Coronavirus Shelter-in-Place

Concord, California

By: Deke Graham

Monday, March 16th 2020

Preface:

Yesterday was a weird one. On Sunday the Governor asked that all people 65 and older should stay home, and self-quarantine. This was on a voluntary basis, not a directive. Little did we know how things would change when we went to bed that night…

Erin and I went to work on Monday anyway. We are the kind of people that feel guilty if we let our employers down in any way. Understanding the situation, the owner of my company asked me to go home. I didn’t have to feel guilty asking to quarantine myself, I had been given permission by my employer. I had four weeks of vacation due me, and would be able to use it for my stay at home. After I got to the condo Erin texted me saying that they had put out an order saying that everyone in six counties of the San Francisco Bay Area would be required to shelter-in-place in their homes for three-weeks. When Erin got home from work we talked about the whole situation, she was still not sure she wanted to comply. Her reasoning was that she worked in a private residence with a family of four, and that the parents were working from home per their company’s request. They depended on her to watch the children while husband and wife worked at their computers in other rooms. I told her that I totally understood her situation. I also said that my preference would be that she stay home, but that the decision was hers to make. We then talked about the reason for the quarantine. The whole idea was to isolate people in family groups without being exposed to others to see if they developed symptoms of the virus. If they did come down with it they would stay in place and let it run its course without infecting others. If one of us didn’t follow the guidelines it would defeat the whole purpose of the shelter-in-place order. Thinking of how quickly the Corona Virus was spreading she texted her boss letting her know that she had decided it would be best for her and them if she stayed home. After sending the text she said that she felt awful for letting them down, and I could tell it was really weighing on her. I was on the telephone with a friend when she came down the stairs with a thumbs-up saying that her boss had texted back that she totally understood and that she would be paid for the time off. We breathed a sigh of relief that things would be okay for us financially, and that we would be able to follow the orders to and maybe slow down the virus. Both of us have great employers! Our big worry was for everyone else that wasn’t as fortunate as us.

Tuesday, March 17th 2020

Day One, St. Patrick’s Day:

This is the first day of a three week isolation in our home. I can’t remember exactly, but I’m pretty sure I have never had a three week vacation from my job. I’ve had a few two-weekers but not many in my forty-plus years of working. I left my job once to regroup in the early two-thousands, it lasted about six months then I went back to work. In June of two-thousand-five, Erin and I camped the lower forty-eight, for seven months. But taking three-weeks with no notice, and being that it was mandated by our local government was just plain strange.

I woke up Tuesday morning, made coffee, and read the news. This is my morning routine almost everyday. The one thing that seemed to be different was the quietness in the house. I opened the back door and it hit me, it was almost silent outside. I could hear a few birds singing, but the white noise of traffic was non-existent. This was the start of commute-time and there was always some noise even though the freeway was two miles away.

Erin and I went for an hour walk and saw only a few other people. We made a wide berth for anyone near us, and all was good.

Coming back home we went about simple tasks, I cleaned out a closet and Erin knitted.

The rest of the day I spent reading up on the situation and made split-pea soup. I made grilled cheeseburgers with all the fixins for our St. Patty’s Day meal and we watched the movie, Blast from the Past on Amazon. We again did our own things and went to bed…

 Wednesday, March 18th 2020

Day Two:

I got out of bed at 5 am, made coffee and read the news. Things are tightening up all over the country and the world because of the virus. Canada and the US closed the border to each other, New York City is tightening down more than it had, and two more counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have imposed shelter-in-place orders to all of its citizens. These eight counties are the only ones in the US, at present, to require shelter-in-place.

Well, the Sun came up and the birds were singing, Erin is at the kitchen table reading a Dean Koontz novel and I am writing this.

We took our hour-long walk while it was sprinkling. With rain we saw less people out, but there were a few. We got home at about noon and Erin did our finances online. Our amazing luck  continued financially when she told me that my first Social Security Check had been deposited into our account. I put a pork tenderloin in the crock-pot and washed the dishes. I sat down to catch-up on our new surreal world and nodded off till the cat woke me with her constant meowing. So much for the nap. I am going to quit writing for now and clean out another closet. Wish me luck!

The closet was pretty much a success, one more day in there and I should have enough room to open the boxes under the stairs in the lower part of the house. These are boxes of personal items I haven’t seen in almost twenty years. Wow! This was to be my first project when I retired, but due to unforeseen circumstances, like a pandemic, I am able to practice being a retired man. I only have a little over three months left, and if things don’t get better out there this could be my final curtain as a regular working stiff. As my mother used to say, “we shall see what we shall see.”

The pork tenderloin turned out great. It was rubbed with brown sugar and I roasted it with apple slices in the crock pot. With the split pea soup I made yesterday, and the pork today we have a few days meals ready to go. Hurrah! At least so far I’m not bored.

Thursday, March 19th 2020

Day Three:

Another morning of my same routine. The early morning was time to reflect on all of the things going on around us. I once again tried to keep in mind how lucky we are to be in our peaceful little home. By the Powers we have come into this situation healthy, and our Kids, their spouses, and baby are also in a good place. We are trying to keep a positive attitude, knowing that all of the good things could change to bad in an instant.

We took our hour long walk of two and a half miles and the weather was gorgeous. We got home and had lunch.

Well, things did change just after noon. My manager at work called me and said that things there would most certainly be changing, and not for the best. He said a letter would be mailed to all employees tomorrow. His take on it was that it would probably be a large layoff, and that my vacation pay would probably only come as payroll for the next payday. That sent a message to me that my job was probably on the line. It kind of threw me off-balance because I had thought that at least I wouldn’t have to worry about my job for three weeks. Now it seemed that I would be retiring early. I have less than three months left, and that wouldn’t be a real problem, but it meant I had to arrange my supplemental health insurance for Medicare. I would have eventually had to do it anyway, but I wasn’t prepared to be doing it now. I went online and got all of the forms so I would have them ready for tomorrows news. I then had to calm myself, because this was small peanuts compared with other peoples huge predicaments.

I settled down, had a beer and worked on my website and posted a few of my writings there. It was a bit frustrating because the internet was very sluggish, but it was the least of my concerns at the moment. I finished-up and logged out.

Erin and I made salads for dinner and adjourned to do our own things, I watched the news, and Erin knitted and watched TV shows upstairs. On the news our Governor had a news conference where he announced that the entire state would be on shelter-in-place at midnight tonight. Wow, it was moving faster and faster.

After all was done we went to bed…

Friday, March 20th 2020

Day Four:

I woke-up at 4 am, made coffee and worked on my website all morning, but the internet was at a crawl. My phone was doing fine so I downloaded the mobile app for editing, and finished moving the blog from Google Docs to Square Space. Now I'm finishing up by writing directly to my website on the laptop and the internet seems pretty fast. Oops it just went away again…

I’m still waiting for word from my job.

Erin and I went for our daily walk. The amount of other people walking, and running was light. Our landscapers were doing their work as usual keeping up the grounds. I am glad that they still have their jobs. It is the perfect job for a situation like this, because they always work alone around the complex. Of course the other benefit is that our place always looks great. The weather is beautiful, as it has been all week, around 60 degrees with blue sky’s and puffy clouds.

We got home and Erin made molasses cookies, and we munched on some salami. Erin took a bath and I worked on the website. Three packages came today, yarn and knitting needles that Erin had ordered just the day before. Amazing!  We also got a wooden board game that Erin cleaned with bleach just to be careful.

Still no word from my work…

Erin was on the phone upstairs and I tackled the closet under the stairs. The first part cleared away about five years of empty boxes. They were from things like; cell phones, computers, and other stuff. I always save boxes until we make sure they work. The problem is that they never get thrown away, I am terrible at that. I finally got to the heart of the subject, the boxes that were in our storage while we lived on the boat. About three years ago Erin and her friend cleared out our storage unit in Oakland. They did it over a couple of weeks. I had no idea that it was happening. It was a pleasant surprise for me, because even the thought of it was terrifying. Now for the project at hand, going through the boxes of old stuff. Erin is the one I depend on to kick me in the ass to get me started on things, without her I would be lost. Once I get going I do just fine. It’s like breaking a dog sled loose from the ice, once it's done the dogs have no problem pulling the sled, without it they just stand there. I moved the five large boxes and other miscellaneous crap out of the closet, hitting my head on the slanted ceiling several times. Ouch! I then divided the boxes into segments to work on over the next few days. I was going to call it quits for the day, but decided to tackle the largest box. I worked on it till evening and finished it. I made a Gin Ricky and sat in my chair reading about ten newspapers I had saved. They were from 1969 through 1974. These papers covered: the Moon Landing, Chappaquiddick, Watergate, Vietnam, Patty Hearst and the SLA, and other topics from the times. The adds in the Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle were a blast from the past.

My phone rang, and it was our general manager from work. My heart skipped a beat, and I answered. He informed me that I was laid-off, effective immediately. And that I would be receiving a letter from the company tomorrow with a check covering wages and vacation time owed. He also said that our medical would end on the 30th, and a Cobra application would be included. Shit! Erin and I would have to scramble to get our medical transferred to Medicare for me, and Cover California for her. We will probably have to pay at least one month’s Cobra to make this happen, and it’s expensive. Oh well, it is what it is, and we are fortunate we have options. Erin got online and worked for about an hour on the forms for hers. When she finished she submitted it and there was some sort of snafu, it wasn’t accepting it, so she has to call them tomorrow. Damn-it!

We went to bed…

Saturday, March 21st 2020

Day Five:

I was up at 4:30, I made coffee, read the news, and went to work on the website. I am now caught-up with the blog, Shelter-in-Place, and I think it’s okay for human consumption.

Erin got up and told me she got-up during the night and finally got Cover California to accept her application for medical, but the rates seemed higher than they should be. She is going to call them on Monday. She had wanted this part to be done so she could take her mind off of it. Not happening!

We took an earlier walk today, it was suppose to rain, but  didn’t happen (big Surprise), Ha ha. We walked a different route this morning venturing a little out of our comfort zone. We walked up toward the main road through town and it was kind of quiet, it is usually very crowded on Saturdays because there is a Costco across the street, but even it was quiet. We ended up at our neighborhood park and walked one time around the track, instead of three times which is our norm.

The Mailman came, and guess what, no letter from my company. It only adds to the frustration of not being able to get our business in order till Monday. The only good thing about it is that it forces us to take our minds off of things we can’t change for a day and a half. Easier said than done!

I barbecued chicken and had a drink, then we made salads and watched all the late night TV guys doing their shows from home. It was a hoot. With all the crap coming down it’s nice to watch a little comedy. It really helps take the edge off.

Then we went to bed…

Sunday, March 22nd 2020

Day Six:

I got up at 4:30, made coffee, and read the news. It’s getting even creepier out there. More States are locking down, borders are closing in Europe, and Italy now has eight-hundred dead. The US’s cases are climbing everyday and with that the death rate. New York has the most cases, and is leading the country. Louisiana will be locking down Monday. I have a hard time believing that it is taking these other States so long to wake-up to the fact that this is no joke.

Still working on the blog. Every time I think I have the formatting down, I change my mind. I have plenty of time, there’s really no rush.

Erin and I did our walk even earlier this morning, we did our normal two and a half miles, it was chilly…

We got home and Erin started prepping pancake mix from scratch, we had no real milk so she used vanilla soy, and she had no baking soda so she used egg whites. While she made the batter I emptied out our storage closet on the patio. I have wanted to clean it out for a while. The reason I did it now was that I thought I had some face masks in there. Nope. But now the closet is clean. I went in as she was finishing the pancakes. I had some coffee while she finished. I then made eggs over easy and bacon. We got out the maple syrup and had a yummy breakfast.

While Erin read on the patio, I finished up a few things out there. Then I checked the oil in both vehicles, and put the charger on the Ford. The Fusion or Henry as we call it is a plug-in hybrid, so we can drive it in electric mode while we aren’t driving much. We haven’t been in a car for over a week now. I can’t remember not being in a car for over seven day in a row, except for when backpacking, or being on a cruise ship. I’ll probably never go on a cruise ship again, they are dirty diseased places, they had problems long before this virus hit. I had a very nice cruise of the Caribbean with my best friend about ten years ago. Erin and I have no desire to do it in the future.

We watched a movie in the evening while we ate salads. The movie had only been out for a week, but because of the virus they released it to steaming early. “The Invisible Man” cost us twenty-dollars, about the same as we would pay at the theater. I believe this will be common in the near future, it was smart of  Universal Studios to do this due to the shelter-in-place order. We both liked the movie.

We did our own things the rest of the evening, and went to bed.

Monday, March 23rd 2020

Day Seven:

I got up at about 4 am, made coffee, checked the news, and went right to work on the website.

Erin got up and we left even earlier today for our walk. It was colder than yesterday, the temperature was the same, but the wind was blowing. We walked around the back of the complex and out to a side street. As we walked down the sidewalk, we came to about six segments of the concrete that were chalked in with designs and some writing, obviously done by children. We thought it was a great way for kids to get out some of their energy and creativity on a very quiet side street. We did our three laps of the track and came home.

No big breakfast this morning, I had oatmeal.

Erin was going to make spaghetti with meatballs tonight so I got out some turkey-burger to let it thaw. Erin crushed up pretzels to mix with the meat, and we went on to other things.

Today was supposed to be the day we would get my check and paperwork for our cobra from my work. It didn’t come and it frustrated both of us. I can’t believe my company would end our medical coverage in seven days leaving us no time to get our new insurance. I’m really pissed at them, I understand them cutting back, but I don’t understand them leaving us absolutely no time to take care of transferring our medical.

Erin tried repeatedly to call Cover California, either the phone would go dead or when she got to the phone tree she couldn’t get though to anyone. By checking things as best she could online she came to the conclusion that her health insurance was just going to be expensive.

Both of us had to just let things go for now, this is very, very frustrating to both of us.

I called my son James in New York, my cousin Bill in Seattle, and my cousin Vivian in Sonora. They were all doing well. Thank the Powers for that.

Erin and I did our own things and went to bed…

 Tuesday, March 24th 2020

Day Eight:

I woke up at about 2:30 with all kinds of things going on in my head, I tried to go back to sleep but it was not happening. I got out of bed at around 3:30. I went downstairs not turning on any lights, put the coffee water on and decided to recline my chair and see if I could get a little more sleep. That didn’t happen.

I quickly glanced at the news, and decided to work on my site. What I didn’t mention yesterday was that I re-worked the home page on Indivisible Space and added the first seven chapters of my book “A New Frontier”, this is big for me, because I have only shared printed versions with a couple of people. I put up 7 chapters out of 38. I then sent the link to my cousin Vivian. As my mother said: we shall see what we will see!!

I called our office manger at work to ask her about when my termination information and vacation check would arrive. She told me that she had not realized how long it would take to process so many layoffs, because she had never had so many at one time. I told her I totally understood. I told her I had an email ready to send her with the Employer Information paperwork for my Medicare Part B. She told me to send it and that she would fill it out, sign it and email me a PDF so I could print it. Perfect!

I asked her about the Cobra package, and she told me it was handled by a separate company and that they would be sending me the package. I asked if she new how much it would cost and she told me it would be about $1300.00. Wow!! She then gave me my termination date and last day worked, This was all she had for me at the moment, but it was better than nothing, I thanked her and hung up.

I was thinking through what I could work on right now, and decided to check out a few things online. I found out that I didn’t have to worry about my Part B Medicare, because my window for applying was perfect, so I would not need to apply for Cobra. The big question was could Erin use my Cobra without me? If she could would it be half of the total, if it would be half, it would be almost $300.00 cheaper than Cover California and would be the same coverage we have now. I looked it up on multiple sources and they said that she could use my Cobra if I was on Medicare. Perfect! But I really needed to verify this with the company that provided my Cobra, then we could relax a little. The question with this was could we do it without a lapse in Erin’s coverage. She was really stressing over this, and I don’t blame her at all. We need this fixed now!

The Medicare PDF was emailed to me at about 7 pm, with details of my last six quarters of wages for Unemployment Insurance. Yes!

We went to bed…

Wednesday March 25th 2020

Day nine:

I woke up just after 4 am, made coffee and looked at the news. I worked on "Indivisible Space" and wrote in the blog. The internet seems okay in the early hours, but seems to fade by mid-morning.

Erin and I did our walk and returned home.

I printed the PDFs that were emailed to me. I then filled out my part of the forms and put them in an envelope, addressed it, and put a stamp on it.

Erin and I got in the car for the first time in nine days, and drove to the post office. I walked it in, posted the letter, went back to the car and used a disinfecting wipe on my hands.

We decided to go to Harvest House to get a few items. It is a small health food store very close to our condo. It only had a few people inside and everyone was keeping distances. We checked out and used the wipes again.

When we got home we washed our hands and cleaned all the items from the store with wipes.

I got on the laptop and went to the Unemployment website, started registering, kept running into one issue after another. The internet went out twice and I had to re-enter information. Erin walked over and put a freshly baked biscuit next to me to help me cope. It had lots of butter and hit the spot. I washed it down with a beer and finished-up three and a half hours later. Whew!

I barbecued small steaks for dinner and had a Gin Ricky, Erin made veggies and we ate.

After dinner I texted my boss from work to see if he could give contact information on our Cobra. I got no answer.

Erin and I watched TV and went to bed.

Thursday, March 26th 2020

Day Ten:

I woke up shortly after 4 am, made coffee and Noticed that my boss had texted me at about 10 pm last night saying to text him in the morning and he would email me the Cobra info.

I then read the news, each day seems to double the amount of virus cases in the US. We still don’t have enough protective gear for hospital workers and the amount of ventilators is way less than we need. Hospital beds are becoming a rare commodity. We need to catch-up quickly.

The stimulus package is huge, it’s hard to wrap my mind around numbers like 2.2 trillion dollars. I sure hope it helps. I believe if we had gotten a handle on it earlier, and locked everyone down for two weeks we might not be in place we are right now. That’s my opinion, but there is not much we can do about now.

Erin and I went for our walk. before we left I texted my boss, it was about 9 am.

When we got back we cooled down and I had a bowl of cereal, washed dishes and checked the news once again.

At about 11 am I emailed my boss because I hadn’t received anything from him. About noon I got a text telling me that the office manager would be texting me a phone number. She texted the number and gave me a few tips on what to ask them. Our office manager is a real sweetheart, my boss is not my favorite person. He always sloughs things off to someone else or drags things out to the ends of the earth. Funny thing is I put him in that position of power, stepped down and it went to his head. So I guess it’s my fault that people have to deal with him. I didn’t know how he would be when he got a taste of power. You never know how people really are. I only knew that he was quiet and fairly smart. End of subject!

I immediately got on the phone and called the number, and of course I pushed the wrong number on the phone tree. The guy I got was great, he found my account number and hooked me up with the right person. She told me that we could switch the Cobra to Erin and gave me the web address and the prefix for my account number. It was a little more complicated than I thought, but in about an hour and two phone calls with very competent people I got it done. Because of the changes it was going to take some time for it to all go through. I was confident that it would, but Erin was still a little nervous about it.

During the last week Erin had been knitting sweaters for our granddaughter and had almost completed two of them. It kept her busy, but under it all I could feel her stress. She is the most amazing woman, but she likes to have everything completed in full. I don’t blame her at all. She is the one that makes sure I get things done, I am the one that thinks I can do it tomorrow. I love you Erin.

Tomorrow is Erin’s Birthday, I was hoping we would have everything completed, and we were pretty close. I was hoping it was complete enough to satisfy her.

We had salads and watched the tube, then went to bed... 

Friday, March 27th 2020

Day Eleven:

I got up at about 5 am, made coffee and read the news. Everything was about the same, except for the growing number of  virus cases.

I downloaded a poster app from google and made a letter sized card for Erin’s birthday. I thought it turned out okay. I taped it to the mirror in the upstairs bathroom. I then made two happy birthday letter sized posters, one with our daughter Jessica with our granddaughter Ray, and another with Erin’s best friend and her daughter with Erin and the grand-baby.

When Erin got up I had everything ready, per her request, to make pancakes for her birthday.Yesterday Erin had made her own birthday cake. I was to decorate it, I found some cookie decorating pouches in the cupboard and wrote happy birthday on the cake. It was kind of sloppy but it would work, I put Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on top and put it in the fridge. 

We went for our walk which Erin wanted to be longer than usual for her birthday, we walked over four miles, it felt great. I used to walk about four to five miles a day at work, and I always said that I needed to keep up the walking when I retired. Well so far so good, I really enjoy the exercise each day. Erin helps me keep on track with the walking, because there is never enough of it for her. She was a runner, now a walker, it is something she has done almost every day since long before we met. Even when things aren’t quite right with her physically she gets her exercise. She has the stamina of a true athlete.

When we got home we made the pancakes. Erin made the batter, I made the cakes. They were really good. If we had these all the time I would gain a hundred pounds and get diabetes. We have had them twice now since shelter-in place started. Before all this we might have them once or twice a year. I guess we can call it comfort food, for stressful times, ha ha.

I got a call from SSA. They just wanted to confirm that I wanted my Part B to begin on April 1st, I said yes and the man said the card would be sent out soon. Very cool! I checked the Cobra website and everything was moving along well.

Dinnertime came and I grilled hot dogs and buns, laid out all the fixins, and we ate dogs and had her Birthday Cake for dessert. Both were great, except the buns, which were gluten-free.

We continued our evening and eventually hit the sack...

Saturday, March 28th 2020

Day Twelve:

I slept-in until almost seven, I had had stomach problems during the night and moved downstairs so I wouldn’t bother Erin. I was in and out of the bathroom for about an hour and then fell asleep in my chair from midnight until 3:30. I then went back upstairs and slept through. When I got up I felt fine. Both Erin and I had the same issues and we chalked it up to pancakes, cake and tons of butter and sugar. Oh well it tasted great! Today we go back to our regular eating pattern.

When Erin got up it was raining so we put off our walk.

Erin continued on her sweaters for the baby and I pretty much worked on the website and this blog all day. By the way the internet sucked from about noon for the rest of the day. I wrote offline, and will post it in the morning. At least there is an option. If things get worse I will use the old Royal manual typewriter, a blast from the past!

At one-o’clock the rain had stopped so we went for our walk, it sprinkled on us but we liked it. We walked a little over 3 miles.

When we got home Erin made a huge salad and we both had an early dinner. After dinner we both went back to our stuff and Erin finished the sweaters, hung them up and took photos. She is a great knitter, the sweaters are adorable.

Bedtime...

Sunday, March 29th 2020

Day Thirteen:

I got up at 3:30, made coffee, didn’t read the news and went right to work on putting my offline writings onto the website. I think I am going to write everything in Google Docs from here on out. Doing it that way I don’t lose my writing when the internet takes a shit. That happened twice yesterday. Doing it this way all I have to do is copy and paste to the site, easy peesy.

I am now caught up on the blog, I was behind by three days. The problem with that is that everything gets tough to put in the right time frame.

It’s almost 6 am...

Erin came down latter than normal because we had decided to take a day off from walking. I was still working on this site.

I took some time off from the computer and finished the book I had been reading, The Sun Also Rises-by Hemingway, and started a new one.

I have been thinking a lot about my own novel, A New Frontier, but have not been working on it since the shelter-in-place started. My motivation has been making a platform to share my works, but I did post the first seven chapters of the novel on this site. I am thirty-eight chapters into the Novel, and when I clear-up some of these other projects I will devote mornings to that endeavor.

I loaded the Crock-Pot to make a chicken stew, it would be done by 4:30. Erin calls everything I make in the Crock-Pot, Doug’s Galoshes! Ha ha…

I decided to take a walk even though I said I wouldn’t. I did 2 1/2 miles and spent the whole walk talking to my Sister in Texas on my cell. When I got home I called my best friend Jim and talked to him and his wife Mary for about an hour.

While I read the beginning of a C.J. Box novel, Erin was sewing up face masks for us. The first one turned out very cool.

Erin also decided to take her walk and was out for an hour and covered over 3 mile. She is good!

We ate salad with chicken stew on the top and watched Conan O’Brien on YouTube.

We then did our own things and went to bed…

Monday, March 30th 2020

Day Fourteen:

I woke up at 3:30, made coffee using not Peet’s but a Puerto Rico brand to save my Peet’s for later. I’m conserving the best. I also have a five-pound can of Safeway brand that will be my last resort.

It looks like the eight Bay Area Counties are going to extend the shelter-in-place order through April 30th. I’m glad I saved my Peet’s.

With this new announcement, I’m not sure what Erin will do about her job. knowing her she will probably want to work. My choice would be to have her hunker-down with me. We will see what we shall see?

Erin and I went for our three-mile walk. When we got back I had another cup of Not Peet’s coffee! I worked on a new cover for A New Frontier, and futzed around.

I finally decided after 16 days it was time to brave Safeway to get some necessities. With trepidation I did it. Weird, it was real weird to be in a regular grocery store again, but I did it, I was careful, and I got everything we needed. Oh except TP, Hand Sanitizer, and Disinfectant Wipes. Hmmmm, oh well we still have some Toilet Paper!

When I got home I put things away and then stripped off all my clothes, took a shower and washed everything I own. Now I feel clean…sort off.

I watched YouTube and went to bed…

Tuesday, March 31st 2020

Day Fifteen:

I got up at 6:30, made coffee—Peet’s, I made sure to pick it up yesterday, what a difference. I am a coffee snob, totally! I read the news gently—I don’t want to disturb it! Ha ha.

Erin and I went for our 3 mile walk. The city workers have been keeping the park groomed through the whole mess. I’m really glad they still have jobs, and the park and track look great!

I switched spots with Erin today. She is taking the downstairs and I am occupying one of the rooms upstairs at my desk. The only problem with this arrangement is that the internet sucks the big one up here. I believe when the internet wasn’t overloaded it didn’t make as much difference that the WiFi strength was low upstairs, although Erin did say that her Ipad hardly ever worded upstairs. I did some reading about it yesterday on my phone because it always works. They said that where your router is located is key, ours is in the lower section of our secretary desk downstairs. This means that it has hardwood sides all around it, and two layers above it, not to mention it’s where I hide all of the electronics for the wall mounted flat screen over the fireplace. INTERFERENCE! At least that’s what I’m figuring.I drilled a hole in the back of the lower part of the desk and fed the wires up to the top and put it out in the open, and it made all the difference in the world. Yes!

It only lasted for a while, now it’s dead again. Everything else works around the house, TVs streaming, phone internet, tablets, but not my Chromebook. I really think it is Google. I think by around midday their system overloads with: home schooling, streaming, people reading the news, signing up for unemployment, and online shopping. Chromebooks or Chrome OS machines are amazingly fast, and start-up very quickly, but they are totally dependent on Google. This means that if Google is slow, or down so is your laptop. I think the Chrome browsers on Android and IOS use less data than the Chrome OS. So for now, the early morning hours here in California are the best for using the laptop.

I’m sorry for rambling on about the technology, and my dead ends with trying to figure it out, but at the moment it means a lot to have a connection to the outside world. Maybe some of this will help others figure out their problems. So at least for a while I will concentrate more on other topics.

I emptied my last box from the closet downstairs and sorted it on the bed upstairs. There is really cool stuff in there, such as: a stack of letters tied together with twine from my Dad to his Parents when he was in Okinawa during WWII, letters to and from my Mother, memorial announcements, and my old leather hiking boots. Oh, one more item, a chunk of the Berlin Wall along with my Dad standing next to it. Very cool stuff!!

Erin knitted from the time we got back from our walk, until we went to bed. She is making her fourth sweater for our granddaughter, Aurelia.

At about nine-o’clock I was able to get on the site for Erin’s Cobra, and everything has been accepted and in place for her medical. Yeah!!

I read some C.J. Box and went to bed…

Wednesday, April 1st 2020

Day Sixteen:

I got up at about 4:30 today, made Peets, glanced at the news and got on the laptop during the time I knew the internet is at its best. I also knew there was a reason for getting up so early. I guess there is no reason its just what I do. Whatever…

Erin and I did our 3 mile walk this morning, there seemed be a few more people on the track today. The weather was clear and about 55 degrees.

When we got home I started going through how much our bills were for everything, I worked on the major ones to lower our monthly rates. So far I called our car insurance company and have them working on some lower rates. I got 10 dollars a month off on our security system. I tried to call our cable company five times and their lines were a mess, three times I got through but they couldn’t hear me and hung-up. The other two times I got a busy signal. How long has it been since you heard a busy signal? That’s crazy! I finally gave-up trying to save money for the day. PS, the money we saved on the security system will pay for this website. Ho ray!

We ran into another snag with Erin’s Cobra, they had not taken me off of the plan and it was still in my name, with a bill for nearly thirteen-hundred dollars instead of six-fifty. I had to be stern with them to get this done because as of today Erin has no health insurance. Not to mention that I had guaranteed her that it was a done deal. I apologize Baby!!

On my stuff: My Part B Medicare is showing on my SSA account, and will be automatically deducted from my SS payment. I also filled out the paperwork for Kaiser, Senior Advantage and saved it until my Part B card comes.

I also went onto UI (Unemployment Insurance) website and my claim has been processed and it looks like I will get my first check soon. I hope!

By the way, the internet today worked well all day on my laptop. What a wonderful thing!

We had grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, Erin knitted and I watched YouTube until bedtime…

Thursday, April 2nd 2020

Day Seventeen:

I got up at 3:45, made Peets, scanned the news—not good out there, more than a thousand deaths in the US.

On Tuesday while I was working upstairs, I decided to pull out my two-meter Ham Radio and I charged it up, last night I tuned it on and listened to two guys talk. One in Concord and the other in Ohio, pretty amazing for a handheld radio. Wow!

Erin and I went for our daily walk, while we were walking the track we noticed a mother and three children inside of a children’s play area that was posted no access. The kids were crawling all over the plastic equipment. It seemed just wrong for the Mom to allow the kids to play on the germ infested equipment. We did our 3 miles and returned home.

I got on the computer to check on the Cobra situation for Erin. I tried to log-in and a notice told me my account had been canceled. I took this as a good sign, because they were supposed to have created an account for Erin only.

After a shower and breakfast I got them on the phone, she registered for her personal account, we made the first payment, set-up auto-pay, and now she is covered. Perfect! She is a happy camper!

We did our own things until 5 pm, and then went to our patio with Erin’s Ipad and wine, and did a Face-time happy hour with Erin’s best friend Debbie. It was fun.

We had salads and did our own stuff until Jessica called and we did Face-time her and Ray. I listened to my ham radio for a while and went to bed…

Friday, April 3rd 2020

Day Eighteen:

I got up at 4:30, made coffee, scanned the news, and listened to radio guys check-in on our radio network, One of the guys checked in from Australia and caught us up on the restrictions they have in place during the virus. They have very strict rules, and they are country-wide. We need to follow their lead. We in the San Francisco area have been doing pretty well by shutting down early, followed shortly by the whole state. I know there are economic concerns, but if the whole country had shut-down when we did, and we all had isolated for two-weeks, I think we wouldn’t have so many cases, and deaths.

We took our morning walk, wearing our new homemade face masks. Erin made us masks a week ago and now they are recommending we wear them in public. There is only one problem with them, they fog-up your glasses, so we didn’t wear them. It worked fine.

When we got home we had coffee and tea, and went about getting a few things in order. I went upstairs and Erin worked on her knitting downstairs. I went back to researching how to save money on our bills. I went to AT&Ts site and it was completely down. So much for that one. I then went back down the rabbit hole of trying to find an alternative to our alarm system, which I had gotten ten dollars a month discount on the day before. The monitoring still costs us over five hundred dollars a year. I went through everything and either the initial cost was more than I wanted to spend right now, or it didn’t have support for an always on fire alarm. So I will move on to other avenues to pinch a few more dollars a month.

I browned some stew meat, put it in the crock-pot, and topped it up with veggies, Easy meals for a few days.

I went downstairs and Erin was sewing another face mask. She told me it was for Debbie, and that she was going to drive-up to the back of our place and Erin was going to throw it over the fence to her. She came, Erin tossed, we said hello through the fence and that was that.

There was no mail today. Erin got a package with some yarn. I am waiting for one last thing from SSA to be able to mail off my Part B to Kaiser, then all of our new infrastructure will be in place for now.

I finally decided to read C.J. Box for a while and I fell asleep for about forty-minutes. I read again for about a half an hour and got up and went downstairs.

Erin was napping on the couch with her book across her stomach. I prepped our dinner and moved the beef stew to a container for the fridge. I started the barbecue, grabbed a beer and sat on the patio with my book waiting for Erin to wake.

When she came down from a phone call upstairs I grilled our hot dogs. It seems that we will now call this Hot Dog Friday. When I went o Safeway I got real good buns. It makes all the difference. After the dogs were done, I grilled the buns and we sat in the living room and watched a Disney movie, The Ugly Dachshund, it was stupid, but fun.

once again we did our own things and hit the sack…

Saturday, April 4th 2020

Day Nineteen:

I got up at 4:30, made Peets and finished my post for yesterday. It’s supposed to rain today…nothing yet though.

Erin and I went for our 3 mile walk with masks on. There was hardly anyone out there when we left, but about a half hour later they started to show up. Pretty much the people we see every day. It was cold out we wore rain coats because of the forecast…But no rain came.

We got home, had tea and coffee and went about our morning routines. I spent time re-acquainting myself with my Kenwood D/Star handheld ham radio, it’s coming back to me. I haven’t used it for over a year, because I’ve writing a lot. But now I have time on my hands—actually lots of it. It’s been nineteen days and I am not even close to being bored. I do miss having our close friends over though. I also miss seeing little Ray (Aurelia) the most.

I got my Bluetooth headset to work with the Ham Radio, which I couldn’t make happen before. I actually figured it out by hitting the call button on the headset, and boom it connected. Very Cool!

We just hung-out doing our own stuff, Erin knitted and I worked on re-learning the D/Star part of my Ham Radio. It’s a pretty cool feature that allows me to talk anywhere in the world over my handheld Kenwood Radio. The radio itself is about the size of cell phone, but about three times thicker. It has an antenna about six inches long and a full key-pad on the front, with a color screen.

I can hook it up to a desk top microphone that I built using the body from a 1940’s radio dispatcher’s unit. I took a modern handheld mic and disassembled it, putting the components into the old desk top body. I rewired it to work with the old mic’s PTT (Push-to-Talk) bar on the base. I then built the microphone capsule, and monitoring speaker into the head of the old desk unit. It works and looks amazing.

I read my book for about an hour and then decided to see if I could raise someone on the radio. Amazingly, I got through to a guy near Tokyo, we talked for about a half an hour. He spoke great English which made it easier on me. They are going through many of the same things we are with the virus. Along with him I talked to a guy in Ohio and one in Oregon. It was great to be out there again, it’s been too long.

Erin and I had salads for dinner, with a side of my beef stew, the stew turned out alright. While we were eating we watched a scary movie.

I called my friend Steve, we talked for about 45 minutes and then I went to bed…

Sunday, April 5th 2020

Day Twenty:

I got up at about 4:30, made coffee, and got on the laptop and opened my UI insurance website and logged in my hours for the last two weeks so I can get my first-ever unemployment pay. After a little trial and error I got it done and should get my benefits. At this point all money is important.

I checked my email, noticing that my renewal for my amateur radio club was due. It’s kind of funny that the club renewal came up within days of me getting my radio out again. After thinking about it I realized that three years ago at this time was when I got my licence and joined MDARC (Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club). For everything these guys and gals do for us in the way of repeaters and equipment on the top of Mt. Diablo, the yearly membership of 45 dollars is cheap. I have never attended a meeting, but I do get a newsletter monthly, and they say they are going to start virtual meetings, at least during the virus. I hope they continue it—then I would participate. I’m not a club guy, and I had enough of meetings with my old job.

It has been raining all morning, and right now it is coming down like cat’s and dog’s. We really need the rain, and the snow in the mountains. It is supposed to be raining on and off for the next few days. Hurrah!

Time to read…

No walk today…

Erin knitted and I worked on building a frequency list for the radio…

The day seemed to move quickly…

I called my sister Joanne in Texas, and had a drink…

We made our salads and I watched YouTube, Erin knitted and watched shows upstairs, and we went to bed……

Monday, April 6th 2020

Day Twenty-One:

I got up at 3:30, made Peets, and started on my blog right away, now I’ll read the news.

The news from multiple sources is saying that the virus rate in New York City has stabilized at least for the moment. I believe that we should be very vigilant during this time. People who have cabin fever are likely to take this as a sign that they can let down their guard, now is not the time for that. Everyone should hold to at least hunkering down until the end of the month. The slowdown for one day does not at all mean we are out of the woods. On the contrary I think now is the time to lock ourselves up even tighter for the next two-weeks. I also feel we should refrain from going shopping at all if possible until April 30th. We need to kick this things ASS. Stay at home and only go out for exercise, and stay away from people, and wear your homemade MASKS.

Time for a walk…

We walked 3 1/2 miles today. I am felling much more comfortable in the mask, it will be a bit of a pain in the butt when the warmer weather hits. Petty much the same people were on the track today. We seem to be a community that shows up daily to walk and run together. We are all good at keeping our distances.

Erin is doing laundry, and bleaching the bathrooms.

We have been looking for a source of 100% cotton cloth for Erin to make masks out of for Jessica’s hospital in Santa Rosa. I found a brand new dress shirt that I bought a few years ago that I never wore, it’s 100% cotton. Everything else in my closet that was new, or nearly so, had polyester in it. They want you to use 100% cotton.

I remembered that back on day one of our stay-at-home I had cleaned out my closet of stuff to throw away or put in bags to go to Goodwill. In my tiny brain I had forgotten that those bags had been put in our van to be taken away later. I checked one bag and found three brand-new shirts and a pair of pajamas that were 100% cotton. Score!

Erin’s been trying to find material online with no luck. I went on Amazon and found 100% cotton sheets and ordered a California King sheet and it’s on the way, it will arrive Sunday. Score again!

Erin sewed the three masks she made for Us and Debbie by hand. We remembered that we had my Mom’s Elna sewing machine in a closet upstairs. It is now on the table in the dinning room waiting for Erin to see if it works. UPDATE: It works and there are plenty of needles and a good start on thread. She sewed a test piece and it turned out great!

Some day the making of masks will be remembered like duck-and cover drills at school, and bomb shelters during the Cold War.

I am going to see what’s going on with my 401k from work, and whether there is anything left of it with the economy tanked the way it is. Wish me luck!!

I dealt with the people that handle my 401k, they were great, and amazingly it had a decent amount of money in it. I put it in a totally secure account. That means it can’t be hurt by the stock market. I am so relieved!

We had dinner, Erin knitted and I watched the Beatles on YouTube…

I decided to call our cable company again after not being able to get through the other day. I got through at just after 8 pm and got our bill down by twenty-two dollars. That will work!

I am just about ready for bed. Goodnight…

Tuesday, April 7th 2020

Day Twenty-two:

Good morning, this will be a brief day of writing, things are happening everywhere with virus related news. I guess my main concern at this time is that all of us stay safe. I will repeat what I said yesterday, that we can’t let down our guard for a moment. Our lives are more important than all of the other things that surround us. If we take care of ourselves, then we will be alive to take care of our economy and our country. We can’t help if we’re not here!!

Erin and I did our walk and she got to work right away making masks for our family and friends. On her first day of production she made ten masks. They turned out perfect. We made three packages to send out tomorrow: Four to New York, two to Union City, and two to Santa Rosa. Erin is waiting for material to arrive so she can start making them for Kaiser Hospital for there patients to wear on the street. She is amazing! She is going to continue making them for family and friends with the remaining material she has.

That’s it for today…

Wednesday, April 8th 2020

Day Twenty-Three:

I slept in this morning until almost 6 am. I made coffee, and glanced at the news. I found an article in the New York Times on editing your own writing. So far it is one of the best pieces I have read on the subject, but I must set it down for a bit because it is time for our daily walk.

When we got back Erin went to work on de-wintering our back yard, be it so small, and I mean small. We love it back there, it is our little sanctuary. As she always does with everything, especially cleaning it now looks great! She left me an area near the back gate so I can build a planter-box for veggies. I ordered seeds and a couple of seven-gallon containers for potatoes and carrots.

I went into the loft in our garage and found the wood I need to build the planter box. I measured everything and I think I can complete the project tomorrow.

I made a crock-pot of turkey-burger stew today, I am getting low on frozen veggies but have have canned ones I can use latter. These stews I make are not quite conventional, I use frozen vegetables, what ever meat is in the freezer, and some kind of beans. It has just about everything you need for a fairly nutritious meal. Like I mentioned previously Erin calls it all, Doug’s Galoshes (Goulash). The main difference between mine and most others is that I leave out the potatoes. Too much starch for us.

We are having tacos tonight, they are also not conventional. They use real corn tortillas, but the taco meat and seasoning comes in a can from Loma Linda Foods. They have produced vegetarian meats and meals for over a hundred years. Almost all of it comes in cans and has a best used by time of three years, but would probably be safe for ten. I used to use their stuff back in the eighty’s and I always liked how it tasted. Their stuff is pretty damn good and nutritious for canned food. With the Powers saying for seniors not to go out, even for groceries for the next two weeks I was trying to figure a way to extend my protein supply. I checked on Amazon and most of the canned meats were out of stock, and then I remembered about Loma Linda. I think it will work just fine.

We had our tacos, and watched His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant. It was fast passed and was a good movie to get your mind off the real world.

I talked on the phone with my old boss Dalton and we chatted for about an hour.

Now I am going to finish that New York Times story on editing your writing, them I’m off to bed…

Thursday, April 9th 2020

Day Twenty-Four:

Good morning, I got up at 4, made coffee and went food shopping on Amazon.

I read the news, and things are still pretty dicey out there. I have a hard time believing that politicking seems to have the same amount of backbiting as it did before the virus. enough said.

I went for my walk, and Erin slept in. I did the standard 2 1/2 miles, mask on face. When I got back Erin was up and reading. We both read in silence. I am trying to give her time in the morning so that she doesn’t have to listen to me jabber. She went for her walk and I read until she returned.

Erin went to work on the masks, and made eleven. She used up all of the elastic that we had scrounged from all of our vests and coats. In two days she has made twenty-one masks. Incredible!

The planter-box I talked about building is now going to be a raised platform to hold individual pots. After looking into the depths that most plants require in the soil, my box was not going to be deep enough.

I cut the wood for the frame, pre-drilled holes for the screws, and put the frame together. I had built the frame to fit two 1 x 12 x 34 inch planks I had in the loft. I screwed the top to the frame. It was far from perfect and I had to walk away from it for a while to figure out how to make it work with the allotted space near the gate.

At about 4:30 I figured it out how to install it using a small tree stump that is about 10 inches tall. I used the stump for one end and two 2 x 3’s for legs on the other end. After putting it in place I was fairly okay with the result.

At 5:30 we did a Zoom video link on the patio, with our friend Kelly in Oakland, and Jessica and Ray in Santa Rosa. I guess this is the new happy hour normal, being together, while apart. It was fun and we had drinks and caught up with a friend, and our family.

We had dinner and eventually went to bed…

Good Friday, April 10th 2020

Day Twenty-Five:

I got up at 4, made Peets, and went right to work on my blog. I purposely skipped the news and listened to the guys on our Ham Radio Network. One of our members lives in Australia, and he fills us in on the virus down under daily. I’m in wonder every time I pick-up my handheld radio, being able to talk globally on a two-meter radio the size of a hot dog, that’s incredible.

I guess now I will read the news. Wish me luck…

Erin and I went for our walk, we did 3 miles…

When we got home Erin knitted and re-arranged the small bedroom upstairs.

I prepped my platform on the patio and painted it. While it was drying I put river rocks around the perimeter and filled the center with gravel. I rearranged some of the plants and washed down the whole area.

I took the Dodge out for an exercise drive. I’m trying to get the cars out once a week. I do the same route without stopping anywhere. I go about 6 miles, three on city streets and three on the freeway. Vehicles don’t like to sit around for long periods of time. This is not fantasy, it’s fact.

It is Hot Dog Friday here at the homestead. I grilled dogs and buns and heated-up Bush’s Southwestern Pinto Beans. We sat on the patio and ate our dinner.

We watched a movie on Disney+, and now we are doing our own stuff. Soon it will be time for bed…

Saturday, April 11th 2020

Day Twenty-Six:

Good morning, I slept in this morning, I got out of bed at a little after 6. I made coffee and ordered some pasta from Amazon. Woo Hoo!

Erin came downstairs at about 8, and I told her I wasn’t going to walk with her this morning. She was cool with that and did her stretching and hit the trail.

While she was gone I worked on making home made hand sanitzer. I went on the CDC website and got their recommendations. I had 2 1/2 ounces of  91% isopropyl alcohol, probably the least amount I had ever had in my life. Oh well! I had a tube of 100% aloe vera. The site said that the formula was 2/3 cup isopropyl alcohol, to 1/3 cup aloe vera, and up to 10 drops of essential oil. The essential oil was optional, it was for a pleasing scent, I used peppermint. I recalculated for the amount of alcohol I had and mixed the potion. I found an unused 2 oz. spray bottle and cleaned a travel shampoo bottle and filled the containers. I did a test spray and was amazed at how just the right amount came out, and how great it felt on my hands. Very cool! I like it better than the gel stuff. I will now be making my own from here on out.

I forgot to tell you that the other day, I can’t remember which one, I got a cable bill that had raised our bill by a hundred bucks. I was pissed, so at about ten-o’clock at night I got on the horn to get it straightened out. After finding out what had happened I did something I had wanted to do for a long time, I cut the cord. We now have no cable box with that no cable TV. We have internet with a phone line only. Twenty five dollars cheaper and one hundred-twenty-five cheaper that our latest bill. The phone line is for our alarm system, which might be going away soon. When I took off the splitter and cable to the box it seemed to make the internet faster. Double score!

Time for dinner..

I am going to watch YouTube tonight and then hit the old sackolla…

Easter Sunday, April 12th 2020

Day Twenty-Seven:

Happy Easter, whatever that means to you. And I don’t have any problems with whatever you believe.

Some how this Easter seems more like another story from the bible: The Ten Plagues of Egypt, well maybe just one. But it’s here and we need to deal with it as best we can. The wake-up call is that the unimportant petty things around us are not that important. Bright spots and positive outcomes might not happen that often, but life goes on in spite of it all. Death has been knocking on many doors lately and taking its toll on all of us.

I believe that this Easter should be a Celebration to honor those who have passed and a Thanksgiving for those who remain!

Good morning to everyone, I got up at 4:30, made Peets and wrote in this blog. It is time for my morning walk, and this morning Erin is sleeping in…

I did my 2 1/2 mile walk, got home had a cup of coffee, then moved all of our DVD’s from upstairs to shelves in the closet under the stairs making room for more books. Things are getting more organized since I have been home. Amen!

I then spent hours going through old digital storage trying to find copies of the 15 podcasts I did ten years ago. No luck! I missed my renewal on my podcast site and all of my stuff disappeared, and the hard drive I had it stored on at home rolled over and died. Each one of those podcasts took me eight hours to produce, not to mention the time to write them. Big bummer. With digital work you live and learn. I now have a system for back-up that stores it in three different places, one of them is in the cloud. All of my writing is backed up the same way, but when I finish three chapters I print it.

We had dinner and watched Saturday Night Live done from their homes,Tom hanks was the host. It was fun, but not quite the same.

I am finishing my blog and will soon hit the hay…

Monday, April 13th 2020

Day Twenty-Eight:

Good morning fellow hunker-downers, of course Peets first!

I spent this morning giving it one last go to find my old podcasts, I searched back to 2010 in my emails to see if I had sent any of them. Nope, strike three, I think they aren’t going to be found.

Erin and I went for our 2 1/2 mile walk. There were more people out there today, probably because it’s a beautiful day today. Fair weather sailors!

Erin and I are going to work on masks for Kaiser Hospital today. I’m going to cut the pieces and she will sew them. Wish us luck.

Seven hours later Erin finished sewing 32 masks. When we got done we were exhausted. Erin put the test to the old Elna sewing machine as she worked relentlessly all day to get the masks done. I worked for about six hours cutting the material on the front room floor on my knees. She loaded them into a box and we will take them to the Post Office in the morning to ship them to Kaiser in Oakland. Great job Baby!

At about 6 pm we got a Face-time call from Jessica, Oliver, and Ray, I love seeing them even if it’s not in person.

I put together a plate of salami, carrots, crackers, peanuts, and goat cheese. I poured Erin a much deserved glass of Merlot, and I had a Vodka Rickey (I’m out of gin). We sat on the patio, consumed our beverages and food.

Bedtime…

Tuesday, April 14th 2020

Day Twenty-Nine:

I woke up at 2 am in my recliner and went upstairs to bed, I then woke up at 5 am. Good morning fellow Americans, and anyone else who reads this. I made coffee, listened to the Ham Radio net, and read the news. The latter item is making me break my silence of the past few days and I am going to write a few lines about politics. Nasty stuff!!

Yesterday Governors of 10 States, 3 on the West Coast, and 7 on the East Coast, made alliances with one another to coordinate re-opening their States when they as a group deem it safe for their citizens.

The President was angered by this, saying that he would decide when it was time to re-open the country, and as the President of the United States he has total power over the matter. Before, he had said that he was leaving these matters in the control of each State. The States, and the States only, have the power to make these kind of decisions that effect the well being of its citizens. The President also never made it a federal mandate for all citizens to shelter in place. The 10th Amendment gives the States the right to enact laws, and to protect its own citizens, and to make these decisions on their own, as long as it doesn’t conflict with federal laws. No such law or requirement was laid down by the federal government in this matter. I believe that the Potus has a severe problem with control issues. Nuff said!!

Erin and I went for our walk and returned to our abode…

Erin packaged masks for Kaiser Hospital, for James in New York, and four sweaters that she had kitted to Jessica for little Ray (Aurelia), in Santa Rosa. We got in the Ford and drove to the Post Office. This was the first time Erin had been in the car since our last visit to the Post Office almost a month ago. She went in with her mask on and when she came back to the car I sprayed her hands with my homemade sanitizer. We dove home feeling kind of weird being in our comfortable quiet sedan.

Erin read for the afternoon and I got on the computer to try one more idea to get my podcasts back. I emailed Podbean, the podcast provider that I had my episodes on and told them my story. They emailed me back telling me they would get back to me in within about twenty-four hours. We shall see what we will see!

I grilled chicken thighs and we made salads. While we ate we watched a movie on Amazon, it was “The Aeronauts”, I really liked it. It took place in the mid eighteen-hundreds, and it was the story of a maned balloon that went up to further the study of predicting weather. My kind of stuff, Erin thought it was okay, but not great. She picked it because she thought I would like it. She knows what I like!

We are now doing our own things and will be going to bed soon…

Wednesday, April 15th 2020

Day Thirty (One Month):

Good morning. It’s hard to believe we’ve been sheltering-in-place for a month. Wow!

I got up at 4:30, made Peets, listened to the Ham boys, and went to work on the website. I can’t seem to leave the design alone, but I think the changes will make it easier to navigate.

It’s 8:30 and I haven’t gone for my walk yet. Erin is sleeping in and will be having a virtual pancake breakfast with our friend Carol on Face-Time at ten-o’clock. That is when I will take my walk to give them some space.

I finished my walk and started working revisions to the website. I re-formatted the blog structure so that the first thing you see is the latest post. I also started making new pages in the background to post at a latter date. I’m trying new stuff!

We ordered groceries from Safeway a week ago, we got it today minus the things we really wanted. Carrots, Soy Creamer, and Spinach. We did get wine and beer! Cool!!

We had salads with the chicken I grilled last night, and topped it off with Reese’s.

Bed time, night all…

Thursday, April 16th 2020

Day Thirty-One:

Good morning, I made coffee at 4:30, I then checked my email. I got another message from Podbean who had been trying to help me recover my seventeen Podcasts from 2010. They said that they found the site and would put it back up for me for 48 hours to let me see if there was anything that would help me. The framework of the site was there, but all of the Mp3’s were gone. I copied all of the episode descriptions to a file, finally understood that they were lost forever. Sigh!

Erin and I went for our walk…

When we got back I dug around in the walk-in closet where I had recorded “Ed’s Road Trip”, and found three notebooks. They were labeled “Indivisible Space, Ed’s Road Trip”. When I opened the notebooks I discovered that they contained all of my handwritten scripts. SCORE! Now at least I have the scripts. (See Longer Version of this Story Below)

I went to the gas station, then across the street to the liquor store and got some gin and olives. I wore my mask and when I got home I washed the bottle and jar. I then put my clothes in the wash and took a shower. You can’t be too careful!

Erin went for another walk.

We ate salads, and I watched “That Thing You Do”, tomorrow night they will be live tomorrow evening on YouTube.

good night, see you in the morning…

Podcast Story, Long Form, from Shelter-in-Place

Thursday, April 16th 2020

Day Thirty-One:

I dug around in the walk-in closet where I had recorded the “Ed’s Road Trip”, and found three notebooks. They were labeled “Indivisible Space, Ed’s Road Trip”. When I opened the notebooks I discovered that they contained all of my handwritten scripts. SCORE! Now at least I have the scripts. In notebook one, I noticed that episodes 1 and 2 were missing, the scripts started with episode 3. I then remembered that I did the first two episodes unscripted. I also remember that after not being pleased with those two episodes I decided to script them to make them better podcasts. I also got a new microphone, a pre-amp, and a small mixer. The new equipment, and scripting the episodes made a big difference. At a point Jessica’s boyfriend let me record some of his acoustic guitar works, and I used them as background music in future episodes. I also started adding nature, and ambient sounds to the mix, which really made them come alive. All of this started in episode 4, so from 4 through 15 the production values were pretty good. It took about ten to twelve hours to write, produce, and edit these twenty-minute audio stories.

At the same time Erin had had some health issues, and I was managing about 150 employees at my job. With all of this going on I didn’t have the time to produce these podcasts once a week, so it just stopped. I was getting pretty good hits on the Podbean site from all over the world, but to keep people coming back you had to produce. At that time it just wasn’t possible. So over time I lost track of the site, I changed my email address and missed the renewal notice, and the site was deleted. During that period my laptop’s hard drive crashed and I lost all of my work. Real bummer!

Friday, April 17th 2020

Day Thirty-Two:

Good morning Ya’All, got up at 5 am, made coffee, and waited for Erin to get up. She has volunteered to make a shopping trip to Safeway during senior time.

I got a text back that they didn’t have: Soy Milk, Yogurt, or Carrots.

I got another text saying that she decided to stop at Trader Joe’s to see if she could get the previously mentioned items. She said the line didn’t look that long. Thanks Baby!!

When Erin arrived home she had an amazing amount of groceries. I tend to forget that she is the one that used to do all of our shopping. I started doing most of the grocery chores when she started working more hours than me. She really knows what she is doing. She got all of the things at TJ’s that they didn’t have at Safeway, and more. Perfect! I set-up a cleaning station on my new platform by the back gate. I washed and rinsed everything she bought, then dried them and we put them away. We are now good for weeks, and longer if we needed…

We didn’t walk today.

Erin wrote in her journal, and I set-up Zoom on my laptop. Since we started this new existence at home everyone has been socializing on video talk platforms, but all I had was Skype which no one uses anymore. Erin, and just about everyone else uses Face-Time, but I’m not an Apple guy and either is my son James, so this leaves us out of group get togethers with  people from “The Dark Side”, Apple! James and I are longtime PC and Android guys, although I have moved away from the bloated Windows 10 platform to Google Chrome. Needless to say, Zoom is a cross-platform service that does meetings and video chat.

All of the blither above leads me to my point. I needed Zoom for my virtual Ham Radio Club meeting tonight, so now I have it as does James. It always takes a real necessity for me to implement new things. Whew!

At four-o’clock I watched “That Thing You Do” special on YouTube. It was for “Musicares”, which was set-up for Coronavirus relief. It was the four guy’s from the movie by, Tom Hanks doing a running commentary while we all watched the movie on separate devices. Kind of complicated, but fun. By the way, it was done with Zoom!

At seven-o’clock I joined our radio club’s first virtual meeting on Zoom. It was a learning experience, we had 43 people in the meeting in separate thumbnail windows. It worked because everyone except the speaker kept their microphones on mute. So my first-ever radio club meeting was done remote. We made history. In the club’s 73 years of existence this is the first time it was not done in person.

After all of this Zooming around it’s time for bed…

Saturday, April 18th 2020

Day Thirty-Three:

Top of the mornin to ya, I got up at 4:30, made Peets, and I finished the blog from yesterday. We will skip the news today! I have an idea for getting back to writing one of my stories. It really requires input from the people involved in this non-fiction piece. “Long Strange Trip” is the story of myself and two friends that traveled the US and Canada in a VW Bus in the early 70’s.

Erin and I did a 3 mile walk today…

We got back, sat on the patio and had coffee and tea.

I got online and bought all of the parts to convert our pellet burning stove to a propane fire pit. Flames will come drifting through lava rocks, I think it will be cool.

I watching, One World: Together At Home Special to Celebrate COVID-19 Workers. It’s on YouTube live. It will be on until 4 pm, then it switches to network TV, on three networks. Wow! Lot’s of music and interviews from all over the world. Pretty damn cool!

Erin and I, all of our family and friends are absolutely blessed to be healthy and comfortable in our homes. So many others are sick with no where to go or sleep. All of us that are well and have shelter should never loose sight of those that are not so fortunate!

At four-o’clock we got on Zoom with Erin’s sister Jackie in Portland Maine, her relatives in Massachusetts, and her nephew in Nevada. It was great fun. We were at a temperature of near eighty degrees, and it was snowing in Massachusetts. Her nephew Michael put a bunch of old photos up on the screen and we loved it. It’s a great way to get every-one involved while most of us had wine and beer, and we all commented on the pictures. I really enjoy her family!

I barbecued hot dogs, we ate them with all of the fix-in’s and had salads, while we watched the One World: Together At Home Special streamed on CBSN online. Remember, we don’t have cable TV anymore. Hallelujah!

We did our own things and then hit the sack…

Sunday, April 19th 2020

Day Thirty-Four:

Good Morning, I got up at 5 am, made Peets, and certified my unemployment hours for the last two-weeks online. I went for my walk alone this morning, it was just over fifty-degrees, and I walked 2 1/2 miles. I listened to NPR 1 with my headset and caught up on current events. They talked about Trump, Biden, and the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918.

I got home, did dishes while I cooled down from the walk, not politics! I ordered a large bottle of Moroccan Olive Oil, and two bottles of balsamic vinegar from Napa Valley, on Amazon. These two items are mainstays in Erin’s and my diet.

I talked to my friend Brad about using Zoom to work on our road trip story “Long Strange Trip”. He liked the idea and said he would load it onto his desktop computer. Now I’m waiting on Joel to get it on his tablet, then we are in business.

I worked a little today on an audio editor for Chrome OS. The problem is that it has to be a cloud based editor. I purchased one today but it doesn’t do multi-track editing, I’m disappointed.

I had a salad with pasta and sweet potatoes on the side it was great!

Almost done with my day, see you in the morning…

Monday, April 20th 2020

Day Thirty-Five:

Good morning stay at-homers, I got up at 4 am, made coffee, and worked on my Audio Editing Program “Twisted Wave”. Even though it doesn’t do multi-track, it is pretty slick at editing voice-over. The beacon on Mt. Diablo was on this morning. It has been turned on every Sunday since Easter, and it will be until the stay at home is over.

We did our walk today and came back and Erin made more masks with some new material she bought. I worked on some audio stuff, and barbecued steaks that I had in the freezer. We ate and watched two episodes of the Ranch on Netflix.

This is a short post, I am going to read C.J. Box and go to bed…

Tuesday April 21st 2020

Day Thirty-Six:

Good morning, I slept until 6, made my hot black brew, and started thinking about writing. I haven’t written anything but this blog for over a month, I have done many things to get our life in order, but haven’t done any serious writing…

Before the virus I dream’t of having the time to finish writing my novel and start on another. But, alas, it didn’t happen. I think I might have started on it right away if my world hadn’t changed so drastically. If the first stay-at-home orders had been: three weeks at home, job waiting for me, getting vacation pay, and then going back to my job, I wouldn’t have had a care in the world. Of course I would have been concerned about the well-being of my fellow man, but I would have treated it more like a three week vacation. I remember feeling exactly that way. As it turned out, three days into all of this I lost my job. This set me into survival mode, it was time to set-up my new world during a time of uncertainty.

For all intents and purposes this part is now behind me, my life has changed, my foundation is set, and now it is time to build my house. Sh_t or get off the pot my man! I have more than finished the house, now it’s time to live in it, not keep fiddling with painting the trim…

E. L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” You don’t have to see where you’re going, you don’t have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard. Anne Lamott...

The last time I did any writing in A New Frontier was March 11th, it is now April 21st. That is way too long. Time to get back at it. Right now!!

I did my walk alone and started an audio book, Stephen King’s, The Stand.

When I got home I started writing, and and finished at about four-o’clock. I completed a new chapter for A New Frontier. After that I made a Gin Ricky and recorded the prologue for the novel, and edited it adding a score.

I ate a salad for dinner and went to bed about nine…

Wednesday, April 22nd 2020

Day Thirty-Seven, Earth Day:

I got up at 5, made a Cuppa Joe, and posted my audio prologue for A New Frontier on the site. Today will be a patio mechanical project day. I need a break from the inside of the house.

Erin and I did our 2 1/2 mile walk…

When we got home Erin started sorting Photos, which can be a daunting task, it took hours.

I started to retro-fit of our pellet stove on the patio. I didn’t intend it to be an Earth-Day project, but it is actually. We bought this stove a couple of years ago, it burns wood pellets. It’s fourteen inches across and made of steel, the round kettle is very efficient using wood pellets, but it burns hot and we sometimes worry about it’s safety. We are not supposed to have any fire pits where we live, but because this one puts off very little smoke we figured it would be okay. We worried about it burning the umbrella that it sits under, so basically we put a piece of wood on top of it and started using it as a table.

Erin has wanted one of those flame pits that you see on patios outside of pubs and restaurants that has flames magically coming out of rocks or glass beads. When I started looking at them online I realized that most of then were too big for the space we had, or just too frilly for our tastes. The other thing is that they are expensive, they ranged from about three-hundred to over a thousand dollars. The three hundred dollars one were ugly.

So I got the Idea to Retro-fit the pellet stove to propane gas. I ordered all of the components on Amazon. I started with a burner ring that goes where the pellets lay, a regulator with stainless hose, all of the fittings to connect the burner to the regulator, drilled and cut on the stove , and built a wooden box to house the regulator and propane bottle. I put it all together and topped it off with lava rock to cover the burner. Amazingly it worked!

We had taco’s for dinner and watched two episodes of The Ranch on Netflix.

Then Erin knitted and I watched an old war movie on YouTube.

Time for bed…

Thursday, April 23rd 2020

Day Thirty-Eight:

I woke at 3:30 am, got up at 4, made my morning mud, and read the news. I stuck to the non-political, no virus news this morning. Today will be a writing day. Usually, three to four hours in the writing chair upstairs.

Time for my walk, Erin is going to go later, so I will listen to The Stand…

The recording I talked about yesterday, was produced down and dirty, I used my Super 55 Shure desk mic with a Saramonics VRM1 recorder. The Super 55 is a great mic, everyone would recognize it. The VRM1, on the other hand is great for field recording, because of its size and record time, but it has a noisy pre-amp. Long story short it’s quick and easy to use with not much set-up, and it plugs directly into the end of the mic. I recorded and edited the the piece in one hour. Believe me that’s fast for a 3 1/2 minute piece with background music. It’s not my best by any means, but it was a test to see if I could do production a little quicker, you be the judge.(A New Frontier Prologue, Audio)

Erin just left for her morning walk…

It is time to start writing, I finished-up chapter 39 and dug into chapter 40. This chapter could be the end of part one, or the end of the book if I decide to continue it as a series. Tough decision!

I finished at about three and diced up ham, rubbed it with brown sugar and seared it up to use on our salads this evening. I also cooked some crispy bacon to crumble, also for our salads. I think we have a pig theme going here.

We eventually had our salads, and Erin knitted and I watched YouTube.

Time for bed…

Friday, April 24th 2020

Day Thirty-Nine:

Happy Friday, I got up at 4, made Peets, skimmed the news, and finished the blog from yesterday. Let’s talk about coffee for a moment.

I read an article yesterday about coffee and your health. There have been many things said over the years about whether the black brew is good or bad for your health. Here is what the article said:

“It turns out that coffee's not just fine for your health, it may even lengthen your life -- but only if you prepare it with a filter, according to a new long-term study published Wednesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. "Unfiltered coffee contains substances which increase blood cholesterol. Using a filter removes these and makes heart attacks and premature death less likely," said study author Dag Thelle, a senior professor in the public health and community medicine department of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. That's bad news for lovers of coffee made with the French press, or cafetière, that is so popular today, or those fond of strong Greek and Turkish brewing methods. Boiling coffee or using a coffee press can actually increase your risk of heart disease.”

Unfortunately, I have been using a coffee press for about four years. Fortunately, it is now stowed away in the cupboard for emergency’s. I have always used a Melitta drip cone with filters for camping. Last night I went out to the van and moved this stuff to the house, and used it this morning to make healthy Peets. They also said that 4 cups a day is perfectly fine as long as you filter it. I going to go on Amazon today and stock-up on filters!

It’s 7 am, time for my walk, Erin will be going later…

As I was cooling down from my walk Erin got ready an did her’s.

I decided to check in with SSA to see why my monthly payment had been deposited on the 16th, instead of the 22nd. They told me that it had, and that she did not know why. The reason that I called was because we thought that that money was from the US Stimulus Package, it wasn’t. So at this point we haven’t gotten our check. Oh well? We shall see what we shall see!

I sat in the writing chair until four-o’clock and then started getting things ready for Hot Dog Friday. We ate dogs and watched “That Seventies Show” on Netflix.

We then did Zoom with Debbie, Jessica, and Ray, with a cameo from Oliver.

It was a hot day—almost one hundred degrees, we opened up the house at about eight and did our own things until bedtime, goodnight all…

Saturday, April 25th 2020

Day Forty, remember Noah:

It’s been Forty Days, and Forty Nights…

Good morning all of you members of the Ark!  The way it seems to me, we should now be disembarking The Good Ship Corona?  But alas, it is not to be, for we will have to weather the storm for a while longer…

I had my filtered, healthy Peets, and left for my solo walk at 6:30. It was so hot yesterday that I decided to go out a little earlier this morning.

When I got back I watched The Beatles, Yellow Submarine on YouTube, hence the boat theme today. Ha ha!

There seems to be a strong resemblance between our homes which we have been banished to, and Noah’s Ark if you are Christian, and other names, theories, and stories if you are not…Stay with me here, let me ramble on a bit… Here we go:

Once there was a worldwide flood (The CoronaVirus), sent to judge the wickedness of man (Not shutting down wet market’s, and selling dead bats). But there was one righteous family (The family of Woman and Man) which was forewarned of the coming flood. They built a boat (Our homes) on which they survived the flood along with their animals. As the flood ended, their boat landed on a high mountain (The end of the virus) from which they descended and repopulated the earth (The end of the fable is still to come)… I’m not done yet:

A flood story is one in which a great deluge, usually sent by a superior being, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine rebuke. Similarities are often drawn between the flood waters and the cleansing of humanity in preparation for rebirth.

Most flood stories also contain a cultural hero who represents the human craving for survival.

I think all of us wonder when we will be able to come down off that mountain, and when we will be able to repopulate with our families and friends. None of us know for sure, but I think we will come away from this with a better appreciation of life with others, and an understanding that we need to work together as human beings, and shed the prejudice and political infighting that seems to rule our world.

I think Ringo Starr says it best: “Peace and Love”

I watched “My Name is Nobody” on YouTube…

We did Face-Time with Jim and Mary at about 5:30, it was great to actually see them. We were in our back yards, it was about ninety degrees in Concord and Sacramento. We caught-up, swapped stories and enjoyed our virtual happy hour.

I went back to YouTube and watched “Duck You Sucker”. Two Spaghetti Westerns in one day, Wow! Today has been Boats and Horses.

Time for bed…

Sunday, April 26th 2020

Day Forty-One:

Another night of sleeping with no covers, I got up at 5 am, filtered Peets, and finished the blog from Yesterday. Today will be a no news day. I will be in the writing chair making stories up, not reading them in the news…

I went for my walk at about 6:30, I did about 2 1/2 miles. Sunday early is great, there were only two other people on the track. I came back and cooled down on the patio, I burned some balsam fir incense, and enjoyed the coolness of the morning. The balsam fir incense reminds me of being in the woods on a summer day. When I smell it, it makes me think back to camping in Yosemite when I was a kid.

Erin slept in this morning, her new tradition on Sundays. She doesn’t sleep very late but reads in bed and has her own time.

I am now upstairs in the writing chair ready to work on “A New Frontier”…

I wrote for over six hours today, I did 3000 words, A New Frontier is now at almost 50,000 words…I think I am getting somewhere.

I ate a big salad for dinner, Erin read my last two pages, so I could get an idea of how a surprise scene worked, and she liked it…Good Night.

Monday, April 27th 2020

Day Forty-Two:

Good morning, I got up at 4:30, filtered Peets, listened to the Ham Radio Net, and skimmed the news. They are talking about a food chain breakdown and are saying it could get bad in the next two weeks. We shall see what we shall see…

I am going to take my walk, I think 6:30 will become my new norm.

I did my 2 1/2 miles, got home and took a shower.

I started to cut out a round tabletop for use on the fire-pit to make it into a table when we aren’t making fire. About two seconds into the cut the battery went dead. Oh well, I have to wait an hour to get juice into the battery.

I did a marathon on my book yesterday, it felt good to be back in the chair letting my novel write itself. In a lot of ways it does develop on it’s own. I am not a Plotter, I’m a Panser. A plotter meticulously works out every detail of their writing and follows it in detail. A panser writes by the seat of his pants, or hers. Stephen King is a panser. He and I, get a basic story idea and start writing.

There is one exception to being a panser, in a story like “A New Frontier” which is a work of historical fiction, the research can’t develop itself. I think as much time was spent on research as was spent writing the first fifteen chapters. I had to research the year 1906, 1914, and very early Bay Area Electric Railroads. I was fortunate that I grew up in the county where the story takes place, only it was one-hundred years later.

I let character development happen as the story evolves. In the beginning I have a character or two in my head along with a basic premise, the story and characters develop as the story fleshes out. It is very exiting to write this way, because it’s just as much of a mystery to me as it is to the reader. I am a recovering Type-A personality, it seems odd that I would choose a style in which I don’t have total control. As the story unfolds, basic ideas come to me when I’m not actually writing. But once I’m in the chair, the order and details work their way in at their own pace. Sometimes the perfect kernel won’t make it’s way in for many chapters, and sometimes it never shows up at all. Sometimes it comes into play and then I remove it, or save it for latter. They say you should have an ending in mind the minute you start writing. Maybe some vague idea will come to me, but in the end, the end comes in the same way the story does—when it’s ready. Nuff said!

I think the saw battery is ready. Time to cut some wood!

The table top is done, and it did turn out round…

Erin made biscuits today, and we had egg, cheese, and bacon biscuits for dinner. I had a side of corned beef hash with another egg on top. Great dinner!

We watched “Swing Shift” with Kurt Russell, and Goldie Hawn. It was a fun movie. We did our own things and went to bed…

Tuesday, April 28th 2020

Day Forty-Three:

Good morning, I got up at a little after 5 am, made coffee, listened to the Ham Net, and got ready for my 6:30 walk. I started listening to  “The Stand” and locked the back door…

When I got back I got a cup of coffee and went to the fire pit to figure out how to install the piezo electric igniter on the new gas pit. Erin came out and went for her walk, and when she returned I had it finished. It works fine!

I ate a late breakfast and now I am upstairs writing this. While I was working on the fire pit a package came. It is a small electric pre-amp that goes between a microphone and digital recorder. This takes care of the noise in my recordings that I mentioned the other day. Hopefully this will clean-up the audio on my small recorder. If it works I will be able to crank out audio pieces that sound good and speed-up the production process. Wish me luck!

I used  the new pre-amp in my voice-over chair this afternoon and couldn’t believe the difference it came out as good as my much larger multichannel recorder and was way less trouble than setting up the other recorder. This means less time to record, great quality, and it is totally portable. Yeah, baby! (Pre-Amp Longer Version)

Erin made pasta and meatballs, with biscuits for dinner, it was amazing. We watched a movie on YouTube “Has Anybody Seen My Gal” with Rock Hudson, we turned it off half way though. It was definitely not our kind of flick. Oh well, we tried!

We went about our stuff and went to bed…

Wednesday, April 29th 2020

Day Forty-Four:

Top of the morning stay-at-homer’s, I made Peets, worked on the blog, and read about the way they are thinking of re-opening baseball. It is a very interesting idea…

I did not walk today.

I left at 7:30 with our shopping list to Trader Joe’s. Their Senior shopping starts at 8 am. I was in a line of about twenty people, spaced six feet apart, everyone had masks, and some had gloves. It was very orderly, they let us into the store, and handed us disinfectant wipes, then directed us to different parts of the store depending on how many people were in each area.

I have to say it was a very pleasant experience, I was in and out in less than forty-five minutes. Wow!

Erin worked, painting the round tabletop I made for the fire pit. She painted it with a depiction of the life-ring that hung on the rail of our 36 foot trawler, “The Jessie James”. It looks great!!

I finished editing my recording with the new audio gear and posted it on this site. It is in the section: “Audio Files”, under, “A New Frontier Ch 1”.

We had salads, Erin knitted downstairs, and I watched “Stephen Colbert” on YouTube upstairs.

Bed Time…

Thursday, April 30th 2020

Day Forty-Five:

Happy Forty-Fifth day in captivity, I got up at 5:30, filtered Peets, listened to the Ham Net. I don’t remember if I mentioned that The Six, Bay Area Counties including ours, Contra Costa, extended our stay at home orders until May 31st. This is not going over well with some people, but we think it makes sense. Erin’s employers have been paying her, but she will be filing for UI after the 11th. They do want her back when things clear-up. They are wonderful people!

I walked my 2 1/2 miles and listened to Stephen King’s, “The Stand”.

When I got home I cooled down and pulled out our “Go Bike” from the shed. It is a fold-able  bicycle, that has been sitting with flat tires and was mainly in the way. It was given to me by my friend Stuart who has since past-away. He bought a new folding cycle and gave me this one for helping him with his boat. It is a really nice bike, I think it originally cost near a thousand dollars.

I fixed the tires, lubed the chain, cleaned the helmet, adjusted the seat, and the brakes. Erin took it for a spin and loved it. By the way it was her request that got it in working order. Another one of those things I needed a kick in the ass to attend to. At least I am consistent!

I called Kaiser to check on the payments for my medical. I got a letter stating that for the first two months of coverage, Social Security would not be deducting it from my benefits. I’m lucky I decided to read that letter today, because the payment is due Saturday. They nicely took my payment on the phone and now all is well in medical land…

I built a hanging rack in the shed so we could store the “Go Bike” without folding it up. It is completely out of the way and hangs from the ceiling.

We drank some brews and wine at the new fire pit…

We made salads and then watched the first episode of “Justified” I think I am going to like it. It is early, but I think bedtime is near…

Friday, May 1st 2020

Day Forty-Six:

Happy Mayday!

My day is starting early, I got up at 3:30, yada,yada,yada…

I took a quick look at the posts in the bog, how many ways can I say good morning, and that I made Peets, or coffee.

I would like to document when I get up, but the rest is just BABLE… Let’s have more turkey, and less stuffing. Ha!

I went for my walk, got back and cooled down, and burned some incense, when I went in Erin came out and started her walk.

I decided to take advantage of the quiet in the house and I recorded Chapter 2 of ANF (A New Frontier). I then started trying to standardize the whole recording, processing, and editing process. At Just before 4 pm, I got it figured out.

It is Hot Dog Friday. I fired-up the grill got out all the condiments, grilled the dogs, and buns, and we ate, watching an episode of “Justified”.

I went back to finishing the last touches on Chapter 2, and then uploaded it to “Indivisible Space”.

I will be fooling with a few things in the audio world, and then it’s time for the sandman. Good night…

Saturday, May 2nd 2020

Day Forty-Seven:

I got up at 4:30…

Yesterday was, Mayday, the day celebrated as the transition from Spring to Summer. The way the weather has been it sure feels like we stepped through that door over a week ago. Most nights have cooled down, but the afternoons have been pretty warm. We have been able so far, to stay away from using the air conditioner. We live about twenty-five miles from San Francisco. The area we live in is called Diablo Valley. Just the name seems to depict heat, as in hell, the word Diablo in Spanish is “Devil”. Erin calls where we live “The Devils Valley”.

It stays between ninety and one-hundred degrees here in the Summer months, usually from June until the end of September, sometimes through the end of October. In contrast San Francisco is usually between fifty and sixty degrees during the same time-frame. In the summer months we will often drive through the Caldecott Tunnel into Oakland, and the temperature is twenty to thirty degrees cooler.

It’s time for my walk, more of my audio book, “The Stand”.

As per usual I cooled down on the patio, I listened to NPR 1, planted radishes in two eight inch pots.

I am now upstairs in the writing chair, I will be editing today, and if all goes well I will either write or record another chapter…

I finished editing ANF through 41 Chapters, Erin and I had a beer on the patio.

I then recorded Chapter 3, edited it and posted it on the site..

I am very close to shut eye, goodnight!

Sunday, May 3rd 2020

Day Forty-Eight:

I got up at 5 am…

I certified my weekly hours with EDD and should see my payment tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

I walked my 2 1/2 miles at 6:30, and got back at 7:15. I cooled down and burned some incense, and as usual it took me back to Yosemite. Gotta love that!

I edited ANF, yesterday, today I will start writing Chapter 42. Yesterday I added Chapters 38 through 41 to my formatted manuscript, which means I am through with it until it goes to an editor. My usual method is that I write three or four chapters, I do a read through, usually the next day, and then edit for grammar, punctuation, and spelling (GPS). Once this is done I add it to the manuscript, and then I move it out of my mind, and move on with the story.

Yesterday, I broke my rule and I did (GPS) on the entire manuscript, about two-hundred and fifty pages. Whew!!  Now it is really out of my head for a while…

Erin finished our cool new tabletop for the fire pit. It looks great, it is round and has a life ring with a copy of our wedding announcement in the center. We were married on our boat, “The Jessie James”.

I worked on Chapter 42 for most of the day. I probably would have finished it, but Erin and I went on Zoom at about 5 pm and spent an hour and a half with her relatives on the East Coast. Erin shared a ton of pictures of her family, there were great and we all talked about them. Her nephew Michael shared also, and her sister Jackie came along for the ride. Great evening.

I will finish Chapter 42 tomorrow.

We had chicken pot pies for dinner, and watched an episode of “Justified”.

Time for sleep…

Monday, May 4th 2020

Day Forty-Nine:

I got up at 5:30…

I checked my UI, and my two-weeks pay was there. Gotta love it, more money for the coffers!

I changed things-up a bit and rode the bicycle, them came home and did a walk. The bike really worked some muscles I hadn’t used for a while. Good stuff!

Erin just left for her walk and I am going to take a shower.

I’m still waiting to see my radish seedlings pop-up in the pots on the patio. We should see them in the next few days. I can’t wait! Next will be potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots. I think I will plant chives, green onions, and a small herb garden. I’m probably being overly optimistic. What the hell, I can dream!

Erin is now getting UI. This is the first time we have both been unemployed since we did our USA road trip in 2005.

I got back in the writing chair, and finished Chapter 42. It’s a 3000 word chapter. I still haven’t decided whether to make this the end of Part 1, or to just continue without the break. I’m leaning toward making a Part 2. I think the story needs to take a breath.

I’ve also decided to continue posting ANF’s Audio Chapters through chapter 7.

I’m done for the day, may the fourth be with you, goodnight…

Tuesday, May 5th 2020

Day Fifty:

I got up at 5 am…It is Cinco de Mayo today!

Wow, FIFTY DAYS, I’m still not bored, but I really miss camping, and going to the coast…

Time for my walk…

I did my 2 1/2 miles and sat on the patio. I was thinking more about the things I miss being cooped-up here at home. Probably, I miss holding Baby Ray more than anything, even though we see her a lot on Face-Time. Besides the forementioned items, I miss going to a beer pub and sitting with Erin. Also, getting coffee and tea with a croissant or a scone, and driving down the coast to Santa Cruz. Other than these things Erin and I are pretty content. We both seem to have projects and books lined-up, with plenty of movies to watch. I think it would be different if we were younger, but already being ready to retire, I can now say for sure, I am ready willing and able. Nuff said!

I will be editing Chapter 42 form ANF today, and maybe recording Chapter 4.

It’s time to make a run to the Post Office, and that place called a liquor store…

I did some editing today, but not all of it. I got sidetracked doing some shopping on Amazon, but it really doesn’t matter, because my days are not dictated by anyone but me. The exception to that is that I have to consider Erin, and I always try to.

Not only is it Cinco de Mayo , but in our house it is also Taco Tuesday! We made tacos and watched an episode of “Justified”

Done for the day, goodnight…

Wednesday, May 6th 2020

Day Fifty-One:

I got up at 4:30…

My radishes are popping their little shoots out of the soil, it is amazing that it happened two days ago, and now they already seem to be thriving. I think I will plant carrots today. The radishes are in two eight inch pots, the carrots will be in a 32 inch pot that is much deeper…

I did my bike and walk today, it sure works my knees and calves in a way walking doesn’t, even my butt. Ha ha! as I cooled down I raised the seat on the bike, and wrapped the twist grip gear shifter. The shifter’s rubber had turned to a sticky mess, now it has silicone tape covering the goo! All of that with the new gel seat cover and I think the bike is ready for action.

I worked most of the day upstairs writing chair. I finished editing Chapter 42 of ANF. I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing my desk, de-cluttering the whole area.

I barbecued chicken for dinner and we incorporated it into our salads. We watched 2 episodes of “Justified”.

Bedtime…

Thursday, May 7th 2020

Day Fifty-Two:

I got up at 5 am, read the news, regretted reading the news…

I know I wasn’t going to talk coffee every day, but I have been drinking Trader Joe’s french roast this week to conserve my Peets. It’s not bad at all, although Peets is the best. Nuff said!

I did my 2 1/2 miles, while I was cooling down I started thinning the radishes.

I was astounded at the number of radishes that had popped up, I started plucking the seedlings and putting them in other places in the little pots. I had so many that I decided to transplant the extras into the 32 inch pot that I was going to use for carrots. When I got done I had filled the big pot. I believe I have around a hundred radish plants. Wow! They only take 3 to 4 weeks to be full grown. We will have a lot of one inch radishes.

I went back to the writing chair and decided to re-edit Chapter 41 to cut out unneeded words and adverbs. Adverbs really clutter-up good sentences. I finished it, and tomorrow I will re-read both chapters one more time and then replace Chapter 41 in my main manuscript, and add Chapter 42, calling this the end of Part 1. It will be right at 50,000 words or about 250 pages.

I got a docking hub for the Chromebook today from Amazon. It will allow me to plug five plugs that normally plug into the laptop, into the hub, and now just one plug hooks everything up to the Chromebook. Way easier to make the laptop a desktop, and way less clutter.

We had leftover chicken in our salads tonight and did our own things. I watched the pilot episode of “Warehouse 13”. I had watched this series a long time ago and really liked it.

Time for bed…

Friday, May 8th 2020

Day Fifty-Three:

I got up at 4 am.

I read an article that PG&E will be shutting off power in Concord at 9 am. It was almost one-hundred degrees yesterday, and it should be at least that today. I guess their plan was to shut it down for about eight hours, but after complaints from people sheltering-in-place they said they would try to do there work in four or five hours. It’s part of a new system they are building that will automatically shut off power when there is high fire danger. It is what it is!

It’s 7 am and I haven’t done my walk, Erin is ready for her’s, but I will probably do a short bike ride and a short walk in a little bit.

I took a day off from walking today…

I thinned out some more radishes and planted them in a couple of pots containing succulents. I didn’t want to waste my healthy seedlings so I replanted about twenty.

nine-o’clock came and went and no power shut off. By noon I figured we wouldn’t be loosing power.

I worked on proofreading ANF for the afternoon, and ended-up editing some more stuff…

I barbecued cheeseburgers and buns for dinner and Erin and I watched a movie with Woody Harrelson, “Zombie Apocalypse”.

THIS WILL BE MY LAST ENTRY IN SHELTER-IN-PLACE… Good night…