A New Life! Retirement at its Best 2020-15

I have to go to work! (Parallel to Mamma’s words in 1944, We are put to work. We had to follow a Jap with a bayonet on his rifle)

What a blessing that our circumstances in the Lockdown of Waltonwood are parallel to the incarceration in WWII, but a thousand times better.

Exactly two weeks ago, two cleaning ladies from Waltonwood came to our cottage for a two-hour “deep cleaning”. One hour of cleaning every other week is included in our rent, but after two months we were so disgusted with the quality of the cleaning that we hired our own cleaner, a lovely Mexican-American with two adult children and a little granddaughter. She comes every other week for two hours and does an excellent job. When we were asked to have the annual deep cleaning done we agreed, and gave our own lady a week off. Well, that’s once but never again. After two weeks, the shower shows black and yellow mildew on the floor, the top of the shower pan and in the grout from the floor up all the way to my shoulders.

The sad thing is that we are in lockdown, so our cleaner is not allowed to come this Monday. I had to go to work. I don’t have appropriate tools anymore, but I made it work. First I cleaned both toilets; that was easy enough. Then I dissolved a tablet of Clorox I had bought in an empty milk bottle – I do have a spray bottle, but I use that for my plants. Anyway, I’ll make a long story short. With the toilet brush and a scrub sponge I scrubbed walls and the floor and the edges of the shower pan after I had splashed some Clorox everywhere. Rinsed it all off with the shower and my loofah on a stick. Too bad that we don’t have a hand held shower, that would have made its easier. Now I have to get myself a new loofah when the lockdown is lifted. What a blessing that I have a cleaning lady, and such a good one! And it was a joy to take a clean shower the following morning.

Our meals are still delivered twice a day. As a surprise, because we don’t have live entertainment, they came with the golf cart an hour before dinner and presented us with a glass of red wine each, for Happy Hour. And on Friday, our regular Happy Hour, they repeated that.

One of our neighbors ventured off campus to go to Trader Joe’s and asked if she could bring anything for us. Trader Joe’s has special hours for seniors, from 9 – 10 a.m., and let only 10 people in at a time, she said. We had a short list, fresh fruit, crackers and a bunch of Alstroemerias. We can last another two weeks at least, with the supplies we have; so we feel blessed.

Victims of The Virus

Two days ago, we were shocked to read in an article in the Sun Valley, Idaho, newspaper, that there was a second person in Idaho to die from coronavirus. It was one of our friends. That was a terrible shock. Pete and his wife became our friends in 1972, when we had moved to Pasadena. We attended the same church, Bible Study, small group, until we moved to Hawai’i and they to Sun Valley. At 86, Pete was the epitome of good health; he always volunteered for things, gave blood when needed, was a ski instructor, and they sang in the church choir. They traveled a lot to faraway places an we kept in touch with Christmas cards and letters. It is unknown how he contracted the virus; his wife does not have it and could not even be with him when he died. Oh, this all really shocked us – one of our friends! We pray that we and all our families will stay healthy.

Another, even more depressing message reached us from the Netherlands. One of our oldest friends, one of three couples who were witnesses at our wedding in 1961, passed away with Corona. It is so hard to realize, to understand that this happened so close to home. Who will be next?

It’s better not to dwell on the dark clouds, but look for the silver lining, like Mamma used to do. So on every walk, I am enjoying the beautiful flowering trees that grow around us.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny