Travels with The Rayman

I’m visualizing the Pope washing feet while donned in protective gear aka PPE.  That is how far I’ve come in my imagination during the pandemic of the day.  

So what, dear reader, do you think of all this?  As bad news swirls, the President refuses to free up ventilators from the defense production stockpile.  What on earth is wrong with this man?  

But I digress.

Took a ride yesterday.  It was a blustery March day and the wind whipped off the ocean as though Mother Nature was angry and letting us all know about it.  We drove down to the small burg of Guadalupe named after the Patroness of  All the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe.  She is the Mexican version of Mary, mother of Jesus.  I’ve always like the little town.  Its’ residents are mainly Mexicans that work for big Ag in the fertile Santa Maria valley.  Located in Santa Barbara county, the town has always looked like it has fallen on hard times.  And so an artist in Santa Barbara created some art to locate in this tiny town for what reason I do not know but I am glad he did it.

It was while looking for these sculptures that we turned down the road by the cemetery which is across the street from the school Rayman once taught an elementary school class.  Having never been on this street before, I asked Rayman to keep driving on the road to see where it led.  Wow.  We were so delighted to end up at the ocean after driving through the towering dunes that lined the road.  What a fabulous place.  And it is actually a place.  Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

We stopped at our friends home, the Bucks, and picked up our pizza stone that we left there a couple of weeks ago after a pizza making party.  They live in Nipomo which is north of Guadalupe.  Things were fine at their house and they were dressed in street clothes.  I say that because it is about 9 a.m. on Friday, March 27th and I’m still in my bed clothes. 

Earlier in the day we worked on our new headphone that I ordered on advice of our friends, Tomas and Ruthie.  Couldn’t get them working the night before so we went at it again and discovered that working during the day is more illuminating…Rayman could actually see the back of the TV to see where the jacks were.  So, now the headset works and I’ve ordered another pair because the one we had from Dish is pitiful compared to these new ones.  They are awesome.

Took our lives in our hands by stopping by Whole Foods on the way home and buying lots of chicken, ribs, lamb shanks so we can continue to, well, eat.  Rayman had to use the restroom so he ventured in.  We carry hand sanitizer with us for protection…armed, so to speak, for grocery shopping.  I made a point of thanking the workers for braving the virus to come to work.  Without them, no food.  

Work continues on the front of the house.  The painter and his sidekick that looks like James Crowell, stood on their ladders buzzing the building to erase the effects of the vine tendrils that has been removed.  This is going to be the world’s most expensive paint job is all I’m saying.  

And we started a new series on Apple + (plus) that is a riff on the race to the moon.  Highly entertaining.  

More from the ride.

My hands are bleached, dry, winkley not to mentioned a bit deformed.  So there is that.

And how was your day?  

Stayed home today.  Deep cleaned the kitchen, we did.  It was Tuesday which is the normal day for our housekeeper, Bertha.  Not today.  Not for awhile.  So, Rayman and I did a deep dive into the land of knives, mixers, blenders, ovens, stoves, refrigerator.  The work is so boring I’m not going to continue on this subject.  Our new habit is going to be to clean one room a day.  And when we are done with them all, we will begin again.  I dread the den.  Papers, albums, papers, stationery, paper, and everything we don’t know where else to put it.  Le den.  It make take a few days.  

Watched a movie tonight.  JoJo Rabbit.  Did you see it?  If not, check it out.  Very good entertainment about nazi Germany.  I know.  How is that a thing?  Trust me.  It is good.

Finished my book about a young woman that rode in a horse race across the steppes of Mongolia.  If you are a horse person, or a woman, or an overachiever, or Mr. Ed, you would like this book.  Reach out if you want to know the name…of the book.

 

Watched Gov. Cuomo this a.m.  He is doing an update on the status of NYC.  He makes Trump look like a cheap suit.  He is facing a huge crisis of not enough ventilators.  CDC is sending like 400.  He needs 40,000.  Just think how you would feel if you were in his shoes.  What Trump is doing is reckless and irresponsible.  Never in my life have I seen such negligence in governing.  We may be screwed.  Now he has disappeared Dr. Fauci.  He says churches will be filled on Easter.  He wants to just ignore the reality so he can give to the CEOs of all his favorite companies huge amounts of our money (read taxpayers) to save their businesses rather than peoples’ lives.  Naked opportunism for the wealthy.  Screw the rest of us.   He lies to us every day with his mealy mouth presentations.

Listen, people, I like to make my blogs fun and he is undermining my efforts here.  It is all his fault.  But as a canny individual, I will not fall in the trap.

So, I digressed.

Spoke to a neighbor today.  That felt good.

The disaster of the day was the bread I baked.  Somehow my baking is eluding me so this is a serious situation.  I measured out the flours on my kitchen scale.  I measured everything precisely and yet…when the first rising rose, there was residual water in the bowl.  That’s never happened before.  So, I threw flour at the problem.  Didn’t want to throw all the flour and yeast away.  Then I placed the sticky dough on the towel as instructed, folded the towel around the dough and waited for the second rise.  When I went to throw the dough into the heated pan, the dough stuck to the towel (yes, I floured the towel).  So there I was, elbow deep in long strands of clingy wet dough, furiously trying to get a majority of it into the hot dutch oven.  Thank goodness the filming crew wasn’t here to capture the scene!!  It looked, well, pathetic.  We are now eating a weird loaf of bread, soft instead hard.  Geez.

Made a fresh green salad with avocado from the local avocado ranch here in Morro Bay, red onion, hot house cherry tomatoes from Mexico…just because I was desperate for a tomato, organic lettuce (Romaine from the area), and a great homemade dressing.  So there was that.

Did some laundry. Cut my nails.  Installed some batteries in a new headphone for the Rayman.  We had one headphone we had never used (don’t ask).  My works on bluetooth.  His new one that was delivered today from Amazon are plugged into audio in and audio out jacks on our Smart TV.  Tomorrow night is our test run to see if they will both work simultaneously.  

As an aside, it just took me four attempts to spell simultaneously.  I still don’t now if it is spelled right.  But do you ever do that?  Just forget about how something is spelled?  And it doesn’t have to be a long word.  It could be short…cleeve.  You know the word, you know how to spell the word but the word won’t come.  Poof.  

Have you been having bizarre dreams lately?  Yeah,me too.  

You know the other thing I’m not looking forward to is dusting that chandelier over the dining room table.  What was I thinking when I bought that thing?

Hang in there everyone…it’s going to get worse.  Maybe I will get to the point of dying my hair purple.  Great time to experiment!!

Hi peeps,

The last 24 hours or so have been, dare I say, fun…in new ways unforeseen in these days of societal upheaval.

Rather than keeping you, dear reader, on pins and needles, let’s review.

We were hunkering down for leftover Butter Chicken when we received a FaceTime call.  It was FAMILY calling from Portland.  What a hoot.  Cenk (my cousin’s son-in-law) instigated the folly, I think.  He was sitting in the SHIP with a bottle of Corona (not virus) beer.  He had my cousin (Sue and her husband, Larry) on the line.  Additionally, he had his family, Kristen and their three kids on line.  He also added eldest daughter of my cousin (Ali and her hubby, Bernat).  Then he taught me how to turn Rayman and me into cows.  It was uproareous. 

We had a cheer as most adults had wine or Corona beer in hand!!  Best FaceTime ever.  I loved being a cow.  Although, I must say…I wanted to change to a mokney but the “effects” eluded me.  More practice is needed.  So if anyone wants to try it, call someone who knows how it works.  Right now, I’m in early training.  

After the frivolity we hung up and watched Parasite.  Anyone seen it?  I need help.  Was the parasitic family that wormed their way into the Parks’ home the parasites?  Or were the Parks the parasites, or was the guy in the basement the parasite.  Or were they all parasites?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Rayman was not amused that the film captured Best Picture.  Just sayin.

Today, Sunday, we took Beau to the Rock for a walk.  While there I noticed bubbles in the bay.  Several creatures emerged.  Divers.  They seem to have been trying to maintain that elusive 6-foot distance.  There were plenty of people on land and they were extremely happy to see us, apparently.  Lots of hi’s were exchanged.  Actually, starved for human interaction may have been the reason but I prefer to think they were just thrilled to see US!!

On the way to the walk, I ducked into our very small health food store extending my search for clam juice.  Nada.  However, I did find black quinoa and gourmet pinto beans.  Oh, and vinegar for Neta that was only $5.99.  Snapped those things up and felt victorious.  The little things.  

After the walk, I called Neta with the good vinegar news.  Drove by and delivered it and we visited from afar, she in the house, me half way down her entrance way.  It left me feeling good to be useful and Neta was thrilled to get the vinegar.  She left the payment on a bench in an envelop, under a rock.  

After returning home, we had breakfast, worked on our puzzles and then headed out to north Paso to pick up our wine shipment.  Here are some pics of our wondrous ride.  

Graveyard Vineyard is owned by Paula and she was there to greet her only visitors of the day.  She assured us that had disinfected everything so we went in.  And what a great time was had by all.  She was offering wine on sale at a 40% discount.  Seems that this was their biggest money making event…the Zin Festival weekend of the year.  The festival was cancelled.  She was very disappointed as would we all be, I’m sure.  However, we laughed a lot anyway.  The winery is one of the most creative.  Their labels feature skeletons, ghosts and the like.  They also have some great merc.   Rayman spotted a wall hanging that was hanging with a bunch of other wall hangings.  It said, “I wanted to have a battle of the wits but you seem to be completely unarmed”.  We bought a few extra bottles and one sign with a saying that I cannot disclose because the recipient might read this and it would spoil the surprise…it is very funny too.  

 

After fond adieus, we visited the graveyard shown below.  Very sweet place.  If I hadn’t opted for fire, this would be a good choice.  We were in such a good mood, we didn’t stop to think that people might actually end up there.  

 

When we drove off toward Paso, I informed Rayman that he was lucky to have me because I am looking for fun, not misery.  In this time of trying events, I firmly believe we must do what we can to laugh.  And try to stay positive.  I am guessing that my declaration may have been a bit presumptive but, what the heck.

To that end I am going to organize some fun.  A lip syching contest on-line.   Rayman and I will start it off…throw down the gauntlet, if you will.  So start preparing your “act”.  More info to followr!!!

 

 

But I digress.

As if things weren’t bad enough, we watched Contagion tonight.  Interesting and a bit prothetic but comes close to matching Trump’s presser today.  Someone shut him up.  Whenever he talks, the markets tanks.  Futures took a hit today when he spoke.  There is a correlation between words spoken by this numbskull and stocks losing value.  Don’t believe it?  Check it out somewhere.  I know not where.  Nor do I care.  I can’t prove it but I just know it is truth ala Bill Maher.  He has a segment in some shows that is entitled just that.  And it is funnier than I am.  Guess that’s why he has a show and I have a blog!!

I suggested to a friend today that I wish Trump would just resign and go to FL.  That, however, would leave Pence in charge.  But Pence is so far up Trump’s ass, it will take major surgery to remove him and since we have a shortage of hospital beds…

Rayman picked up a pizza tonight and we feasted as we watched TV.  I’ll continue my clam juice search tomorrow so I can make my famous clam chowder.  It is amazing to me that people buy the stuff.  I really thought I was the only one.  

Today, it was time to grocery shop again.  The delivery service that I tried out was a bust.  Only a fraction of things I ordered were delivered because the store’s shelves were bare.  Very disappointing, however, this is a disappointing time.

We ran to Ralph’s in Los Osos and were thrilled to see veggies and fruit…lots of it!!  I bought all organic.  Though, with people mauling the merch, organic may be a moot point.  However, someday this will pass and I want those farmers that go to the trouble of not dousing everything in poison to still be standing.  So there is that.

A few things were missing…like flour (the staff of life) and clam juice (who knew people really bought that stuff).  So, after we left, we headed to the vet for Beau’s appointment.  The people at the Animal Care Clinic in SLO came out to the car, took our baby in, shot him, and returned him to the car.  From there, I called the office and commenced the payment for services via the telephone.  Pretty darn safe, I’m guessing, and hoping…and all that razmatazz.

Then we drove to the medical marijuana store in Grover Beach and there we found two guys and their computers sitting under a rectangular umbrella to take orders like a drive thru.  Cool.  Got our stuff and joked with them quite a bit.  So impressive and dare I say,  entrepreneurial.  

My friend, Neta, asked if I needed rice based on an email I sent out to our Sideways wine tasting group.  Since I planned to prowl the aisles of numerous grocery establishments, I demurred but then asked her if she needed anything.  Yes.  She did.  Braggs Organic unfiltered cider vinegar.  Okay, I told her I would pick her up a bottle.  

When we arrive arrived at Whole Foods, I asked Rayman to stay in the car.  He is more susceptible that I.  So I ran in to make a quick visit.  Vinegar.  Check, Cheese crackers.  Check.  A few other items and out I dashed.  Then we drove over to BevMo.  It was opened but closed.  Had to download their app and buy the stuff (aperol) on line.  Then I had to wait for someone to deliver it to the door.  There was a man there with a keg waiting to get in.  So, I started a chat.  He thought the virus was way overblown.  I asked him if he watched Fox.  He said he didn’t watch anything which is just as bad (sorry Fox watchers).  So, he is ignoring directives and doing his own thing.  I wished him good luck.  

And off we drove.  

When we arrived home, I brough everything in and wiped the groceries with Clorox wipes.  Put the groceries away.  Then I looked the WF bill.  The vinegar was $17.  WHAT?  It had additives and wasn’t plain vinegar.  Treacherous marketing.  I didn’t notice because I was trying to get out of the store unscathed by the microbes.  So, I emailed Neta and gave her the bad news.  So now I need to back to WF and return it and get the right stuff.  Darn it.  Haste makes waste.  

The news was dreadful tonight.  A lack of PPE (personal protective equipment) for the health care workers.  Lack of respirating equipment.  CA has been ordered to stay at home as has NY and Illinois.  It falls to the governors and mayors to run this emergency response while the President blunders his way through news conferences with happy talk that does not at a reflect reality (he lies as does his VP) and a total lack of concern or empathy for people on the front lines or the poor infected souls.  How is this a thing?  It is a national nightmare.  The President says hospital ships are coming but they are weeks away.  Test kits are here.  They aren’t.  There is a new drug.  No there isn’t.  We are living in very dangerous times now.

A great segue to what we, Rayman and I, are doing.  We are drinking, getting high, and walking.  We are eatiing every meal at home.  I even gave up my crown as Miss Gourmet Cook and made butter chicken in my Instapot, and jasmine rice in my rice cooker while I showered for the evenings festivities.  It was delicious and easy.  The chicken was skinless breast that lacked flavor but in these times, one must be happy to even find chicken (there wasn’t any last night at Albertsons).  The sauce was great (Indian curry kind of flavors).  Frozen peas are new in my repertoire.  Bought a giant bag of them (organic of course) at Costco last weekend.  Served them too.  Oh, and a good light white wine to wash it all down.  Yummy.  

The news made us sick so we are in bed.  I’m blogging.  Rayman is reading Sapiens.  I’m going to turn this machine off and read now….I think having the lights on may be bothering Beau as he is wedged between us.  He is offering a great deal of joy during this madness.  His affect on us is calming which is a good thing.  Oh, how we love our dog.

And with that, the week ends in a much worse place than it started and I fear for our future.  

 

Some questions for you, the dear reader.

Do you think China will own the world in the end?  I ask because they seem to have successfully attacked the virus while here we are begging for tests, hospital gowns torn up to make “masks”, hospitals in major cities looking at a crisis with few answers.  

Maybe in the world at large, we cannot have democracy-type governments any more.  Or capitalism as it is currently practiced.  Maybe we need something new and completely different.  Of course, it could cause a war or many wars because people at the top are not going to go lightly.

Is America a failed state at this point?  Minority rules this country thanks to the electoral college, gerrymandering that has given us radical representatives instead of allowing for spirited debates among moderates, and the polarization of our courts.  And this finds us in a position of having an inept President, a sycophant VP, and a horrible leader of the Senate.  

At least with a government in England, a vote of no-confidence would drive a new election.  We don’t have an escape hatch like that.  Are we screwed?

Feel free to comment.  I don’t have the answers…only disturbing questions.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

We took a walk this morning and ran into a few of our fellow neighbors whom all kept their distance.  A worker gave Beau a treat without touching him.  Very astute.  

Yesterday I ordered large envelopes, printer paper, and a year’s supply of Purell…from Staples.  It will all be delivered to my front door!!  They were out of smaller amounts of hand cleaner so I opted to the king-size version.  If this catastrophe continues, we may run out.  So there is that.  

Groceries are being delivered tonight via an app that I discovered…between 8 and 10 p.m.  I ordered stuff two days ago.

My hand is going to have to wait for a shot to straighten the finger.  Just can’t deal with that right now.

My physical therapy will done on-line using Zoom.  I’ll let you know how that works.  No touching…just watching and listening and trying stuff.  Which I must say may just revolutionize physical therapy.  Are we headed toward a touch-less world?  No hugs, no kisses, no nothing?  Glad I’m an old lady…if you get my drift.  However, Rayman is NOT off limits.  Don’t know what I would do without my inspirational hubby.  Glad he got his happy pill dosage increased.  Great timing!!!

We are scheduled to go on the Rocky Mountaineer train this summer…except that we received an e-mail from the travel agent saying the train was offering to re-book at no cost to us.  What?  We cannot even get into Canada now.  We may die before the date it gets rescheduled to…(bad use of English, but you get the point).  I think they should refund our trip so I will be working on that today…any ideas from the peanut gallery?

Didn’t play golf today.  Scared, I guess.  If we play, it will be with each other and walking.  Groups just feel wrong right now.  My poor me…just starting to hit the ball good and …poof…There are, however, much more important things to get aggravated about so I think I will just count my blessings.

As of now, everything on my calendar has been cancelled.  Time to finish my great American novel…oh, I’m not writing a novel…real life is so much more interesting.  So, I guess I’m going to need to get some discipline going and type away.   Stay safe and feel free to engage in writing!

Well, here we are, shutting ourselves off from the world on purpose.  It goes without saying that this is unprecedented in my life time.  And I’m really old.  

So, what to do?  Why, blog, of course.

Every single event on my calendar has been cancelled.  High tea, physical therapy, aqua aerobics, a fashion show.  Between last week and this week and it’s only Monday, we lost more money (on paper) in the stock market, we have been told to avoid groups of more than 500, oops…make that 250…oops…make that 100,  oops, make that 10.   I don’t mean to confuse anyone…that’s the number of people, not my IRA account.

But, I digress.

The suffering is palpable.  One friend has said only one person can visit her husband a day in his memory care building.  Luckily, no one in our county has died yet…is it just a matter of time?   Our hearts go out to Ted and Sandy.  It is so painful and consequential.

When I find myself sitting around worrying about the number of respirators we have in our area, I know I’m in trouble.  Because it is troubling.  And while it is true that this pandemic crossed our borders, we have known (the federal gov’t) since January that it was going to happen.  And our federal government fiddled as Rome was closed down but people rose up and flung open their shutters and sang opera.  

Really.  Our government was criminally negligent in my humble opinion.  Happy talk, happy talk, happy talk.  The only person on the podium today that I believed was Dr. Fauci, .  I may have misspelled his name.  I love the guy.   Straight shooter who believes in data and actually knows what the heck he is doing.  

In reflecting on this further, where is FEMA?  I believe that stands for Federal Emergency Management Administration.  So curious was I that I googled it and found that it is now headed up by one Peter Gaynor.  In reviewing his bio, it was discovered that he is actually qualified for the job.  However, when I went to FEMA’s website there was only one or two sentences about the pandemic and, well, isn’t that odd?  Below the pandemic announcement, the rest of page was filled with talk about other subjects.

http://www.fema.gov

Okay, I admit I am in the mud here.  However, I guess the above info does beg the question of why we aren’t hearing from them.  Which goes to the heart of my complaint about how things have been and are being handled.  I mean one thing FEMA does according to its mission statement is to provide toilets.  And with all the toilet paper being purchased, we are going to need more toilets.  

Great story.  I was playing golf last Thursday with a friend who resides in Canada.  She and her husband are snowbirds.  We were discussing the pandemic as we walked the course.  No need to worry about getting infected out there.  Our balls never go to the same place (they fly all over the course not even remotely near the center of the fairway).   Seems safe to me.

But I digress.

Lorraine, the Canadian, says to me, “I am worried the border will be closed.”  I replied that I didn’t think he would do it.  Lorraine said, “I mean Canada might close the border.”  Let that sink in for a minute.

Today I escaped the confined of our house twice!!  Once to walk Beau in the rain, and the other to drive over to Paso with Rayman to deliver our tax info to the accountant.  Of course, we could have mailed it but, hey, a ride and a walk is a great idea so consider it if you aren’t already on board.  You know those lighted signs on CA freeways that say things like, “Buckle Up)”  (which I wonder if that is safe advice for the 70 mph driver of the car racing pass the sign and who decides to actually buckle up.)   Anyway, today the sign warned us about the coronavirus and washing our hands and perhaps staying home.   I only remember it was about the virus rather than seat belts.  The State of CA seems to be all over it.  Personally, I have been impressed by our State gov’t in general during this time.  It’s never a bad face to look at on the front page of the paper…Gov. Newsom, I’m referencing here.   And tonight  7 counties, I think, ordered all their people to shelter in place as though this phrase is a typical, everyday term.  Never heard the term before.  Anyway, this will affect  6.9 million people which is more people than 38 states in this country have collectively.  Don’t get me going on the Senate, the institution I hate.  

Keeping the pandemic on a lighter side, …………………………………

Meanwhile.

This is no time for a toothache.  Our dentist office called us today and told us the office will be closed for the next two weeks.  That may be a blessing (sorry Dr. Koblinski).  And physical therapy was cancelled.  I will not specify how that helps or hurts me but thanks for asking.  Then the Quota club cancelled their annual fashion show fundraiser.  And high tea was cancelled and this is very unsettling for the express reason that I bought a spectator hat in a vibrant, bright yellow for the occasion.  I have volunteered to loan it out as we may not be here in June when they may hold the tea now.  It was great fun to buy that hat.  Dead of summer in Portland, OR I went shopping for a hat after I received the invitation from my dear friend, Mary.  It’s Mary’s birthday and she was treating me to tea.  Very upsetting that it was cancelled.

But I digress.

So, Rayman and I found a huge hat shop on Killingsworth, truly an extraordinary street name.  It may have been another street but I prefer to remember it being on Killinsgworth to enrich the reading experience. Portland has a few interesting street names.  One is Couch.   When lost downtown this summer, I asked a passerby where Couch St. was and he said, “It is pronounced “Kooch” street.”…as in koochy, koocky, koo.  But for my money, of which little is left (on paper), Killingsworth is the best named street in town.

This blog may appear to be a drag.  Not only that… you may think it is, in fact, a drag.  However, in a few years from now when we look back at this extraordinary time, it may be fun to remember how horrible it really was.

And with that cheery note I will bid a fond adieu.

p.s.  Received an email from Lorraine from Oregon.  They are headed back home because the Prime Minister, in fact, closed the border to Canada to all but its citizens.  She will be missed but I must admit….I’m jealous.