Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Three

It has been another long week with new recommendations and many, many deaths. We keep hearing that it is going to get worse before it gets better, although there does seem to be a hint of positive news that social distancing is making an impact. I feel hopeful.

We moved to Colorado in November and I have to admit that I know nothing about our Governor, Jared Polis or Denver mayor, Michael Hancock. I don’t know their party affiliations or if I agree with most of their politics, however, just judging them from how they are handling the pandemic, I feel confident in their bold and decisive leadership. Both of these men are sending out a strong message to our state and they are taking necessary action to protect Coloradans. As with the rest of the world, Colorado is in a crisis, but I feel relatively safe here or at least, less panicked because of our leaders.

I wish I could say the same for the federal government. Trump’s lack of leadership is terrifying and maddening. In my mind, the biggest mistake will be allowing states to make their own decisions regarding social distancing. State’s rights are a huge part of our American identity, but in these very usual times, I wish the president would take control and do what is needed to protect lives. We should have a clear and consistent message about what we can and cannot do to contain this.

I understand that some places have a much lower infection rate, but those places can easily turn into the next hot spot. I understand that closures are not only an economic hardship, but actually devastating to some, but still, if we all act together in a coordinated effort, perhaps we can get to our “new normal” faster with less lives lost.

I’m angry at the people who still refuse to take this seriously. Two days ago, our governor issued a new recommendation that face coverings be worn whenever you leave your house. We got the green-light from our neighbors who are doctors and huge Survivor fans, to use Survivor buff’s as our make-shift face-coverings. Yes, they are buff’s from the China season. It’s what we have. Thank you to my friend Ernest, who gave these to me many years ago. Prior to repurposing them as masks, I wore them nearly every day as a headband!

We’ve been wearing them for our walks in the adjacent fields near our housing estate. It has been just us and the cows.

Many of our neighbors are making masks for the community, so this is hopeful. However, many people are not wearing them while walking around our neighborhood. Many people still stand too close to their neighbors for chats or allow kids from different families to play together. I know it’s hard, but this is so frustrating.

We’ve had some craziness on our community Facebook page. One incident involved parents removing caution tape from our community playground and letting their kids on the equipment. When confronted, they went on the defensive. I know this situation is extra difficult on kids, but that isn’t an excuse to blatantly disregard safety measures.

A new recommendation was released to try to limit grocery store visits to every two weeks. We went on Monday night and tried to stock-up for two weeks. I think we will be good, but we might run out of fresh produce towards the end. We use Royal Crest for weekly dairy delivery, so that has been helpful. The grocery store was mostly stocked (no toilet paper/cleaning supplies/pasta). The only items we couldn’t get that we wanted were fresh spinach and avocados. No big deal. Only half of the shoppers wore masks and a few were not great about keeping their distance. None of the workers had masks.

I worry for the workers in high risk jobs. I feel like doing our part, helps them stay safe. I don’t want to wear a mask, limit my shopping trips, or take forever in the store, but I also don’t want to spread Covid 19 if I'm infected and asymptomatic. There is no reasonable excuse for not following guidelines to protect your fellow citizens. None.

Speaking of which, I’m really tired of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Several of my students have brought up the idea that covid 19 was bioengineered by China. One guy in Brazil told me that he dumped his two cats on the street, so that they couldn’t infect him. As a animal lover, my heart broke to hear this. Most of my social media connections are united in staying home, but one former coworker has been loudly spreading the news that raw veganism makes him immune. He won’t wear masks or practice social distancing. It’s ridiculous.

We are still healthy and employed. As far as I am aware, we still don’t know anyone who is infected. We have settled into a bit of a routine at home and we are trying to make the best of the situation.

We’ve been using our kitchen, a lot. The food highlights from this week include: An English style breakfast with sautéed mushrooms, English roast dinner ( with the “yummiest beef ever” that Dan spiced up with hot sauce), Dan’s homemade bread, and I made lemon-raspberry muffins. We are eating well and should exercise more!

We’ve also been socializing on zoom and FaceTime. Quite honestly, I’m socialize far more now, that I did before the virus. We had cocktails with our friend’s Valerie and Bryan in Big Bear. On Friday night, we were invited to take part in a customer appreciation event through Timothy Oulton, our favorite designer! We had drinks and celebrated our favorite brand with other Oulton enthusiasts. Timothy himself was on the call and they raffled off a gorgeous sofa. On Sunday afternoon, I had a two hour zoom call with my writing feedback group. It was the first time meeting everyone and I feel hopeful that this could be the start of a great writing relationship. I’ve connected with friends on the phone, through text, and with good old-fashioned snail mail letters! Feeling connected has not been a problem. It is exhausting!

We only took the car out once, to go to the grocery store, but when out, we filled up the tank. The prices were not even this low when I started driving in the mid-90’s!

We finally watched Star Wars: The Rise of Sky Walker and we are on season three of Schitt’s Creek. We also discovered a great Netflix documentary series based on the movie Chef. We loved the movie- you should watch it. The series takes a different format with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi exploring cooking techniques with different chefs. The first episodes in the series are filmed at various Las Vegas restaurants and they definitely made me ache for a foodie vacation.

My heart hurt to hear the news of John Prine’s passing. He was such a talented song writer and musician.

I’m going to end on a positive note with our kitten, Tom. He is such a cuddle monster and loves being held on his back for tummy rubs.

Ooh and check out my roots. I haven’t had my hair cut or colored since we moved and I was well over-due before everything closed. I think it might be a dicey idea to attempt a home fix, so we will see how bad the progression gets over the next weeks or months. When this is over, a full spa day is on the agenda!

Oaks Amusement Park

Within the first month of living in Portland, Dan and I discovered Oaks Amusement Park. Opening in 1905, Oaks Park is one of the oldest, continuously operating amusement parks in the United States. Due to chilly Portland winters, Oaks Park operates seasonally, our first visit was during their final weekend in the fall.

We went back many times the following summer, including bringing my step-kids during their holiday visit with us. At the time, Zoe had just turned ten and Felix was a few months shy of turning eight. Oaks Park was perfect for them, offering both rides for younger guests and thrills that they were growing into.

This review is a mix of several trips from the fall of 2016 to the summer of 2017.

Parking and entry to Oaks Park is free. On that first visit, Dan and I just walked around, ate giant ice cream cones, and enjoyed the park. We didn’t go on any rides, but scoped it out for future visits, knowing that we would want to bring the kids.

When we brought the kids, we purchased unlimited ride bracelets for them. This was an amazing deal. For about twenty dollars, they could ride all day and it included one skate session at the indoor roller rink, plus skate rentals. Oaks Park has since changed their deal slightly and have excluded some of the bigger rides from the twenty dollar deal, however, the same deal we got, is available for an additional five dollars. Compared to a regular carnival, this is still an excellent value.

I grew up skating at Moonlight Rollerway in Glendale, California. This is the same rink that my parents enjoyed in the 50’s. The rink at Oaks Park had the same vintage flair.

I really wanted to skate, but I was experiencing sciatica and could barely walk, so I had to sit on the sidelines, watching the kids. Zoe was a very good skater, confidently gliding around the rink, showing off tricks like skating backwards. Felix was a beginner, but within a few hours, he was able to let go of the wall and skate around the rink. Roller skating is one of those rare activities, where you can see people of all ages having fun together, including many seniors citizens showing the kids how it is done.

On our visits, the kids would skate for at least two hours, which would really tire them out. This was great, because they had so much energy at that age. It also gave them a break from the dizzying rides and the summer heat.

They definitely loved the rides the most. Oaks Park has a good selection of rides and as a theme park geek, I loved how they had placards explain the history of classic rides, like the Tilt O’Whirl. Here is selection of pictures from Oak Park.

After much consideration and a big dose of bravery, Zoe and Felix went on the “upside down” roller coaster. This wasn’t their first loop, as we got them on Rock-n-Roller Coaster during our WDW the previous summer. To be fair, they didn’t realized that Rock-N-Roller Coaster had loops, until they were on the ride. This one they could see and it created nervous anticipation. They saved it for the last ride, on our final trip to Oaks Park.

But their favorite ride, that they rode on repeat, was a sliding saucer called Disk-O. They must have ridden it a million times and never stopped loving it. Here is Dan riding with Zoe, but after this, Felix tried it and realized that it was the best ride in the park.

Oaks Park has been a staple for generations of Portland families. Even though we only lived in the area for a year, it was easily one of our favorite places in Portland. Through the dreary fall/winter/spring, locals kept promising that summer would be spectacular and they were right. Summer is magical in Oregon and Oaks Park is the perfect place to bring the family for outdoor fun.

Summer 2018: Bay Area Road Trip

In June 2018, we embarked on a whirlwind road trip from Big Bear Lake to Napa Valley, so that Dan could attend a work event tied to NASCAR at the Sonoma Speedway.

I was mildly envious that Dan was going to have a VIP NASCAR experience, but I ended up having a grand adventure of my own. More on that in a minute…

We woke up early on a Friday morning and hit the road in our brand-new Hot Wheels 50th Anniversary Edition Camero. I’m happy to report that we made it to the Bay Area in record time and did not incur any speeding tickets in the process. A road trip miracle!

We drove without stopping until we hit Merced, California, where we stopped for a bathroom break at the “Welcome Center.” There are always signs for “Welcome Centers” throughout the state, but this was the first time that I had stopped at one. It is an information area with brochures for local attraction, which also serves as a bus station. The building was very empty, but most important, the bathrooms were immaculate!

Our first night, we stayed at an Embassy Suites in Sacramento. Dan has diamond status through Hilton, so we are fairly loyal to the brand. I like the Embassy Suites hotels, because the rooms are so spacious. Technically, we don’t need the space of a suite, but having a separate living room is nice. The breakfasts tend to be a notch-above other Hilton brands.

This particular stay provided amusement via a teenage beauty pageant that was being held in the atrium. We didn’t see the pageant, but we did see the contestants prepping. The table next to us at breakfast had a young teen girl sitting very rigid ( miss perfect posture), trying to hold a conversation with three elderly women, one of whom was clearly her grandmother. I couldn’t help but think that this young girl probably had a million other ways that she’d rather be spending her Saturday morning. As we were checking out, we spotted the reigning pageant winner wearing her tiara and sash while filming a YouTube video in front of the hotel’s Starbucks. It was all low-rent glamour and awkward.

Our destination was Napa Valley, although a very famous part of California, an area that I had not previously visited. We had no time for wine tasting or touring.It was a beautiful area, however, we did not stay long. We checked-in to our hotel to discover that the air-conditioning was broken. We enjoyed the pool, while engineering looked into it, but they could not fix the problem and the hotel was sold out. It was simply too hot in the room to stay, so we left.

Since Napa was jammed for NASCAR, the closest hotel that we could find was an Embassy Suites in Walnut Creek. It was under construction and some of the amenities were closed, but it was quite a nice hotel.

It was surreal being in Walnut Creek. I attended Mills College in Oakland in the late 90’s, but I spent a lot of time in the Walnut Creek/Antioch area visiting my then- boyfriend and his family. I had not been back to the Bay Area since 1997, yet many things were very familiar.

Staying in Walnut Creek was a hassle for Dan, who had to drive back to Napa for NASCAR, but it was actually great for me, as the hotel was located across the street from a BART train station. I had never taken the BART before, but I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to visit San Francisco. Taking the BART was extremely easy and inexpensive.

Luck was on my side, as I called my high school friend, Bekah, to see if she could meet up and not only was she free, but she had an extra ticket to the afternoon Giants game at AT&T Park. Bekah lives a fair distance from San Francisco, so it really was kismet.

As soon as I got on the train, I realized that something special was going on. The train was packed with people heading to the Pride Parade in San Francisco. Pride Parades happen all over the world, but certainly San Francisco has one of the most famous events. As soon as I stepped off the BART, I was in the middle of the festivities. I even caught the float from my former employer: NBC-Universal.

I stepped out of the sweltering heat to grab an iced-latte at Starbucks. Starbucks also got in on supporting the love.

The Pride Parade was a cool thing to experience, lots of positive vibes. The only negative is it made it very difficult to find Bekah. It was so crowded that it was hard to connect. We finally made it and we walked down to AT&T Park for the afternoon game. We were handed pride flags as we walked down the street!

Bekah and her kids love baseball and attend Giants games whenever possible. I have a complicated relationship with baseball. When I was in kindergarten, I was picked to be an Honorary Dodger Bat Girl for “Glendale Night” at Dodger Stadium. I was given a uniform and I got to go on the field, pose with the players. I threw a ball around with Rick Monday and Steve Garvey.

I hated it.

I was very shy and nervous. It was not a good experience and then somehow, in third grade, I had to do it again. I begged my mom, but she forced me to do it. The crazy thing, is my mom was in the hospital for gallbladder surgery and didn’t even go to the game. I acknowledge that it was a special experience, but even in retrospect, I wish that they had picked a kid who wanted it. I didn’t even like baseball. I still don’t like baseball. The last Dodger game I attended, I brought a book to read. I go for the Dodger dogs!

Going to AT&T Park was 100% about catching up with a close friend and getting to know her lovely children. I had a blast! The best part was getting champagne in the beer garden. I have no idea who the Giants played against or who won the game, but the catching-up was priceless.

After the game, I caught the train back to Walnut Creek. Being in San Francisco made me realize how much I miss San Francisco. I’m not sure that I’d want to live in the Bay Area again, but I certainly would love to do a longer trip.

The next morning, Dan had a quick meeting in Silicon Valley, while I browsed at Ikea and then we began the long drive home.