Day 470billion

Day 470billion and counting....

Well, here we are still...smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. I finally caved and bought myself a laptop because this thing doesn't seem to be going away and I need connection. 

How is everyone holding up?   My former home state of Texas is getting hammered right now and I know sooo many people who are sick and too many people who have lost loved ones.

Still unemployed although my benefits will run out before the end of the year so...yea...that's a problem. I am trying desperately to come up with a way to support myself that does not include going to a 9 to 5 job. If anyone has suggestions, I am all ears. 

And how have I been passing the time?  Surprisingly, by traveling. 

I spent a week in Texas packing up my mom's house. 

One closet down, the rest of the house to go...

Visiting with friends was cut short by my brother's announcement that he tested positive for Covid19 about an hour after we had lunch together. Fortunately that was a false positive but still...no one (including me) was willing to interact with that possible diagnosis hanging over my head. 

My most favorite discovery amongst the millions of photos
and souvenirs of lives well lived:
My Great Aunt Louise and her sorority sisters
at the University of Texas
Circa 1919

Anyway, I got the house mostly packed up before heading back to Colorado.

Bunny graduated from Ole Miss (YAY!) and moved to Tampa.  She liked the idea of being closer to her sister but wasn't that fond of the East coast of Florida. Current boyfriend lives in Tampa and his mom was a lifesaver in finding her an apartment. Of course, the job opportunities that were everywhere in March completely dried up by her move in May and she has just now gotten a job.  Anyway, I wanted to get to Florida to see both girls before life intervened and we all were working and unable to visit. A long weekend in Tampa at the beginning of June was perfect. 

Belle, Me, Bunny
at the beach in Florida

Belle and her BF came over from Palm Beach and I got to meet Bunny's BF for the first time. 

Love love love Bunny's little apartment-walking distance to restaurants and stores- and the beach at Clearwater is gorgeous.  Her job starts this week so cross your fingers all goes well. Belle is also back to work after being laid off but she says it is impossibly slow. Florida being another hot spot for the virus makes her job a challenge. 

Home from Florida I headed to the cabin for a week to supervise a new roof installation. I'm on the fence about what to do with that cabin. 

New roof, fresh paint. 
Want to buy it? 

Love it dearly but it has its drawbacks.  I've been staying in Golden for 5 months now and enjoying being back in civilization. After my hospital stay last November I realized that living in a rural area was maybe not the best of long term plans. Add to that the need/desire to be within an hour of the airport and the cabin looks less and less inviting. Welcoming any suggestions or extravagant offers to purchase it...

For July 4th we drove to Montana (No. 65: Visit a new state!) to visit Friend's brother. We took the RV which was a fun experiment, my having only been in an RV once before. (And even then we stayed local.) So we drove for two days through Wyoming and Montana to Bigfork. I expected the Eastern side of Wyoming to be more mountainous...I guess because my only other experience with Wyoming was Yellowstone National Park.  I had volunteered to drive the RV until I realized the speed limit was 80 and that sucker was bigger than I expected. Nope, couldn't do it. 

Ok. So it doesn't seem that big here. 
But I was more comfortable driving the Smart Car....
And isn't this a magnificent Montana Sunset? 

Working on No. 99, we stopped at the Battlefield of the Little Bighorn (aka Custer's Last Stand). It's fascinating to drive through the fields (I had my own personal historian and park buff driving me) and even with other cars and people, I could imagine the horses coming over the hills, how easy it must have been for Custer to miscalculate the number of Native Americans down below, see the whole scenario play out....

Bigfork, MT is darling and the brother's house on the water was perfect for July 4 fireworks. Honestly, I've never seen so many explosives in the sky in one night. There was a professional display from the Lodge across the lake and then the neighbors were all competing against each other and it was almost overload. And that's from someone who ADORES fireworks. 

Magical

Love!

Like the Milky Way exploding!

We tried to go through Glacier National Park but, like many public areas, it was overwhelmed with visitors and many parts shut down. We ended up with a picnic by the lake and a stop on the way home for cherries. 

A particularly awful pic of me in front of 
Lake McDonald.  
Riding in a convertible will give you that lovely hairdo. 

Home from Montana for two days and then off again to Texas. JeanMom's house had sold and the deadline to be out was fast approaching. Fortunately, emptying houses is my jam. I packed, I sorted and I emptied. 

Little house ready to move on to a new owner.

We did not disclose the ghost that came with the house.

He's friendly.

The Ft Bend Women's Center was the beneficiary of some items, the rest went to storage to be sorted through when it isn't July in Texas.  

Someone at the Women's Center has a sense of humor.
Woody hanging on to the back of a moving truck!

WHY do I seem to end up doing my moving in the heat of the summer? No clue. I'll probably end up moving out of the cabin in the middle of January during a blizzard. 

The storage unit filled!

And now, as the Corona virus seems to be having a come back and states are grappling with masks and shut downs and the impending school year, I am back in Golden. The one project I started back in May, a baby quilt for a friend, has FINALLY been completed. Like everything else this year, this project was filled with false starts and corrections and mistakes. I completed the top once, only to trash it and start completely over. The new top was attached to the backing and  then ripped apart to be redone because I didn't like the batting. This is one project I will be happy to put in the mail. At least I can say I am happy with the results. 

In progress here, and now done. 
Into the mail today!

So. Any suggestions for gainful employment, creative (paying) endeavors and or housing solutions will be welcomed. 

Everyone stay safe, wear your masks and wash your hands.

Greetings from Isolation...

Greetings!

It has been soooo long.

Last time I posted it was right after Thanksgiving and the hospital stay and Oregon beach trip that accompanied that week.

Since then we have had Christmas and New Years and job upset (always job upset- my only constant for the last 2.5 years) and a trip and ....COVID-19.

Where to start?

I think with the job upset since that has been such a constant refrain in these posts for the last couple of years. At least when I bothered to post, it was a constant.   Mid February our doctor called an office meeting and announced he was leaving our office to work for the only competition we had in our little tiny Colorado town. He was gone after the next day.  The following week the Powers-that-Be from Colorado Springs drove in, took us out to dinner and gave us the news. The office will close in 2 weeks. No doctor, no office, no job. Effective March 2, I became unemployed. I had never been laid off before...always trying new things!

Surprisingly, I was pretty calm about this turn of events. Work had been so stressful, every time I got the hang of whatever the new normal was, something else was added to my position/office/situation. I was exhausted.  My mom in Texas was going to need some help with her house since she had moved to Assisted Living so I had been thinking I was going to need to take some time off anyway.  Truthfully I was relieved. The timing was impeccable. How perfect though, I had no idea.....

My retired friend suggested a quick trip before heading to Texas to help mom. Even though we had been hearing reports of a virus in China, it really had not hit home that it might be an issue.  We scheduled flights out on March 7 after briefly discussing the possibility of "maybe we shouldn't go". We were headed to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and figured since the virus had not been reported there, we would be fine.

We stopped in Texas on the way and attended the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. (Previous experience at the rodeo here.) There were plenty of people in attendance although we did notice more hand washing stations and hand sanitizer.

Maren Morris at HLSR

a VERY pregnant Maren Morris

The flight attendant on our flight the next morning assured us the seats had been sanitized for our protection, although we did  do our own little wipe down with the Clorox wipes.   Just in case, you know.

Once we got to Mexico, our only exposure to the Corona virus was through our morning emails and news updates. March 11 we heard that the Houston Rodeo had been cancelled, 11 days early.  Friends were asking where was I, was I safe?

The only Corona we ran into.

Honestly we felt much safer in Mexico than we would have in the States.  The virus had not traveled that far and restaurants and the state of Guanajuato were already being pro-active BEFORE they had any cases. Most places required hand sanitizer upon entry, restaurants removed tables to distance patrons and the fact that most everything was open air added to our sense of security.  A decision was made to extend our stay. We had zero desire to return to the panic in the States.

Enjoying a margarita before all the restaurants closed down.

Our original return date had been March 17, but we moved it to March 31- the last day before the airlines were supposed to start restricting flights. As the week wore on, the news from the States was looking more and more grim while Mexico was beginning to shut things down around us. On March 22 the Mexican government closed the churches. No more Catholic Mass. The church bells in San Miguel rang all day long to spread the news. We started thinking maybe we should leave sooner as our entertainment options were becoming limited. Many restaurants had already gone to take out only.

See that rope hanging down? 

That's how all the bells get rung- by hand. 

Every quarter hour.

We scheduled a flight on the 26th only to have it cancelled, twice. We managed to get to Texas on the  afternoon of the 26th. There were 15 passengers on the plane plus crew. Customs was EMPTY. Amazingly, coming into the country was a pieced of cake. No one asked if we were feeling sick, took our temp, nothing. Maybe they trusted Mexico to do that before we left- which they did. We filled out a form regarding where we had been, how we had felt and had our temp taken before boarding the plane in Queretero.  On the 27th we flew back to Denver on a slightly fuller plane. I had a moment of panic on take-off as I had to move my seat. My seat belt was stuck so I had to sit next to a complete stranger for 15 minutes.  I realized for the last 3 weeks I had basically only been that close to one other person, my traveling companion.  Thankfully, the seat belt was freed and I got to return to my seat once we were in the air.

An incredibly empty Houston Intercontinental Airport

Once in Denver a decision was made to stay there.  I made a quick trip to the cabin to get the cat and some warmer clothes and returned. Colorado had a Stay-at-Home order at that point and I was anxious about getting stopped. Fortunately the trip was uneventful and I have been here ever since. I am quite grateful to be in the city where there is food delivery. Door Dash! Uber Eats! Amazon Fresh!  Things ordered actually show up within a couple of days. I did not want to be alone in the middle of nowhere with few resources, especially if I ended up getting sick.

And the job situation? I suspect you know how that goes. As I said, the timing was perfect. I am eligible for unemployment. Unable to search for a job, I am 100% enjoying the time off, although feeling a tiny bit guilty about how happy I am about it all. The government even deposited $1200 in my account... a welcome boost for the unemployed.

I'm hoping to use this Stay-at-Home time to be creative. I've been sewing (masks, working on a quilt) and done a bit of drawing. Without my computer I was unable to write which was totally driving me crazy. I sprung for a simple laptop so I could reconnect with my blog. More posts to come. And if this goes on much longer I'll be getting the jewelry making supplies here, also.  Maybe I can even figure out a way to make money creating... wouldn't that be lovely?

Incredibly messy mask making.

Everyone stay safe, wear your masks outside, wash your hands and enjoy the enforced break.