July happenings

Not much happening lately.  Which is good.  No news is good news during these times.

At the beginning of July, Mom had a doctor appointment with her cardiologist, which we moved to online.  This meant that instead of taking her into a lobby, passing by a bank, getting in an elevator and going up to the third floor for her appointment, she could stay in her own kitchen and visit with the doctor.  The doctor's office sent her a KardiaPro with which she would be taking her own EKG.  So of course she would need help with all of this so the plan was for me to do this appointment with her.  I had not been inside her house since March 19th!  There were times when I wondered if we should have just kept the in-person appointment but there just is no telling how things are going to go.  Around the time of her appointment, cases seemed to be skyrocketing here in San Antonio, so either way, there didn't seem to be too much of a good choice.  But in the end, we decided that not having to go into lobbies, elevators and offices was the lesser of two hard choices.

First thing we did this day of July 8th was I drove Mom to her primary care doctor's office so that she could get her blood drawn because she takes Warfarin.  As much as we all would like to put off these in-person appointments, some appointments just cannot be put off indefinitely.  She and I both wore masks and did the sanitizing routine as much as possible.  At the doctor's office, we parked in the shade and I called the desk from inside the car and let them know that she was there to get her blood drawn.  We waited probably about 10 minutes and then they called me back to say they were ready for her.  So, I walked her to the door, made sure she was safely inside and then I went back to the car and waited for her out there.   I probably waited outside for a good 20 minutes and then she came back out.  On our drive back home, we drove around High Lions Lake, which she always loves to do.
Back at her house, the plan was for me to stay outside as I was getting the laptop ready for her cardiologist appointment and Linda would help with the actual appointment inside.  But plans tend to not go according to plan.  And besides, it was HOT outside!!!!
So, I went inside to one of the back rooms where the air conditioner is and tried to get everything ready.  But my laptop wouldn't connect to the wifi.  I thought I had used my laptop there before and that it would just connect automatically.  I asked Linda if she knew the password and after many many tries and Linda eventually just coming in to help me find the password, we finally got the laptop to connect.  5 minutes after her appointment time.  I think we all felt a little apprehensive with all three of us being so close together in the same room.  We were just hoping our masks and keeping surfaces and hands clean, etc. would work.  We took Mom's EKG with the KardiaPro and that was automatically sent to the office.  Finally, about 15 minutes after her appointment time, we connected with the doctor.  Mom was tickled to see her doctor on the screen!  The appointment lasted all of 5 minutes, if that.  But it got done.  The doctor proclaimed her doing fine with the EKG results and all the questions he asked.

Then I packed up my stuff and drove home, totally worried about the next two weeks and hoping all of us would be ok.  I think Linda and Chris do an excellent job of keeping Mom safe there at the house and I was hoping that doing this appointment wouldn't jeopardize all the good they've done.

It has now been more than two weeks since the appointment and it's such a relief to know that all went well.

Exactly one week after that appointment we got word that one of our good friends, Ray Proa, passed away from the Corona Virus.  It was such an incredible shock to us.  We spent so many soccer games together watching Fernando and his sons play high school soccer.  We even drove together to watch their soccer games in Del Rio and Eagle Pass!  One of his sons is also in the hospital with the virus and as of this date, we do not know how he is.  July was quite a worrisome month for us.  Also because Guillermo had a doctor appointment where he had to stay in the office for sesveral hours for an infusion.  Many people were coming and going during those hours.

Little Ranero!

On June 10th we started a twice weekly adventure to a nearby park to look for frogs or crawfish or whatever else we might find.  It was so much fun and always interesting.

Taking a break from frog-catching to have our second breakfast.  We always loved the view from where we would sit on the rocks to have breakfast.  

It's hard to believe, but back in March, when we first started going to this park, the rocks where Leo is sitting were covered with water and he would have been sitting at the top of a waterfall.

June 15

Some days were sunny and hot.

June 18th

After looking for frogs in the park this day, we drove a small road that had two gates across it.  It's a public road but the gates make it seem private.  The gates aren't locked so you just have to open them and make sure you close them after you go past.

It was an interesting road.  We saw LOTS of Axis deer but didn't get one picture of them.  Only these cows.

June 19th.  Leo spent the night with us and Fernando and Eva will be over for supper.

June 22

This was probably our best day ever out at the park.  It was cloudy the entire time, fairly cool and after a while actually started misting a little bit.

 But the prize of the day was Leo caught this crawfish!  When he saw it in the water, he begged his Abuelito to come get it.  He was a little leery of the crawfish because he had seen the big pincers on them another day.  But Abuelito told him he can't go in the water because he doesn't have boots on.  So Leo summoned all his courage and caught the crawfish and carried it over to the bucket.  He was so proud of himself, and we were so proud of him also!

June 25

This was a good catch for this day.  A tadpole starting to get its legs!

June 29th

This was our last outing to the park for a while.  Eva came with us but Guillermo had to be at a doctor appointment.

The frogs were less abundant by this time, but there were still quite a few.  The second picture shows Eva and Leo sitting on the "breakfast rocks" and since breakfast is over, they are throwing a few crumbs to the fish.  It was how we always finished our breakfast break.

So for all of June, Guillermo and I were a "quaranteam" with Fernando, Eva and Leo.  We all did the exact same things.  No outings other than to that park, only curbside for grocery and other items, etc.  We knew that starting in July we would have to stay apart because doctor appointments would be starting up.  Fernando and Eva were going to use that time to also do stuff that they needed to do outside the home.  We'll get together again two weeks after the last "outing" that one of us has.  Ideally they would find a family with kids that they could "quaranteam" with so that Leo would have another kid to play with.