Living Life During The Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020

The bedroom walls got painted. I thought I was done but when I took the tape off some of the paint came with it. Bummer. I just took the paint brush and went down real careful so as not to get any on the other wall as I was painting with a teal color and the other wall is bright orange. It looks better now. There is still more painting to do but it will have to wait. We need to paint the ceiling and trim around the window where there was damage. We have to get that paint in the states this summer or in Mexico in the fall. At least the wall and window are fixed now.

We contacted the insurance company in Ensenada and we are still waiting to see if we will get any reimbursement from them. Since we live so far away from major cities, it is difficult to get everything the insurance people want. The people we hire here aren't professionals and don't have business's here so they don't have any numbers to give us for insurance purposes. So we will see what happens. Not holding our breath. We at least could get the wall repaired and the window. We were hoping the claim would be done so we could have that money to buy supplies for the garage roof, but it didn't happen. So looks like we need to go to Guerrero Negro overnight so we can withdraw money from the ATM 2 days in a row.

The only thing that was different in crossing the state line from Baja California Norte to Baja California Sur was they took our temperature. We had to tell them why we were going to Guerrero Negro because it was supposed to be necessary travel, not for pleasure. The hotel we normally stay in was closed and we wondered since it was close to Easter, and Mexican's big vacation week, if others would be closed also. We were able to find a hotel that was open so we booked a room for the night. We actually liked this hotel better than the one we usually stay in. This was a Thursday and we found out that the hotels in Baja north and south are closing on Sunday (Palm Sunday) for Easter week. Also all the beaches will be closed to tourists as well. After we got in our room and put our stuff away, we went to the hotels restaurant and had lunch. Then we stopped at the ATM and got money for that day. We both can withdraw money at the same time. Then we went back to the hotel and hung around there. I did some reading and television had one english speaking channel so there wasn't anything to watch. When it came time to eat dinner, we went back to the restaurant and the police had just left there issuing a no in restaurant eating. It was take out only. So we ordered dinner and had a nice chat with the employees that were there then our dinner was ready, We paid and walked back to our room and ate. Everyone is being very careful here. A message was put out that if you were an American or Canadian, and you were in Mexico, you may want to head back to the states shortly because no one knew how long things were going to be shut down. We live here so we were happy to stay where we were. No time to be going to the states now with the virus rampant!! There had been rumors that the Mexican and US border had been closed but it wasn't. They were just screening people coming across and taking temperatures. Since we have a permanent resident card, we can always get back to Mexico. The border isn't going to refuse anyone crossing into the states.

Next morning we checked out and went to the bank to use the ATM. Apparently whoever replenishes the money in the ATMs forgot because no one could get a large amount of money. So we had another alternative, and we headed for the ATM in a mini store. So we were able to leave with enough money to hopefully get us through until we head north.

A road block was put up just outside our little village to keep tourists from coming in for Easter week. We are starting to notice barer shelves in the stores but theystill have plenty of food and are managing to get fresh fruits and vegetables.

Dave had ordered the supplies from our little home depot here, for the garage roof. The Ramon said his mother and father were driving their big truck to Ensenada to get the supplies from their Home Depot. They should be back with our material in about 3 or 4 days. When the supplies we ordered came in, they were delivered to the house. Then our gate guard, Tito and Dave went to work, cutting boards, cementing blocks and whatnot. By the 8^th the roof on the garage was done. That was a huge relief. Now we can park the big truck in the garage again. It feels good to be put back together again. This time the wall on the west side of the garage has been reinforced with re-bar. It will take a monster hurricane, maybe, to break it down.

The Americans that are still here have been practicing social distancing and also the Mexican people have too. No cases here in Bahia which is great.

Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law, Hig. He turned 89 today the 12^th. Happy Easter too!!

The road blocks are now gone from outside the village but I have noticed more people wearing masks. I made Dave and I one with a pocket to put a filter inside. They say shop towels (the blue ones) are better as a filter so that is what we put in our masks. I actually wore mine in town for shopping and it was pretty comfortable. A little warm but at least it made me feel better knowing I was helping to prevent getting the virus.

We just found out from our gate guard that his sister works in the hospital in Guerrero Negro and they had one reported COVID-19 case. That person was from San Quintin, north of us and he came to visit his family for Easter. Bad move!!! There are those who still aren't taking this virus seriously but I can say I feel better about being here in Bahia rather than in the states.

Ernie hasn't been able to work yet. And Brooke is doing online teaching. She said it is hard and she really misses her students. She is a cheer coach too and she has gotten close to a lot of the girls and so it is tough for her to be away. They are adjusting to home life and gotten a lot of things done that they had on their to do list. Jonathan and his family are doing well too. Susannah, his wife, is working from home and the boys are still going to day care while Jon is going to work. Our son Michael and grandson David are doing well and enjoying time well spent together.

We still don't have television as we haven't been able to put the antenna on the roof of the house. The wind has been blowing plus we are still waiting to hear about the insurance claim. We are going to have to replace the roof as Tito and Dave went up a few days ago when it was calm to check it out and some of the plywood is getting thin. These are our patch jobs.
In the first picture on the top right, use to be where our skylight was.
 

So we want to wait a while longer in putting the antenna up because we don't want to put it up and then have to take it down to have the roof replaced. So we have been listening to music at night, reading, and playing games on our ipads and computers. I have read 8 books so far and that is a record for me!! I am enjoying it though. It doesn't bother us to not have TV. While we were cruising we didn't have it so it doesn't bother us to not have it. We miss watching our favorite shows, but I am really liking reading books by different authors. One of my favorites is Clive Cussler, unfortunately he died recently so no more of his books will be coming out. I like David Baldacci, J.A. Jance, Wilbur Smith, James Patterson, Lee Childs, Tami Hoag, among others.

I have started back making mobiles to sell,

and I made a baby afghan for our friends daughter and her husband who are expecting their first baby in August. I have also started an afghan for Conor. So I am managing to stay busy and entertained.

The weather is beautiful and we have had some very nice warm days. When the north wind pipes up though it is still pretty cold. No matter, it is still sunny here more days than not and that makes me happy and my body happy too!!!

The weather has warmed up to where the little bobo flies are getting into your eyes, hair, ears----just being annoying. Also we have had a lot of regular and horse flies. That's what happens when it get hot. It is in the 90's and so far we have had a breeze in the late morning and afternoon with it tapering off after dinner time. Time to get the personal fan out for me.

Dave decided not to put the TV antenna on the roof. Instead he is attaching it to the south side of the house. The antenna has to face south so that is a perfect place for it and we won't have to move it when we put a new roof on.

Dave has been doing jigsaw puzzles. We have a friend who shares the ones she has finished. It is nice when he doesn't have anything else to do or it is too hot to be outside. He has a fold down table in the house garage that he uses for the puzzles.

Our neighbors, George and Mary, ones we have had some issues with ever since we moved here, are moving. We watch them loading up stuff, giving things away and making sure everything is taken care of for the new owners. Unfortunately the new owners won't be able to move in right away because her husband is fighting cancer and is on Kemo treatments. They are hoping to come down in June. He is quite a bit older than she is but he is the love of her life and I sure hope and pray he makes it through all this to enjoy a few more good years down here in Bahia. One nice thing is that George and Mary left 3 kayaks behind so I asked our new neighbor if I could use one and she said yes. Now I just need to do it. The water has been calm and flat in the mornings so one of these days soon I will get out there on the bay. Someday I hope to have my own.

The south side trim on the big garage got painted this morning. I volunteered to do the painting under the ok from Dave that he move the ladder for me. Then a few days later when it wasn't windy, I painted the north side. I have to wait and do the back (west side) after Dave paints the cement.

Today, the 22^nd, our neighbors are finally out of here. We are the only ones here now and we will probably be leaving mid May if all goes well.

Dave wrote an email to our insurance guy and he told Dave what they would allot for repairs, but it didn't include replacing the roof so were they going to wait until the fall when we can get supplies and do it or just end the claim. It didn't amount to very much because the damage wasn't huge. So we just wanted to see what happened and Dave didn't have high hopes about it being paid for anyway. So no disappointment there. At least we know. We are still going to keep insurance on the house as it is only $200 a year, but expect that unless we lose the house or something major like that we won't be compensated for the loss.

Right now we can't order supplies and have them delivered to Bahia. Only one person is allowed in a car at a time if going to the other state, Guerrero Negro, Baja California Sur. So if we need money only one of us can go. Makes it kind of hard. No one here in town has been wearing masks properly or not at all, but no cases have shown up. I wore my mask to the store and gas station during Easter week as there was the possibility of visitors from other towns, but now I don't need to. I've been washing my hands a lot and just being careful.

The restrictions for not being on the beach still is in effect until May 30. All restaurants and hotels are closed until May 30.

We are waiting to hear what the State of Washington is going to do about opening up the State Parks. We are scheduled to be camp hosts at Illahee State Park in Bremerton in June, but we won't know until we hear from the Ranger. Washington is slowly opening up parks for day use only right now. So little by little.

Dave painted the west side of the cement wall of the big garage. Now it is time to wipe off the dried cement smudges from the wood. With that done tomorrow, if it isn't windy, I will paint the trim. I am looking forward to getting this done as I have to go up and down the ladder a lot. But so far my back is doing well. It gets sore, but no major problem. Dave is a big help in moving the ladder. If I try it I could hurt my back big time and this time maybe not recover. So I am being dependent on him to do the heavy lifting. It is hard for me not to do the stuff I used to do, but I have to think of the consequences of my actions. Dave and I work well together. It is done and it looks so much better.

Tito our gate guard is working to extend our arroyo wall. It's been about 3 or 4 years since we had the other one done. Since there aren't many gringos here in Bahia the Mexicans are looking for work. Since Tito does excellent rock and cement work we hire him. Dave started the initial digging of the trench and removing rocks and bushes so the wall can be formed. Tito got us some nice rock and breaks them up to fill in the wall. It looks nice and that project is done. Next Tito will make a step so we can walk across the arroyo to our neighbors. It keeps Tito employed and we get our projects done. He will do our roof on the house when we come back from the States this fall.

It is time to start putting things away and cleaning up my art room. This time it will get a major cleaning. I wiped down the shelves and put loose beads and items away. Got rid of some items I didn't want and just did some inventory. Earlier in the month I went through all my fabric and what I didn't want I gave to Tito's wife. I gave a bunch of other stuff to her too. So I feel good about that. Once the shelves were wiped down, I organized and put a lot of things that were sitting on the floor up on the shelves just to get them out of the way. It looks good. Now all is left is to vacuum. It took about 3 days to get my art room cleaned and organized. That's pretty good.

Today I went down to the art room and decided what I wanted to pack up to take north with me. I was given a neat tackle pack that carries tackle boxes, that have the dividers in them. That is what I keep my beads in those boxes fit inside this canvas carry case. Wow, I was amazed at how much I could fit in it. So I have my crochet projects and if I want to make some jewelry I have the tools and supplies to do that. I will have those projects and books to read so I am set for the summer.

Dave and I have been talking about heading north mid May. That way we can get the trailer de-winterized and get some items like a new mattress, mattress cover, sheets and a blanket for the trailer. The original mattress that came with the trailer was too soft and both Dave and my back started to be sore upon waking. We got rid of that mattress and our good friends, Ron and Noreen had replaced their mattress and it was being stored in their garage. We tried it out and it is a great mattress and we slept much better and our backs didn't hurt. The only problem was it is a 10 inch one and we need an 8. Walmart sells one that size in a box. So when we get north we can get those items, and new pillows too.

Dave has been putting the brace of the TV antenna up on the side of the house. Then he has to rewire inside the house garage, to hook up to it. Then a friend of ours, the one who sold us the house, is coming over to calibrate it. Then we will have TV. I have really liked sitting and reading after dinner and due to having no TV we heard 2 whales out in the bay in front of our house the other night. That was so cool. It is a good sign when they start showing up. The water is warmer and there is enough food to feed on. There have been lots of birds too. First and always we have the seagulls, then it is the terns and oyster catchers who are annoying with their high pitch squeaks. Now we have cormorants, a few Frigate birds and pelicans. Not many fisherman on the bay. Not allowed yet. So we are just enjoying our surroundings and counting our blessings.

We heard from the Washington State Park authorities that Washington State Parks are not opening in June. So we will not be camp hosting at that time. We did sign up for August if it is possible. So that opened up a whole new plan. What now. We don't want to camp in our friends backyard the whole summer so Dave and I started to look at some of our options. Most parks are only open for day use but we did call an RV campground in Sequim, Washington where we stayed last year for a couple weeks, and they are open. They have a spot in June for us so we took it. Not many people are leaving there because they don't have anywhere else to go. But at least we will be there for 17 days and if we need to stay longer that might work out too. But for now we have a place to stay that has full hook-ups. Sequim is a great little town and it doesn't rain hardly at all there. It is the banana belt of the Western Washington. So we decided we would leave May 11 and start heading north. We are planning to stop and see our grandson E.J. in Vacaville, California. He was transferred to Travis Air Force Base just a couple months ago. So we will see more of him hopefully. I asked if we could visit him and he said yes. He has an apartment off base. We are bringing our masks with us and will use every precaution while traveling. We have the trailer scheduled to be de-winterized on May 27^th and then after that we will be in Sequim, on the Washington Olympic Peninsula.   So we will see how things work out.  Cheers from Bahia de los Angeles and my deck.