us, three of us had tacos!

I had a trio of "crunchy beef tacos" with cheese and lettuce...

Laura, to my right, had soft tacos with shrimp and cabbage...

and Smitty, two up on my left, had soft tacos with carne asada...

all having made different choices of the same dish!

Sounds like "right time, right place" to me!

How did I know for sure?

The big rain that had been forecast didn't arrive until after we were safely in our cars afterward and headed for home.

Hooray!

I truly loved getting my opera fix for the last two weeks, but I certainly have missed this face-time with Smitty and Tony.

I had missed the birth of Ava, a new grand-daughter to Smitty and Mary, as her parents are Zach and Krystal.

Smitty and Zach met her for the first time yesterday.

I think he said she was born on July 27th.

Here's the thing that really got us talking, though.

Ava is the baby sister to Olivia, Tony and Laura's youngest grand-daughter, who was born to Damon and Krystal.

Yes, that's for real.

Smitty and Tony have sons who have dated the same woman. 

Krystal has been the girlfriend to either Zach or Damon over the last eleven years, at least, with her having gone back to Zach a year or so ago.

As Zach and Damon are cousins, does that mean Ava and Olivia are sisters as well as cousins?

No, actually, as the two men would have to be brothers for that. 

Still, it all sounds akin to what our maternal-Uncle Jimmy did.

He had three children with Janet (in Augusta), one with Mary (nurse in Atlanta), two with Pearl (in Waycross, plus the two she already had in Indianapolis), and one with Pearl's daughter (though she was grown and in her twenties by then). 

That's a grand total of seven kids for him over a quarter-century span. 

That's why our cousins from him range in age from early 60's to early-40's.

Damon's kids with Krystal have a ten-year span of ages, but the only one not adopted out is Olivia. 

That illustrates the reason why it's still a good idea to have a blood test before marriage - 

no one wants unknown siblings having incest!

Even so, that family tree would look pretty tame compared to the one for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

I had bopped over to the CDC site to see what was going on, as folks from out of town brought it here for SVF13.

I was met with that genealogy map of the parent strain.

Rather much of a beast, isn't it?

In just five years, the virus that causes COVID-19 has evolved over and over, creating new strains each time it mutated with new hosts.

Some of the new lines petered out, thankfully; some are only found in limited locations around the world.

However, that hot mess at the top of the tree has been worldwide and is still very much alive and killing people.

It spreads as easily as the common cold, its distant cousin, and takes the same three days to show its presence to its victims.

Unlike its cousin, though, it still puts those with weak immune systems or compromised health into the hospital and still has some coughing to death.

I'll say this: I'm going to make sure I use my arms to open doors and that I wash, wash, wash my hands anywhere I go.

And, as soon as the latest anti-COVID booster shot comes out this fall, I'll be right there, in line, to give my immunity all the help it can get.