A Few Thoughts About Our New Norm Lifestyle

A few random thoughts about our new-normal retirement lifestyle . . . about the only ones I have these days!

One of the things I've discovered since Shelter In Place began here in California on/around March 17, is that I desperately need both the endorphin deluge of being physically active, and the serenity boost of being outdoors for long periods, to feel like the best version of myself. On those days that I gave in to my lazy self, and don't do either, I pay big time, mentally speaking. So as our state slowly begins to open up just a bit this week, I resolve to continue to do more of both activities each and every week.

Photos from yesterday's nine mile hike along one of our coastal ridge wilderness trails.
We were mostly alone on the trail, the weather was glorious, and I was in my happy place.

The first casualty of this renewed focus on embracing the outdoors will be my 20+ year gym membership. I used the gym extensively during my working years, when my workouts had to be completed early in the cold and dark mornings, but only lightly since retiring in 2011. For the first five years of our retirement my paltry $10 monthly gym fees were a non issue in spite of my usage slipping to just a couple of times a month - I spent my new-found time hiking, biking, and traveling instead. When we relocated here to our new home three years ago, we had to 'up' our membership level to accommodate the new gym's slightly fancier amenities, meaning $20 a month per person instead of $10. Still pretty modest. However, after eight weeks of conducting my workouts primarily outdoors, plus my husband becoming eligible for a Silver Sneakers membership at the gym of his choice come June 1, we're dumping both gym memberships for a savings of $480 annually.

Along those lines, we are really enjoying the process of planning out seven days of outdoor activities each week (wilderness trails? beach walks? urban walks?), usually including a stop for lunch at the halfway point. Sometimes we pack a lunch at home, sometimes we pick up to go, sometimes we stop for to go coffee on the way home at a Peet's Coffee that has some spread apart outdoor tables set up. It's all been 100% satisfying, and has led to us deciding we prefer to be out and about during the day, but back at home for dinner. So, I see a natural reduction in our Restaurant budget of about $100 a month, or $1200 a year.

Which will likely lead to a reduction in our annual clothing budget - we'll be dressing up less because there will be less places to go and be seen. As much as we've been out and about hiking and walking, we have done so with the firm inclusion of social distancing and masks. No matter how quickly areas that allow congregating open up, we won't be joining in for a good long time to come. The coronavirus is still here and spreading, it's just been beaten back temporarily to allow our tracking and treatment processes to try and gear up enough to get ahead of the inevitable increase of cases that will soon be back upon us.

And with less places to go and be seen, our Entertainment budget will likely drop by $2000-$3000 a year. No concerts, symphonies, plays, stage talks, fairs, wine club events, dances, or anything else for a long, long time to come.

Our travel budget will also be minuscule for the next couple of years I imagine, because where can we go with any sort of confidence? Sure, we can probably fly there safely given the many changes airlines are making, but what's going to be open for visitors once we arrive? And what happens if there is a sudden and unexpected return to lockdown in the places we'd be visiting? Nope, just doesn't sound fun whatsoever at the moment.

Instead, as I posted a few days ago, we'll be doing lots of RV'ing, supplemented by trips to visit our family back east. In one lovely silver lining, however, our youngest daughter has just shared that she is desperate for some additional help in dealing with being a single parent during a pandemic, while her navy husband is away on deployment, so she has asked if we might be open to her bringing our granddaughters out for a long summer visit of up to six weeks. 'YES' we tried very hard not to shout loudly in response, bring our girls and come for as long as you care! Our home is ample in size, and there are oodles of activities that should be back on line by then, including play parks aplenty, miles of coastline, plus several HOA swimming pools, and we will divide and conquer to make sure the girls are outside and active for the bulk of each day. Here at home we have the ability to have outdoor campfires, outdoor movie nights, and yard games by the handful. It will be messy, and it will be noisy, but it's going to be fantastic. I am so excited, and I recognize they would never have come for such a long visit were it not for Coronovirus making life so difficult for my daughter currently.

Here in California today, it's Cinco de Mayo, which is practically a national holiday. Our plan for the day is to go on a six mile beach walk along one of our newly re-opened local beaches, then pick up burritos at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants providing takeout, and enjoy them at a park before returning back home in the mid-afternoon. Dinner will be BBQ'd chicken, sweet potatoes, and green beans, which we'll eat outside on what is supposed to be a gorgeous and warm evening.

Where you'll find us tonight.

What about you? Any random thoughts today on how your lifestyle might change going forward as a result of living with a pandemic?

Revised Travel Plans In The Time Of A Pandemic

With the pandemic cancellation of both our April trip to Kentucky, and our June trip to Spain, we have no intentions of attempting to fly anywhere for the remainder of the year, other than one trip back east to see our daughter and granddaughters at the end of the year if at all possible. Nor are we interested in staying in a hotel or rental unit due to concerns about virus germs remaining behind anyone that stayed in the room or unit before us. But, I will admit we have been hankering to get back out in our RV, where we spent the bulk of our travel time the first few years after we retired. Between 2012 and 2015 we spent more than 400 nights in our RV while traveling through 13 of our western states. Beginning in 2016 our attention turned more toward world travel, at which point our RV usage dropped down to a few weeks a year instead of a few months a year.

Speaking of which, here is our RV, a unique, hard sided folding travel trailer that fits into our garage. Meaning, no storage fees, hooray! It is the only completely hardsided, folding travel trailer currently on the market, and is manufactured by Trail Manor. We've owned ours since 2012, and as of today, we have spent almost 500 nights in it, and towed it some 25,000 miles (we are currently on tire set #4, averaging about 7,500 miles per set).

Easy to store and easy to tow!

And here is a photo of our petite little trailer when fully extended:

We really do love it dearly, and we have had so many adventures in it!

The beauty of RVing during a pandemic, of course, is that no one but us has ever stayed in our travel trailer, we use our own equipment, cook our own meals, and are assured of maintaining a minimum of 20 feet from other RV'ers, generally much, much more.

So, because I really do need something to hold onto, and to plan for, over the next 12 months or so, this is what I'm thinking should be realistic set of travel plans for the next 12 months, assuming no return to Shelter In Place provisions. If that does occur, RV site reservations tend to be both modest in cost and refundable.

May/June - No travel, but hopefully the reopening of some public spaces including restrooms and our local harbor. If/when that occurs, we will happily add in bicycling, kayaking and SUP'ing to our current list of locally-accessible outdoor activities.

Maiden SUP voyage last year . . . I didn't fall in!

July - Fingers crossed our daughter and granddaughters will be able to fly here for two weeks of Fun In The Sun.

August - RV trip to Mammoth Lakes with our oldest daughter. We'll spend the entire week hiking and biking, plus the occasional take out dinner.

The majority of Mammoth Lakes' beauty must be hiked to to be seen,
ensuring crowds are kept at bay.

September - We have a friend hoping to visit for an adult version of July's Fun In The Sun.

October - Central Coast RV'ing trip to Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, and Malibu.

November - RV'ing trip to San Diego.

December - Fly back east to visit our youngest daughter and family for the holidays, particularly in they may be relocated in January to wherever my son-in-law's next naval assignment is (see April below).

January - RV'ing trip to Palm Springs for a week of hiking and take out dining. Pretty sure the January Int'l Film Festival we normal attend will be a No-Go, but there is plenty of stuff to do in the area beside just that.

February - RV'ing trip to Pinnacles National Park, plus return trips to Morro Bay to see the birthing elephant seals in Cambria, and to Pismo Beach to see the wintering Monarch butterflies. All three of these items have been on my list for quite some time.

March - RV'ing trip to coastal N. San Diego county, land of craft breweries and bicycling.

April - Flying trip to see our daughter and her family. They will likely be moving at the end of 2020 to wherever my son-in-law's next naval assignment is based. On the list they submitted to his recruiter are job locations in England, Italy, Spain, and Hawaii. Any of those would work for us for a long visit should it be safe to do so.

Come summer 2021, we are hoping to undertake our trip to Spain to walk 225 miles of the Camino Frances that was bumped from this year. If that again falls through the cracks due to a continuation of the pandemic, my guess is that we will instead RV up into the Pacific Northwest.

Looking even further ahead to 2022, we are hoping to plan trips to Iceland and Scotland, but clearly that and everything else in this post is up to the pandemic. So fingers crossed, but very loosely so at this point.

How about you? What are your 'best case scenario' travel plans currently?

Doubling Down On Well Being

A continuation of good days and bad days over here, entirely predictable if not always preventable. The good days are when I make a plan and stick to it, the bad days are when I don't, and instead slide into a bit of bleakness about our altered lives. What is frustrating about the later is that it is entirely within my control to avoid feeling bleak simply by making different choices each day. So today I resolve to do better!

Things I am grateful for today:

• Our family is all healthy, and relatively unaffected by the economic shutdown. Our youngest daughter is a still-employed teacher now working remotely, and her husband is a naval officer currently at sea. My oldest daughter works in the legal arena of managed healthcare, and they are actually gearing up for an explosion of membership due to a projected swelling of California's medicaid population.
• Our personal finances remain relatively unaffected by the pandemic, plus we have several long awaited monthly revenue streams finally coming on line in June - Medicare for my husband, plus two modest pensions.
• We have ample amounts of food, remotely-connected friends, and places to hike/walk.
• Grocery stores are now calm again, so I've been able to return to normal meal planning.
• Because of above, the possibility of a temporary shortage of pork and/or poultry is not a concern. Our meals tend to be vegetarian focused, and when I do use pork or poultry it is sparingly, so the frozen meat I have in my freezer currently will last us for months.
• The weather has been glorious - mid to high 70's - so we are able to be outside for much of the day, generally sitting in lounge chairs in the back corner of our yard where we can pick up the ocean breezes, plus see it in the distance.
• The beaches here in our corner of Orange County remain open, though we've been avoiding them on the more-crowded weekends. So, if our city/county/state* does end up deciding to close any or all of them during the weekend as is currently being discussed, we shouldn't be affected. (*Each of our three closest beaches is controlled by a different entity, which can get confusing!)

  

  No crowds here during the week, thankfully.

Today's Well Being Plan:

• A morning trip to the market to purchase dried garbanzo beans, the only beans still missing in my pantry stash (I have ample amounts of dried pinto, white, kidney, and black beans currently, all of which should last me for months and months).
• Six mile walk, including a long stretch along the beach.
• Bake a batch of Lemon Squares to deliver as a 'thank you' to a neighbor that dropped off a bag of Meyer lemons.
• Practice piano for an hour.
• Sweep the upstairs floors (the dust never ends around here!).
• Meditate out on our upstairs balcony, likely enjoying the sound of birds and possibly the surf, depending. (Due to the absence of vehicle traffic currently, I can often times hear the soft sound of the surf crashing at high tide).
• Drink tea and read for a bit this afternoon on our outdoor lounge chairs.
• Each tonight's dinner outside - roast chicken, baked sweet potato and roasted broccoli. I picked up the chicken last week for 98 cents a pound, and I'm guessing it will end up being used in at least five meals - tonight's roast, plus a future batch of chicken salad with the leftover dark meat, and a future pan of chicken enchiladas with the leftover white meat.
• Play Monopoly with my husband after dinner.

How about you? How are you doing and/or coping currently?

So What Comes Next?

So what comes next? With news everywhere about states beginning to evaluate how to come out from under full Shelter In Place Provisions, where will we all go from here?

I tend to be pretty pragmatic about issues in life. Pragmatic as in I tend to deal with things in a way that is based on the practical rather than the theoretical. So, pragmatically, what comes next? Because for sure the life I knew, we knew, before COVID-19 is not coming back anytime in the near future. Possibly not even in my lifetime. I mean, who really knows?

The transition from our 35 day cruise around S. America, which had been pretty much carefree up until that last traumatic week in early March when it was fast becoming clear that COVID-19 was going to become a world wide pandemic, back to land was jarring. It took about three weeks for me to work through mourning what we had lost - the freedom to move around when and where we wished and the freedom to enjoy a thriving US economy. I had many days where I couldn't do much more than relocate from bed to sofa, and then from sofa back to bed each day. And I think I, we, needed that time to mourn, because COVID-19 is a death. It's a death not just in the literally sense of lives tragically lost, but also of a complete way of life.

But I've mourned, and I've let go. And in the letting go I've been able to make space for other things to enter. Our travels, for example, over the years have been absolutely amazing. We've traveled to 60 countries around the world, and 30 states here in the USA. But, I will admit, these last few trips felt just a little bit like we were doing them 'just because.' Just because we had the resources, just because we had the time. Not quite the same energy that sustained us during our earlier travel years, when we went because so much crazy excitement at the new adventures that awaited us we'd surely perish if we didn't go! So to a certain degree, it's a bit of a relief to have that monkey off our back for awhile. Instead, we'll be focused on getting our east coast family out here for a visit, and in a return to RV'ing up and down our beautiful western coastline.

In a similar fashion, our approach to entertainment had grown in scale each year. Little by little our calendar was filling up with lots and lots of pay-to-play entertainment options, because somehow staying at home stopped holding the same appeal as it did when we first moved here three years ago. Where we can watch the sunset show every night for free. So similarly, it's a bit of a relief to let that monkey go as well.

If our world has shrunk for the foreseeable future, I could live happily doing these things over and over and over:

• Frequent small gathering get togethers with family and friends.
• Walk/Bike/Hike along our local mountains and coastline.
• Kayak and SUP in our nearby harbors. 
• RV up and down our Pacific Ocean coastline.
• Backpack anywhere and everywhere driveable.
• Stream concerts and plays here at home, either for free or as a pay-for-view event.
• Order takeout meals from our favorite restaurants rather than dining in. So many options as to how and where to enjoy them - at home, at a park, at the beach, on the trail.

Not on the list above, and likely gone for the foreseeable future anyway, would be 1) pleasure travel involving trains, planes, ships, or hotels, 2) going to movies, plays, concerts, or talks, 3) attending Lifelong Learning lectures in person, 4) frequent restaurant dine outs, 5) in-person spiritual congregation gatherings, 6) athletic endurance events like running races, 7) theme parks and water parks with our granddaughters, and 8) significantly altered admission policies at museums of every shape and size.

Financially, our daughters' inheritance will likely continue to grow because of how much money we won't be spending in our post-COVID-19 world. So perhaps instead we will choose to direct additional funds to those organizations trying to make a difference in our world. And similar to the manner in which The Great Recession of 2008 - 2010 permanently altered the way we approached our finances - i.e., never, ever would we incur debt at any point in the future, nor allow our fixed expenses to rise - the great Pandemic of 2020 - (???) will likely permanently alter our willingness to be or go anywhere that places us shoulder to shoulder with other people.

So it will be different, for sure, but it won't necessarily be bad. Perhaps the difference is as simple as our attitudes? 

And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed. 

- Kitty O’Meara. 

How about you? What changes do you think may become permanent in your life as a result of the pandemic?

A New Normal: Establishing a Daily Routine

Yesterday turned out to be a terrific day, so I'm thinking cycle and repeat until life opens up a little more in, hopefully, the next few weeks.

For me currently, the formula to having a positive day is to get outside, and stay outside, for as long as I possibly can now that the heavy spring rains appeared to have moved out of our area. So our New Normal COVID-19 Shelter In Place (SIP) routine is roughly as follows:

5 AM - 8 AM  Wake up somewhere between 5 and 6 AM, enjoy coffee and Kindle internet reading (blogs, news, Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
8 AM - 10 AM  Household chores
10 AM - 2 PM  Get outdoors, generally via a long walk to the beach and back. Bring or purchase a to go lunch, and shoot to eat it while sitting somewhere scenic.,
2 PM - 4 PM  Downtime. We generally recover from our walk or hike with sun tea out in the yard, then take showers, then nap and/or read.
4 PM - 6 PM  More household chores, sometimes outside in the yard, plus make dinner.
6 PM - 7 PM  Eat dinner, hopefully outside in the yard if the weather is pleasant, plus clean up from dinner.
7 PM - 8 PM  Play a game or work on a puzzle together.
8 PM - 9 PM  Turn on TV and stream something light.
9 PM - 9:30 PM  Get ready for bed, light Kindle reading until about 9:30 PM. With all  the exercise we are doing each day, it's impossible to stay awake any longer!

There are also a good number of scheduled things beginning to pop up during the day as well - video conferences, online learning classes, etc. - but in generally this is turning out to be our go to day-to-day routine.

We are also trying to vary things on the weekends to keep them exciting to look forward to. For example, in general we refrain from drinking alcohol during week days, so Friday night is always anticipated because we get to open a new bottle of wine, or a new can of craft beer. We are also continuing to schedule weekend Zoom video dates with friends and family, giving us reason to get a little dressed up - from the waist up at least!

This weekend we have an eight person Happy Hour video conference, another 'normal' Zoom video-date with different friends, and a family Zoom video date where we'll be playing a robust game of Outburst. Outburst, BTW, is great for video conferencing. My husband and I will be on separate teams, and since we have the game here in our home, we will be the lead team members reading the cards to each of our video teams. So easy, and so fun. Another ideas we're going to try out going forward will be video conferencing Trivial Pursuit.

Starting this week, our daily walks have been positively glorious due to the weather here - mid 70's. And because we have no pressing need to get home by a certain time, we are discovering lots of wonderful new things during our walks. Yesterday, for example, we stumbled across a butterfly garden we hadn't known existed, a night heron nesting tree absolutely replete with heron, nests, and babies, and a gorgeous pocket park overlooking the ocean that is just begging to be returned to at sunset with a picnic dinner. We've also discovered new eateries open for takeout, random farmer's market produce stalls, hidden picnic tables, a variety of open restrooms (so important when determining where and how far to walk and/or bike), which beaches are currently permitting walk through and bike through traffic, which markets do not appear to have lines (and which do), where to buy to-go coffee, and where wild spring flowers are beginning to bloom.

Night heron nests aplenty. Next time we walk here we'll bring binoculars so we
can try and catch sight of the baby heron now in the nests.

And to repeat what I've stated many times before here - all of this activity is being done on foot and with proper social distancing, including the pulling up of our face masks as we walk past other people, most of whom are doing same. There is a balancing act between staying healthy while remaining socially distant, which I think my husband and I have found. Already we are considerably stronger than when we began our daily walks a few weeks back. We can now knock off eight to ten miles, including lots of hills, without feeling tired.

My husband and I are in agreement that once our current restrictions begin to lift, we will work hard to maintain the wonderful aspects of walking outdoors for hours each day. One of the silver linings of the current situation for sure.

A New Normal: COVID-19 Spring Break Staycation

It looks like we have a string of gorgeous days coming our way, much appreciated after almost a full week of gray skies and rain.

I'm yearning to get outdoors and enjoy the sunshine we're being gifted with, so per current CDC guidelines for maintaining health, we are planning a week's worth of walks that we can undertake from the house, therefore aligning as well with our current California COVID-19 guidelines regarding exercise, plus a week's worth of take-out food lunches to go along with, also aligning with our current California COVID-19 guidelines regarding food purchases, whew!

So far we have felt very comfortable on our daily walks in that almost everyone we see and/or pass appears to be going out of there way to observe a minimum of six feet distancing. And our takeout experience to date has also been positive. We check our city's website of local open restaurants, order and pay online ahead, then simply walk in and pick up our tagged order without any human interaction, other than a sincere 'Thank you!' called out to the restaurant staff as we depart.

Currently most of our nearby parks and beaches are still open to locals, meaning those that can get to them by foot or by bicycle. It helps that parking lots and nearby streets have been closed to parking, keeping recreational usage here down to a minimum. There is actually slightly less traffic at the beach currently than there is in our immediate neighborhood. Not really sure why, other than that our area is really, really hilly, meaning that the majority of people walk downhill when heading toward the beach, but then need to walk uphill back home. So, the return uphill piece may be what is keeping people away. Fortunately, my husband and I are in good enough shape to manage the roundtrip walk, and then some. The round trip distance to the beach and back from our home is technically a just over four miles, but we generally add on enough additional distance to come in closer to seven or eight miles. Starting next week we'll probably up that to a couple of ten mile walks each week, dependent on weather.

I should add that just because our immediate parks and beaches are open now doesn't mean they'll remain that way, so we are motivated to enjoy the privilege for as long we can. Particularly in that almost every other beach in Orange County has been closed due to excessive traffic. Fingers crossed our beaches and parks here continue to remain crowd free.

What our beaches are looking like currently - nice and uncrowded.
If that lasts, we'll continue to be able to walk along them.
If it doesn't, they'll get closed as well, so fingers crossed non-locals continue to stay away. 

A New Normal: Doing That Which Is Difficult

We had two solid days of rain earlier, on Thursday and Friday, during which I developed a massive case of cabin fever. So, with the sun shining when we awoke yesterday morning, our immediate thought was to get outside, and stay there for as long as we could. We set off on foot with a packed lunch, heading due west toward the ocean.

On our way down the hill from our home, we walked over to a Pacific Coast Highway-adjacent shopping center we had not previously explored, primarily to see how it's supermarket looked (well stocked), whether there were any open coffee spots to get takeaway (there weren't), and what restaurant take out options might be available. As it turned out, there was a vegetarian fast casual restaurant that looked terrific, so the next time we do this walk, instead of packing our lunch, we'll order ahead and pickup to-go sandwiches. Then, from the shopping center it was a quick trip over PCH and to the beach, where we found a quiet grassy spot to eat our lunch and enjoy the views.

The Ritz Carlton, where in normal times we like to go pick up sandwiches from
their take-away cafe and find a bluff top spot to sit and enjoy our meal.
Today, with the cafe temporarily closed, we just looked at it from down below on the beach.
Still a darn lovely view, even in reverse.

After lunch we headed home, stopping in at another shopping center along the way that we'd also been ignoring, in order to mail a small package we'd brought with us. While there, we noted a gourmet sandwich deli offering takeaway, a craft brewery doing same, and a small kiosk selling ginormous spring strawberries.  We picked up a basket of strawberries to serve over ice cream, and continued on home. By the time we got back to the house, we felt as exhilarated and 'normal' as we did before COVID-19. Because being outside and in motion for long periods of time is always when I feel my best.

Which reminded me of the wisest maxim I've ever read, from Ernie Zelinsky's excellent retirement primer, The Joy of Not Working - 

When you do that which is difficult, live becomes very easy. When you only do that which is easy, life becomes very difficult.

The difficult in our day was the 8 mile walk we took. The easy was everything that came during and after. Why I have to relearn this lesson on a regular basis is beyond me.

With COVID-19 and Shelter In Place mandates likely to be here in some form for months, if not years, to come, I continue to look for ways to thrive even in it's midst, and daily adventure walks continues to be at the top of that list. Also on that list is a renewed commitment to our work with our county's largest food bank, temporarily on hold due to our ages being above their current COVID-19 cutoff of 55. This particular food bank doesn't take individual donations (our job there involves breaking the bulk items down into household quantities) due to receiving most of their items in bulk from large manufacturers of food, but our smaller, local food banks do. So for now, we will continue to pick up food bank donations items during each food shopping trip. Having worked at several food banks, I'm now cognizant of the importance of shelf stable items in the lives of those that struggle with food insecurity. Things like jarred spaghetti sauce, dried pasta, canned beans, canned vegetables, canned fruit, peanut butter, tuna, condiments, rice, and easy-to-assemble sweet treats. So much need, and such a small, small effort on our part, humblingly so.

My Action Plan For Today:

1. Body (health and fitness)  It's looking to be a cold, overcast day here, so a session of YouTube yoga, plus strength training in our garage, is looking good.
2. Spirituality  Watch Andrea Bocelli's Easter Concert, streaming live today on YouTube. 
3. Spouse/Family   Zoom with our family as we all gather to eat Easter supper in our respective homes.
4. Creativity Marinate the strawberries I picked up in a lovely balsamic glaze (equal parts water, sugar, and good quality aged balsamic vinegar) so they can macerate ahead of being served tonight over ice cream. So divine when topped with a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper!
5. Intellect/Learning  Practice song #4, Killing Me Softly, on the piano.