Coda

How did we do? This year, we had time to play some and explore some. We had unexpected events like my breaking my pelvis which threw all our plans into disarray and brought me face to face with my old age. We had wonderful trips. We said goodbye to people, places and things we have loved. We cried over lost opportunities; we celebrated some events for the last time.

Are we lucky, lucky, lucky? Yes. We come from privilege. We had time to make decisions on our own terms, rather than to react to events over which we have no control. I know that this is not the reality for most. However, if you have any chance at all to take some time before tumbling along your path, do it. Who knows where a gap year, even if you’re not grey haired, will take you.

Last Ride

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  1,242,267 sick; 
               72,767 dead
   World: 3,765,648 sick,
                260,384 dead

Now the numbers are projections of illnesses and deaths. For its  total population and demographics heavy with us elderly, Florida has been a charmed state, ranking 45th, with 657.9 deaths per 100,000 residents. The US is 726 deaths per 100,000.

One factor is that many of us began our self isolation early, even though our governor dragged his heels on declaring stay-at-home orders and our Spring Breakers partied on. Old people are cautious. Now many Floridians are anxious to have the open-up orders given as quickly as possible. It’s the economy, stupid, to use that Clintonesque phrase. And I have sympathy. Thank goodness all of our children have jobs deemed “essential”. Most families weren’t that lucky. For Grant and me, stay-at-home will be our way of life until we know more.

No, We Can’t Ride Without Our Mirrors  

In the meantime, our year of living on Key Biscayne is over. This morning, we took our last ride on the Key up to Biscayne Bay. I love Miami. It is such a beautiful city, perhaps because it’s so new. The architecture is playful. Lots of color, cutouts, odd shapes. One of the buildings downtown has huge ribbons and bows tied on it.

We are almost all packed up, ready for the movers to come tomorrow morning. Grant is cleaning the refrigerator, and I’m sanitizing the bathrooms. Two more boxes to tape shut. Then it’s either drink the dredges of the booze or dump them down the drain. I’m working on the former. Coconut rum on ice. Next up is the anisette.

A Load Off My Mind

The image keeps spinning through my brain like a movie: the huge (visualize 5’ long and 2’ in diameter) auger falls off the trailer in front of us, then bounces higher than our car, as we speed down I-95. Thank goodness the auger came down to the left, and Grant swerved to the right, so our car wasn’t crushed, and we weren’t killed or injured. Our windshield did suffer a crack, perhaps from a chunk of asphalt chipped up when the auger touched down the first time. No other damage, except a few nerves.

After Grant helped the driver reload his equipment, he let Grant photograph his driver license, then sped off without a thank you or a wave. In Florida, windshields are automatically covered with no deductible, so he could have been nice, but I guess it wasn’t a great day for him. At least he noticed his load had broken free.

One day I was driving on I-595 to pick up Patten at American Heritage School where he attended high school on a 4-year academic scholarship. I think he is still listed as never graduated because the ad min didn’t record his required volunteer hours he had worked at the Discovery Center. But he did finish at U of Miami with a BA in International Business, so now moot. Back to I-595. That day, I was following a pickup towing a trailer with a big sheet of plate glass which started flexing back and forth in its stand.

To be safe, I decided to change lanes, and just as I did, the pane of glass flexed one more time, then broke into a million pieces. It just disintegrated all over the highway. Once I got to the school, and Patten looked at my car, we realized a piece of glass had cut my AC hose, so that was a pricey lane change. The crazy part is that the truck driver and his passenger just went speeding down the road, without a care. They never looked back or noticed their glass was gone. I almost followed them to see the expression on their faces when they got to their job site and found their trailer empty. Still makes me smile to think of them scratching their heads in confusion. I hope it didn’t cost them too much in the experience.

Turnpike Stop 

Friday, we were on I-95 because we had taken a carload of treasurers to our new house. We had been in a dither figuring out how to pack our paintings and my plants, when Grant suggested we just put them in the car and head on up to Windermere. My knee-jerk reaction was, “No!”  We have been so good about staying home, why would we risk driving up the turnpike with the necessary gas, bathroom, and food stops we’d have to make? It wouldn’t be safe.  But it really made sense, so we packed the car, put our masks and hand sanitizer in easy reach, and drove north.

Saturday, our covenant group check-in questions were: when will we feel safe, and what will we do then? I had been thinking about the pandemic and whether I will feel safe enough to fly to visit Mary in San Diego this summer. After seeing that auger fall off the trailer and bounce over our car, I realized safety is an illusion. I can do everything right, but it may not matter. That doesn’t mean I’m going to go hug a stranger or buy tickets to a UM football game, but it does remind me that I can’t control everything even when I think I can.

Death and Taxes

Latest Figures  

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  1,040,223 sick; 
               59,819 dead
   World: 3,173,410 sick,
                220,413 dead

The US has had over a million people sick and more than 50k dead. And as certain as the sky is now bluer with less traffic to create smog, those numbers will continue to grow as we open up and go out. The curve has been flattened, but the area underneath remains the same, just spread out over a longer period of time.

Our other certainty is taxes, so, even though the IRS has generously ruled that, due to the coronavirus, Americans do not have to file until July 15th, rather than the usual April 15th, I decided to get our papers together. I usually wait for the deadline to loom, then frantically try to get it all done. Why not give myself a break this year? Not wanting to schlep a package to the post office, I have dutifully scanned it all and forwarded the file to Dennis who has prepared our return for years. I had convinced myself that I would then throw away all the actual papers, but I was wrong, and once again I have the lot bulldog-clipped and tossed into my important papers box. I have been able to scan and pitch our medical receipts, so one small step towards the paperless society.

The later filing date was a hope to keep the economy more intact if we didn’t pay taxes for a few months and used the money to support local businesses, which, of course, are all closed. I appreciate the thought since I’d rather keep control of my money as long as possible, but I’m not clear this idea was thought through. And, by the way, I read that those of us who make quarterly estimated payments still have our June 15th payment on time. Huh? The down side is that since I make sure we always have to pay a little, not get a refund, the IRS doesn’t have bank routing and account numbers to be able to deposit our $1,200/adult stimulus money. Social Security has the information. Big Brother doesn’t seem very organized. Thank goodness we weren’t planning on spending the money in the near future. Actually we were planning to parcel  it out to our local food bank and nature groups, but they’ll still be needing money, no matter when we get it. Perhaps we will be some of the lucky people who get a real check, with ”Donald J Trump” written on the memo line. Certainly suitable for framing.

I also read that American citizens married to illegal aliens are specifically excluded from receiving a stimulus payment. Talk about hateful legislation. Fortunately lawsuits are filed. Unfortunately, I’d bet the majority of the people in this group are people who need the money now, not in years when the courts finally rule. One more letter to be sent to my Congress people.

My Life Goes On

Naples High, Class of 1967

The song “How Can I Keep from Singing?” runs through my head. 

          My life goes on in endless song

          Above earth’s lamentations,

          I hear the real, though far-off hymn

          That hails a new creation. 

The Rolling Stones
One World Concert for WHO

Our lives go on, changed and unchanged. We are talking with our family and friends more, we are being with them less, actually not at all. Zoom is our new medium. Our phones, tables, and TVs are full of faces in black boxes. My high school girlfriends, the Rolling Stones, the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, talk and play in my living room in little squares.

Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for On-Line Gala

It reminded me of a set of paintings made by an artist when we were homeschooling. (which, by the way, is how everyone is being educated now, but in the 80’s and 90’s was a rare phenomenon.) We organized an art co-op with 4 other families, whose beliefs ran from a multi-generational family who followed an Indian guru who eventually convinced them all to sell their property in Broward County and move to North Carolina to an evangelical family who didn’t believe in evolution. I’d say we were in the middle of the continuum but it was more like a set of points radiating out.

The second year, I led a unit on painting, using Drawing From the Right Side of the Brain for my guide.  As part of our weekly meetings, we visited an oncologist who was also an artist who painted portraits of HIV victims as they were then known. At the time this was a deadly, scary disease. In fact, when a woman approached our UU congregation about attending and bringing her HIV-infected foster babies, we had to do some soul searching. She had been turned away from another church. Easy to think now that we should have welcomed her with open arms, living up to our professed values, but our younger son was 18 months old and was going to be in the nursery Sunday mornings with her children. Our solution was to have Grant volunteer as did several of our gay members. Only time we hadn’t begged to get nursery workers.

The oncologist/artist painted portraits of each of the children in our co-op plus a couple of the younger sibs. Although she wouldn’t give us the paintings, she did made a collage of them, with black borders between each child’s face. A Zoom view from time before time.

We were so afraid when HIV first came into our consciousness. Could you get it from the air, from toilet seats, from them, whoever them were? Now it seems to be one more thing out there for which we need to be aware, but not afraid. No longer victims of, but rather people living with AIDS, because it is a chronic disease rather than a death sentence.

         Through all the tumult and the strife
          I hear its music ringing,
          It sounds and echo in my soul.
          How can I keep from singing?

Songwriters: Eithne Ni Bhraonain / Nicky Ryan / Roma Ryan

         

Latest Numbers

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  826,240 sick; 
               45,373 dead
   World: 2,573,143 sick,
                177,602 dead

The US now has almost double the number of deaths as our nearest, dare I say, competitor, Italy. So I guess we’re Number One in something. Partially because we are doing a better job of testing and recoding deaths accurately, partially because we are bigger country and the smaller ones like France, Spain, and Italy, are running out of victims. Africa and South America have yet to weigh in. China has reigned in its contagion, but only by draconian means with phone apps everyone must use that show whether they are allowed out or must be quarantined.

In this country, cases are beginning to show up in the hinterlands, causing meat packing plants to shut down, and food supply lines to slow, because the workers are sick. Unemployment is estimated at 22,000,000. BTW, Florida is evidently the slowest state to process unemployment claims. Another dubious Number One. I’m debating about worrying about the food pipeline. To that end, I ordered okra and eggplant seeds, the only veggies that will grow in the Florida summer heat. Plus some sunflowers and marigolds for fun. I guess they are also edible. Wonder if we can catch fish in our little canal. Maybe I should put fishing rods on the list.

If Only We Wanted to Drive Cross-country

I guess good news is that oil prices are so far down, they’re negative, implying that producers will have to pay to have their oil stored, rather selling to refineries. It’s a matter of futures, short selling, and other financial shenanigans, but the bottom line is that the bottom line is way down. Gas is cheap, if we had anywhere to go and wanted to.

Twice before I remember really low gas prices. The first was around 1970. Steve and I would drive straight from Atlanta to Naples in our muscle car with the 350+ cc engine. Dang, I can’t remember the model. During a gas war, we paid $0.25/gallon. Since that car got about 6 miles to the gallon, cheap gas really helped our poor student budget.

The second time was when my children were young, so mid-90’s. I don’t know why gas dropped in price, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but it went below $1.00. I remember having them look at the pump so they could say they’d seen 2-digit gas prices in their lifetimes. I was driving a Dodge Minivan which got a lot better mileage than the go-fast car, but it sure wasn’t as much fun to drive.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Earth Day. This Great Pause has brought blue skies to Los Angeles and cleaner water in Venice. Surely all our national parks are enjoying the respite from millions of visitors. If only humans could learn.

I Miss the Beach

“The Corona Can Has Arrived.
Another Way to Find Your Beach”  

The natives are getting restless. I saw my first lawbreaker a couple of days ago when we rode our bikes past the beach. A woman was tucked down behind the little dune, with her feet in the water. She ducked her head down when she noticed me. Sunday, as we came over Rickenbacker Causeway bridge, I saw several people swimming at the north end of the beach. A cop’s car was parked nearby, so I wonder if they just ran into the water, then were given the bum’s rush out by the police. In either case, I’m jealous. The water looks so inviting, and the weather has turned hot. How ironic is the beer truck delivering to the local grocery store?

Stuff I Thought I’d Go Through
Before Moving to House.
So Delusional.   

We were coming back from packing up our storage unit, and the best thing I can say is that it’s done. Grant took on his grumpy packing persona he drags out for all packing events, and even though I asked him to be patient, he continued to bark orders, punctuated with exasperated sighs. I’m not sure why I was surprised. Any camping trips or vacations began with his being annoyed. At least after the next three weeks, I’m unlikely to have to ever pack again.

My friend Mary, who moved from Plantation to Pace, Florida a couple of years ago, told me from her experience, at our ages, I had one move left in me. She was right. I’ve just divided it into two parts: Fort Lauderdale to Key Biscayne for the first and biggest pack, now to Windermere with a much smaller one. Of course, something’s, like the kitchen and clothes, have to be down both times, but the big move was the first. I was on my own for that one. Thank goodness I had my friend Sally come help, and I hired Ryann for the last few days. I wouldn’t have made it without them. This time, because of coronavirus fear, it’s just me and Grant.

Thinking about swimming in our new pool is keeping me going. Or should I say, my head above water. But I do wish I could go to the beach.

According to Authorities

From my friend Ana’s brother Jose, who lives in Madrid:

1. Don’t leave home, but if you have to, then leave home.
2. The masks are useless, but they’re helpful. If you can, wear one, or wear a scarf or don’t wear them at all because they’re only good if you’ve got the virus, but you could have the virus and not know it.  So, yes, masks are helpful, wear one.  Oh, there aren’t any available?  Then don’t wear one, they’re useless anyway.
3. Stores are closed, except for the ones that are open.
4. Don’t go to hospitals, unless you have to, only for emergencies. What’s an emergency? If you think you’re dying, that’s an emergency, then go.  Otherwise, stay home since it’s like the flu…Well, it’s like a bad flu.  Well, it’s much worse than the flu.  Well, you may just die.
5. Gloves don’t help, but they could help.
6. Supermarket food won’t run out, but some items are scarce if you go at the end of the day but don’t grocery shop in the morning.  Better go at the end of the day and if something’s missing, return the next day.  No, it’s best if you don’t go out.
7. After buying groceries, leave your shoes at the door and wash your clothes in the hot/hot setting.  If you wash it in the normal setting, the virus won’t go away.  The virus won’t die if it spins in the washer with soap and set to cold/hot.  However, just wash your hands for 2 minutes and that kills the virus.
8. The virus does not affect children unless for those who have it.  Well, in Madrid many children have been hospitalized, but it’s mostly elderly people (like in any disease).  So no, this does not affect children.
9. Animals do not catch the virus, but having said this, a cat in Brussels tested positive in February.  When no one was getting tested, this cat got tested because we liked him, and that’s that.  Animals don’t catch it, although we don’t really know because we don’t test them, so no, they’re healthy.  Although animals transmitted the virus, but not anymore.  A bat, a pangolin, a Labrador, well no, it was a unicorn, or a panda bear, or a dolphin.  A man ate soup of something and look what happened!
10. You’ll have lots of symptoms if you’re sick, very high fever, loss of taste and smell, shortness of breath, diarrea… But you can also be asymptomatic, you can have symptoms without being sick (like a psychological pregnancy) or be contagious without symptoms or have a spring allergy and then you die anyway but no, that’s not it.
11. In order to stay healthy, you must eat well and exercise, but eat whatever you have at home and don’t go out to exercise.  You can exercise at home, there’s lots of videos, everyone is exercising.  Yoga, yoga, do lots of yoga.
12. Don’t get close to older people but take care of them, take food to them and medication to them.  In other words, have contact with them.
13. You can order prepared food which has perhaps been prepared by people without gloves and without masks.  When it arrives, don’t eat it and let it sit outside your home for 3 hours.
14. You can’t see your mother or your grandmother, but you can take a taxi and talk to the elderly taxi driver or talk to the pharmacist who is a very nice older lady.
15. The virus remains active on different surfaces for two hours, no, four hours, no, six hours, no, no, we haven’t said hours, maybe it’s days? But it needs a humid environment.  Oh no, not necessarily.
16. The virus remains suspended in air, or not, or maybe… especially in a closed room.  In one hour one sick person can contaminate ten others, so if a child gets sick, all your children were contaminated in school a while back, but let’s close the schools anyway because they have not caught it yet.
17. They report the number of dead but they don’t report how many are infected.  We will do massive testing, but not tomorrow, the next day, or even next week.  We’ll get to it, there’s no rush.  The Chinese ripped us of with the tests.  So we won’t do testing, heck, if you feel sick, it means you have it and that’s that.
18. We don’t have a treatment but there may be one which apparently is not dangerous and it works but in reality it doesn’t, or maybe it does,  it’s just had good results in some patients but not in all, so then we do have a treatment, but we don’t really have one.
19. We should stay in confinement till the virus disappears but it will only disappear if we attain herd immunity and therefore, when it circulates… and for that we need to break free of confinement.
20. Don’t worry, everything is under control and we have figured everything out, because of course Spain has the best professionals and the best healthcare  system.  And our Queen Letizia is nice and healthy, thank you.

P.S. Every day go out on your balcony to applaud and sing “We shall Overcome” several times a day to avoid depression.  Every day when 500 people die, it’s as if a plane with 500 passengers crashed, it doesn’t mean anything because the numbers are decreasing,  and it’s just a number anyway and it’s important to applaud and sing and have a festive atmosphere.  We are Spaniards and we shall overcome!

Apart From It All

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  614,180 sick; 
                26,081 dead
   World: 1,999,628 sick,
                 128,011 dead

The numbers are horrendous but, I am sure, are major under-counts because testing is still not available to most people. It is impossible to compare one week to another because the criteria change. New York just decided to add everyone who dies from any flu-like reason, and England has started including deaths at home, not just those in hospital beds. 

Even though the number of new cases and deaths in the US seems to be holding steady, not growing, I believe we are still just seeing the tip of the world-wide iceberg. So far South America, the mid-East, and Africa have not reported many cases. They will not escape, and the carnage will be massive. 

Covid Decoration
(Repurposed Palm Trunk)

Wrapped in our little privileged cocoon, we wait out the tribulation. We walk or bike in our comfortable community, then retreat to our apartment, able to organize and live our lives in as complete safety as anyone can have. InstaCart workers select and bring our grocery orders, Amazon drivers drop off any online items we want, the mail carrier puts our drugs in our mailbox. 

Through e-sign, we closed on our Windermere house today, after I wired the balance due to the sellers and the fees for Andrew, our attorney, from our Schwab checking account. Monday, we had a virtual walk-through via our realtor Jodi’s iPad and Zoom. I called up three insurance companies, reviewed their emailed quotes, and chose one with windstorm protection, which we paid for by automatic bank withdrawal. The electricity at that house is scheduled to be turned on, and the power here at the condo is arranged to be turned off the day after we move out, all via the respective companies' websites. I sorted out pool service by phone, and Grant is searching WiFi options. The boxes he ordered from U-Haul came yesterday. If only the packing could be done online, from the couch. 

Forty years ago, I celebrated with a good bottle of Sauternes when I signed the paperwork, in real ink, for my house. Tonight we will toast with Dark Horse Brut Rose, which I’m pretty sure was a Buy One Get One Free. The Sauternes will have to wait until I can go to a wine store and pick it out. 

Happy Easter

In Our Easter Bonnets  

For the first time in almost 40 years, the Easter bunny did not hide eggs at our house for my children and grandchildren to find. I did see a six-foot bunny in the back of a Key Biscayne police pickup truck, leading a parade of golf carts through the neighborhood. Sirens blaring, and horns honking.

When he was very young, Patten and I were shopping at the grocery store the day before Easter. He covertly pointed out a man in a tuxedo with a huge amount of candy in his cart. When we got a couple of aisles away, Patten whispered to me that he knew who the man was: the Easter bunny in disguise. Seemed reasonable.

Mary and Spaulding Dying Easter Eggs
2005

Now the grocery stores have instituted one-way aisles and limits on the number of people allowed in at once to facilitate physical distancing. I have decided to stop using the term social distancing because we are actually more in touch with friends and family now than ever. We just can’t physically  touch them. My friend sent a picture of her college-age daughter eating Easter dinner out on their porch. Near, yet far.

Nightmare on Elm Street, Peeps Edition  

Another casualty of the virus is the Peeps Show at Flamingo Studio in Lake Worth. My friend Marjorie and I would make a trek up each year to see dioramas made with Peeps, the marshmallow chicks, bunnies, etc. made by candy company Just Born. Before we went the first time, I called to see how long the exhibit would be open. “Easter, or until the ants get them, whichever comes first.”  We decided to hustle on up.

From Peeps chicks having fun riding carousels to bunny Peeps massacring each other, someone made it in Peeps.

Grant and I prepped our Easter dinner of herb-encrusted lamb, asparagus, and roasted potatoes before settling on the couch to attend our congregation’s Easter service. Around the world, ministers, preachers and priests led worship to empty buildings while their flocks watched on their TVs and computers. Yet, as always, there were defiant groups whose members came together, some claiming their god(s) would protect them, others asserting their First Ammendment rights. I shake my head in wonder.

Absolutely Stunned

Today, official numbers are:
   USA:  374,329 sick; 
               12,064 dead
   World: 1,441,589 sick, 
                   82,933 dead

I know I shouldn’t, but I watch the White House press briefing each evening. I tell myself that I do it to keep up to date on Covid-19, to hear Doctor Anthony Fauci and Doctor Deborah Bitx give us accurate information, but I don’t. The truth is that I am fascinated by what off the cuff remark President Trump will make.

When commenting on the removal of the captain of nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt after he went public in his cry for help with the virus on the ship, Trump said perhaps the captain shouldn’t have taken the ship to Vietnam where crew members likely were infected. As if the captain was just out for a pleasure cruise: “Where should we sail today? What about Vietnam? We haven’t been there lately.”

It doesn’t work that way. That port of call had been planned by the big brass of the Navy months ago.

The remark that just about put me over the edge was when Dr Brix was answering a question about the models which show hundreds of thousands will die of Covid in the US and our different states. Trump said, “The professionals did the models and I was never involved in a model. At least this kind of model.”

After Frank Bruni wrote about this in his New York Times article, “Has Anyone Found Trump’s Soul?”, I had to comment:

Unlike Trump, who claims he is number 1 on Facebook which he isn’t, I admit my comment wasn't the most recommended out of the 3939 comments, but it was a Readers’ Pick.

For Mature Audiences Only

Warning: if you’re offended by thoughts of senior sex, read no more. Once in your head, you can’t unthink it.

I don’t know if it’s the hours I lie awake in bed, my body still on Japanese Standard Time, or my genes misfiring in a last ditch effort to replicate, but my skin is tingling like days of yore when I had estrogen flowing through my body. It’s saying, “Sex seems like a good idea right about now.”

After my hysterectomy and oophorectomy in 2005, my hormonal level immediately went from 60 to 0. Those monthly cycles between intense desire and blah meh disappeared overnight. Thank god for muscle memory, but even that faded over time. Now old joints ache, unused muscles protest, and lubrications are zilch, yet my skin tingles and calls out. Interesting.

Pandemic

IHME Projections For Florida 

Today, official numbers are:
   USA.  311,357 sick; 
               8,438 dead
   World.  1,202,236 sick, 
                    64,753 dead
and no end in sight, although how these exact numbers come about I wonder. Who knows how many additional people recovered from slight, undetected cases, and how many more people died because Covid-19 exacerbated a preexisting condition.

The talk is still about flattening the curve. What happens when stay home is no longer mandatory? There are still 8 states without stay-at-home orders. How will their citizens fare?

Groundskeeper and Housekeeper,
Essential Workers, Key Biscayne Style*

After four days of sheltering in place and maintaining social distance, Grant and I are doing pretty well. We have agreed upon times together and times apart. We eat lunch and dinner together, playing a game of cards after lunch. We take turns reading aloud to each other after dinner when we haven’t had Zoom meetings to attend. Between times, we putter around with laundry, paperwork, read/listen to books. etc. I spend too much time reading news and watching White House press briefings.

Food Right at Our Doorstep 

Our outings are a daily bike ride or walk, stepping into the street when we near others on the sidewalk, with no worries of cars since they are few and far between. One trip to the post office to pick up our mail, and one grocery store visit, which was too crowded for me to return. We signed up for InstaCart and had our first food order delivered from Publix today. That was so easy I may never go back to grocery shopping again.

One friend said she was living a Montessori life, with different stations to organize her day: first was the coffee and journaling stations, then the housekeeping station, the lunch station, the meditation station, and so on. As she makes her rounds, she feels in control. Having control of my life is what I’m looking for too.

*Note: April 6, on our bike ride this morning, I saw a dog grooming van come on the Key. I just hope the workers are safe while they take care of us, our lawns, our babies, and our pets. There are 20+ Covid cases here.

Homeward

Cherry Trees in Tokyo  

I know I’m nearing home. Waiting for our flight in  Dallas/Fort Worth airport, I can hear a Miami-bound Cuban shouting into his cellphone. As Patten said, he’s had the same experience when he’s flown, and it is vaguely comforting. I thought we’re the only Americans over 60 flying, but there is a couple of LDS missionaries here trying to get to Salt Lake City from their post in East Timor.

Okinawa airport was fairly full, Haneda airport less so. For our short flight from Okinawa to mainland Japan, I changed our seats to the two center in the middle section of four. My gamble paid off, and we had no seatmates, nor anyone in the row in front of us and only two people behind us. I wished it were the other way round, but can’t have everything. We are about the only people not wearing masks.

The bus for Narita airport had 5 riders, and the airport was almost empty. We had ¥10000 cash. Rather than exchanging it for dollars, I planned to do some souvenir shopping. As we walked through the few open stores, the sales staff were on us like hawks. I hope they are not on commission. Nothing called to me. We ended up going to the exchange shop.

Last Japanese-ish Meal:
Chicken with Aona Rice, Salmon Shashimi  

I changed our seats on our Dallas portion to a window and an aisle, figuring that gave us only one outside contact. Premium Economy was half full, but they still weren’t letting people jump up from steerage, as proved by the guy who tried twice to slip into the seat next to his friend sitting in front of us. The extremely polite flight attendants helped him back to his assigned seat each time. That put the damper on my trying to get to First Class.

They did serve us upgraded wine from business class.

Dinner in Dallas  

Even though Dallas/Fort Worth airport is empty, we still had slow times through security because Grant had left his ebook in his backpack. Always fine before, but it meant his carryon stuff had to be sent through X-ray again. The guy behind him was stopped for the same thing too? Is TSA is adding restrictions to keep themselves busy since no one is flying?

The potential seat changer had missed where to drop off luggage previously checked so he tried to carry his surfboard through security. No go. He seemed bewildered until I told him how to get back down stairs to where the airline staff was collecting through bags. He wandered that way. He and his buddy aren’t sitting at our gate waiting to go to Miami, so I guess at least one other plane is leaving DFW today, but there sure aren’t  many. This virus is killing us.

Miami  

I only wept slightly when I thought about how lucky we were to be able to visit our grandchildren these past two months. Remi grew from a newborn to a smiling baby who laughs when I play with him. Bella has consumed my heart. Counting yennies with her, singing Baby Shark, holding her hand.  All wonderful. Thank God we can see them by video and that they will soon be in the States. I’m making reservations for July.

Last Two Days

Spaulding was right: no matter how long or short a trip is, 3/4 of the way through, you’re ready to go home. I had that a couple of weeks ago, wanting to sleep in my own bed and see Annie. Now I wish we could stay longer, there is so much we haven’t seen.

It’s a moot point for us now. All the military have just been forbidden to go into restaurants, malls, or any indoor spaces, except for groceries and household necessities. Outdoors is okay, as long as we can keep the social distance of at least 6 feet. Today we drove over to Ikei Island, but Ryan was reluctant to go to any of the beaches there, because the parking lots and entrances are privately owned and were crowded with locals. We had rejected going to any beaches on the bases because we figured they would be crowded with Americans.

Akuna Beach 

Fortunately Akuna Beach, down gravel and dirt roads through sugar cane fields, was empty. Two young men drove up as we were offloading children, but the slight sprinkle must have discouraged them, as they looked at the water for a few minutes, then left. Not great shelling, mostly broken coral pieces, but with many, many little hermit crabs. Bella says she wants to hold one, then says no just as I go to place it in her palm. We repeat this over and over.

Lunch was convenience store bento boxes in our laps while we sat in a Lawson’s parking lot, and Mary nursed Remi. I told her I had planned to be eating an elegant bento box while riding on a Shinkansen bullet train, looking out at Mt. Fuji, rather than this. I wouldn’t trade these two months with our family for anything. We are so lucky.

Ancestors’ Tombs 

I knew absolutely nothing about Okinawa, not that I know much more now, however, it has been interesting to see various areas and local structures, then reading about each on the internet. Certainly not as good as any of the guides we’ve had on tours, however, we’re making do. My impression is that this was a fishing and agrarian culture, with pottery and woodworking, but no metal. Very utilitarian.

Ryukyu Pottery 

Art and decoration don’t seem to be high priority, most of the pottery has the same fish or other shared design. I was surprised hibiscus on many pieces, but I looked it up, and it’s likely a native. It certainly grows everywhere. One shop did have some turquoise square trays with little stars, an homage to the beautiful water and the star sand, (actually exoskeletons of protista, Baclogypsina sphaerulata, which I hope to find in the ziplock of sand I’m bringing home.) The Ryukyu glass was born from necessity after World War II, when an Okinawan realized they could melt down broken Coke bottles from the military bases and blow new glasses. Beautiful, yet all the shops have the same style and colors.

Children’s Chairs 

Grant and I had visited a woodcraft shop downtown and loved the irregularly shaped tables made of slabs of wood split in two, then joined as mirror images, sort of like butterfly wings. Bigger than coffee tables, smaller than family dining tables. About $2,000. Fortunately we have our fabulous Amish-made dining table, or I would have tried to figure away to have one shipped. There were also children’s box chairs exactly like the ones my mother had made for each of us when my sisters and I were young. Besides using them as chairs, turning sideways as tables, and stacking as bookshelves, we sat in them on our cross-country trips so we were high enough to see out. The original car seats. A slower and gentler time.

Helping Bella See the Fish  

We didn’t interact very much with local people, partially due to our natural reluctance with having a newborn in the house, partially due to fear of the dang virus. Everyone was kind and generous.

Excuse the Mess 

Almost stereotypically polite. Old people, especially grandfathers, would touch Bella, rubbing her hair or patting her hand. One man, without asking, lifted her up to see the fish better at the mall’s aquarium. Mary said that was common. How will they react to any coronavirus personal space restrictions?

Lucky Me

I had my hair cut at the local barber shop in anticipation of our going home Monday and not being able to have it cut on the Key for many weeks. The shop specializes in military haircuts, old style, not the new relaxed regulations due to the coronavirus which allows longer lengths so the troops don’t have to visit the barber as often. I thought about just pointing to one of the pictures of a fade, but I was afraid it would put the female barber over the edge. The men had already refused to cut my hair when Grant had showed them my picture and asked. Grant had his hair cut the day before and claims his mustache trim was the most complete he’s ever had. As Mary saw on one of the coronavirus humor sites, no matter how bad it gets, cutting your own bangs is never a good idea. I knew there’d be a point where I’d ask Grant to give me a trim, and it wouldn’t be pretty.

Sense

Broken Pottery Sidewalk Decoration
(Shisa Heads Next To Wall)

I woke up and smelled the coffee, which made me happy because a loss of the sense of smell is now considered an indication of a case of Covid-19. I was also happy because Grant had made me a cup of coffee, a morning treat. We have decided to return to the States on the 30th as planned. Our respite from coronavirus here is over with several new cases now on the island among locals who have returned from Europe and tested positive. Seems like time to go home.

American Airlines is still flying and sent an email saying they’ve “relaxed their seating policy to enable customers to practice social distancing on board whenever possible.” Does that mean we can sit in first class if no one else is on board? I certainly plan to ask. I am also carrying wipes and hand sanitizer to clean our area and ourselves.

Even though President Trump is hoping Americans can spend Easter morning, April 12th, in crowded church services, we think it makes more sense to listen to the medical professionals and to practice self-isolation as long as we can stand it. Since we need to pack up our apartment to move to Windermere, we will have plenty to do. Rather than my going time after time to Total Wine for boxes like I did when I packed for Key Biscayne, I decided we would make one trip to U-haul and buy boxes. A cheap price to pay for safety. Then Grant realized we probably can buy them online and have them delivered. Even better.

Currently, Miami-Dade’s beaches, parks, and boat ramps are closed, and the mayor has threatened to arrest anyone who doesn’t comply. The irony is that in less than a month, it will be hot enough that most of us would want to stay in the AC anyway. We just hope we are allowed to bike along Crandon Boulevard.

We certainly didn’t plan being together 24/7 when we contemplated how our lives would change when Grant retired. Our Marriage Enrichment group is meeting by Zoom next Wednesday. We will have lots to talk about by then.

Beaches and Birthday

Araha Beach with Bride in Background  

We’ve been spending time at the beach in anticipation of returning to the Key where all the beaches, boat ramps, and the state park are closed because of the virus. We walked over to Araha for some exercise, then spent the next day back at Sea Glass Beach.

Bella has turned into a great beach comber, willing to wade in deeper than her pants will stay dry.

Doorway of Lanterns  

At night we went to Murasaki Muri to the Ryukyu Lantern Festival. Besides hundreds of lanterns in the trees and across walkways, there were contest lanterns, some cute, some serious. Dancing pigs, historic castles, cartoon characters.

This evening the entertainment was hula dancers, including a group that danced to “Amazing Grace” being sung in Japanese, truly cross-cultural.

Hermit Crab Choosing New Home  

Today, we visited Sunabe Beach which has flat seaweed-covered rocks with shallow pools where we watched little Gobi-like fish dart around. Some were cleaning out their holes, then backing into them. In the sandy area farther out, I found quite a few cone shells which had hermit crabs in them. One was checking out a new house. I think it was cleaning the potential shell, then it lined up and slipped its body over to its new home. Certainly an easier and quicker move than we will have.

Sunabe Memorial

Fighter Ready To Land At Camp Kadena. 

At the corner of Sunabe is a bronze bas relief with a US soldier on one side and terrified people on the other to commemorate, if that is the word, the invasion of Okinawa in World War II and the 150,000 Okinawans killed. The caption read, in part, “Based on the experience and reality of the Battle of Okinawa, we will correctly convey the absurdity and cruelty of war to the next generation.” If only it were heard.

Overhear, fighter jets prepared to land at Camp Kadena.

Yakiniku Grill  

Mary’s birthday celebration was lunch at the Yakiniku restaurant she likes near Kadena base on 58. (Since the name is only in Japanese, that’s how they refer to it.) We had the all-you can-eat in 100 minutes for ¥1500. Using a tablet, we ordered the meat we wanted to the waitstaff to bring, them we grilled it on the in-table grill. Repeat, repeat, repeat. The aged Kobi beef was a hit. As a sop to nutrition, Grant ate bowls of kimchi, and Mary had a salad. Ryan and I had rice. Bella ate little hot dogs and corn.

At the end, we had vanilla, chocolate, and mint ice creams with little waffles. As if we needed more.

Happy Birthday 🎈🎂 

No dinner required tonight. But we did have a birthday toast with Summer Snow, the sparkling wine we bought at Pineapple Park. It tasted of pineapple without being cloying.

It is also Ryan’s father Tom’s birthday so Bella got to sing to him too via WhatsApp. He will have a birthday lunch with daughter Carly in Fort Myers, FL.

Birds

Being Turtles Crawling  

  After a false start because we had to turn around and go to Bella’s last soccer practice which Mary remembered a half hour into our trip, we made it to Triangle Pond, an acre of muddy, trash-strewn water next to what looked like a municipal bus maintenance lot in down town Naha, and the best birding I’ve seen in Okinawa. 

The birder I met on the ferry to Kumejima told me Triangle Pond was the place to see black-faced spoonbills, and he was right. Just as we walked over from the Family Mart where we parked, two flew in and landed, as did a gray heron which looks like our great blue. A third spoonbill joined them a few minutes later.

Black-faced Spoonbills  

 I identified 12 species, including Northern shovelers, coots, moorhens, black winged stilts, plovers, sandpipers, and snipes. Mary and I saw a ruddy breasted crake, a rail relative, taking a bath. We were about to leave when a Common Kingfisher, (yes, that’s its name), flew out from under the bridge, hovered, swooped down and caught a fish, then landed on a dead branch quite close to us. Grant called it a Goliath hummingbird from the way its iridescent turquoise back and brick-colored breast feathers shimmed in the sun.

This almost, but only almost, makes me want to carry a camera and huge telephoto lens so I could take great pictures. Fortunately, I’m too cheap.

Ryan couldn’t come with us, because he and his squadron are now quarantined for the rest of 14 days since they came back from the Philippines. For the first ten days, there was no quarantine order, so they went to work, restaurants, etc. Now they are confined to quarters. I’m not feeling safer from our leadership’s command of the situation. For the pilots and maintenance personnel, it’s sitting around, probably watching TV or playing video games. For Ryan, it’s telemedicine so he’s still working the whole time, just on the phone rather than going to the clinic.

Because everything not essential is shut down in Florida, our UU congregation has gone to video conferencing for all activities. Grant met with his men’s group 8:00 Thursday morning, 7:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Our covenant group had a coffee klatch to try out the new format at 9:00 AM EDT which worked really well even though it meant we were participating at 10:00 PM Okinawa time. Sunday service was a little more difficult at 11:30 PM, but I managed to stay awake, then left the meeting before hospitality, i.e., chat room, started. I think in the long run, this will be the way we conduct committee meetings, saving gas and time. Convenient for us, and better for the environment. At last something good from this terror.

Decisions

Heart Beach  

On Monday, we stopped by Heart Rock beach where, if you’re at exactly the right angle, the two rocks line up to form a heart. Mary drove down to the closest parking lot and paid ¥300 (currently about $3) so we would only had to climb down about 20 feet of treacherous rock steps to get to the beach which she with Remi and Grant wisely opted not to do. Good decision.

Ours was the only car in that parking lot, and the other lots were mostly empty.  Still there was a steady stream of people hiking down to the little beach and taking cute pictures as only the Japanese can do. Mary said she read that often there is a line to get to take selfies. Bella was more interested in looking for shells or sea glass than having her picture taken there. I agree.

Black Pig Soba and Sea Grapes  

Lunch was at the nearest open restaurant, Island Food Processing Station, an unpromising name in a small, dilapidated building, but the black pig soba was delicious. Okinawan black pig, Aguu, is a native pig that they claim has less fat, less cholesterol, and more glutamic acid then regular, i.e., white pork. It’s supposed to be a good source of collagen, which goodness knows I need all I can get. Nothing like hanging around small children to make my wrinkles stand out.

Oh, To Have Some Collagen  

On the drive home, we discussed the dang virus and its ramifications. Our inclination was stay the whole 90 days we are allowed to, then assess the situation. We are in the vulnerable age range, and it seems like all of America is shutting down. Okinawa does not have any new cases.

Our roomie Kelsi, now on the mend, had been in bed with chills and fever.

Nurse Annie  

 Some of her trouble breathing may have been due to Annie. Kelsi tested negative for flu, pneumonia, and strep. Could not get tested for coronavirus. Even though it would be more than 14 days since she fell ill when we got home, Key Biscayne does not seem like a hospitable place right now. Even the beaches are closed. We’ve decided to shelter in place as the new phrase is.

Now Kelsi has decided to return to Boston this Sunday. Her job in south Florida is done, and her university is calling all its students back. Patten and Ryann can come get Annie, who will have to stay in a large dog crate in his studio so Bobby, his pit, doesn’t accidentally eat her, and William, who can either stay with Annie, or get his own crate. Plus any of my plants that survived Kelsi’s illness.

I thought things were fairly settled, however Grant brought up the point that we won’t have travel health insurance after March 30th. Theoretically our High Deductible Part F Medicare Gap policy is supposed to be good abroad. However, the State Department told Americans abroad to come home now or plan to stay indefinitely. On to American Airlines website to see about tickets.