Perspectives

The list of things I am grateful for is endless.  My partner in this mess is pretty easy to be with, and our home is comfortable enough for us to all have our own spaces to nest in when needed.   We are both working, and homeschool while not perfect is going better.

Still, I am worried, and bored and heartbroken for all that is lost and changed.  Two of my neighborhood friends were laid off this week as a direct result of all this change.  One, a cruise consultant (salesperson) and the other a property manager, both very qualified and lovely people. 

While our employment is solid, I am not eager to spend any extra money and have been putting extra into our savings each month just in case.  We're back up to where we were before I had to bail out a family member out of a mess.  Still, I worry about:

1) Food shortages 

2) Income loss for families

3) Health concerns that aren't covid related.  Will we be safe to go to the ER if needed?

4) Will Lucy's long term impacts be significant?

5) Will we lose someone close to us

6) Will this always be a politics issue?

7) That Trump will get re-elected

8) That even if he doesn't the new order of lies and deflection has hurt our country beyond repair

9) That I'll never get to hug family again

10) Vacations are a thing of the past.

and on and on and on

Good Friday

Today is Good Friday.  We were supposed to depart for San Diego this morning, and I won't be looking up the weather at every pace we were supposed to be next week but I do take a bit of comfort in that it's 57 and raining in San Diego today.

Having taken some time to think about it, my sabbatical will be postponed as well.  Probably next summer.  It super sucks to wait another year, but it's better to wait than to take the month off and do nothing.

I'm still going to take the first week in August as vacation and enjoy the week where Lucy is (hopefully)  in summer camp and I'll hang at Marty & Lynn's at Lake Roosevelt.

We'll see what next year brings.  Maybe a two-week European vacation.  Lucy would love to go to Paris and Jason wants to go to London.   I could get behind it. 

Covid Thoughts

April 4, 2020

Schools have been canceled and will not resume this year 2020. Lucy will finish third grade at home.
Cell phone companies are giving away months free so that people can stay connected. Internet data Gigs are being added so that people can stay in touch.
“Social Distancing” is the new norm and is expected to be happening long after this wave of COVID-19 is over...if ever!
Medicines are being fast-tracked to try and save lives. A vaccine is our priority!
Tape is on the floors at grocery stores and other locations to help shoppers remember to stay 6 feet apart.
Hugs are no longer felt but expressed!
We are lucky to be working from home. People deemed "essentials" have to go out and work, this is more than the police, fire department and hospitals. Grocery workers and delivery people are in an unfortunate situation where they have to be "out" in the word but are risking their lives each day.
Some stores are limiting the number of people allowed inside. Seniors are those most vulnerable to the virus and get their own private shopping times.
“Non-essential” stores and businesses are being mandated to close. Businesses that were thriving on the end of February of 2020 may never open again.
Unemployment is likely to exceed the Great Depression of the 1920s.
Parks and trails are closed you cannot camp, you cannot fish.
Entire sports seasons have been canceled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - canceled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - canceled.
No in-person church services. Sundays we tune into Facebook live and watch the pastor do her stuff.
It began as no gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, then 10 or more and now no more 3 people can be together if they stay 6 feet apart. At this point, it is regulated by information, but in places like New York the fine can be $1000.00
Children's outdoor play parks are closed.
There is a shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line medical workers.
People are making masks to donate to others.

I made 7 masks for our family this weekend.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Healthcare workers are forced to make decisions about who lives, who dies. They are exhausted and broken!
Panic buying has taken place and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towel, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer, no meat, no dry beans or rice; grocery store shelves are empty. This is an area by area, day by day changing situation.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses are switching their lines to help make hand sanitizer and again PPE.
The government closed the border to all non-essential travel.
Fines are established for breaking the rules.
All spring sports have canceled their season and winter sports their playoffs.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of COVID-19 patients.
Homeless people are sleeping in Las Vegas parking lots in painted spaces!
In Central Oregon, the homeless, the ignored, deposed and harassed are actually helping those that refuse to help them!
There are public service announcements telling people that when they see a tent pop up in a field, leave it alone because before this is over you may be there as well!
We are having daily press conferences from President Trump. He looks deflated, exhausted and not confident at all. He has been humbled in my opinion.
We are receiving daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
We are all being instructed to stay home. Some states are enforcing stay-at-home orders.
The roads are quiet.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.
People are dying alone in facilities without their loved ones. Final goodbyes are said on Facetime.
The people who have "those: jobs", the ones that you wear a uniform of some sort have become essential and the ones that move food and freight in trucks to get the food and goods to the public cannot find a place to get a hot meal.
We may be getting close to one of two things: the virus might go away with the warming weather and it may not or we may be closing state borders, hot spots may be under the control of the National Guard who knows...BUT we are Americans! We will rise to the threat, the occasion, to our duty and for each other. We will fight to get back the ground we lost just like we have since the birth of our nation.
Children are painting windows and making hearts to show solidarity and love.
Shut-ins, elderly and disabled people are communicating to their neighbors that they need help by putting a green paper for "I am good" and red paper for "please help me" in their windows and we all help when green turns red.
People are remembering that ALL lives matter, all jobs matter and that when things get really rough, in the end, we only have each other!
This is the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

We have so much!
Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other - love one another - support everyone.
We are all one!

Cancel Everything

 What a bummer of a decision. 

April 5th marks 10 years of working full-time at my post-Mega-Bank employer.  One of the amazing perks is the sabbatical program, whereby after five years of employment the employee is encouraged to take a four-week sabbatical.  This is on top of the normal accrued vacation.   Now, we aren't allowed to take weeks of vacation and then the sabbatical, they don't want us to burn out our co-workers while we are away doing the lounging thing.

One of my favorite things to do is to plan trips.   When we took the cruise to the Panama Canal, I researched wonderful places to eat near our hotel in Miami, had lots of information about the places we would visit and enjoyed that part almost as much as the trip itself.     Therefore, knowing I had a sabbatical coming up in 2020, I've been planning and dreaming for a while.

We have enjoyed the two cruises we've been on and I thought taking one from the east coast would be fun.   I booked the three of us onto a 7 night New England/Canada cruise leaving NYC on Sunday, August 30th.   We would fly into NYC on the 25th to be tourists.   I've explored the neighborhood around our hotel, found a historic steak restaurant in walking distance and had started lists of the museums we (I) wanted to visit.

Current projections of the Covid-19 virus is that it will taper off over the summer, but chances are come fall it will spike again.   Clearly, August and early September are still summer and the weather should be amazing on the east coast, but getting on a cruise ship just doesn't seem wise.  

So... rather than risk it and tie up our considerable payments into a cruise that we may not take we opted to cancel.   This means a series of calls and visits to the associated travel sites.   Airfare - canceled.  Hotel - canceled. Cruise - canceled.

There are still some things planned for the sabbatical window.   The peanut has sleep-away summer camp booked and fingers crossed that we are not still in lockdown at that point.   While she survives in the wild (in cabins with guitar-toting college kids) I'll be visiting nearby Lake Roosevelt and getting some sun.  

There's time to visit Grandma G.  Now, with the NYC trip off the books, maybe we'll take the kid on a road trip to visit the Denver grandparents.  Maybe we'll rent a house in the Hamptons... maybe we'll fly to Switzerland...maybe not.

For now, the most disappointing thing is that we don't have something on the horizon.

Survivor

The upside, we are getting into our groove, and having folks in the house all day isn't so terrible.   We do a pretty good job of transitioning from "work/school" to "home".

There were two major shopping outings this weekend, a big Safeway run and this morning J took advantage of the employee-only hour at Costco to pick up a bunch of stuff.   We are planning on being home for at least a month.

I had to venture out today to go to the bank, which is not an activity that I normally would have to do, but it was necessary.    It's odd being "out and about".   Traffic is super light and parking is plenty.   People tend to give each other a lot of room and for the most part, everyone is very kind and in a pleasant mood.

I feel for the people in the bank, at the stores and even restaurants who are only doing delivery/take out.  I am sure they would rather be at home.   It's a balance, be home, stay safe or have no income.   We want to support our local businesses, but I'm more comfortable cooking our own food for now.

One would think that with all the home life that we were saving money, but so far whatever we save we seem to pay elsewhere.   Our housekeeping service has been "put on hold" for now, but I'm paying them for next week anyway.   I can't imagine that they are doing well. 

The President is a mess, his press conferences are an embarrassment.   He says one thing and it's pretty clear that he's just saying what he thinks "we" want to hear to make himself look good.   Then, the folks that actually know what they are talking about get to the podium and contradict what he says.

The Senate wants to approve a financial support package to help the people in this crazy time, but they can't decide if they are going to help individuals or big corporations.  I'm a people person and think that if a corporation gets financial help they shouldn't get any more than what they paid in taxes.   

I've stopped reading the news and social media right before bedtime because while I fall asleep right away I wake up around 3am and am spinning.  That's not healthy.

It's my turn to cook... again

I guess I didn't realize how much we chose to eat the fast way, by rotating thru our favorite restaurants in our area.  Af the workday winds down I think, what's for dinner and for the last eight nights it's been home-cooked. 

When this isolation thing is all done I hope we find a better balance between a dinner out at Casa Durango for amazing authentic Mexican food and the kitchen cuisine I've been cobbling together.

Tonight we will eat a South African Chicken Chutney that is very tasty and actually easy.  The hardest part was remembering to thaw the chicken.   That planning ahead thing will get you every time.

It would be nice to have staff around to plan, prepare and clean up meals, but I suppose I needed a different life for that to happen. 

Homeschool

School Schedule

Today is Wednesday, March 18th

School Activities

• Math pages 8,9,10
• Soduko P 11-14
• Crosswords #6, 9
• Spelling: Page 10&11 
• Writing:  O465 Topic:  The best thing about being home is...
• Computer time: 1 hour (your choice from Mrs. Henry's page)
• Reading:  30 minutes Alice

iPad time after completing the above.

Special Activity

LEGO CHALLENGE

Build a bridge

• The road must be 6 inches from the floor and 1 foot long
• Doesn't have to be beautiful, but we will test to see how much weight it can hold
• NO GLUE

Information

Mom has meetings (on the phone)9:30-noon1:30-4pm

Dad has meetings
8:30-9:00
2:30-3:00

If office doors are shut, please only come in for an emergency

SNACK TIME @ 11am (tv ok during snack)

LUNCH Chicken Noodle Soup & Grilled Cheese (I'll get more tomato soup the next time we go to the store)   Fruit

School gets out at 4pm today

A new world

Covid-19 has impacted our daily life.   School is closed, so we are making a daily list of homeschool activities to keep the Peanut engaged and in a school state of mind.   She loves Soduku and is having fun with the crosswords.  Spelling continues to be a struggle.

J's employer made the decision that they too can work from home when special circumstances are present.   The closing of school was the ticket for him to be allowed to do something that he has been able to successfully do for the last few years.   Sometimes it's management that needs to change.

For me, I've been working at home for the last 11 years, so the real disruption is all these people in the house 24/7.  I have always loved my quiet alone time, so this is truly an adjustment.

Thankfully, the weather has been spectacular for the last 5 days, so we have been able to get out and go to the park, get some vitamin D in the chilly sunshine.

I feel for the mom's in the neighborhood with younger kids.  Keeping the littles busy for days and days on end can be exhausting.  L is at the age where she can entertain herself, and reach out via facetime to hang with friends who we can't see in person.    She has one friend that they facetime and then login to a game called Roblox and they play together in that virtual world.   Thank goodness for out high volume Internet.  L isn't able to play or talk with strangers online, and I hope to leave it that way for the next 200 years.

Emotionally, this is rough.  The news is scary, and staying off social media is critical to not getting so much information that it feels like the virus is knocking on our door (but, honestly isn't it?)

We are lucky in that the closure of restaurants and other venus only impacts us as an inconvenience, rather than our livelihood.  It's hard to know how to help folks that are impacted.

Do people still blog?

The concept of documenting life's events and interesting tidbits still interests me, but life...

Also, with no readers what good is this?  A virtual diary to job my own memory perhaps.


So, with that in mind, we are 19 days away from vacation.  We are off to Miami to leave for an 11 day cruise to the Panama Canal and some wonderful beachy places like Belize, Costa Rica and Honduras.

We will swim with dolphins, swim in crystal clear water and enjoy time away from work.   The grandparents are coming with us, and this is the first time that Georgia has left the US with the exception of trips to Canada. 

Canada is an international location, but when you only drive over the border for a night of camping its not really a cultural experience. 

We've done lots of research for this trip and you know it's been planned with lots of attention to detail.  Here's a sample of the planning.   Feel free to mock but I'm the only reader so ha!

Itinerary

Day

people in port

Arrive

Depart

Booked

Dinner Rez

Excursions

Mon

4/1

Miami, Florida

15,000

4:00 PM

6

Cagney’s

6:00 PM

Tue

4/2

At Sea

---

---

6

La Cucina

6:00 PM

Wed

4/3

At Sea

---

---

4+2

Teppanyaki

7:00 PM

Thu

4/4

Cartagena, Colombia

2224

7:00 AM

2:00 PM

6

Le Bistro

6:00 PM

Old City & Spanish Fortress

Old City & Spanish Fortress

Old City & Spanish Fortress

Fri

4/5

Panama Canal/Gatun Lake, Panama

5:00 AM

3:00 PM

0

Complimentary Dinning

Alizar

Panama Canal by Ferry

Panama Canal by Ferry

Panama Canal by Ferry

Colon, Panama

5:00 PM

8:00 PM

Sat

4/6

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

2224

9:00 AM

6:00 PM

6

Moderno

8:30 PM

Caribbean Train, Eco Cruise & Countryside

Caribbean Train, Eco Cruise & Countryside

--

Sun

4/7

At Sea

---

---

4+2

Teppanyaki

7:00 PM

Mon

4/8

Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras

7759

10:00 AM

7:00 PM

0

Complimentary Dinning

Grand Pacific

dolphin encounter

dolphin encounter

dolphin encounter

Tue

4/9

Harvest Caye, Belize

2224

8:00 AM

5:00 PM

6

La Cucina

8:30 PM

Cabana

Wed

4/10

Costa Maya, Mexico

5338

9:00 AM

5:00 PM

6

Le Bistro

8:30 PM

Maya Lost Mayan Kingdom (waterpark) 10:30-3:30

Kohunlich Mayan Ruins (9:30 am departure 6.5 hours)

--

Thu

4/11

At Sea

---

---

6

Cagney’s

6:00 PM

Fri

4/12

Miami, Florida (Flight Departure)

15,000

8:00 AM

Hope

"It's a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart." 
-Anne Frank

Dad

YAKIMA — Arthur Jayson , formerly of Ilwaco, passed away Nov. 5, 2016, in Yakima, Wash., with his family at his side.

Art was born June 2, 1939, on Sandridge Road in Long Beach to Eldon and Elise . Art graduated high school in Shelton and attended college at Eastern Washington University where as a member of the ROTC he enlisted in the Army and served in Korea in the Military Police. Upon completion of his service Art returned to Washington where he began work with the Washington State Patrol in 1957 as a radio operator and shortly thereafter became a trooper. Art served the communities of Yakima Valley, Olympia, and the Long Beach Peninsula.

In 1965, Art met a sassy waitress while on duty and proceeded to order cup of coffee after cup of coffee until she agreed to go on a date. Art and Georgia were married in 1966 and Art adopted Georgia’s son Kevin; they were an instant and happy family. They were joined by a daughter, Terri, in 1968.

Art was funny, practical and handy. He helped his dad build a cabin that still stands in Klipsan Beach, he could fix bicycles and repair just about anything with duct-tape or zip-ties.

Art issued warnings, speeding tickets and pulled folks out of ditches in Pacific County from 1977 until his retirement in 1988. He threatened to place an ad in the high school yearbook thanking the students and teachers for their patronage every year his poor kids were in high school. After retirement Art worked at Ocean Beach Hospital as a ward secretary and in Medical Records.

After leaving the beach Art and Georgia enjoyed life on the road in their fifth-wheel. They returned to the Yakima Valley and marked their 50th wedding anniversary this summer quietly in their home in Yakima.

Art was predeceased by his parents, sister Evelyn, and Katie the cat who adopted him, but liked no one else in the entire world. Art will be deeply missed by Georgia, Kevin (Denise) of Sandy, Utah; their grown daughters Erica and Nikki, Terri (Jason) of Renton, Wash., and one granddaughter, Lucy.

Based on his wishes, there will be no formal service, but an open house will be held Nov. 19 at 2 p.m. to allow friends and families to tell stories about Art. 

Back yard landscaping

Trees along the fence

The pretty maple and some rocks

stepping stones to the gate

the natural hedge/fence to soften the slope

Better late than never.

I planted dahlia bulbs in the spring and this is the first to bloom.  October 30th... better luck next year.

The sorting

Happy face

Ladybug

Well then..

Dad is sick. I am coping, supporting happily but when the world is quiet I am feeling this.

I cannot put down my love, appreciation, memory, and reality of what this man means to me. It is separate from the current reality of stilted conversation and stories retold and retold. Today is where I honor everything he gave me.

Grief happens before the final loss...I did not know this. I suppose it is a blessing that for me at 48, this is a new lesson.

My support system is solid, but I need a quiet corner. I hope that is normal and not a symptom of being walked off.

Blue Friday

Silly girl