It has been so long since I last posted. So much water under the bridge. We moved from Walnut Creek to Lahaina, Maui. Spent 5 years living there. Traveled. Worked and then Andy retired. And then we decided Maui just was not what we wanted. So we packed everything up that we wanted to keep, there wasn’t all that much after the huge pruning we did to get to Maui. We went to Oregon and bought a house in Tigard. We have spent more time cruising and traveling. Right now it is still winter even though we teeter on the brink of spring. We had quite a snow yesterday. So pretty. The snow flakes were huge, they looked like feathers falling. It was nice entertainment while it lasted, on and off during the day. Something to divert us in the new era, the COVID-19 virus pandemic.
It sure snuck up on us. Well, perhaps I exaggerate. We had just gotten back from a cruise to Antarctica and the southern tip of South America, We had so much fun and saw some amazing places. But almost as soon as we got home there were rumblings on the internet. A virus had a grip in a large city in China. A doctor had tried to warn people but he had been silenced by the government. Then China was quarantining the city. Then restricting travel. Suddenly it was appearing in other parts of Asia, and on ships. The Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to report cases. Then the Grand Princess. Italy had cases in the north. Korea, the U.S. Washington State, just north of us and then here in Oregon the first case was reported in Lake Oswego, just one city over from us. From the end of January up to today. We have gone from people congratulating us for missing the virus onboard our ship to self isolation. I shop at the grocery either late at night or when it first opens in the morning. No walking at the mall. No cozy cup of coffee at Starbucks. No casual dropping by to visit neighbors. Just sitting at home, tidying up incessantly and reading and watching TV.  And walking outside in the cold down into Tigard and on the Fanno Creek Trail or over to Cook Park. We aren’t going stir crazy yet but who knows? With a national emergency declared and large groups of people banned from congregating we don’t have the symphony and the opera to look forward to. I can’t attend WW in person at the Workshop but they are gearing up for meetings online and by phone. I am impressed at how quickly some businesses have reacted and adapted.
With Amazon and the proliferation of online shopping we may get through this with very little inconvenience. That being said it is still inconvenient to get to my regular grocer and find no potatoes, no toilet paper, no hand sanitizer and no pasta or rice. I did get extra canned goods the other day but I hope I will end up donating them to the food pantry when this is over.
Until then I look at the posts of my friends as they navigate life with jobs, families to provide for and fear hanging over us all.