Pandemic

Welcome to what I've been staring at for nearly seven weeks now.

Courtesy of Covid-19, I've been spending my days 

not doing all the things I said I'd do if I only had more time.

As it turns out, I've been practicing for a pandemic my whole life.

Life in Mathews is the very definition of social distancing, and we've been engaging in it even before we knew what it was.  Because we're so remote, it's not unusual to have a pantry stocked for an emergency.  You never know when the power may go out, you never know when a storm will surprise you with very little warning, and because we're at least 20-30 or more miles from the nearest Most Anything, you're always strategizing the acquisition and storage of necessary supplies.

I've always said there's no such thing as too much of certain items, including toilet paper and wine (for example).  And as it turns out, I was more right than I ever knew.  What I never anticipated was that toilet paper would become so scarce--in stores and on-line--that sourcing it would become a high-stakes game of risk, strategy and, often, dumb luck.

Toilet paper scarcities aside, though, I'm not just fine, I'm great.  I am also grateful to not have to drive the hour into work every day, and I don't (at the moment) have any financial worries.  Due to underlying health conditions, I'm one of several in my office asked to stay home until it's safe/safer to return.  Due to the nature of my work, I can't do it remotely; yet I am still being paid.  Again, I am eternally grateful for this.

Everyone in the Chesapeake Bay Family is doing OK, all things considered.  First Child is currently in Madrid, on lockdown since March.  He is healthy but bored, a problem he can live with.  Second Child is getting ready to graduate from UVA's Architecture School, something I'd been looking forward to with glee but which will not be happening as a formal event for obvious reasons.  We'll find a way to make the best of it, though.  My parents are doing OK, although my father had some very, very serious health problems in January that led to his now being on dialysis.  He has so many health problems you wouldn't believe it if I listed them all, but he's hanging in there. Middle Sister is hunkered down in her new house across the field from me, working from home and enjoying her newly adopted dog King.  Baby Sister is still in Richmond doing OK.

We're all safe and in reasonably good health-- and really that's all I want and need.

(Except for some good Thai food.)

I've come to a few realizations during this pandemic:

• The thousand and four things I always said I'd do if I had more time?  Time has nothing to do with it.  I just don't want to do them. Ever.  At all. So, it looks like cleaning the garage, organizing the basement, decluttering the upstairs and organizing cabinets and closets will never happen.  I'm finally OK with this.
• It is possible to structure an entire month day around the following activities:  coffee, bird watching, walking, jigsaw puzzles, reading, eating, sleeping, watching Netflix.  I've sewn days upon weeks upon now months together into a quilt of these activities.  
• It's going to be a long time before I can travel like I want to again.  In the mean time I need to enjoy what's in front of me more. 
• All of this down time makes me question what my purpose is, and I don't have an answer for that yet in spite of days upon weeks upon months of wondering. I've read books that talk about purpose and having goals, and I realize I have no true goals.  (How is this possible?  My life thus far has been about one goal:  surviving each day. So far, I'm winning.  But surely there should be more.)
• I love the view from my back yard, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.
• I am tired of all the wind and rain and dreary weather though.  My mood seems to be eternally linked to the weather.
• I'm very grateful for everything, even the things I complain about. Like the weather.  

That's about it for now.  

I hope that all is well in your world.  Stay safe, be smart, and live well.

Crab Pots, Etc.

These were taken on a not-so-recent side trip to the public landing at Edwards Creek.

It's been too long since I've blogged.

But I have been taking pictures here and there, 

even if I haven't posted them.

This Friday I leave for Peru, a place I never imagined seeing or experiencing, much less with my two best friends from college. I majored in Latin American Studies back in the Dark Ages of the 1980s; yet I've never been to South America.

 On Monday, I'll be absorbing all the wonders of Machu Picchu. 

This trip has been nothing but logistical questions and challenges, one after the other.  But we've finally ironed out the Getting To part. (You can't just drive up and ask for a ticket to Machu Picchu.  The only way in is by foot or by train.  We'll be trainin' it....)

Now I await the Experience part.

Although I absolutely dread the pile of work that will await when I return, I greatly look forward to setting foot on that first plane Friday afternoon.

I love a good adventure. In fact, I live for a good adventure.

I hope you have at least one great adventure to look forward to in the near term.

Stutts Creek

These are some shots taken from a recent boat ride on Stutts Creek.

And when I say recent, I actually mean April which feels like just yesterday.

Sadly I've been neglecting just about everything this blog 

and yet still have good intentions of posting more regularly.

But time just gets away from me, moving more and more rapidly.

It's June already.

It's also Busy Season at work.

And that means stress.  Lots of stress.

Outings like this one on the water are  so soothing to my frazzled nerves.

In addition to these sporadic, therapeutic excursions up and down Stutts Creek, I recently cruised to Reedville for something I'd never seen before:  boat docking races.  Middle Sister, some friends and I spent the day watching boats of various shapes and sizes race against the clock to see who could "sprint" from across the creek and then tie up (by throwing hoops over four poles). What a great way to spend a Saturday! I'm looking forward to another such event in Cape Charles later this summer. 

Except for this racing of time and trying to balance out all the stress of work, all is well in the Chesapeake Bay Family household.

I hope all is well in yours.

Moon

Here is a shot from a while back of the moon hovering over Queens Creek. 

I'm very happy today for several reasons.

First, I leave tomorrow for Florida, where I will board a cruise ship that will be my home for the next several days. This has been one of the longest, darkest, rainiest winters I can remember.  I'm thrilled at the prospect of warmth, sunshine and most of all no responsibilities!

Next, I am also very happy for another adventure that will happen in August:  Machu Picchu!  I booked my flight about a week ago and spent the better part of today booking hotels and the actual ticket to Machu Picchu.  The fact that I'll be going with my best friends from college and I'll be meeting Chesapeake Bay Son (who is working there this summer) makes me ecstatic!

So, I am just checking in to say all is wonderful here.

I hope it is with you as well.

Heron

This heron was trying to blend in with the pine trees and marsh grass at Bethel Beach when I visited a while back.

I remembered taking quite a few pictures but  never got around to looking at them until today, more than a month later.

I can't believe the last time I posted was December 31.  

And how did it get to be February 11 already?

They say time flies when you're having fun, but January and February are never fun months for me.  They're typically the longest, darkest, coldest, most-indoors-est, least sunshiny-est time of year. I leave for work in the cold darkness and return home in the cold darkness.

There are signs that things are changing, however, and hope is on the horizon.  The daffodils in my front yard are poking through the cold, hard ground, and all of a sudden I'm noticing more songs from the birds.

The Chesapeake Bay Family has been plodding along mostly uneventfully.  My children, my parents and my sisters are all doing OK.  Son is currently teaching English to six-year-olds in Madrid.  He's headed to Machu Picchu in the summer to work for a company called Global Leadership Adventures (he also worked for them last summer in Costa Rica).  I'm seriously considering a visit if the stars and planets align.

I'm also looking forward to a cruise the end of March, a 70s music themed cruise .  It's my reward to myself for surviving these dreary months of January and February. 

Other than making the arduous trek from Mathews to Williamsburg during the work week and laying low on the weekends, there's not much else to report.  I just wanted to check in and make sure I still knew how to blog.  I do. 

I hope all is well in your world.

Bethel Beach

The other day I drove to Bethel Beach for a quick visit.

It was an unusually calm, windless day. 

Also unusual was the fact that the sun was out.

It feels like we've had nothing but rain and misery dreariness for months on end.

We all survived Christmas and I for one am very much looking forward to 2019.  To help motivate me to exercise more, which I desperately need to do, I've signed up for a half-marathon in Virginia Beach in March.  Whether I will be able to complete it remains to be seen.  My only goal is to be able to walk it and finish.  If I don't, though, I don't.

It wasn't that long ago when my goal was to finish these races without walking at all.  Given the six months of chemo and subsequent heart issues, however, I have to adjust my goals downwards.  It makes me a little mad, but it all just makes me want to do and be better. 

So, here is to a healthier and happier 2019 for all of us.

Happy New Year.

Queens Creek

These shots of Queens Creek were taken from my back yard recently. 

We were experiencing a bout of what I like to call Scooby Doo weather. 

Gray, dark, a little bit spooky, maybe even creepy.  The fog always adds that little sprinkle of mystery to the overall landscape.

Flash forward to today, and all is back to normal--whatever that is. 

Mother Nature always reminds us that dark skies don't last forever. 

And no matter how gray things seem, nothing stays the same.  

This too shall pass.

Happy week before Christmas!

Moon

These were taken from my back deck around Thanksgiving. 

My son, who recently returned home from several months in Spain, was attempting to show me how to adjust the camera settings to take pictures at night.  He takes amazingly good pictures and is pretty much self-taught like his mother.

Unlike his mother, however, he actually knows how to use settings other than Auto, something I've struggled with for years.

Once again, I've neglected this blog and haven't been out to take any pictures even though there have been many great photo opportunities, like the Mathews Christmas parade this past Saturday.  And even though we had the first decent snowfall of the season yesterday.  (Nothing stuck in my yard but it was nice watching it come down all day.)

I've been in a physical and mental funk, so to speak, and still haven't gotten back into the swing of things here on the blog.  I suppose I can once again make it a resolution for 2019--along with exercising more, eating better, all the stuff I know I'm supposed to be doing. 

On the plus side, my monster of a Christmas tree is up.  It's over 20 years old and still fighting me every step of the way, but for the time being I claim victory in our ongoing feud. 

Click here and  here and here for pictures and stories from past Christmases.

I hope to get out and take some pictures soon.

The Heart Incident

(Note:  Those who don't want to read about CBW's Drama du Jour, please enjoy the unrelated photos.)

Once upon a time, exactly three years to the day from when Chesapeake Bay Woman took her very first helicopter ride to the hospital after a major car accident,  and about a week after her mother was in the ER for a heart issue, she was carried out of the house on a stretcher for a whirlwind, siren-enhanced ambulance ride to Riverside Walter Reed Hospital .

I had just finished up a six-mile walk around what I call the Wayland Church Loop, something I've run/jogged a million times before, but only a few times since completing chemo.  I was feeling OK but a bit thirsty.  Normally I carry room-temperature water in my vehicle, but this time I didn't. On the way home I stopped to get a cold Gatorade and took several chugs.

And that's when it all went haywire.

As I was driving, I started to see spots and felt very nauseous.  I was simultaneously sweating and cold and just felt awful.  Although I contemplated driving myself to the rescue squad I went home and felt certain I just needed to lie down.

Once I crawled into bed I called Middle Sister, who suggested we needed to go to the ER.  That sounded too extreme but while I was waiting for her to arrive, I vomited and quasi-blacked out.  All of a sudden a trip to the ER sounded reasonable.

In the interim, however, I couldn't lift my head off the bed, couldn't even fathom standing up and walking to get into her truck.  So, she called the Mathews Volunteer Rescue Squad.

Words can't express how comforting it was to see that Emily Brown, who graduated with my son and who I've watched from the sidelines of various sports events for years upon years, was one of the paramedics.  All three of the people I remember (there may have been more) could not have been more professional, more calming, more soothing and more reassuring during one of the most unexpectedly distressing times of my life.

When we arrived at the hospital, my resting heart rate was 187. After an IV of some magical concoction, the episode calmed down, but I was admitted for a couple of nights for observation and every test known to man.  In the days afterwards my chest has been tight and also sore.  The enzyme for heart attack had been elevated, but they don't think I actually had one.  (#Winning!)

In short, they're labeling it an a-fib episode and now I have a zillion follow-up appointments with various doctors, one of whom specializes in aneurysms--because I have one (ascending aortic).  Most of the doctors don't feel that was in any way responsible, but I am here to tell you I think it has contributed.  I also think the influx of cold liquid after exercising was a trigger.  Six months of chemo, that included a known heart-debilitating drug, could not have helped.  I've been unable to build up my endurance since chemo ended in March.

It's strange to me that this happened at all, much less three years to the day from my car accident.

I'm eternally grateful to Emily Brown, Chris Buchanan and anyone else associated with my ambulance ride.  They were there during the worst part of the episode and made the experience as palatable as it possibly could be.

If you consider your life boring and uneventful, Chesapeake Bay Woman says thank your lucky stars.  There is such a thing as too much excitement.

The End.

Blue Heron

Today since I didn't have to drive to work, I decided to visit Bethel Beach.

I parked my car and jog-walked three and a half miles.

On my way back to the car, I spotted this fellow.  

(Or gal, I don't know which and have no idea how to tell.)

Luckily, I had my camera in the car, and he was still hanging around when I drove back out.

The past few weekends have been very busy.  Middle Sister and I went to the Gloucester Wine Festival a few weekends back.  Last weekend, I drove to Dewey Beach, Delaware, to visit my two college friends.  (On the way home Chesapeake Bay Woman was trapped for five and a half hours on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel--on a bridge in between the two tunnels--due to an accident.  I could write a novel on that experience alone.) Anyway, this past weekend, Baby Sis and I drove to Louisa, Virginia, to see the band Ambrosia play at a gala for the Louisa Arts Center.  This weekend I'll be headed over that Bay Bridge Tunnel yet again to visit Ocean City, MD, with a friend.

In between, I'm making that soul-sucking long commute to work each day, trying to figure out how I can stay at home and make enough money to make ends meet.  Alas, I have six years and three months--but who's counting besides me--before I'm eligible to retire.

In any case, I've been trying to enjoy life in the free time that I do have. 

Today's trip to Bethel Beach and the brief photo op with this blue heron were just what I needed.

Have a great week.

Mathews Market Days

Mathews Market Days has been a big deal around here 

since I was knee-high to a grasshopper for many years now. 

It's an opportunity for locals and visitors alike to get out 

and actually experience "downtown" Mathews.

This year it was hotter than HELL blue blazes.

Emphasis on blue and blazes.

The Kona Ice truck definitely caught my attention.

Regardless of the sweltering heat, 

Middle Sister and I managed to hit all the high spots 

and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The End.

In spite of my best efforts, I've not been tending to this blog, and lots has happened that's report-worthy.  No matter what it looks like, this blog isn't yet dead, and I intend to get back here more regularly.  

-CBW