We were set to fly to Maui today for a nine-day vacation, our first in a year. Our second vacation in retirement. But coronavirus happened.
We rented a one-bedroom condo with a balcony overlooking Kaanapali Beach (see photo) and a fully-equipped kitchen. We dreamed of enjoying fresh pineapple each morning on that balcony, with fragrant Kona coffee for me.
Nine days of sipping tropical drinks, chasing waterfalls and pristine beaches, a round of golf for Ron, reading time for me, and soaking in soul-deep relaxation.
It's OK, though. We'll rebook for later this year, probably to replace the two-week Panama Canal cruise we planned for October as early celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary. Post-coronavirus, that cruise seems a touch too scary for us, at least in 2020.
We're OK during the pandemic if we leave the house now and then. We took a three-hour drive yesterday around Reno, to drop off boxes at the Goodwill (bless those workers!) , to check-up on family property for sale, to the market (for tamale pie makings, pasta, Cheddar cheese, more apples), and gloriously, for a bite of fast food.
It was lovely to feel fresh air, to watch cottony clouds under blue skies, to savor the lazy hum-drum of neighborhood life.
Truth is my semi-retirement life has changed only about, say, 25% by shelter-in-place mandates. I already write and research from my home office at my own pace (and have done so for 20 years), and after 44 years as a career engineer, Ron is pleased to putter at home, particularly on his budding "man cave."
I miss the new friendships I was building, especially at two book clubs, after our move to Reno in July 2019. I miss sojourning at my new favorite places... the Nevada Museum of Art, the South Valleys branch of the Washoe County Library system, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. And I miss discovering the Reno restaurant scene.
But still, Ron and I are blessed. Blessed to have each other during this public health crisis. Blessed with a comfortable home, plenty to eat, online connections to our loved ones. Blessed with imagination and creativity, energy and decent health.
To hopefully stay healthy, we're leaving the house only once or twice a week. Eating healthy, including lots of fruits and veggies. Avoiding most broadcast news. Catching plenty of sleep. Engaging in something that makes us happy, which for Ron is listening to music, and for me, reading. Washing our hands constantly, and gargling daily with salty lukewarm water.
Good habits we'll keep after this pandemic is a fading memory, except for the "getting out" part. We're itching to take some road trips, to Yellowstone and Glacier National Park. To Powell's and the public rose garden in Portland, Oregon. Maybe to beautiful Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. We road-trip together as well as any couple ever.
We're blessed and content sheltering in place. "I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." --- Philippians 4:11. I wish I could claim that sort of perfect patience. Alas, at best, Ron and I are works-in--progress.
In the meantime, It's OK we aren't landing in Maui by noon today, and reclining on that beach-front balcony by 3 pm. . We'll vacation there later this year. Maybe July or August. God willing.
It's me. Still here. Still crazy after all these years, to borrow from a famed baby-boomer philosopher. Deborah Bowen (Clark) White. Debi White for more than 25 years, though, the longest time I've been known by one name.
Just returned from a refreshing weeklong vacation on the big Island with Ron, of course. (See my window for ritual morning coffee, at right.) Ready to return to my blogging roots.
Aloha, friends!
I haven't written at The Crazy Woman ("TCW") for two years. Been busy, growing and expanding, experiencing highs and lows of this life. More about that later... I lost four years of TCW writings, from 2010 to 2014, including a few deeply poignant pieces. I have high hopes of still salvaging the posts from a bungled download. But writing, like life, must carry on...
The Crazy Woman was my first blog, and remains the blog I love best. It's personal, not political or professional or bound for big-time publishing. It's my musings. It's my blog, my page, my thoughts.
I started TCW in 2003 when I first heard of blogging, in the same year my oldest daughter, Trisha, married. In the year that the U.S. started the Iraq War, and changed everything in this country.
Much has changed for me, too, especially in the last four years. Trisha is no longer married, but living the life she always wanted in New York City. Successful woman, that one, especially at marketing. Can scare up a terrific job faster than anyone I've ever known.
My parents both passed away earlier this year, of separate but similar causes. Married 67 years, they were part of each other in every way. Theirs was a marriage full of joy, fun, and sadness, misunderstandings and too much illness. But always, family and commitment.
As for our other adult children, Kevin and lovely wife Lauren, fashion and design guru, live in Berkeley with two cats. Kevin continues to be a star in marketing for a major database corporation. Lucky guy takes BART into The City, and works two blocks from the Giants ballpark. Ryan (and kids) reside near us here in Orange County, and labors mightily in the software field. We feel blessed beyond words to see them often, and be part of their lives.
Yours, mine, and then there's ours... Andrea, our only kid still a twentysomething, lives in greater Washington D.C. Astonishing that she graduated three years ago from that college in Connecticut. She works at a health-related think tank funded, in part, by the Gates Foundation;. is finishing a post-bac pre-med program at University of Maryland; and plans to apply next spring to medical schools. Lots of her friends live in D.C. and New York, so you can imagine, we don't see her much.
Here's the thing. Our kids have their own lives. "Cat's in the Cradle" and all that jazz... they don't need us much anymore. We are finding our way again. I am finding my way again. Still crazy after all these years, I'm pleased to report.
That's what I will be writing about now at The Crazy Woman. Finding my way, post-parenting and post-parents. Check back often. I'd love to share this journey with you.
