September Happenings

 Scenes from a Face Time with Scotty

Leo keeping busy while we fix dinner

These two love working together out in the garden.

A quick trip to the park again.  It was surprisingly cool this day.  I was wearing shorts and was sleeveless!  So here I'm sitting in the car staying warm.

It just is so amazing that Leo is learning how to read and write.  When he makes a really nice letter, I always take a picture of it.

A guided draw.  Here they are about to draw a salamander.

Here's how his came out.  It's actually Bruni from the movie "Frozen", which we have never seen.

We all just had a great dinner at Fernando and Eva's house, played a little soccer in the back yard, and here we are getting ready to pull out of their driveway to go back home.  We won't get together again, as we had been doing, for about a month.

August Happenings

 Our trips to nearby parks have come to an end.  School started online August 12 so that means we cannot go during the week anymore.  We tried going to a park this past Sunday, but although we were always able to keep a good distance from everyone there, there were just too many people to make it a comfortable visit.  

Our last trip to a park during the week was a good one, although it was VERY hot that morning with not much of a breeze.  But we're glad we took that last weekday trip.  Leo had fun looking for and catching frogs and he also tried learning how to skip rocks in the water.  We left the river's edge after a little while and headed to a Fossil Trail where it was surprisingly so much cooler because it was mostly in the shade.  We had fun on that trail looking for interesting rocks and trying to find the micro fossils.

In the picture below, Leo is standing on El Verde Rd. in front of where our house used to be.  That tree was in our front yard.

We spent lots of happy times this past summer on these rocks having breakfast and feeding the fish.  In the Spring, these rocks were off limits because of all the rain.  Where they are sitting would have been the top of a waterfall.

Another day we took a short hike to a different area of the park and we stopped here to rest.  It was very hot!

Then Guillermo and Leo took a trail down to the upper part of that river shown in the picture above.  I waited on top - in the shade!

This was Leo's absolute most favorite activity - looking for and catching things in the water.

This spider was in our back yard for a while and then one day, he moved onto our deck!

Guillermo set a trap to catch a dove so that Leo could see the dove up close, but instead an opossum ventured into the trap.  That was just as exciting!

So here is Leo doing online school at our house.  We have him every Friday.  I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to help him be online and I enjoy getting to see the teacher and the other kids.

Working on an assignment

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.

Great Weekend!

We had a fun weekend.  Leo was dropped off at our house on Saturday, June 6 for a sleep-over!!  It was fun planning for this sleep-over and the hope was that it would be almost as fun as being able to have a sleep-over with friends his age.  I feel for Leo because he really hasn't played with other kids since March.  So, we did as many fun activities as we could.  Here we are building a bridge with marshmallows and toothpicks.  Guess we're not good engineers because we couldn't get the bridge to stay up when we put a "road" on top and placed cars on the road.

June 7th

Getting the cupcakes ready for Abuelito's birthday

Guillermo of course has his peach pie, and we all have individual cupcakes with our own candles so that no one is blowing all over one cake!

Celebrating Leo's birthday

Friday, May 15, Leo turned 5 years old.  Guillermo and I went over to their house to celebrate with them.  We had a lot of fun and were so happy to see them and be with them for a little while.

We pretty much have settled into a routine with these strange days.  Mondays it's pick up a curbside order through Target Drive-up for things that HEB doesn't offer.  Tuesday or Wednesday is grocery day through HEB curbside.  Also Tuesday or Wednesday (but usually Tuesday) is the day I fix a dinner to take to Mom's house for her and Linda to share.  Then approximately every 10 days is an instacart delivery from Costco.  We actually tried a new curbside on Saturday with Lowe's.  We were just amazed at how packed the parking lot was at Lowes - we've never even seen it that full around Christmas!!!  We park in a curbside slot and wait for our stuff - stuff like a tank sprayer for the garden, a bug zapper for the mosquitoes, uncommon-sized air conditioning filters and little night light bulbs.  As we waited, we were very impressed with the number of people walking around wearing masks.  Practically everyone was.  We only saw one guy without one.  And there were a LOT of people shopping that day.  It was unbelievable.
All of these novel ways to get things we need have been working out very well.  Like with anything else there have been glitches, but those have been few and far between.  Here's how they all break down.
Target Drive-up.  My first Drive-up, Guillermo came with me to see what it was all about.  Well, they insisted on scanning a bar code on my phone and of course the shopper was trying to talk with me through the slightly open window on the side that Guillermo was sitting.  Fortunately, both had masks on, but still it was a little unnerving.   The second Drive-up, the guy just wanted to know my name to make sure he was delivering to the right car so I held up a sign with my name and he gave me a thumbs up and put the stuff in the car.  The third time, a different guy insisted again on the  bar code but I told him all he needs is my name, so he said ok.  But again, it involved a little talking with a slightly open window.  The way the last few times have gone has me holding up a sign with my name on it and they give me a thumbs up and put my stuff in the trunk.  And that's it!  They seem relieved and of course I'm relieved.  Then I always hold up another sign that says 'Thank you!" and they give me a thumbs up.  I like driveup because you can keep an online cart going for days, adding and deleting at will.  Then when you're ready to submit your order, you can usually pick it up within two hours.
HEB Curbside.  That has evolved tremendously.  My first curbside with them, I actually got out of the car and signed a little machine they had.  This was March 18th.  That was the only time I had to do something like that, thank goodness.  I learned quickly though that if I don't settle my grocery list (and any substitutions they might have made) BEFORE they get to my car, then they WILL try to talk to me at the car. Probably up until about mid April, putting in an order on HEB's curbside app was a nerve-wracking endeavor because they didn't have enough pick up slots and when it was time to pick a slot for pick up, you could practically see the slots disappearing right before your eyes!!! Which forced you to pick a date 2 weeks out.  It was very hard back then to try to figure out what you were going to need in two weeks!!  But they finally changed things mid April and it has been so much easier ever since.  I've had two hard pick ups.  One was a 1:30pm pick up on an extremely hot day.  I sat in the car for 20 minutes with the air on waiting for my groceries.  Then I see all these employees going from car to car with a clipboard.  When they get to my car, they tell me the system is down but it should be back up soon.  I had already turned the air off because 20 minutes was long enough to just let it idle.  But it was getting too hot, so I moved my car to the ONE shaded slot and waited there.  I finally got my groceries one hour after my pickup time.
The second time I was sitting in that nice shaded slot and I saw employees going around from car to car again with clipboards.  I knew right away what that meant so I called curbside on my phone and they said yes, the system is down again and it might be best for me to go back home and they would call when my order was ready.  They called 5 and a half hours later!!  But that's ok, I got my food and that's what's important.  HEB is the lifesaver because that's where we get most of our groceries, but I wish they made it easier to order.  They don't let you delete anything from your order, and once you've submitted your order, you can only add 10 more items if you forgot things.  At pick up time, I have gotten into the routine of showing my name and driver's license at my window (for the wine I usually get), they give me a thumbs up, load the groceries and then give me a thumbs up at the "Thank you!' sign.
Costco through instacart.  I'm glad I discovered this because we had been missing so many things from Costco.  I like instacart because you can add or delete from your cart as much as you want and then order and receive your stuff all in the same day, or you can schedule for the next day or whatever.  So much more flexible.  The shopper stays in contact with you while they shop and then let you know they are at your house and putting the stuff on the porch.  Admittedly, each item costs a little more than getting it yourself at the warehouse, and there is a tip involved, but during this time, it's a small price to pay.
Lowes.  That went better than we were expecting.  We had been told we'd have to sign a paper when they brought our stuff out.  But no, the guy comes out, verified our name with a sign, did the thumbs up and packed the stuff in our trunk.  So easy and contact less!

So, we have also been getting things delivered through Walmart and a few things through Amazon.  I'm not a fan of either of those two places simply because if, for example, you order 10 items from either one, you will get all 10 items separately.  To me that is such a waste. Unfortunately, there are just some things we HAVE to get through those two places.  Guillermo also gets his meds delivered from CVS.  So pretty much lately, it seems a truck stops at our house almost every day.

In a way, I miss going to the store but not that much.  It IS nice to pick out your own stuff, but I'm content during these times with the groceries that HEB has chosen for us, pretty impressed actually.  I like something I read online where it said, "I'm going to be pretty busy today.  I have to bake the mail and wash the groceries".  We usually let our mail sit out in the garage for a day, and any non-perishable grocery item stays in the garage as well for a while.  The other stuff, we do wipe down.

Rough time

Guillermo was feeling pretty bad at the end of April.  He had all the symptoms of that Corona Virus - except for the major one - shortness of breath.  But every other symptom was there, including all the new symptoms that they just added at the end of April.  Guillermo had felt like this several times before in years past - we figure it is somehow related to his Pulmonary Fibrosis.  So, when this Corona Virus came and started spreading around the city, I wondered how in the world would we know if it's the Corona Virus or just another one of those episodes that he's having.

Like before, his cough was rough, he had aches and chills, an upset stomach and his fevers usually came in the evenings.  Two times his fever got as high as 102 and 103.  He finally called the doctor around Apr. 27 and they set up a video conference for April 30th.  It was tough having to wait those three days.  As luck would have it though, Guillermo started feeling better on the 30th!  But the video conference was still on and after discussing everything with the doctor, the doctor determined that Guillermo should get some lab tests done - and also get the Covid-19 test.  And that he should go that very day.  So, not being able to go to the doctor's office for those tests, I dropped Guillermo off at the emergency room of the Methodist Hospital which is where the doctor had set up an appointment for the lab tests.  The hospital ran all the necessary labs - except for the Covid test.  They said they just didn't have enough tests to give to someone who wasn't exhibiting any symptoms of the virus and especially the major symptom of shortness of breath.  I picked Guillermo up two hours after dropping him off and he said the whole thing was a grand waste of time.  He felt very safe there in the emergency room though.  He said no other patient was there, and that he only dealt with two nurses who were taking every precaution - and then some!!

The next day, May 1, his doctor calls and says that he has a Covid-19 test for him and to come by his office and they'll administer it outside the office.  So he drove over there, parked at a certain numbered door, called the office and waited.  Finally someone came out dressed from head to toe in full hazmat gear.  Guillermo said getting that Covid test was very uncomfortable because they stick that long swab way way up your nose until it can't go anymore.  On May 2nd they called and said his Covid test came out negative.  So that was a relief.  We still feel like we should be careful for the next two weeks because he was, after all, in an emergency room and even though everything seemed to be well taken care of there, you just never know.