03/26/2020

It has been another beautiful day here in the desert. After spending most of yesterday feeling down and worried about my mom, it felt good to be a little more cheerful today. I felt better knowing that I was able to get a doctors appointment scheduled for her on Monday and had transportation arranged to get her there.

Instead of reading corona virus news, I popped on line to see what my pal Pluto had to say today and watch a fun video posted by singer songwriter Sheryl Crow.

So here is how day seven of our sheltering in place went…

• Wally and I walked the resort in search of pretty flora and fauna. We haven’t left the “compound”since Sunday but if we mix up our routes here inside the walls of our pretty oasis we can see something different almost everyday. I have been checking this little beauty in the photo below for the past few days and was rewarded with this gorgeous flower today. Our walking route took us through the orchard where an acre of fruit trees ring the wall of our property. We were super excited to discover three mexican limes trees nestled in with the orange, grapefruit, lemon and tangerine trees.

• We sat outside and enjoyed our lunch on the patio again today.

• A unexpected wine delivery showed up today. I know, you must think we have a serious wine consumption problem. Yes, congratulations … that is a very fair assumption. The shipment was from one of our very favorite wineries in Walla Walla Washington – Isenhower Cellars. We have been wine club members for years, since the first time we met the winemaker/founder/owner Brett Isenhower at a wine event in our small town of Lake Oswego. His luscious rich reds caught our attention and his beautiful family run winery kept us coming back for more.

• Wally and I went on a golf cart scavenger hunt here in the resort which was organized by our very fun friends Cindy and Jill. It was the perfect activity that people could all do but not gather in a group or worry about social distancing. We stopped by and got the list from Cindy, who sat at the edge of her driveway. Then we were off, zooming around the resort trying to creatively fulfill the list and photograph ourselves in action. Everyone had four hours to complete the hunt and post our top three photos on a community FB site. Yes, there were drinks involved… no harm, no foul …drinking and driving within the walls of the compound isnt a party foul. Here are the top three favorites with the categories explained:

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• Celebrated our friends John and Kristen’s 26th anniversary. Warning: There was no social distancing observed. The four of us have been very, very careful about our exposure and honestly had spent so much time together prior to the shelter in place order that we all agreed that we were comfortable with our risk/exposure going forward. So, since we couldn’t go out on the town and celebrate, the next best thing would be to cook together and play a kick ass game of Five Crowns. We broke out some very nice wine, did a build your own burger bar featuring grass fed, organic beef, caramelized onions, green chilies, chipotle mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, avocado. Kristen did her delicious air fryer garlic fries and I kicked in a southwest salad. I am sad to report that the only ass that got kicked in cards was mine….

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• Wrote this blog post and edited pictures.

• Frig is not quite as full… The salad and smoothie fixings are getting thin…but I have crab from our summer harvest on the menu tomorrow. We are grateful to be healthy. So far, so good for day seven. Hope all of you are healthy, sane and have had a good day as well.