04/3/2020

It was another warm, breezy day here in the Coachella Valley. Usually in early April our community would be starting to wind down, the winter season coming to an end, folks would be thinking about going home but it would still be teeming with activity. These days it is eerily quiet, only about a quarter of the 1,213 lots are occupied. Most morning we see walkers or people bicycling but after that its a ghost town.

So here is how day fifteen of our sheltering in place went:

• Kristen and I walked the resort and golf courses looking for our duckling family. Turns out we now have three mallard families, with 8, 9 or 10 ducklings in each group. That explains why we though one was missing then miraculously reappeared. We found one family napping and grazing on the edge of the pond on the back nine golf course. One family was busy cruising on another pond, mother trying to keep all the little stinkers under control. They are all so adorable…

• Successfully got my mothers prescription sent to a local CVS pharmacy near her apartment community. With the groovy CVS app I was able to set up an account for her which alerted me when the meds were ready for pick up. I was then able to pay for for it online through the app so the Support Services Manager from her community could go pick it up.

• Wally actually left the resort today. Our good friends, John and Kristen who we are essentially sheltering in place with have a small plane, whose name is Valentina. John recently signed up with Angel Flight which is an nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization that arranges free, non-emergency air travel for children and adults with serious medical conditions and other compelling needs. Their network of 1,400+ pilots throughout the 13 western states donate their aircraft, piloting skills, and all flying costs to help families in need and they also fly missions that transport critical medical supplies, blood, plasma or donated organs to local hospitals. John needed help doing some maintenance work on plane wheels and landing gear, which is a project Wally was seriously up for! Wally has some flying experience and is excited to fly missions with John as needed. So cool!!! They took the plane up after completing the work and Wally got a few great pictures of nearby Painted Canyon which is an area we have been wanting to hike.

• Checked in on my friend Pluto. She had some great advice for all they four-leggeds today. Loved the part about not worrying about the button pants!

• I puttered around outside…it was really breezy again today and my allergies are STILL off the charts despite the daily allergy pills, nasal allergy spray and the allergy eye drops. Not sure why it is so bad this year but the wind is certainly not helping.

• Got the juicer out and went to town! Put two quarts of clementine, orange and tangelo juice in the fridge as well as a quart of pink grapefruit juice.

• Made a delicious bourbon drink with some of that fresh OJ and tangerine seltzer water. I want to try a Bourbon Smash tomorrow since I have a beautiful pot of basil growing on the patio.

• Saw the third mallard family napping near the pond on the green behind our lot while we were enjoying our cocktails on the patio. Wally got a few photos of them after their swim, marching their eight kids all home for bed! I love the shadows he captured in the photo. In the fourth photo, there is an uncle duck helping get the kids home safely. It takes a village!!!

• Did loads of laundry…boring compared to flying.

• There were a series of small earthquakes in California tonight … a 4.9 shook the coach pretty good. A friend in Palm Springs texted us and said it sounded like a freight train in their house. Being elevated on big, rubber wheels we didn’t hear anything but having lived in SoCal in the early 90’s we are no strangers to these shakers. That red splotch on the earthquake map is about where we are…eek!

• Fixed Pork Carnitas Tacos with Hatch Green Chile Black Beans for dinner. Great way to use up the pork tenderloins we grilled the other night.

• The fridge is full but not sure what I am cooking tomorrow. Maybe lamb chops…???

• Worked on this blog post while some aftershock quakes rumbled.

Day fifteen was the most eventful day so far especially all the shake, rattle and rolling later in the evening. I think Mother Nature is extra cranky with all of us disrespectful humans messing up her planet or maybe she is reminding us to just stay the hell at home. Hoping she gives Florida and Louisiana a big shake too!