Roadtrek Rally

 We're in Bushnell, Florida at a Roadtrek Rally again.

Here is a link to the group album

Roadtrek Rally News

September was Book Launch month

 I got 'er done.

We sold about 230 on our special, spiral bound deal, and they're also selling on Amazon. About 150 there so far. 

I think Jim actually likes doing the work. Here's a little video on how he does the spiral binding.

Our Book Launch special was a spiral-bound, autographed book AND a voucher for an online workshop with me over zoom. The books are all bound and mailed and I've given 2 workshops so far. I think they went pretty well. Got lots more to go.

Here's a screenshot of my class today

We're off to a small RV rally in N Florida tomorrow. This is a major adventure considering we've barely been out of the house since mid March - that's over 6 months.

August 29, 2020

 I need to mark the day, but I'm not going to say much because I've said it all before.

Marilyn - 1931-2020 

I booked a dive boat to take Mom's ashes out to sea on Dec 5. When the time came, there were still too many Covid restrictions and many people would not be able to make it, so we cancelled the boat and had a zoom meeting instead. That was great because we were able to get people from all over the country to participate. Here's the video of the Zoom meeting memorial:

We did it! We went Kayak diving - twice

Mini Season

August 6 to March 31 is lobster season in Florida. To give scuba divers a head start on the commercial operations, there is a 2-day mini-season on July 29-30.

July 29 came around and the weather was decent, so we went. The seas were not as calm as I like, but they weren't bad. I felt so out of shape, Jim had to drag my kayak to the water for me, I just couldn't do it. Paddling on the ocean in the sunshine was gorgeous. It did feel good to get outside in a socially distant, safe way.

I hate current. I am holding on to the down line for the kayaks when we're underwater so Jim can be free to hunt for lobster. The current was taking the kayaks one way and I needed to go another. Kick as hard as I might, I could not make any headway. We're usually down for at least an hour, but I sucked down my air in only 40 minutes. 

Jim did catch a few lobster - yay! And we made it back to shore just fine. It was still wonderful to get out on the ocean on a beautiful day, and I felt good for getting a bunch of exercise, but I told Jim I may be getting too old for this. 

The next week

August 6 is the first day of the real lobster season, and it was a gorgeous day. The kayaks were still on top of the car from last week so that was one less job to do. 

What a difference conditions make! I'm so glad we went again this week. The seas were flat calm, no current. I was in heaven. We stayed underwater for over an hour and I still had 1200 psi of air when we got back on the kayaks. YES! This is the kayak diving that that I know and love. And, I spotted a lot of lobster too! Jim bagged 7 of them. Limit is 6 each.

People always ask, how do you get back on the kayaks after coming up from the dive? So I took this little video of Jim.

And, oh yea, we ate a nice dinner too.

So, that was all Good News. And, I'm making real progress on my book. I think it's going to be a good one. 

Then there's the 

Bad News

As of today, August 14, the Covid-19 numbers in the United States according to the Google aggregate data.

Cases: 5.35 million

Deaths: 170,000

The Alzheimers facility where Mom lives has been on lockdown since the end of March with no reported cases. I have not been able to visit. Worse than that, her wonderful aide Vilma has not been able to visit. Vilma is much better with her than I am at this stage, she would always get her to walk and take her outside. I'm sure Mom hasn't walked since the lockdown started. The staff at the facility are fine also. Sofia, her main caretaker at the facility texts me a photo now and then.

Here's one from June 30. I won't post the one from August 8, it's just too sad. I got a call from Hospice today that she has stopped eating. The nurse will be with her over the weekend. I hate this disease.

 

The new normal

It's been a while since I posted - more than 2 weeks. You can tell that we're settling in to this new normal. I keep filling my time with more projects - book, Youtube shows, making videos, holding meetings, presenting classes using Zoom, giving Toastmasters speeches using Zoom. I've gotten so busy, that when Jim suggests we could take one day and go kayak diving, I say "I'm too busy!" Saturday we participated in a Toastmaster Zoom meeting with nearly 200 people to learn how to combine online attendance with real life meetings. Yesterday, we did Episode 195 of our YouTube show. Today we're giving a Google Photos presentation, via Zoom, to the Golden Gate Computer Society in San Francisco - 7pm their time, 10pm our time :-(  Tomorrow, we're giving a presentation on using Chromebooks to edit photos. This one is for the Dayton Ohio computer club. 

Jim has been spending time improving his room. A while back, he completely took over the guest bedroom, getting rid of the futon/couch that we used as a bed when we did have guests. We decided that a wall bed, aka Murphy Bed, would be the right way to go so that Jim had the most amount of room and we still had a guest bedroom. He researched and finally came up with his choice. It arrives in pieces, so he asked Devon to come over and help assemble it. It turned out to be a full day job.

This is how the murphy bed was delivered

They attached the frame to the wall

Jim supervises

The finished project

How it looks with the bed down. Too bad nobody is allowed to visit now 😞

The complete Studio/Guest bedroom. Jim is very happy with his new room

Bad News

July 27, 2020 Day 131 since we cancelled all travel plans to just stay home.

Covid 19 numbers: U.S. Cases = 4.31 million, U.S. Deaths = 149,000

Florida is a hotspot with 424,000 cases and 5,853 Deaths

Broward County opened up a bit, then cases started spiking, so we're back to some level of lock-down. See the screenshot below from Actually, Jim and I haven't been paying that much attention to the rules. As long as the virus is a problem, we just stay home - period. We get our groceries delivered, Jim does most all the cooking except for once each week to 10 days, we order ribs to go from Flanigans, or chicken wings from Wings Plus, then Jim goes to pick them up - wearing his mask. I sometimes get in the car with him just to go for a ride.

Good News

We're getting about 1 month to the gallon these days.