Day 14 - LA County enters Red tier for the first time

The top of the Central Park hiking trail…

3/28/21. Sunday

 10:00-11:00 – Another beautiful spring day! I guess this sounds cheesy but the weather has been amazing. Up and I go downstairs to greet the animal.  Tummy rubs, she grabs her toy, and we go outside. Perfect weather!  I want to stay outside all day. My roses are in full bloom and smell incredible.   The dog does her business and we return inside – pieces of salami for her, coffee for me.

 -I sit outside and read Daffodils.

11:00-12:00 - Kitchen duty and I also do some meal prep, chopping the last of the fruits and vegetables before they go bad.  L. had some leftover bacon from her cheeseboard a few days ago, so I fry all of it, then make scrambled eggs.  L. needs to go to the grocery store. 

-L. emerges.  She was called into work a few hours earlier and her shift starts at 12:00. The colleague she is covering only works on Sundays, yet she called off.  L. can’t understand how someone who works ONE a day a week calls in sick on the only day she is scheduled – she doesn’t think her co-worker is sick. 

12:00-1:00 – Shower. Lotion. Sunscreen. Hiking uniform. I listen to the Culture Gabfest and the Pop Culture Happy Hour. 

1:00-1:30- I leave for Central Park off Bouquet Canyon. 

-Driving 

1:30-3:00 - This park is huge [130 acres] and the various sections are filled with people – dog park; soccer field; community garden; basketball courts – all the sections are in use and almost nobody is masking.  Masking might be a thing of the past… 

-I mask and hike up to the water tower.  There are people all over the place and it feels very safe. This is a steeper trek than I remember – it’s almost a direct incline – but I’m wearing a hat and have water and snacks. I listen to Organize 365 on the way up. The hike itself is not very scenic, but when you get to the top the view is stunning.  I remember this part.  

-I hike back down and listen to AirTalk. 

3:00 – 3:30 - I had originally planned on finding a tree and staying here to grade papers, but there are so many people, I leave for Todd Longshore Park, on Plum Canyon Rd, instead. This park has one of the smallest parking lots of any of our community parks – approximately 20 spaces – and unfortunately they are all full.  I idle for awhile in the parking lot, but nothing opens up, so I leave for North Ridge Park, one of my favorites with unlimited parking. 

3:30-4:45 –At North Ridge.  I’ve come full circle.  This is one of the first parks I went to when the pandemic started. Now, the pandemic is ending and I make my final return, although I’m sure I’ll be back.  I spread my picnic blanket under a pine tree and grade papers.  A young dad and his two small children arrive and string a hammock between two trees at the far end of the park.  They are having such fun. 

Will this type of leisure time continue for families?  Before Covid-19, we were all so enmeshed in the rat race, on the hamster wheel, trying to “out-busy” each other. I think the pandemic taught us that’s “it’s the little things”, right?  Maybe a forced re-connection [quarantine/lock-down/shelter-in-place] where you have no choice but to spend an inordinate amount of time with the people you live with, i.e., your family, was the most important lesson of all… 

-This park has a wonderful desert preserve/trail directly across the street – a hidden gem.  I’ve been there before, about a year ago when the pandemic started, but haven’t been back in a long time. I wonder if it’s changed. I wonder if I’ve changed…  

-I really need to get going [cue ‘rat race’] so don’t have time to explore the desert trail today, but I’ll be back.  Besides, there is a squirrel playing around the edge of my picnic blanket that is freaking me out and won’t go away – sometimes they carry rabies. I’ve had enough of nature for today. 

4:45-5:00 – On the way home, I drive by one of the North Ridge community pools.  It is absolutely. packed. No social distancing whatsoever, even among the parents who are lying on lounge chairs. Everyone is crammed like sardines into this small space and no one is masking. It’s amazing how quickly things return to normal. 

On a whim, I drive to my own community pool to check the status.  If you’ve been reading this blog regularly, you know I’ve been railing against my HOA for their incredibly restrictive pool rules for the past year. Residents had to register online for no more than ONE hour a day; “Pool police” kicked you out at exactly 50 minutes; ALL of the pool furniture was removed and you had to bring your own seating, umbrella, etc. or risk lying on concrete; residents were NOT allowed to bring a guest unless they could show proof that they resided with you.  I verified this with the pool police and confirmed that a family member or friend would have to show a driver’s license to prove he/she/they resided at MY address.  Ridiculous! 

 I reserved a slot for myself exactly ONCE, but found it just wasn’t worth it.  By the time I dragged my lounge chair and pool equipment into the pool area and set up shop, 15 minutes had already passed. Throughout the entire pandemic, not one other community ran their pools in this manner. R.’s apartment pool never closed and there were no restrictions. 

I don’t know what I expected to find when I checked my community pool…but, a large sign said the pool was “CLOSED.”  Typical.   A few lounge chairs were back.  This is a really large pool, but only eight chairs are set out.  Social distancing appears to be at 20 feet instead of the obligatory 6 feet. 

Prior to the pandemic, our lake had these great paddle boats, free for the residents.  They were fun and something to do on a weekend, especially for little kids.  When the pandemic hit, the HOA immediately removed them – they’re still not back.  Meanwhile, paddle boats at Echo Park never stopped and were available for use during the entire pandemic. Throughout everything, it was the inconsistency and the arbitrary rules set by a few people in charge that I found sooo frustrating. 

5:00-5:45 – Home and I take the dog for a walk.  She doesn’t want to go home so we do several laps around the compound. I listen to Fresh Air. 

No gardening today, other than watering a few plants.  There is not much to do in the yard right now… 

5:45 – L. returns from work and proclaims that she is making a pasta-bake dish tonight. Wonderful! 

6:00-7:00 -I do an Ab-workout with Kathy Smith.  When that’s finished, I switch to Insanity and do the first 20 minutes of a HIIT cardio warm-up and stretch. There’s still 20 minutes of pylometrics remaining, but I just can’ t do anymore.  It might be the culmination of yesterday’s bike ride, today’s hike, etc.  I definitely feel 50 today. 

-Start a load of laundry 

-Downstairs and I start class-prep for my classes tomorrow as  Mondays are always a work day, but L. says “Dinner is served”, minutes after I begin. 

7:00-9:00 – L. and I eat dinner and watch Nomadland [my pick] an Oscar contender (it was nominated).  This is based on the book with the same title and features a group of ‘nomads’, people who are poor, down on their luck, and live in vans [there are also some run-down RVs], traveling throughout the United States as they look for seasonal work at Amazon, Walmart, etc., and various camp sites, trying desperately to make ends meet.  I tried to read the book a few years ago, but found it boring.  Frances McDormand, the same actress in Three Billboards [2017], is the lead. Most of the people in the movie are actual ‘nomads’ – the director wanted to feature the nomadic lifestyle as authentically as possible. The movie was…wonderful!  Highly recommend. 

Finish my load of laundry. 

9:00-11:00 – L. suggests we watch another movie.  As it is so rare that L. wants to do anything with me these days [unless I’m paying], I set my work aside and agree.  She picks The Farewell – a Chinese movie [subtitles] that was assigned in L.’s Cinema class a few months ago and based on a true story.  The premise involves a Chinese grandmother who is diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer and only has 2 months to live.  The family decides not to tell her the diagnosis and lies to her continuously, saying she’s in perfect health. Everyone is in on it, even going so far as to alter her medical records before ‘Nai-Nai’ reads them. It’s been six years and grandma is still alive and none the wiser that she has Stage 4 lung cancer. Highly recommend this foreign film. 

11:00-1:00 – Downstairs and I respond to two posts on my French Cinema Discussion Board, per the assignment.  Then, I prepare the Discussion Boards for my Monday classes for College No. 1. Today is Sunday, which means it’s time to deploy this week’s module of assignments at College No. 2.  Because I’m being evaluated, I send a personal email to each student – it’s really an email blast, but the way it’s received in their in-box leads them to believe I am emailing them directly – asking them how the class is going, if everything’s okay, and if they need any help. During my walk-through, Professor W. encouraged me to send personal emails to my students to establish “instructor presence”, so I’m following his guidelines. If I wasn’t being evaluated, I wouldn’t bother sending a personal email at all. I prepare a Home Page module for the next chapter for Specialty Class 1A and listen to Crime Junkie and What a Day while I work. 

Ready for tomorrow. 

1:00-1:45 – Kitchen duty and I make tomorrow’s coffee. 

1:45-2:30 – Night time routine. Bed.