Nothing like a Pandemic to bring out your inner Hypochondriac

 Our Roadtrek rally was small. No more than 25 people in the room. We have often given our seminars to groups of several hundred. But, still, that's 25 more people than we've seen in over 6 months!

Most people were good about wearing their masks, but then we had to take them off to eat and I took mine off when I was on stage and speaking.

After 3 days of this, we drove over to Gainesville to park in the yard of our good friend Alex for the weekend, then we had an appointment to take the RV in for service on Monday. Since we had "been around people" I felt extra cautious about visiting with Alex. We would not go in her house. We only talked while sitting in our camp chairs outside. Then:

I sneezed!

OMG - I'm getting sick. I might have Covid. I need to quarantine. yada yada yada The only way to calm fears is to get tested. Jim and I had already agreed that we would get tested when we got back home, but Alex told us about another friend that got tested right here in Gainesville, so I called and made an appointment. We went in to the Urgent Care facility, they stuck a swab up both nostrils for each of us, and told us we would get a text message with results in 2-3 days. They were very professional, clean, friendly. I didn't sneeze once - I was already feeling better.

We still didn't go in the house, but we enjoyed our time at Alex's visiting with her and her Donkeys. And, it was SO nice to have some pretty photo ops. We are usually traveling all the time with tons of photo ops. For the last 6 months we've been home. I'm starting to know each and every flower all around our neighborhood!

Tuesday morning we got the text message from CareSpot - both of us are Negative. Whew!

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.