36 years ago, on a warm Friday night, in his mom's living room, we got married.
We went away to Rochester, New York, for the weekend, but of course we headed back early Sunday morning, because we couldn't miss church! (I cannot believe that, now!). It had snowed Saturday night, our car wouldn't start, so we paid a guy $20 to jump it for us. We both went back to work on Monday morning. So if we've had a few vacations later in life, after all the babies and children, don't envy us too much.
Saturday, we went to Walmart, Jonathan, Sonja K., and I. Jon's new glasses broke, and good thing for glasses insurance. New frames, and we were all set to wander around the store and get what we needed, which wasn't much.
Jon took this pic.
We did go to the local coffee roaster, near the prison. Do you know that Auburn New York has a MAXIMUM SECURITY prison, within city limits? I believe it's the only city in the U.S. that has this. Anyway, we went to Crow City Roasters, and got some amazing coffee.
I did not take any pics Saturday night, dang it. We celebrated Molly Rose's birthday, and Mariel's too. The house was brimming and overflowing, we had corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots, and fresh Italian bread. Chocolate cupcakes, and pumpkin muffins with pink buttercream frosting, and no, I did not have one. (there are too many special occasions, right? If I cheated on every one of them, well, where would I be?)
Yesterday morning, we went for a walk, it was sunny and not freezing.
Camille and I were poky little puppies, Char and Dani went on ahead.
Margaret and Evelyn and Wulf were here for a bit last evening. Wulf is SO stinking CUTE.
This is from last week, when he helped himself to a big chocolate bar.
So here's the thing: I am leaving at 3:00 in the morning so I can catch my 5:00 flight, I'm leaving for California! I won't be able to sleep because I'll be afraid I'll oversleep, I'll nap for half hour at a time, waking to check my phone. I can't believe I'm going all by myself. It's definitely outside of my comfort zone.
I just want to ask, for the record, because I'm interested: would YOU travel from New York to California, on a plane, during this corona virus outbreak? I would love as many answers and opinions as possible, because I am very curious. There are so many sides to this issue...
It's overblown, it's fear-mongering, it's just like the flu...but then, hmm, why the total shut down of China? If you're in the 80% of mild cases, good for you, but the other 20%, ugh. Over fifty, the risk goes up. One guy on a podcast said that if you can't go up 3 or 4 flights of stairs without getting winded, you are at huge risk of not being able to fight it off, as it is a disease that affects the lungs. Um, how about one flight of stairs? hmm?
It's easy to say, "I'm not afraid of it, I'm just apprehensive of the quarantines, to panic buying and the empty shelves." But when you read about the actual disease, and what it does to people, it's terrifying. I hate suffering, I really do. It hurts my heart that people's grandmothers and grandfathers and elderly parents are suffering like this. There have been younger people too, in their 30's and 40's who have gotten very sick, and who have died. It's a bit scary, right?
So off I go, on a trip, on a plane, am I asking for it? Will my measly little baggie of Target brand disinfectant wipes clean the tray and arm rests sufficiently? It's a seven hour flight across the country, and I've gotten migraines two different times through the years, on these long flights. So I drink tons of water, take a few ibuprofen, and get up and go pee like three times. I've read to avoid the airplane bathroom like the plague. Well. I cannot do that. My flight migraines were so bad, I threw up. Once, when we went to Dominican, my headache got so bad that on the shuttle from the airport to the resort, I couldn't even muster up the movement to alert the bus driver that I was going to heave. I took my jean jacket, and seriously, I barfed right into it, rolled it up, and held it. I couldn't move. No one near me said a word, Paul was sitting in the seat in front of me and had no clue. It was AWFUL. The other time, Emily and I flew out to Washington state, when Ben and Ashley lived there. My headache went from bad to worse to horrendous, we were visiting with Ben, and I asked Em to bring me to the hotel, by the time we got to the hotel parking lot, I was opening the car door, and yeah, making a mess of the parking lot.
Nerves, dry air, dehydration, not sure. But long trips give me a headache. So avoiding the bathroom ain't gonna happen.
So anyway, I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again, but I certainly hope it's next week, and that I'm healthy and tan.
Let me know, your honest opinions! Even if you never comment, chime in and be honest.
17 comments:
Absolutely, I would go! You’re healthy, so if you catch a virus, you’ll be able to fight it off. Good hand washing, and using hand sanitizer between hand washings - those are not a guarantee you won’t get sick, but are a good preventative. Same during influenza season, and being out and about in public. You can catch a virus bug from anywhere: store, church, kids at school. So we take precautions, and live our lives.
We are going on a two week vacation to Az and Cali with some of our kids. And one teenager will fly down to join us, two of them will fly home a few days ahead of us (adult kids stay home because they work full time. Poor ‘kids’!) And I’m not a bit nervous. They know the good hand washing protocol; and if they get sick, they’re young and healthy so they’ll get well again.
Enjoy your vacation!!
We were going to California later in the month and cancelled the trip. Our reasons were 1) we are both older - over 65 and 2) we were both going and leaving our dog with a dog sitter so were worried about being stuck somewhere and having to pay and likely inconvenience the dog sitter if we were gone an additional couple of weeks and 3) our son who lives in CA and his wife were very concerned about us traveling and thought we should postpone and lastly 4) my husband spends a day a week at a large senior facility with his 95 year old mother. We didn't want to bring something back and infect her and possibily many of the other people in the large complex.
There is fear mongering which I don't think is helpful. And hoarding bottled water when you live in a city seems stupid. But I did stock up on frozen vegetables, canned beans and tuna and some proteins for the freezer in case we are advised to stay home for a couple of weeks. The flu is less scary to me because we do get our flu shots and the pneumonia vaccine. Once they have a vaccine for this virus I will feel more comfortable.
So to summarize, all the articles saying not to panic because most people other than the elderly are only mildly ill and recover doesn't sound that reassuring when you're considered elderly!
I'd be OK with flying. I would not be OK with getting on a cruise ship right now. I'm in a border state to California, and my middle kid's spring break trip to Palm Springs just got cancelled by the school due to Coronavirus activity in California. While we don't have a lot of cases in our state, I expect we'll have an uptick as kids come back from spring break.
Hi Della ....... I’m not sure what I think any more. They cancelled the big tennis tournament in Palm Springs so there won’t be thousands of people jamed into a limited space, but Disney Land is still open??. We are just being careful.......hand washing with soap for at least a minute when we come home from anywhere and using hand sanitizer when we are out. Those headaches are terrible though ....... 😬 Have a wonderful visit with your family 🥰
Marilyn from Canada
Hi there Della, I'm afraid I haven't commented for a long time but I still check in every day to hear what you've been up to. I would go on the trip if I were in your shoes, try not to overthink things and relax and enjoy the ride and a have terrific vacation. Good luck, looking forward to reading about all your antics! Have fun and take care(hope that's not too much of a paradox!), love Blods xx PS.Thank you so much for taking the time to write your blog, it brings such a lot of joy to all your readers x
First your grandson is so darn cute!! Big chocolate bar and all! lol And happy anniversary!! I hope you are going to have a nice dinner or something when you get back! We are going to celebrate 20 in July. Holy! I never thought I'd see the day! lol lol But here we are, through the good the bad and the ugly! Heres to many more!
Ok on the travel. I say go! Enjoy! Act like its not out there. Me and the hubs just went to the casino and I was a bit nervous because lets face it a casino is like a cruise ship, a city with in a city so to speak. We stopped and got Lysol wipes for in case. But once in there , not one person had a face mask on, or seemed nervous about anything. They were just having a good time! And thats what we did. There were many workers walking around washing things off as people left and machines that people were on. And they installed Purell sanitizer in every corner if you wanted it. We just washed our hands every time we saw a sink. Honestly the way I feel is this is way out of the water!
Mass hysteria is not something we don't need as a nation that is already jazzed up about every thing else! And they just reported there are at least if not more 50, 000 people cured and feeling well already from this virus. I wish they would tell everyone more of that information !
Doctors, nurses, food prep people, hotel workers and the list go on and on are just living their lives because they have no other choice. I say go to your trip and enjoy yourself!! Wash your hands while singing Happy birthday 2 times verses and you will be fine! :)
Have a great trip!
Rose
I believe I would go. You can't live your life in fear. And maybe it's foolish, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained".
Agh I m with you on this I don’t know what to think.
“It's overblown, it's fear-mongering, it's just like the flu...but then, hmm, why the total shut down of China? “
I was just watching a documentary about the spanish flu of 1918 it somehow makes me feel better about the whole thing.
In your case I would still go.
My philosophy is that you could get it just by staying home. You have several nurse kids who could carry the virus unknowingly, or someone at Walmart for all we know!
So I would keep life as normal as possible, just wash hands as often as possible. That s what I do. I make my kids wash their hands with soap and water every time we re out: arriving at the museum, and departing. When we get to aldi, and when we leave etc.
Happy Anniversary!
And you know your body best.
Take precautions, and say a prayer!
Hugs, my friend.
Go and have a great time. Take sensible precautions and try to carry on as normal Ignore all the scaremongering from the press - I think they would like us all to stay indoors. Here in the UK we are having difficulty getting some products as people are stockpiling. I am in my 80's and refuse to panic, when my time comes I am ready but hope to have a few more years. Em London
Go!!! Take precautions - heck, we could all wash our hands more in general and I'm always thinking about using hand sanitizer after I leave public restrooms (the door knobs - shudder) without the flu being an issue. I work in retail now so I'm dealing with the public constantly and I figure I could easily get it from work so if it's my time to get it, why not get it while enjoying myself instead of from selling people stuff? Enjoy and don't let naysayers get you down. I'm sure the planes are going to be just as full as usual!
A friend of mine has a daughter who lives in the area of China that's been shut down and she wasn't home when it happened so she is basically homeless until the area is opened up again. She has been traveling to the UK, Ireland, etc visiting friends all this time and is quite ready to be back at her home. I think that if she is willing to go back into the heart of the epidemic area, that should tell us something.
Go and enjoy yourself! Its true that travel exposes you more but if its meant to be you can still get the virus while out for errands or anything. So just take the necessary precautions specially the hand washing before eating anything and additional immunity building foods/supplements and have a great trip :-)
I would fly but not cruise. It is hard not to get caught up in the hype but realistically no one reports the many more common flu deaths. It is scary but so are a lot of other things you could catch, develop or be caught up in a dangerous situation anywhere anytime.
Try to not overthink, do your best handwashing and have faith. And enjoy the big kids and your opportunity to be together.
Simone
Fauci the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease advices anyone who is susceptible and the elderly (60 plus ) to avoid “long travel”. A personal friend who is an infectious disease expert (PhD in Virology from Harvard) privately advised his friends and family to avoid any unnecessary air travel. A couple of weeks ago he sent out guidance about stocking up on non-perishable goods, medicines, pet food and anything else you might need for 3-4 week quarantine. About half the people I sent it to listened to his advice and the other half were like nah I’m good. Since I can’t decipher the news I go straight to him and he did say my 69 year old healthy mother should go to the Céline Dion concert this week in DC.
Btw - I’m just a random childless reader who started reading mega family blogs about a decade ago. I just enjoy reading about lives that are so different than my own. Plus I always like reading your little notes and thoughts about staying grateful and joyful. It’s so encouraging.
I would travel from NY to California. I also live in NY and am going to Florida again in April. I was just there last week as well. I say go and enjoy yourself!
Happy anniversary to you both; that is impressive.
And happy birthday to the ladies!
We are planning on flying to California in a few weeks; still planning on going as of right now. I'm not going to overreact and am going on with life as normal as possible. Aside from being sick of course.
You've freaked me out now with the going up 3 flights of stairs without being winded; I can't do that.
The only reason I wouldn't is for fear of the quarantines. If my whole family was with me and I could afford the time off work it wouldn't bother me though! I would just hate to be quarantined alone and upset my work! I am not worried about the actual virus.
Have a great time!
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