5C's Que Pasa

…doing not too much 😉  Thank you for all your comments and emails after yesterdays post.  I actually felt better this morning and I even slept better last night.  I like to think that by writing about how I felt it lifted my spirits somewhat.  Sometimes verbalizing your feelings makes a huge difference.  Way back when I worked in psychiatry we would encourage our patients to express themselves so it was my turn yesterday.

I really did plan on talking about certain things tonight on my blog but that is not happening.  I finished a book today which was good.  We had a few phone calls with friends and our financial advisor ( he remains optimistic ) and just now finished a fun and unexpected FaceTime chat with our friend and hair stylist.  She could not believe how long Colin’s hair is.  All we can do until the all clear signal is given for business to get back to full speed is wait and be positive.

We got an email today that our bank is closing effective Monday but the ATM and online will still be functioning. Colin actually had a client enquire about aerial photography for the City of Vancouver, great time to do it with little air pollution.  However the helicopter companies have shut down as they are considered non essential.  The company we usually use says he hopes to be flying by July 😯

I was looking online about grocery delivery, it does not exist in this city.  However there is an online order that can be picked up within a certain time slot.  A good idea to prevent us from having to enter the store itself.  Sadly the first open pick up time is about two weeks away.  I did learn that you can grab that time time slot and keep adding to your online basket until the day prior which is a great thing as I have no idea what I will need two weeks from now.  We are living in a new world at the moment and need to learn to adapt.  They do have the first hour of the store open just for seniors.  Not sure that that is any safer a time than later in the day.  Although they do say that the shelves have been sanitized, etc.  Something to ponder.

What comes up when I go to order online.  The whole idea of ordering online is to avoid going into a store yet now they are encouraging the shopper to come into the store.

Just wanted to let other bloggers know that I was able to make some comments a few days ago ( for certain March 28th ) but today I can no longer make comments.  Google must be having a good time messing things up.  Just know that I am reading your posts and I am enjoying them 🙂

I see time floating over my head and ever so gently floating ahead of me, away from me.

Since we left the Isla at 5:40AM on March 15th I have been going non stop.  We safely got into the US but we were pushing to get a few things done for the RV and had the pressure of finding toilet paper and food to sustain us for 14 days once we got home.  I spent most of my time in the US including as we drove every day, on the computer ( I had 10G with ATT for $50.00 on our hot spot device )  looking for the latest updates on the world situation and passing the most important onto Colin.  I barely noticed the scenery as we drove. Once we got home here in Canada, I had very specific tasks to perform which had to be done such as putting the pantry together and getting the laundry sorted out, etc.  Now I have no specific reason to do anything.  I have weeks, perhaps months to open the mail, to check my daytimer re my urgent to do’s and to get the business up and running. No reason to follow up on miscellaneous appointments as everything is closed.  And truthfully we have no business at this time. We can’t go anywhere and once our 14 days are up we won’t be able to go much further than a grocery store.

A cool 17.6F this morning.  We did enjoy the sun coming through our windows.

“I’m blue”.  The first and only time anyone said that to me was about 14 – 15 years ago in Playa Luces, an RV park right next to Acapulco in Pie de la Cuesta, where we wintered for several years before we found Isla de la Piedra.  Albertina was the owner and spoke very good English. She often would come and see me throughout the day as at the time I seemed to be helping her run the park.  Mostly because I understood RV parks and parking large rigs and spoke French and a smattering of Spanish, well enough to get by.  That day she needed money to pay the electrical bill.  I promptly paid her for the next two months and suggested that she collect a few months rent as the RVers arrived. Other times I gave her ideas about happy hours, providing popcorn and then charging for drinks as the sun set and later a once a week special dinner at the mirador to watch the sunset, things to help her make money.  I could go on and on about stuck RV’s, young lads standing on 45′ Class A’s using a machete to cut tree branches so the owner could back his RV into a site with no damage.  So many stories to tell such as there was very little as in almost no water pressure.  Colin had to go from RV to RV telling who could fill their tank, one at a time.  If everyone tried at the same time no-one got any water.  So many stories but hearing that ‘I’m blue’ blew me away for some reason.

Whether I am in the doldrums or feeling blue, it matters not as at heart they are the same thing.  Colin has structure during the day while I seem to drift.  I sit at my desk but seldom lift a pen or check my to do list. I am working on stopping spending hours online. I just drift thoughout the day. The blog grounds me as I need to write something but I could do better than I am doing but the energy level is gone.  I just checked and my inbox is at 603 emails with 190 unread.  No motivation to read, react nor reply.

I am full aware of what is happening to me.  I think and hope that once our quarantine is  over that I then might snap out of my blues.  Once I can walk again my motivation will return.  At the moment my only obligation is to prepare a good dinner for us which I am doing.  I tend to stay up late reading and then sleep long after Colin wakes up.  I am allowing myself this down time until our imposed 14 day isolation period is over ( five more full days ) then I really will need to snap out of it.  I am hoping that walking will be my salvation.

Did you know that they have closed all the beaches in Mexico?   Semana Santa can’t be canceled but the party part of the holiday has been canceled. I can’t imagine sitting in an RV beachfront lot and not being able to walk the Isla beach.  Now businesses including restaurants are shutting down.  So very very glad that we decided to come home.  I feel so bad for our Mexicans friends.

Nice sunset last night. It’s not the Isla but it is still Mother Nature expressing herself.

Just now I took this photo.  We have a forecast of -5C /19F and a 40% chance of snow flurries tonight. That will be interesting.

So ends my rant.  Thanks for reading.  I know what I have to do but I don’t quite have the energy to get up and do what I need to be doing.  Only five more days.  I’m sure that I can do it once I am free to walk.  Maybe I am just worn out from the past two weeks and need to totally relax this week 😥

So very many changes for all of us.  I fear that we have no idea yet how great these changes will be nor how we will be affected for the rest of our lives.

We woke up Monday to new snow on the hills.  Today we woke up to -2C with a real feel of -8C/17.6F.

I really like the zoom on my camera. They say that tonight we will get down to a real feel of -11C/12F.  It has been a very chilly day today.  Certainly not what one would expect for April 1st.

We will never get tired of our view despite the many changes through the day. It cleared up after this and we had some lovely sunshine.

I am happy to say that all the laundry is done. It took 17 loads over four days to get it completed. I know, that is a lot of laundry but that included four sets of sheets and towels ( RV and home ) plus our clothes.  I did have to do it rather quickly as we have no extra space to put all the soiled laundry other than on the floor in various piles.

Cute earrings but I think I will pass on these.

I had made a reservation in February to travel to Edmonton mid May to see my chiropractor. Yesterday I received an email that they were closed indefinitely.  This is a part of an email I received today from WestJet saying that any flights booked prior to April 15th may be cancelled with no penalty and that the money wold be credited to my WestJet. At this point I am not sure when I will feel safe traveling on an airplane again.

Other than the day we arrived  we have not seen nor spoken to a neighbour.  Colin was out doing a few things in the yard and this lady paddled past and stopped to say hello.  She stayed quite far from our beach.  This may be the extent of our visits over the next several weeks.

While in Las Vegas we picked this up as we had no idea how things were going to go or if there would be anything left to buy in Canada. We kept getting messages that we needed to bring everything back that we might need.

So we will be able to get a start on our garden soon.  Beginning to think that we should also plant vegetables in our flower pots this year.  It appears that we won’t be traveling anywhere until the fall at the earliest so we might as well really get into gardening this year.

Yesterday there was a 6.5 earthquake near Boise, Idaho ( we drove thru there just last Tuesday ) and many here in the park could feel some shaking.  No idea what we were doing but neither of us felt anything nor noticed the swaying of our pendant lights but many others did from what I read on the parks Facebook page.  The only other change I can see happening is that the snowpack is 148% of what it normally is at this time of year.   Hopefully we won’t be flooded again.  One other thing, I will be writing about the generator, sooner or later.  I really am enjoying taking my time doing things right now.  No rush to do anything while we are still isolating.  Yesterday I started house walking to get 5000 steps in.  You do what you have to do.

We all have to be vigilant. You are responsible for protecting yourself as best you can.

I am finding these isolation days speeding by.  There is still not enough time to do everything that I would like to in a day.  I still have 577 emails in my inbox.  So much to do and so little time.  I am getting many things crossed off the to do list but the list is ever so long.  March has passed by swiftly. We were only supposed to be home tomorrow, April 1st.

Our 2020 March calendar shows Venice for the third and last time this year.  We so enjoyed our time there. It was magical. I truly hope that we get back there one day and to our favourite parts of Spain as well. We have been fortunate in that we were able to visit Europe the past two years.

I just read that Nevada is requiring anyone who enters the state to self quarantine for 14 days.  This is the case in several other states.  I can’t imagine RVers who have just crossed into the US from Mexico having an easy time of making their way north to Canada.  Not sure how we would have got home without spending time in Nevada.  Yes we could have done I5 and into Vancouver but with the snow on the Coquihalla we would not have made it home.

Blog readers and friends Sharon and Jim just crossed into Canada and are spending their 14days in an RV Park in Lethbridge, Alberta. But at -21C/-5.8F it isn’t a pleasant experience.   I wish them well.

I puttered around inside today putting things in order while Colin did odd jobs outside. I am doing my knee exercises once per day but should be doing them twice per day 😳  And with my not walking, my knee in not happy.  I have had close to 6000 steps most days just walking around the house but that is not the same as a proper walk.

Sunday I made fish chowder with the fresh veggies that I had with me and used the fresh frozen snapper fillet that Colin picked up at the mercado in Mazatlan just before we left.

The same afternoon I saw someone  ( on our parks Swap & Shop site ) offering to deliver a fresh loaf of homemade bread to the first three people who said they wanted one. I was first :). His wife loves to bake and they wanted to share.  It was the best bread that we have ever tasted in our lives. A great addition to our chowder dinner. Lucky us. We are certainly eating well.

Interesting concept.

Hopefully you are enjoying some of the humour that I am sharing with you. I trust that you all had a good day and will continue to self isolate.

We dumped at a sani station just south of Summerland before coming home. The park here does not have a public station and we are not allowed to use any of the empty RV sites.  Last year it was free but this year we had to pay $10.00.

It has been so very quiet here since we got home.  Not just here in our park but on the highway as well.  There is very little traffic on the roads.  We are close to the Kelowna International Airport and are used to having planes landing or taking off over our home.  Yesterday we heard a plane go over and realized that we haven’t been seeing nor hearing any aircraft.  I believe that I read that there are only about six flights per day in and out of Kelowna.  I could be wrong on that number.  Just now I heard a siren and realized that was the first time that I have heard that noise since we arrived.  As I said it is very very quiet around here.

The kitchen was the largest challenge to set up.  This amount was brought in yet a second time plus more.  My pantry selves are full as is my freezer.

Colin found this in the basement. We had purchased two of these for Christmas but only opened the one. Now saving this for a very special moment or mental breakdown 🙂

I knew that we had wine at home but had no idea how much. I had overbought before we left. Each large box hold four four litre boxes of Pellar Estates Pinot Grigio.  No worries about running out.

My shoes. I think I only wore four pair all winter. Many are walking shoes and of course because of my knee I did not do any walking.

We have had a few special phone calls since we arrived, from Mexico checking if we were home and alright, from a special friend in Campbell River, and from Gramma Katie and Louie calling from the coast checking on our well being. We even got a phone call from somewhere in China but it was a wrong number 😯

Last night was our first sunset since we left Quartzsite.

Most of you have seen similar depictions showing how the virus has decreased pollution over China and Europe.  I found this another interesting visual. You might say that the virus is saving our planet or at the very least giving it much longer to survive.

Please stay healthy by safely distancing yourself from others and washing your hands.