World turned upside down

Everyone has their own pre-pandemic story and present pandemic story.  Here is ours.

We were in Costa Rica in January when I guess there was talk of something related to a virus happening in China.  We don't remember being all that aware of what was happening in China and since it was over THERE and not here, we didn't think too much about it.  January WAS the month when the first case arose in the US in Washington state but still, we really didn't think it was going to amount to anything.  Too bad we hadn't seen the documentary "Pandemic" on Netflix yet or we might have started to become a little concerned.  But no, we weren't concerned - that was going on over THERE, that's not going to happen here.

Mid February - we hear it's still going on over in China, in Washington and it's now in New York. We drove to Tucson, for what would turn out to be our last sense of normalcy.  While in Tucson, we worried just a little.  But we actually took Scotty out to dinner at probably the worst place to eat during these worrisome times, but at the TIME, it still didn't seem too dangerous.  We took him to Sweet Tomatoes and we had such a nice dinner with him there.  After the fact, I'm so glad we took him there one more time  That was at the beginning of our two week stay in Tucson and we never took Scotty to another restaurant again while we were there.  It was very strange to miss out on our usual outings to El Charro and to Ha Long Bay.

We got back to San Antonio on March 9th, in time for Mom's birthday which is March 11.  Fernando tells us he's going to Costco one more time and if we would like for him to pick up anything.  We asked him to get some of our favorite things from there - avocados and mangoes.  Apparently Fernando and Eva are sufficiently concerned about the corona virus that they are going to stop going into stores.  They are concerned that we are still going out to places.

Mom's birthday celebration at her house was nice and really still more or less free from worry.  She and I first went out to eat lunch at Lubys (again, one of the worst places to go when a virus is lurking).  She and I go to Lubys all the time and the line has NEVER been as long as it was on her birthday.  But we stayed and I remember being in that line and looking at all the people right around us and being amazed that NONE of them seemed in the LEAST bit concerned about possibly catching the virus from someone else.  No one really knew anything at that point, I guess.  Kathy, Chris, Linda and Flynn came over afterwards and we all sang Happy Birthday before enjoying some good cake. (I'm having trouble getting those pictures off my phone but when and if I ever do, I'll update this with pictures.)

But that very evening the whole corona virus thing became all too real to us when the NBA announced it was cancelling the rest of the season and Tom Hanks announced he had the virus.  I decided then that I should probably visit Mom one more time before this thing blows up even worse.  I last went into a grocery store on March 14 and worried so much about that visit because, of course, someone sneezed as they walked by me in the store. But almost as bad as that was seeing all the empty shelves - no milk, no meat, no fruits and vegetables.  And there were so many people in the store.  I gathered as many things as I could as fast as I could and got out of there.  After that grocery store visit, it was learning how to navigate the HEB curbside grocery service and we've been getting our groceries through curbside ever since.

Mom and I had lunch at her house on March 19 and then we got in the car and drove around looking at all the empty parking lots of restaurants.  It looked very strange.  We also drove around Hi Lions Lake, something she just loves to do, and then I took her home.  We also skyped with Aunt Mirli that day, and I think Aunt Mirli saying that she is staying home - she visits no one and no one visits her right now - helped Mom realize that as much as she doesn't like it, things have to change for the time being.

For about 3 weeks after that visit,  I tried to convince Mom to move into our house temporarily while this virus was getting worse in San Antonio.  She was so against that idea.  I finally backed off of trying to convince her when we talked one day over the phone and she said, "If this is how it all ends, then I'd rather be here at my house".  I told her I understood, that yes, if this is where it all ends for us, we'd all rather be where we are most happy and comfortable.

So now, once a week, I drop a meal off on to her porch so that she and Linda can enjoy an easy dinner.  We visit from a safe distance - Mom and Linda staying inside the house, and me on the grass in the yard.  We all wear masks.

This is the mask Linda made and gave to me!

And a picture of the petunias on our deck out back.

Corona virus cases are still rising in San Antonio, we still get our groceries from HEB curbside and have done a lot of online ordering from Costco, Walmart and even done Drive-up at Target.  It's a totally different world right now.

Tucson Trip

Little did we know it at the time, but this trip out to Tucson was going to be the last time for a while that we would feel like life was fairly normal.  The Corona Virus was about to turn everyone's lives upside down.

We had our usual good drive to Tucson, thankfully.  We've done this trip so many times yet it is still amazing how different things can look in the landscape each time.   I like getting to the I-20 area because then I feel like we are FINALLY starting to get somewhere.  I like looking for the Guadalupe Mountains as we drive on 10 past Pecos and wondering what is going on up there on the mountain at the moment.  I like looking at the cows between Anthony and Las Cruces - I like how they all have their heads sticking out through the fencing to get to the hay.  There are so many things that we like to look for each time we go.

Our time in Tucson was very good.  It was so nice seeing Scotty again, and spending time with him, Rebeca and Jason.  One of the first things we did was a Costco run, of course.  I went to Costco again a few days later by myself and I was really shocked at the lines.  The lines ran from the cashiers all the way to the clothing.  I had never seen it that bad.  I don't think it had anything to do yet with what was coming.  But we DID talk to Fernando later that week and he said that people in San Antonio were starting to flock to the stores in a panic because that Corona virus was already starting to spread in the US.  So, I did another trip to Costco after talking with him and stocked up on a few things - the store wasn't crowded at all.  The nervousness hadn't hit Tucson yet.

We did the usual things with Scotty.  We took him to Sweet Tomatoes and I DO remember being there and wondering about the people around us.  But it was so nice anyway to keep up the tradition of taking him there each and every time we go to Tucson.

I remember another day going to Walmart to get some things for our upcoming trip to the lake cabin, and thinking to myself in Walmart - I have no idea where these people have been.  It was worrisome but not overly so.  I did have some sort of respiratory issue while we were in Tucson and I remember being in Safeway one time and a coughing fit hit me.  It was mortifying to me thinking what the people around me must have been thinking.  Popping a throat lozenge quickly made the coughing stop.

But the days were happy ones.  Every week day morning getting Scotty breakfast and then taking him to school and dropping him off in his classroom.  Then every afternoon picking him up from school.

Here is Scotty in his drumbeats class.  I actually participated in this class also.  The entire time, most of the other kids in the class kept staring at me, I guess wondering if I was going to pass out.

Usually when we picked up Scotty after school, he would want to stay a little longer on the playground just to play.  Here he is with his friend Gunnar.

Then on February 28, we headed to our Airbnb cabin near Parker Canyon Lake.  Guillermo, Scotty and I headed to the cabin before Rebeca and Jason because they both had things they needed to finish and we wanted to get there before dark.  By the time we got there, it had gotten a little late so the first thing we did was fix dinner and we had a nice dinner with Scotty there in the cabin.  Rebeca and Jason didn't get to the cabin until almost midnight.

Here is the cabin

And the view from the porch of the cabin.

Oh how we loved it here at this cabin.  So peaceful and the cabin was so homey and comfortable and had everything we needed.  Fernando wrote us while we were there saying we should probably stay there at the cabin during the Pandemic that was only getting worse.  That was a very tempting idea because none of us wanted to leave the cabin anyway and it was so isolated.  We had a good breakfast the next morning and then later that day Charlie, Guillermo's brother, left for the lake to get the boat set up in the water.  Rebeca, Jason and Scotty left a little while later.  I was just really content to hang around at the cabin to just enjoy being there and so was Guillermo.  But we both eventually DID drive out to the lake to see them all on the boat.

 It looked like a nice day and here they all come to greet us on the dock.  And they talked us into getting on the boat!  It was very nice being all together for a while on the boat but then after a while it seemed the wind picked up and it got so cold and I was very very glad when we finally headed back to the dock.

Scotty absolutely loved fishing and he caught three fish!

 The little fisherman.

Those were some really really good days out there at the cabin and we are all grateful that we got this trip in when we did.  We all want to go back some day.

Here's Charlie watching Scotty play.  

So we also had a good drive back home.  Still not overly concerned about this looming virus.  It just seemed so far away.  We stayed at the hotel in Van Horn and had no qualms about staying there and sitting at the bar that evening enjoying a glass of wine and talking with other people.  

Sad day

This was taken on the day we said goodbye to Ben.  February 21st. Probably half the people in this picture have some measure of guilt  - thinking we wish we had done more while we still could.

From left to right:  Oliver, Stephen, Samantha, Carlos, Kathy, Rosie, Rosie's son, Guillermo, Skye, John, Mom, Linda, Vicki, Mike, Elaine, Myra and Flynn, Fernando, Chris, Eva.