2020 started out looking like a completely normal year. 2018 was a bad year, with Bob’s broken bones after a fall and Dad dying. 2019 had its points of interest, in terms of a kidney stone problem on a long RV trip. But I can’s say that I had any premonitions about how 2020 would shape up.
We had a short cruise planning, only five days at the end of January. The plan on that was to do that one and then one at the end of March. For the March cruise, we’d booked a window suite on the Grand Princess. Doing those two would make us Elite in the loyalty program. So, this entire pandemic may have been our fault, since we were busy making plans.
We went on the short cruise, which was a little hop down the coast on the Grand Princess, visiting San Diego and Ensenada. In San Diego, we did one of the Urban Adventure Quests, which is a thingy pretty much like Amazing Race. You navigate with your cellphone from place to place, solving clues to get to the next location.
We stayed on the ship in Ensenada, as is our wont. Enjoyed the peace and quiet with most folks gone ashore.
Bob’s mom had taken a fall and needed a lot of help, so when we returned from the cruise, we grabbed the cat and took off with the SUV and the RV for two weeks at an RV park in Napa, to help out. The first we heard of the virus outbreak was when Mom was worrying about it.
Oddly, Bob came down with some kind of illness. We still don’t know what that was, but the symptoms were COVID-19 classic. Nobody else caught it from him, so it almost certainly wasn’t COVID, since he was around a lot of the family when he was starting to get sick.
During our stay in Napa, people were going about just as usual. No social distancing yet, and that kicked in some time after we returned home. We’ve been doing the social distancing and mask wearing things ever since. Cases subsided somewhat in California, and reopening started. That was a disaster, which led to skyrocketing cases of the virus. Many people are criticizing Governor Newsome vigorously for his handling of the pandemic, and this criticism is coming from both sides of the political divide. The far right is saying he’s been way too cautious on something that’s no big deal anyhow. Some of the intelligent people on the other side of the great political divide are saying that he shouldn’t have bowed to pressure from the dolts of the universe. He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. I give him a lot of leeway on this, since I truly believe he’s doing the best he can with a bad situation where nobody really knows how this virus acts and what we can expect next.
Late in July, we went to Elk Country RV for a week. That’s up on the North Coast of California, and it was great. We’d been dealing with 100+ degree heat for days on end, and that coastal weather was wonderful. Got a nice walk on a great beach every day. Hunted for agates on the beach and even found some. Beaches were practically empty, and we were able to maintain social distancing just fine. While we were there, wildfire season hit big time. Fires all over the place. Horrible air quality. People having to be evacuated from their homes due to the fire and having to make some hard choices as to where to go. Going to an evacuation center was a bad choice, since large numbers of people would be crowded together, placing everybody at risk of COVID-19. Many people lacked the resources to get other temporary lodging. Some people were living in their cars.
We spent most of August inside, since the smoke was so bad it wasn’t a good idea to go out. One day I got up before it was fully daylight. It got more light until it was only like an overcast day. Then I suppose the wind shifted or something because it got really dark again. Really dark. And what light there was, was a dark red. I never want to see it like that again. That was the worst we saw it.
Fall brought cooler weather and clear skies, but it also brought politics.
