5C's Que Pasa

On March 17th our RV Park formed a group of volunteers to help the residents during these trying times.  Each street was assigned a captain who would be the contact person if you required help while you were self quarantining. They were willing to pick up medications, groceries and even prepare some meals to tide someone over who has just arrived and had no food.  Wonderful idea.  We were already prepared with enough food so we were fortunate to not require that type of help. We did ask our street captain to please pick us up a few grocery items the next time she went to Costco which was about ten days into our house arrest.  It was lovely to get some fresh romaine and lox.  We are so very grateful to Cindy for all she did to help us.

Colin taking things out of the shed such as patio furniture so that he could put his tools inside and other essentials.

Management shut down our park very quickly. All facilities such as pools, hot tubs, gym, woodworking shop, the craft room, the library, billiards, etc. were all shut down to protect everyone living here.  Even the office was closed and locked but the staff still went to work but on limited hours. If needed an appointment could be made to get into the office. A mini newsletter is being sent out every two days via email advising any new changes and reminding everyone to stay safe, self isolate and if needing to go out, to practice self distancing . They also encourage residents to call if someone ( snowbirds ) are not following the self isolation rules once they return or if the residents were not self distancing. Today security is going to be increased. “In this regard, the Resort will be increasing Security patrols to help monitor and remind people who do not comply with the Federal Government self-isolation and physical distancing laws, that they are putting themselves and the entire Resort community at risk.  Should anyone be aware of someone who should be self-isolating but is not, you can call Interior Health at 1-888-COVID19 (268-4319) for direction.  In addition, please call Holiday Park Security at 250-215-5239.”    I am very confident that had we gone for a walk during our 14 days period that we would have been reported.

Included in the bulletin are a few fun jokes.

Garbage set out to be picked up.

However we were not allowed to pick up our mail nor take our garbage out.  Mostly because of us infecting others touching things. So we had to contact our captain to pick up our garbage. We decided to keep our recycling separate and to take it out once our 14 days were over. The garbage would smell too much so we had to have it picked up. The lady who looked after our home while we were in Mexico offered to keep picking up our mail until we were out of quarantine.

Our block captain treated us one day to some home made carrot cake.  As you can see I am very diligently sanitizing the container while wearing gloves.  Can’t be too careful.

Lucky us.

The best that we had ever tasted.

Remember the fresh bread that was delivered to us last week.  That was from a couple that out of the goodness of their hearts were making bread for those who were in quarantine and those who were self isolating for a variety of reasons and not able to get out.  Very generous of them.

This was included in our park news bulletin today 🙂

Healthy meal last night. Quiche ( from Costco ), Caesar salad with fresh Costco tomatoes and romaine, rice and quinoa mix and a stir fry of  zucchini, carrot and onion. I was to add coleslaw but  the cabbage had turned bad.

Really?

Our last night in lock down was very relaxing.  We enjoyed our dinner while watching the movie Lion which is excellent.  Special thanks to Rae for the movie recommendation and this particular stir fry suggestion –  both given to me a few years ago.  I decided to save it for this special evening 🙂 We called it a Rae evening.

Thank you for this full moon shot last night Colin.

It seems like we turned a corner today and we were in full work mode.  Not actual business work but day to day things that needed doing. I did more government research and work online, it always takes so long. But I got that completed 😀  While doing that I discovered that my drivers license is going to expire on May 22nd but of course the office is closed to the public so I left that to another day to follow up.  I can only handle so much government related work in one day 😳  That led to me discovering that my car which has been in storage since we left for Mexico needs to have the insurance redone as it expires Friday which is a holiday.  Fortunately I was able to pass that one off to Colin to handle.  It is now on storage insurance for another three months.  I have feeling that I won’t be insuring it to drive this year.  Where the heck would I go without Colin?  Plus we are going to be laying low for several more weeks.

It was a beautiful day. This is the first time since we moved here from Vancouver back in 2003 that I have seen so much snow up there. The world is changing in more ways than one.

Meanwhile Colin was talking to Freightliner and Fountain Tire about the RV and to the insurance company about the Jeep.  If you recall back in early November we were rear ended in Las Vegas. He was also checking on auto body shops.  I was surprised that all these places are open for business.  So over the next week he will make a plan on how we will get all these things done.  I had expected that we would have to wait until this pandemic is over.  I figure that as long as we are careful and sanitize the steering wheels, door handles, etc, we should be alright. Once the RV tires are done and the annual Freightliner maintenance is completed, then we can put it onto storage insurance.  Our travel plans to Yellowstone in June will have to be on hold for another year.

The week ahead looks promising.

I got a very unexpected but most welcome phone call from Dr. B, my vein doctor.  I took last year off from having my veins treated so that I could start this year in early April and my legs really need to be treated. In fact I am having some pain in certain areas. Complicated to explain but our medical system pays for 3/4 of each visit but you have to keep putting the first treatment of six back year after year to a later date. By waiting a year and resetting the clock I get about eight more years of being able to wear those heavy stockings after six treatments over three weeks in April.  I just can’t see myself wearing those stockings for a month in the heat from May on. However much to my surprise her clinic is closed because of Covid 19 so I sent them an email last week and I assume that is why she called. No one ever did call to tell me they were closed but I had called ahead which is how I found out.  Long story short we chatted for about 15 minutes.  She believes that the virus is going to mutate so that it will no longer harm humans as did the Sars virus years back.  She was very positive. I asked her how she was going to fit those of us who were cancelled into her booked a year ahead schedule?  She had not thought about it. Either way I am going to be stuck wearing stocking in May or even later.  So if my first treatment is May 28th, then next year my first treatment won’t be until May 29th. So I took a year off for nothing.  I guess that meant that I might have to take on the BC medical system to make an exception for me 😯  Or take another year off.  As I said, confusing for me to explain to you.  Anyway the good news is that she is considering putting those of us who were bumped because of the virus first when the clinic opens again. Dr B. mentioned that she could not figure out how Wickerland could be selling patio furniture while her clinic had to shut down. Certainly no logic there.

Just as the sun was setting tonight I noticed dozens of swallows flittering about.  They are suddenly back as is the warm weather.  Of course that means that the insects are back as well.  They were having a good feed at sunset.

Last night we decided to watch a movie. I often  fall asleep so we usually only watch one hour shows.  I did stay awake for this one even thought it wasn’t a great movie but it was interesting.

Similar to the world chaos we are living in at the moment.

You have to thank Colin for this photo as I was having a good soak in the tub last night when he took this.  I believe that winter has finally gone.

We are not.  Tomorrow is our last full day in our 14 day isolation period.  Wednesday means its time to get out and check the garden area, for me to get my head back into work mode and open our mail that has accumulated since we left October 25th and then start thinking about personal and company taxes.  Once I get everything get caught up then I might get back to having some spare time.

I came across this link today. Over 1.4 million books have been made available in the brand new National Emergency Library created by the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and more.  It is open to everyone anywhere in the world.  Take a moment to see if there is something you might like to read or watch.

Strangely this spring we have only seen three geese. Two males ( who love to fight and make a great deal of noise ) and a female.

For those of you who are missing traveling please check out this link. I received this from Online Travel Centre today. They have set up links to several virtual tours such as the Athens Acropolis Museum which we visited last spring. There is a link to the San Diego Zoo so you can watch the animals on webcams, another to a virtual dive in the Florida Keys or a virtual safari in South Africa and several others. I am looking forward to checking out the tour of the Sydney Opera House in Australia which I may never get to. There is something for everyone so be sure to check it out and have some fun.

Everyday, mid to late afternoon, they come up for a lawn snack.  I just caught these two as they were flying away.

They were not happy at being chased away and left a turd to remember them by. Colin did the clean up.

I had arranged for our window cleaner to come by on Thursday but cancelled him today. Neither of us felt comfortable having him in our home. We have no idea whose homes he has been in and how careful he is with his sanitizing. We could have had him just do the screens and the outside windows but Colin says that he will do it himself. He is not working so why not. Colin is becoming very handy, he spent yesterday doing a deep clean inside. Where do those dust bunnies come from when you are away for five months?  Meanwhile I was on the phone with some government agency straightening some mess out, it took hours.

So glad that this comes in white 🙂 We actually found one N95 gently used mask in our shed when we got home, so that is good to have on hand. We were able to find some surgical masks in Mazatlan before we left so we are well stocked.

I am always touching my face so this is good advice but I think that two glasses of water will do the job just as well or perhaps one of each.

Please remember to keep social distancing.

Yesterday did not go as planned.  We, well mostly Colin, had to deal with the unexpected.

The latch on the window above the head of my bed is broken.

He tried to figure out what the problem was.

Something within the mechanism is broken.  Guess we have no choice but to wait until businesses start to open up again to find a replacement.

I was doing something on the computer when I heard him rattling around the kitchen.

We had some very very ripe bananas that he did not what to throw out so he found a recipe online for banana loaf and checked that we had all the ingredients.  I was surprised that I had flour.  However we did not have baking soda but Google told Colin that he could use 3 tsp of baking powder in the place of  1 tsp of baking soda.

He did this all on his own without much input from me, just the odd question.  I mostly stayed out of the kitchen but was surprised to see him using my lime press to crush nuts for the loaf.  Very innovative.  I never would have thought of that.

Voila! It looks great and tastes even better.  Colin decided not to use a full cup of sugar and only put in 3/4 of a cup, next time he will only use 1/2 cup.  Now that was a fun unexpected treat.

As he was putting the flour and nuts back into my baking drawer he noticed that the drawer was broken.

I did have all this stuff in there ( excluding the paper towels, the kettle and the fire extinguisher ). All the beans, quinoa, rice and other items did make the drawer very heavy.

Turns out that there were only two very small screws on each side holding the drawer in place.

Colin spent a very long time trying to figure out how to get the drawer apart so that he could repair it. It will never break down again, as he put in three larger screws on each side.

Looking good. Well that was one way to fill an isolation day.

I would never have expected to see this. Can you imagine growing up with these names?

I leave you with this very sobering thought.

In the sunny Okanagan 😯  🙄  🙁

Yesterday we were treated to some unusual weather.  Very cool temps, strong wind and snow.

Of course it was a delight for us to watch the snow flurries.

They snow came and went. I haven’t read anything about this being a new record but I have never seen snow fall here in April.

I looked up at our unusual window and saw the snow.

That is my usual window. We built this place they wanted to fill that area in with solid material and I immediately said no, that I wanted a window.  Its not like we didn’t have enough windows but more is always better.  That is my desk on the right with the green lamp and Colin’s desk is further back against the far windows ( curtain is up ).  That dark door on the left is the entrance to our infrared sauna.  A different angle of our home that I have never shown before.

So glad we were warm inside thanks to our fireplace.  It was a cool 12F last night and tonight may be our last really cold night, only going down to 27F.  Spring just may be here soon.