Just to remember this in the future, I am going to write down a little of what is going on in our world. Katie and I had a great time skiing with the Banfields on our last 2 days up in Tahoe. On our last day there were forecasts of the largest winter storm of the year coming, though the timing kept changing. We decided to drive home that night as some predictions were for chain controls to start that evening. After some hot tub, some dinner, some cleaning!!, we hit the rode for an uneventful trip back home. The following day the storm predictions kept adding feet of snow so I booked a hotel outside Alpine Meadows for the following week.. I gave some shit to some of our kids because they had to work in the coming week and I was going up for some powder. Later that day I was informed by one of the kids that the ski resorts had all closed because of the Coronavirus sweeping the world. Arghhh!
By Monday, the Bay Area had begun a Shelter in Place. All non-essential businesses were to close, restaurants can do take out or curb pickup but no going in. Movies closed, bars (though some would deem essential) closed, barbers (non-essential for me) closed, etc. This has led to a week of creative entertainment. On the first day Katie and I went wild with things we had been putting off, weeding, organizing, reading, etc. On the second day we slowed down. This was going to be long trip not a quick run to the store. We did go and buy groceries which seemed almost normal except papergoods were out of stock and people did give you some distance. Nobody was wearing a mask. I cleaned out our extra room and made it into a music room with hopes of practicing the piano and guitar.
I had been getting a little down being at home all the time so it was really a thrill to have the Alex’s call up one night to ask us for a game of Liar’s dice. Crow played out of his head and dominated early but the Mrs. eventually showed her stuff and won the last couple of games. I think we are going to try and branch out with this so look out Rob/Kel, Don/Frank, Billie/Paul, kids etc.
Katie and I have been able to do walks/hikes for and 1 1/2 hours on many days. The Iron Horse Trail is near us and seems much busier than usual but everyone is giving space. Even the Walnut Creek Open Space was more crowded but in such a large area you really don’t interact that much with others. Strangely, February did not have any rain and since I was away alot of it I heard that temps were getting up to the high 70’s in the Bay Area. Well not the case since the Shelter in Place. We’ve had fairly frequent rain and generally cold temps. What gives. I guess somewhat nice is that the hills were somewhat dry to begin with and any rain gets absorbed very quickly so walking/biking are still feasible.
I’ve heard warm temperatures slow the Coronavirus down so come on Global Warming you have been showing your ugly head for several years now. I don’t think we have fixed it yet. Katie has been working more of late both because there is a need at the hospital but also our 401K’s kinda tanked so anything like real cash is good. Trying to come up with a better strategy than my usual buy high sell low but we will see how it goes. Maybe if Katie just does the opposite of me we will be good. Today I had a great bike ride with Jim. 20 miles overall with some wind at our fronts and backs. We generally stayed apart but managed to have a conversation once in a while. Miss the social contact and look forward to a ‘huge’ party at the end of all this. My best wishes to all.
