Beware of merchandise from China!

I fell for it several times, but now I have learned my lesson. In the beginning of the pandemic I ordered hand sanitizers and face masks. I could not get them in any store, even Amazon was out, so when I saw them online I placed an order. I also ordered filters for my Robot vacuum cleaner. The only problem with those orders was that I ordered them in March and they arrived at the end of July. But then I ordered from a catalog two cute summer dresses and a beautiful, lacy bra, without (cancer causing!) underwires, that supposed to improve my posture. Ha! One of the dresses “looks like a nightgown” said my husband. And the material and color of the second one were so cheap, flimsy and shiny that I did away with it immediately. Returning it had no sense: if they even would accept a return it would take three months before it got there and another two for my refund; if there was a refund.

Then there was that beautiful bra. The way they showed how to put it on in a video was fast and easy. Yeah right! I had ordered a size M, because I wear a Medium in about everything. I could not even get this over my head! So I immediately emailed the company that this bra would fit my twelve year old granddaughter, not me! I would like a return address to get a refund. Their fast response: no returns after 14 days. Me: I contacted you in one day! Your sizes are not for the American market! They: only returns if product defective. I gave up, because their policy said if you do not get your refund when item is defective, send us an email. It had taken seven weeks for this order to reach me! And four reminder emails. I lost. But not completely. Because I happen to have a 12 year old granddaughter. I sent the bra to her and she liked it, but still has to grow into it in a year or so. She is happy and in the mean time I am not bra-less, but none is as pretty as this one was.

Euthanasia en pleine vue

On my evening walks with Lani, which take me several times around the Club, I often stop to chat with the two or three people that sit outside by the main entrance to catch a breeze after dinner. That is also important for Lani, to get her used to other people, socialize her. Last week, they told me a story that was hard to believe. One of the ladies in Independent Living had a little old rescue dog that she adored. She had her for years. She would walk Bonzo slowly with her walker at first, later on she trained her on paper in her apartment. One evening, Mary came outside with Bonzo slowly following, spread out a little blanket for Bonzo to lie on and sat down. Her Veterinarian drove up, came out of her car with a bag, sat down with teary-eyed Mary and Bonzo, and proceeded to euthanize the little dog – all that under the eyes of two or three Residents. The Vet took Bonzo’s body with her and Mary went back inside. That is the saddest story I have ever heard. Because of Covid no outsiders are allowed inside. That’s understandable, but the Vet could have come in a Van and do the procedure inside, privately, with Mary comforting Bonzo for the last time. What has this world come to?

By the way, talking about euthanasia made me think of my last book Anguished by Ronny Herman de Jong. It is really a short story, only available as an e-book. I do hope, especially if you have read my previous book Rising from the Shadow of the Sun, that you will take the time to read it. I write about a hair-raising event that happened to my mother and me when she was 101 years old and all alone in an Assisted Living after my little sister Paula had died of cancer. And if you have an opinion after reading it, I would appreciate a review on Amazon.

Salon visit

On September 1 I finally arranged for a hair cut after six months. I kept hoping the lockdown would end and I could go to my outside salon, but the end is not in sight yet and my hair was almost down to my shoulders. In July, the hair stylist and manicurist were allowed on the property again, but all the ladies stood in line for perms and hair cuts and so the first available appointment was last Tuesday. At the rate of one person at a time that is understandable, and from my point of view the wait was alright, because I kind of liked my longer hair – the humidity made it curl nicely! Anyway, everything was sanitized before I could come in and sit down, and both the stylist and I kept our masks on during the whole process. After showing her eight pictures of the way I wanted it to look, the result was not bad, let’s say four stars. If I can show her one more picture of how to cut it next time, and that turns out well, I will stay with her. She is good at what she does, everyone likes her, and she has been here for ten years, so it will be an advantage ten years from now if I don’t have to go off campus for hair cuts.

During these six months of lockdown I have learned that my body heals itself with a little help, I have learned to depend on myself for maintenance of hands and feet and more, and I can shop by mail for everything from groceries to clothing to gifts for others, Hallmark cards and more. So am I ready to give up my car? No way! I love to drive and I love my car. My mother gave up her bike when she was 94 because she had started to develop Macular Degeneration. With 20/40 eyesight, it will take me more than twelve years to give up my car. It is more likely that my car will give up on me! And as far as my bike is concerned, I gave that up forty years ago! Biking up and down the hills in Pasadena was impossible. I preferred walking 3 miles around the RoseBowl every day with our dog Barney.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

 

 

 

This week: no updates!

It was such a busy week that I did not have time to write. I will put the subjects I have in mind on the back burner for next week, and send you a story that I wrote when we lived on the Big Island for twelve years. It was truly paradise. On the Big Island you can go from the beach and swim and snorkel in the warm waters to the top of Mauna Kea (the White Mountain, because it has snow on top in the winter) in a matter of hours. And you can drive through the Ka’u Desert to the coffee plantations on the Kona side through the black lava fields to the cowboy pastures in the north. To drive around the island takes about five hours total.

I wrote this story when I spent a weekend with a church group in Kilauea Military Camp, high on the slopes of the active volcano Kilauea. Kilauea has been erupting since 1984, hot lava flowing down the pali (slope) towards the ocean, destroying everything in its way. Upon entering the ocean water it creates hot steam changing into clouds of glassy strands, called “Pele’s Hair”. Pele is the Goddess of the Volcano.

I could go on and on with fascinating stories about Hawai’i. Imagine living there!

Kilauea Sunrise

The huge cloud bank over the opposite rim of Kilauea Caldera seemed motionless, but its wispy top, barely visible against the lightening night sky, betrayed the strong winds that were propelling it horizontally across the abyss. Some ten or twelve plumes of white sulphuric steam rose straight up from cracks in the caldera floor. To the east, white steam was escaping with great force from the steep wall of the crater, a horizontal waterfall.

I stood on the rim of Halema’uma’u Crater that Saturday morning, bundled up against the early morning cold and unexpectedly strong winds, thankful that I had woken long before my alarm was supposed to go off. Having spent the night at Kilauea Military Camp, only a few minutes’ walk from the crater rim trail, this was a chance in a lifetime to watch the sunrise over Kilauea.

Amidst ‘Ama’uma’u ferns and low shrubbery around me ‘Ohi’a trees stood silhouetted against the eastern sky. On the ground a thin layer of light colored mosses suddenly made me think of manna in the desert. The last stars faded against the pastel sky. Pink and orange hues painted the clouds, and a bright orange line across the top accented the place where the sun was still hiding. A few more minutes and it appeared in all its glorious brightness.  “When morning gilds the skies…”

The dense cloud bank over the opposite rim dissipated unexpectedly. To the west, the new day’s light defined the enormous Halema’uma’u Crater. It was steaming, a slow, steady, rising curtain of steam. Right over the crater, a single large cloud, changing color from dark gray to pink to light gray, lingered as the sun rose higher in the now light blue sky. It remained in place for as long as I stood there.

Again, I thought of the Israelites in the desert and I felt the presence of God. How beautiful is His creation! How privileged am I to be a part of it. 

Ronny de Jong
October 1999

It’s a wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

A tragedy

After two days of a beautiful full pond and a spouting fountain, Thursday morning, on my early walk, I crossed the street to the corner of the pond where I always look at my bullfrog. He hides in the tall grasses on the side, just where the water rounds at the top of the pond; his body in the water, his big head sticking out. In the mornings he is silent, but wait till it gets dark- he is the one that sings the loudest. I was shocked to see the pond back to the lowest level, dam in the middle, the fountain dead. But what caused me to cry out was that I watched Larry, the big hawk that lives in this neighborhood, rise up with my bullfrog dangling from his beak and fly away right in front of my eyes to the tree-line in the cut-de-sac. Looking down, I noticed the five feet or so of mud along the water, and in the mud tracks of the scramble that must have gone on just before I got there. Had I been three minutes earlier, I could have screamed and scare Larry away. Now, alas, I could cry!

A celebration 

Last Friday, we celebrated Mike’s birthday in a wonderful way. The morning went by quickly with opening gifts and cards that had come in the mail, phone calls throughout the day, and at 5:00 p.m. we drove to our son’s house to celebrate with the family and enjoy a Thai dinner. It was, for Mike the first time off campus since the beginning of March. We saw the grandkids, all three growing fast into tall young men, and except for eating and drinking, we all wore our masks and kept at a distance. After dinner they hosted a Zoom program on their laptop and we could see and talk to the kids and grandkids in California and Canada as well. A wonderful reunion, which made all of us look forward to next summer, when we hope to have a real reunion with Covid gone.

More tragedies

On Sunday afternoon we heard that one very good friend in Assisted Living had passed away; another good friend, in Independent Living, had gone from hospital to Rehab and is now in a Hospice home, where her husband, recently released from the hospital and Rehab, and their daughter could visit her together. There are about 24 vacant apartments and one vacant cottage right now, management is struggling with employees who are leaving and no replacements coming in; the quality of the food is below par, not what we were used to in the first year we were here. All in all, a lot is caused by the Covid virus, but it makes me thankful for the good quality of life we still have. We celebrate every day together, we make the most of what we have and what we get, and we hope that the Covid will be a thing of the past soon.

September 2, 1945

Yesterday, a friend sent me the following message and I could not help laughing. Interesting information, not known to many I think, at least I did not know about it.

A FASCINATING PIECE OF HISTORY AT THE END OF WW-2

Why did the US choose a US Navy Iowa-class battleship as the location for Japan’s surrender in World War 2 even though they were in Tokyo Bay and could have used a building on land? Pure symbolism. Nothing says “you’re utterly defeated” than having to board the enemy’s massive battleship in the waters of your own capital city. A naval vessel is considered sovereign territory for the purposes of accepting a surrender. You just don’t get that if you borrow a ceremonial space from the host country. In addition, the Navy originally wanted the USS South Dakota to be the surrender site. It was President Truman who changed it to USS Missouri, Missouri being Truman’s home state. The Japanese delegation had to travel across water to the Missouri, which sat at the center of a huge US fleet. It’s a bit like those movie scenes where someone enters a big-wig’s office, and the big-wig is sitting silhouetted at the end of a long room, behind a massive desk. The appellant has to walk all the way to that desk along a featureless space, feeling small, exposed, vulnerable and comparatively worthless before the mogul enthroned in dramatic lighting before him. By the time he gets there the great speech he had prepared is reduced to a muttered sentence or two.

In addition, the USS Missouri flew the flag of Commodore Perry’s 19th century gun-boat diplomacy mission that opened the closeted Edo-era Japan to the world and forced upon them the Meiji restoration which ended the rule of the samurai class. The symbolism here is pretty clear – “this is how we want you to be, and remember what happens to countries that defy us.” It was particularly humiliating for a proud country like Japan, and that was entirely the point. The symbolism of the ceremony was even greater than that. The ship was anchored at the precise latitude/longitude recorded in Perry’s log during his 1845 visit, symbolizing the purpose of both visits to open Japan to the West. Perry’s original flag was also present, having been flown all the way from the Naval Academy for the ceremony.

When the Japanese delegation came aboard, they were forced to use an accommodation way (stairs) situated just forward of turret #1. The freeboard (distance between the ship’s deck and the water line) there makes the climb about twice as long as if it had been set up farther aft, where the freeboard of the ship is less. NOTE: This was even more of an issue for the Japanese surrender party as the senior member, Foreign Affairs Minister Shigemitsu, was crippled by an assassination attempt in 1932, losing his right leg in the process.

The #1 and #2 turrets had been traversed about 20 degrees to starboard. The ostensible reason for this was to get the turret overhangs out of the way to create more room for the ceremony on the starboard veranda deck, but in fact this would have only required traversing turret #2 had it been the real reason. However, the turret position also put the gun tubes directly over the heads of the Japanese. They were literally boarding the ship “under the gun”.

The honor guard of US sailors (side boys) were all hand-picked to be over six feet tall, a further intimidation of the short-stature Japanese. The surrender documents themselves, one copy for the Allies and one for the Japanese contained identical English-language texts, but the Allied copy was bound in good quality leather, while the Japanese copy was bound with light canvas whose stitching looked like it had been done by a drunken tailor using kite string.

After the signing ceremony, the Japanese delegation was not invited for tea and cookies; they were shuffled off the ship as an Allied air armada of over 400 aircraft flew overhead as a final reminder that American forces still had the ability to continue fighting should the Japanese have second thoughts on surrender.

Thanks to all the heroes who fought for our freedom!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time

Ronny

 

VJ-Day Presentations

Throughout the country commemorative services were held, wreaths were laid and speeches held to commemorate VJ-Day. Even in the Netherlands and Great Britain people reflected on the end of the War in the Pacific and the millions of lives it cost to make the Japanese surrender. I did not know that they commemorated in a big way in Great Britain, with military bagpipers and flyovers; they had not been able to celebrate VE-Day in June, because of the virus, so I guess they doubled up. A long time friend in London sent me a nice message at the start of my day. It made me smile. Herbert was 11 years old when I was a nanny with the family for the summer of 1960. There were four children, ranging from 11 to 3 years old. We had a wonderful summer with all kinds of adventures, traveling to Paris and the South of France, and on both sides we often relive the memories. The parents have passed away, but I am still in touch with two of the children, the two oldest, both grandparents now.

Here, at Waltonwood, I did two Presentations, on August 13 and August 14, for an audience of 9 and 6 respectively, because of the Covid virus; the smallest audience I have ever had. But they were attentive and asked questions afterwards. Except for one hombre, who is legally blind and very hard of hearing. He slept through the whole hour. His wife had dropped him off and, hopefully, had some respite time for herself. I can imagine that it is very hard on someone to have to take care of another 24/7, and in the theatre he was at least safe in a seat, with others around him. We raised the flag.

By the way, do you know why the Japanese did not surrender after the bomb on Hiroshima? And why they did not immediately surrender after the bomb on Nagasaki but waited six days? Let me know if you know 🙂

The pond

After the sprinklers had been on for 24 hours, the water in our pond had receded to two puddles with a dam in the middle that I could have walked across. Eventually, the fountain died, the two turtles and the large bullfrog that always sat on the shore, half way in the water, had become invisible. It was a sorry sight, and I wondered what had happened to the fish. But after three days, a truck showed up and the morning after that the water was back to its regular level and the fountain splashed again. What a waste of water that was! It’s good that we don’t live in the desert, and it has rained a lot the past few days. On my evening walk I enjoyed a loud concert of happy voices of crickets, frogs and the bullfrog. It is so wonderful not to live high up in an apartment building but in a cottage surrounded by nature! From our living room windows we could imagine we live in a tree house.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

 

 

 

Covid Testing

Good news from the executive director: after repeated testing of the positive Associates, and isolation of those who were in contact with them, everybody tested negative. Starting next week, we will be having communal dining in the dining room again, and activities with 6 – 10 people in the room will resume. The staff asked me if I wanted to do a presentation again in the theatre to commemorate VJ-Day, and they scheduled it for the 13th and the 14th. Twice? Yes, because there are only 6 people allowed in the theatre at one time with proper spacing. Well, if you ask me, the theatre easily has room for 10 people with proper spacing, but management said no. 6 compared to 60 is very few, but I have addressed small book groups before, so it’s all right. Because of the age of the people here, and because they might only be interested in the camps, I will show half the number of slides. Then, if they all say, please continue, I don’t have to go yet, I can always continue. But I understand that if you’ve got to go, you got to go! Until now, however, the projector is still broken. So if it can’t be fixed before Thursday, I’m taking two days off!

We have decided that if they open the dining room and serve as before, 2 people to a table of seven, we will pick up our dinner and eat at home. Because there is virtually no contact with others. We wave from a distance, sometimes say a few words, but that’s it. And eating at home together it is very comfortable, from real plates with real silverware :-). When we can have three to a table, we will go back.

My Dipladenia: 

For mother’s day I received a potted pink Dipladenia, a plant new to me. I have watched its growth over the last three months and am surprised at the way it has filled out, just like a woman’s body fills out, spilling over the edge of the pot, now twice its size. And then, a few weeks ago, a thin green “arm” reached out. Searching in all directions; first left, then straight up the wall, up to the white tiles, growing in length, until it found the potted gardenia! It felt its way around a branch and curled around another, and lo!  On the bridge between two plants buds have formed and are about to open. It looks like plants have a need for company, just like people need other people to thrive. No person should live or die alone. It happens too often. There are so many lonely people in this world, I only have to look around me. They brighten up when they get a phone call or a card. My little sister died all alone in a hospital bed in the Netherlands, unbeknownst to her 101-year old mother in an Assisted Living in another town, and without her family by her side. When I heard Paula was admitted to the hospital, I bought a plane ticket to be with her. But her daughter-in-law said, what’s the use? and I cancelled my flight. Perhaps I have told you this before. Sometimes, it just pops up in my memory, especially when a neighbor passes away.

                               .

Death in our neighborhood

One of the neighbors in the cottages passed away on Saturday, in the hospital. He was not alone – his two daughters were with him. But he had suffered for three whole weeks and had become so tired and frail that we all expected he would have to let go soon. He did not have the Covid virus, but nevertheless his passing is devastating for his wife, who depended on him for many things. She was not allowed to visit him in the hospital, but thankfully his daughters could each take turns to come for one day, and in the end, they could both sit with him. Life is so short. We never know when it is our time. So make every minute count, live a day at a time, set goals for tomorrow and love each other.

Remote FOB battery replacement

Ah! I am so proud of myself! I remotely replaced the batteries in three of our car Fobs yesterday. When I took Lani to be groomed on Monday, my dashboard warned me that my Fob battery was low. So when I picked her up again I took the second Fob we have in the drawer. Goodness! The same warning appeared on the dashboard. Just in case I lose both Fobs, we have a third one in Mike’s secret drawer. That battery was low too! I envisioned having to take them to the Ford dealer, or to AAA, for service, but I first called our son. He texted me a video of how to remotely replace the battery in my Fobs – of course it was a video specifically for our car, because all cars are different. I happen to have the 2032 batteries in the house, because I use those for our Fitbits. So I did it, and they all work. I could not have done it without that video, but I did it! And, did you know that inside a Fob is a little key to open your car door with? I haven’t quite figured out when to use that though. Perhaps if the Fob has a totally dead battery and you are locked out of your car, you can take that little key out and open the door. But then what? You can’t drive unless the Fob works, right? Oh well, it’s good to know, but I am glad it will not happen to me, because all my Fobs are working again.

The sprinklers

The sprinkler system turned on Monday afternoon around 4:00 p.m. It turned off again after a while everywhere else, but around our cottage it stayed on. I reported it twice, but apparently nobody could do anything about it until the outside Sprinkler Maintenance Company would come on Wednesday. What happened? The principle of communicating vessels. The water from the pond drained into the sprinkler system, then ran down the street and into the storm drain, from where it was channeled into the large overflow pit next to our cottage, and from there down and out via the little stream by our trail to the next community, Wimbledon. And the pond? The fountain is still running, but the water level went down six feet and now consists of two small puddles with a wide bridge across, in between them. I could walk across the bridge easily from one side to the other. I won’t do that, because I would first have to climb over a little fence, then down to the water and across, and things down there will be muddy, for sure. And so, when we look outside, everything looks like it has rained, nice and fresh!

I saved two lives!

A few weeks ago, we had a mouse in the pantry. The Maintenance guy gave me two small glue traps to catch it. But the mouse was long gone, and the traps stared at me each time I carefully opened the pantry door. So I put them on the floor in the garage and forgot about them. On Saturday morning, when I looked again, I thought I had caught a snake. Because Friday evening I saw a 14″ snake crawl across our front porch towards the border. Hm, I’d better be careful when I cross the Divide with Lani,” I said to Mike. And now…there was something in the trap. When I looked closer I saw not a snake but a large lizard. Aww, I felt so bad. I did not know what to do. So I did nothing. It was still there the next day. I called Maintenance, but it was weekend and the man did not come, even though he lives on the property. To make a long story short: on Tuesday night I thought I would look it up on Google: How to save a lizard from a glue trap. I found it, and it seemed easy. I put a little chair outside the front door in the shade, a plastic cutting board on the floor in front of it, put on gloves and went to the garage to get the trap out. What I found was not one lizard, but two! Isn’t that heartbreaking? They stuck together!  I put the trap on the cutting board, cut it open at the top and folded the sides away. Then, with my little watering can I dropped some water on them to cool them off. They were still alive! Both of them! In 90 degree temperatures for three days and three nights! I happened to have a small bottle of olive oil in the house, and drizzled a little around them; swabbing it with a cotton swab around their feet, tails and bodies. And in less than five minutes they broke loose: first one, then the other. What a miracle! They ran as lizards can run in the direction of the border, which was nice and soggy; because even lizards love life!

Conclusion: Always have batteries of all shapes and sizes in the house and always make sure you have a bottle of olive oil in the kitchen. And definitely never use glue traps!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

Editing

This week I had no time to write a post, because I had a job to do! A good friend asked me to edit her manuscript: a final edit before it went to the publisher. Hey, that was a job after my own heart! I have always loved editing.

Next week I will be able to tell you the second test results of two Associates in Independent Living who tested positive last Saturday. They are doing contact tracing, so many people at the Club are in Isolation. So glad we are safe in our cottage!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Sanitizing the dining room

We have now had dinner in the dining room for three weeks: two people to a table of seven and a few tables for two along the side. We have no linen table cloths anymore, the tables and chairs are wiped after each diner leaves. Then the table is set again with a paper place mat and a fork, spoon and knife plus a straw, wrapped together in a thin paper napkin. Salad, soup and entree are served on paper plates. Not the usual kind, but very nice, hard carton-like paper, and they are square. A nice look. It is all very practical. Because, for the sake of sanity and safety, the dishwashers are at a standstill. Everything is thrown directly into the trashcan. There is one server and one busser, wearing gloves. And of course everybody is wearing a mask. The busser is not allowed to take empty plates away when the diners are still eating, but when they leave, he or she can pick up everything altogether and throw it in the trash. Then he sprays and wipes the table and chairs all over again and the next two people can be seated. It works. And it keeps us Covid free!

During the first two weeks of our “open dining”, our “silverware” was sturdy black plastic. Now, in the third week, it is white plastic, and a good size smaller than the black. Sort of like the toy “silverware” we had as children. It is not easy to maneuver salad on a fork like that, and the soup could possibly be better drunk, were it not that there are often pieces of meat or vegetable in it. That would make a real mess. The drippings off the little spoon on the paper napkin or the table in between make enough of a mess as it is. So, easy does it. Cutting fish is easy. Cutting a pork chop or chicken breast takes lots of see-sawing and patience. Then, by the time you get a slice off, it is cold. Sigh.

Every day we say we will bring our own silverware from home tomorrow, the real silver set, but every day we forget. That comes with living in a retirement community like this. Everybody forgets things all the time. We have adjusted. And as long as we need to, we will eat with little white plastic silverware that bends when you use it but somehow never breaks.

It is not the kitchen’s fault. The distributor sent this small set when the order called for large, sturdy black. I was thinking about the numbers: We have about twenty vacancies lately. Children took their parents out, but I don’t know what they did with them or where they took them; after all, being independent here means you can still be dependent on a cane, walker, wheel chair, oxygen, adult diapers and pads and more such things. The fact that the parents are in this retirement community  means that the children could not or would not take care of them. Right? So why take them out? Probably because so many people in nursing homes have gotten infected with Covid? But this is not a nursing home, and so far, we have been kept safe for more than four months.

But I digress. Let’s say we currently have 120 residents. In one month, they would need 3600 sets of silverware; add half of that number for Assisted Living, and you get to 5400 sets of plastic silverware per month. That also means 5400 sets of salad plates, large plates and soup bowls; that is 16,200 pieces of hard paper plates. Per month. Over the past four months that was 21,600 sets of plastic silverware. And 64,800 pieces of hard paper plates. Heavens, where do they store it all? And where do they go with all the trash? Ah! No wonder a huge trash container appeared by the back door of the kitchen. It is stationary, but I noticed this week that it had been emptied, because I did not see piled up black bags any more.

The organization of a place like ours struggling through a pandemic is praise worthy. So we complain as little as possible. I only wrote a letter to the Executive Director after the air conditioner had been “frozen” for ten days and the temperature in the dining room rose to over 80 degrees. He responded that they were coming to fix the air conditioners on the roof on Friday. It rained on Friday, so we hoped they would come on Saturday. But Saturday was probably their day off. Virtual church on Sunday would mean our hope is now fixed on Monday. Sigh.

The watermelon

It will be a long time before I will order a watermelon at Costco again. This one was so big that it needed a cutter, and we were lucky that our son could swing by to do that, in exchange for one half. He cut the first half  in small pieces, then I stopped him and asked him to take the other half home. But he said he had an ever bigger one at home! So he cut it in two pieces, and after he left I took one quarter over to one of the neighbors across the street and one to the new neighbor around the corner.

When I served watermelon with lunch, Mike said he did not really like it. Too much water in my mouth and it is tasteless! WHAT? Well, I did not know that about my husband of almost 60 years! He agreed he would take a few pieces a day to help me out, but in the mean time I was stuck with half a watermelon! I like it, but too much is too much. So I called the neighbor across the street again and asked if he would have some more, all cut up. Oh yes! we love watermelon! So that helped me out some. I am eating watermelon at breakfast and for lunch, and for snacking in between. But the best of it? Our neighbor came to return the dish and brought a bottle of Clos Du Bois Chardonnay! Wow! That was a good trade! Thank you, neighbor! Because of my CMO diet I will have to save it for a month, but it won’t go bad and I have a couple of days of watermelon juice left.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

Costco Shopping

Last Monday, before I started my CMO diet, knowing I needed lots of fruits and vegetables, I decided to go to Costco. And I would take the three day isolation afterwards. Costco opens at 9 AM for seniors and I would be very careful. But after sleeping on it for one night we both had our doubts, because the death count in North Carolina is still going up, and I decided to instead go shopping with Instacart. Great service, I had a carload full of all the items I ordered two hours later. I could barely store them in the refrigerator, but it worked. Except for one watermelon. When I put a watermelon on my list, I envisioned a little one. But coming from Costco I could have expected what I got: a huge one! The driver put it in the chair by the front door so that I didn’t have to pick it up from the ground, but carrying it inside was almost impossible for me. I dumped it on the counter and rolled it into a corner. I could not even take it to the sink to wash, as my daughter suggested, before cutting it. Cutting it? I don’t have a knife big enough or a board large enough, and my poor hands already went into hiding, like the dog when I mention the car in the garage. She hates riding in the car. Anyway, I thought for a few days about whom I could ask to cut this thing for me, then finally decided I should ask my son. He promised that next week he would sneak in through the front door to the kitchen and bring tools to cut my watermelon. I promised him he could take part of it home, because the two of us could never eat it all.

I also ordered frozen vegetables, peaches and mangoes, a supply for a month. Coming from Costco, they are big and beautiful and delicious. But I had so many! I should give some away! So the next afternoon I took one large peach in each hand and walked over tone of the cottages, where the neighbors sit in front of the garage every day as soon as the sun is behind the trees, but still in 90° weather. They had to make so many trips to different doctors, that they had to be in isolation for I don’t know how long and their patio in the back is too small and too dark to sit outside. They were very happy with their gifts. The next-door neighbors must also be in private isolation, because I haven’t seen them at all for two weeks. I should give them two of the large mangos, I thought. But then it dawned on me that my supply had to last me for a month, and if I would keep giving fruits away I would not have enough left for myself. I needed to give one more gift though. The lady at the front desk had loaned me her umbrella when we came out of the dining room and the rain was pouring down. I had an umbrella in the car, but I had forgotten to bring it inside. So she loaned me hers and I gave her a box with some mandarin oranges the next day.

Exodus

Because we are not living in he main building, we do not know much about what is going on there. So one night I called Bella, a very friendly lady who knows everything and everybody. We talked for 45 minutes and she gave me an update of people in the hospital, in rehab, people that have left because their son or daughter took them out, people that were going to leave, people who were in isolation because they had gone off campus, and two people who had passed away. I was flabbergasted! No wonder I had not seen many familiar faces when I walked the dog or dropped something off at the Club. Indeed, the new Resident Directory shows 20 vacancies in Independent Living alone. I have no idea what the situation is in assisted-living. Day after day the Crabtree Moving Vans stood at different exits of the main building, and then at one of the cottages. Waltonwood is allowing only one moving company to take stuff out or bring stuff in. Let’s hope that we will get new people in soon, and that we then sit with more than two people to a table.

No Air-conditioning in 95 degree weather!

Last week we heard that, because of the high temperatures, the air-conditioning was frozen. That sounded strange, but tonight the hostess told us that this happens every summer. We don’t remember that from the previous three years, but hey, if nobody can do anything about it, we’ll have to suffer through it. Last night we had a table by the window and it was so hot that we decided that we should order in as long as it will be this hot. Our air-conditioning is working well, or so we thought. But when we came home last night the temperature in the house was higher than we had set it. So it didn’t freeze but it could not pull the temperature down as low as we wanted it.

The beauty shop is open!

All the ladies are getting haircuts and color and new perms. One by one they are looking pretty again, and it gives them an incentive to put on some more colorful clothes, it seems. The stylist can only have two people in the salon at a time, so everybody needs to make an appointment, but it works. Even some of the men get themselves on the list, and everybody is happy. The atmosphere seems not so gloomy anymore. My own hair is growing steadily. I cut the bangs once in a while, and I still have color for one month. But when we can go out again I will have to make the decision to wear it short again or leave it long. To cut or not to cut will be the question!

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

My first Mini Vacation

An invitation came out of the blue from our son: our boat is now in our driveway for maintenance and if you want, you can come look at it. We were just finishing dinner, but the evenings are so long that I jumped at the chance to at least see the new boat, even if I could not ride in her yet. That has to wait until all danger is over. I got to see not only the boat, but our son and daughter-in-law and two of the grandsons – all at a distance, but still, it was wonderful. I was home long before sunset, in time to walk Lani and have some chocolate ice cream with Mike before bed!

Expanding our horizon

Lani and I have ventured out to Wimbledon again! Three times already. I thought don’t show, don’t tell. And after I had checked out that our trail through the Divide was still passable, we went. When I mentioned the word Wimbledon, she looked at me full of expectation. She remembered to turn right out of the front door, then down the hill, through the bushes (I held her very short, because there are still the rows of barbed wire sticking out of the ground) and out onto the street. And she remembered the way to the trail, the right turn onto the trail, then right on the street, left again, left again and onto the second part of the trail. Then past the pond and the swimming pool and right past the tennis courts and up the stairs to the road and so on, all the way to home. Amazing! We had fun! It was early, before 8:00 am, but humid, and the shower before breakfast was refreshing. We do about a total of two miles this way, about the same as four times around the campus, but never boring!

Annual Power Wash

The week before July 4th the community had arranged its annual power wash; our cottage at the far end of the property was one of the last, on July 3. The roof and the gutters were cleaned first of debris, and then they worked their way down, a crew of four men. They did a very good job, and to top it of, two young men came on July 4th to professionally clean all windows. We’re good to go for another year.

An Indoor Power Cleaning

Well, after four months without our fabulous cleaning lady, we finally let her come. When I asked the Executive Director, he did not respond to my email. Then I asked the Treasurer, who has been here the longest, and she said, Don’t ask, don’t tell!  We did not see any danger – Maria has been working for an old couple in another cottage all this time; she wears a mask and gloves and all went well. So Maria was here for three hours and we stayed out of her way. The house is super clean again and we are super happy!

Dinner At The Club

On July 7 the dining room was finally open and it was wonderful to see familiar faces again. We went to the Players Club for a glass of wine before dinner and were seated promptly at 6:00 p.m. Few tables in all, two people per round table for seven, and dinner was not five star but gold star, as I told the Chef, who was keeping an eye on things. Apparently this plan was so easy that they changed the schedule: anybody can now come and be seated between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m., and you can indeed get a glass of wine with dinner if you like – they will bring it to your table.

Home Hazards

Blue spots, red spots, scratches and open wounds on hands, arms and legs are inevitable in this house! I can’t blame them all on Lani’s nails, it’s things in the house that cause me to cringe daily. Cabinet corners, sharp wall edges, door handles, door jambs, desk drawer rail, bed corners are causing injuries some of which need bandaids. It’s a good thing that we have bandaids by the yard from the Netherlands! Mike says I walk too fast, I move too fast, and it’s all my own fault. Well, so, I really have to think about moving slower. Sigh. I don’t move fast on purpose; it’s me! But I have to change me, for sure. I covered the bed corners and vanity corners with special clear plastic protective corners already, but I can’t do anything about all the other things. Two weeks ago I compromised my left hand so badly that I could not use it for two days and had to immobilize it by a tight bandage. Now I have swelling and arthritic pain in my left thumb joint. I do not mean to bore you with my aches and pains, but I want to tell you about a fantastic remedy for arthritis, all kinds of arthritis. I used it in 1997 when I had arthritis in my right hand. I became ambidextrous when it lasted a few months. Then a neighbor told me about Original CMO. Available online for about $150, a one month’s supply. One month with a particular diet and four supplements per day took care of my arthritis for twenty three years. The FDA and the Arthritis Foundation did not believe in it, but I do. I think it was off the market for a couple of years, but now I found it again. It has a slightly different packaging than 23 years ago (of course) but looks the same otherwise. I ordered one month’s treatment. One month is all you need! About the diet: three things are not allowed: coffee, alcohol and chocolate. Then no bread, noodles, rice, corn products, bacon, oils, cereals, bean products, milk, yoghurt, ice-cream, cheese. What’s left? you ask. Beef, fish, chicken, eggs, honey, vegetables, fruits and nuts. Plenty to stay alive on!

I was living in Prescott, Arizona when I used CMO. It worked so well that I recommended it to several of my friends who were complaining about painful arthritis. Do you know that no one could stick to the diet? Not even for one month? Not even while their pain was severe? They could not do without coffee! Or without wine! The only one who followed the diet rigorously and took the supplements exactly as they were described, was our carpenter, who worked for us just before our move to the East Coast. He was in so much pain using his hands that he was planning to retire. Three months later I called him and he was in seventh heaven. He could use his hands again and thanked me profusely.

My order arrived on Monday. I will need large amounts of fruit, vegetables and nuts. I can’t go out, so I put a shopping list together for Instacart and someone went shopping for me and delivered everything the same day.

A Poem by Laura Kelly Fanucci

Laura Kelly Fanucci is an author of 6 books, an award-winning columnist, online writer, and the director of the Communities of Calling Initiative. I had never heard of her, but I found this beautiful poem and want to share it with you.

“When this is over,

may we never again take for granted:
A handshake with a stranger, Full shelves at the store,
Conversations with neighbors,
A crowded theater, Friday night out,
The taste of communion, A routine checkup,
The school rush each morning, Coffee with a friend,
The stadium roaring, Each deep breath!  A boring Tuesday.  Life itself.
When this ends, may we find that we have become more like the people we wanted to be,
we were called to be,
we hope to be,
and may we stay that way — better for each other because of the worst.”

And may it be a Wonderful Life again!

Until next time,

Ronny

 

 

 

 A Pillow Project

Did you ever move to another place, house or country? If so, did you find that things may get a different purpose in your new abode? We have many such things. One of them is a beautiful antique beam, coming from Mike’s mother, originally a roof support of an old Dutch farmstead. With four sturdy legs, it served as a display shelf for an antique copper kettle, an antique cast iron sewing machine, a pewter spoon set and more such things. Then we moved to another part of the country and into a smaller house. There was no more room for the beam in the living room and it landed in the hallway. And ever since a little dog entered our lives, I sat on it to put Lani on the leash and put on my walking shoes, two pairs of which are stored underneath. Our decorative beam had become a practical bench. When it became an uncomfortably hard sit, I had a folded towel underneath my tush for a long time. I finally thought, that looks so ugly! I need to make a pillow to sit on. Where can I find material?  The answer came immediately: the unused dust ruffle of the trundle bed in the office! With the help of the maintenance man I got the old Singer from behind the love seat (an excellent storage place) onto the dining table and went to work. The old Singer by the way, which I had purchased from a little old lady in Pasadena, who was our neighbor, screamed at me for not using it more often and not keeping it lubricated. I kept talking to it, hoping it would continue, stitch after stitch, until I would have finished the pillow case plus two short dust ruffles for head and foot end of the trundle bed. I had to change bobbins twice, but Singer kept on going. Lucky me! Then, the filling. Ah! Foam rubber pieces. Can you imagine that I had an almost full bag of them in the garage? Dating back six years ago to Prescott, where I had to add some pieces to a My Pillow? Who moves across the country to a smaller home with half a bag of foam pieces? I did! Because you never know when you would need foam pieces. And lo and behold, my foresight helped me to fill a pillow three years later, while in lockdown!

Another item that changed functionality: a wrought iron candle holder, a gift from a good friend for our 25th wedding anniversary, holding two tall candles, was honored as such in Pasadena, Hilo and Prescott. Now, since we don’t burn candles anymore, certainly not those tall ones, it has become a very practical hat stand for me. Voilà the transformation!

 

 

 

 

 

The start of Communal Dining

The news that all previously positive tests came back negative a second time filled us all with joy. The Executive director announced that we will start communal dining in the dining room again on July 7, at tables of two, with four seatings: 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. We, in the cottages, will be in group 4, dining at 6:30 p.m. That is about the time that we were used to having dinner before we moved here. While the next group of diners are waiting their turn (fifteen minutes, for the servers to reset the tables) they can wait in the Players Club, which is across from the Café, and enjoy refreshments. They mentioned wine and beer! Really? Free wine and beer every night? They said yes, but we’ll see. Free wine, by the way, is now delivered for Happy Hour every Friday afternoon by the girls in the golf cart. In the Café we could always have a maximum of two glasses. Small glasses. Some of the men could not live on two glasses of course and went back to the bar to get one more please, sweetheart? We could take our glass to the dining room and have our wine with dinner if we liked. Very early on, the wine came out of bottles and we could choose, red or white. The connoisseurs of red wine could even choose between Merlot and Cabernet. But then, perhaps with the change of management, (we had three of those changes in three years) the wine was served out of large carton boxes with a spout. And, no matter how often we told the “bartenders” that red wine was supposed to be at room temperature and white wine chilled, it was never understood that way. White wine lovers had to add an ice cube or two, that’s to say, if they cared. And the “red” residents? We would warm our hands on the glass and savor our wine a sip at a time. By the time the second glass had lost its frigidity, it was dinner time. That was all before Covid-19 entered our lives.

Nowadays, the girls in the golf cart come by on Friday afternoons at Happy Hour with our red wine, which they pour in plastic cups, standing in the driveway (the girls, not the plastic cups, they stand on the floor of the golf cart). And one day, when I went out to meet them to carry our “glasses” inside, I thought myself back in biblical times when Jesus was talking to his disciples about old wineskins and new wineskins. A wineskin in biblical times was an ancient container made of animal skin, usually a goat, used to transport liquids such as water, olive oil, milk, and wine. Two thousand years later, the animal-skin wineskins have been modernized of course. They are now made of plastic. When I got to the golf cart, I saw to my amazement that Cindy was pouring red wine out of a plastic bag with a black spout. It looked like a bag of blood for a blood transfusion. Or like the catheter bag that hung on the side of the bed of some of my hospice patients many years ago. But those bags contained yellow fluid, not red. It made me think twice about the wine they serve here. It’s a good thing that these days, from the golf cart, we only get one glass. Between three and six o’clock, standing on the counter in the kitchen, decanted in real wine glasses, the wine will have time to acclimatize and we can drink it with dinner.

We have one big concern about the new arrangement of communal dining. Which items on the menu will the kitchen run out of by the time the fourth seating is looking at the menu? It happened before, when there were two seatings, that the second seating often lost out on the choice of meat or dessert. We’ll have to wait and see. It will be a challenge for the kitchen, no doubt. We heard from the chef that several of his crew had left, and recently four new applicants never showed on the interview and then turned around to the Unemployment Office and said they had applied for a job but didn’t get it. How low can you get, even considering this miserable pandemic we are in, to lie and deceive like that?

July Fourth, Independence Day

We had a quiet weekend and watched a lot of beautiful fireworks. Over Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, over Washington DC and over New York City. We were at all three places when we were just married, in 1962, on our way back from California to New York, to the Netherlands, after eighteen months in the United States. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a massive sculpture carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota in fourteen years. Completed in 1941 under the direction of Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln, the sculpture’s roughly 60-ft.-high granite faces depict U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. When we were there, in the time of fewer tourists, there was a tourist information building where you could buy postcards. Now, the site features a museum with interactive exhibits and more. We also visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, started in 1948. It will be larger than Mount Rushmore and depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. It was very impressive when we were there, and then we could only see the outstretched arm and the rounding of the horse’s head. The reason it is not yet finished while they estimated it would take 30 years, is that it is on private land and funded privately and through donations and entrance fees only. The vision of Korczak Ziolkowski, it is the world’s largest mountain carving and considered The Eighth Wonder of the World in progress..

         

To have seen both these gigantic sculptures in person is an awesome memory.

It’s a Wonderful Life!

Until next time,

Ronny