We are stoked....we get our COVID-19 vaccine!

Dan and I have taken extreme measures to avoid other people this past year.  On March 3rd, 2020, we started social distancing and have not entered a store or restaurant since, not even our very favorite restaurant, Serranos. Wearing a mask followed soon after.  

We love to swim, but have given that up.  We love to dance, but only dance at home now. We play ping pong together at home.  We ride Daisy, our tandem bike, and take long walks before dawn to minimize our contact with others.  

We can do this because we are retired and have each other.  We like to spend our days and nights together. And we like to go out in the desert far away from others where we camp and hike all by ourselves.  This is another thing we love to do.  We have been spending weeks on end all alone in the desert for 9+ years.

But this past year we have missed our grandchildren and children so very much it hurts deep in our hearts.

We would have liked to be allowed to give our coronavirus vaccines to our grandchildren, but that was not possible.  We would rather they get the vaccine.  They need the freedom to be children and to know that they are safe.  

They also need their grandparents to be healthy.  They need to have more time in their lives with their grandparents.  These memories with grandparents will be invaluable to them as they themselves grow older.  We know this, because we treasure our memories of the all too brief times we spent with our grandparents.

So in early January I started a search for us to get a coronavirus vaccine.  Arizona had not included us in the group to get an early vaccine, because we were not yet 75 years old.  But I was desperate to get Dan his vaccine as his body needs to fight cancer, not COVID-19.

I contacted our primary care doctor, but they we not able to give us any guidance on how and when we could schedule a vaccine.  So I searched online and discovered that Arizona Department of Health Services had a website where we could create an account and register. But no vaccine was available for us.

From that time on I checked the numerous websites that I had bookmarked that had information pertaining to COVID-19 vaccines. And I checked them every day, often several times a day.  

Finally I found a notice that on January 19th, Maricopa County would begin vaccinating seniors 65+ years old!  Every day I tried to get an appointment for anytime from January 19th on, but to no avail,  Early in the morning on the 19th, I once again went to the Arizona Health Department website and tried to get Dan an appointment.  For the first time the website said that he was eligible for a vaccine, so I checked every single day starting with the 19th—no appointment available.

I kept at it.  Finally when I got to February 23rd, I found an available appointment.  Then Dan got on his computer (while I was on my iPad), and we we able to maneuver in this very difficult website and get us BOTH appointments for February 23rd at the Cardinal Stadium!  And mine was only 49 minutes after Dan’s. 

We were so excited.  We were even able to ignore the fact that our appointments were 41 miles away on the northwest side of Phoenix, and we live in east Mesa.  We were even able to ignore that our appointments were at 6 p.m. during the evening rush hour, and we are usually in bed at that time since we get up at 3:30 a.m. every morning. 

We knew that we were lucky to have our appointments and would soon be able to get our first COVID-19 vaccine.  We happily counted down the days.  We printed out the barcodes that were our ticket to our vaccines.  We scoped out the best driving routes to get to Cardinal Stadium during rush hour.  We planned an early dinner and figured that the day after the vaccine, we would be too exhausted to get up early to ride Daisy and take our 4 1/2 mile moonlit walk.   Who cares—we were getting our vaccines!

Thirty-four days later, on February 22, the day before we were planning to traipse over to Cardinal Stadium to get our vaccines.....Dan opened an email from Leisure World and saw this:

What amazingly good news!  

Within two minutes we had both signed up for our vaccines and canceled our Cardinal Stadium vaccines.  Less than a mile away from our home, in the safety of our own community, we were able to get our COVID-19 vaccines.   The administration staff at Leisure World negotiated with Safeway to arrange for on-site vaccines for our community! 

A big thank you to the Leisure World director and staff!

This is one of the many reasons why we believe that Nuestra Casa, our home in Leisure World, is heaven on earth.

The innocence and joy of our baby granddaughters

Aryana is only four months older than Hannah.  They are cousins that reside over 5,000 miles apart, on different continents, half a world apart.  But babies are babies everywhere, and our littlest granddaughters constantly bring us happiness with their adorable innocent sweetness.

Morning has broken.....like the first morning

We get up early in the morning, long before daylight, and ride Daisy.  Although it is dark outside, Dan lights up our tandem bike so we are safe.  

It is winter, but everywhere flowers are blossoming and there is the scent of lemon blossoms is in the air. The street lights in Leisure World provide a soft romantic glow to our lovely neighborhood.  

We pedal hard.  It feels like we are children again as the wind whips through my braids and we lean into the corners.  The houses we fly by are dark.  We are alone in the world—all alone in the middle of a metropolitan area of 4-1/2 million people.  

After cycling for an hour, we go for our morning walk. Our headlamps light the way.  

We walk on the paths around the numerous small lakes or sometimes on the paths around the golf courses. We have several walking routes—from 3 to 6 1/2 miles.  We love every route.  Each is unique and beautiful.

Often the moon lights our way.  We watch the moon wax and wane as the mornings pass.  

In the dark before dawn we hear owls talking to each other.  

Close to dawn the rest of the birds awaken, and we are surrounded by their music.  Then the sky begins to turn pink as the sun rises over the Supertition Mountains.

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As our walk ends and we return home, the sun paints the sky with vibrant colors.  It is magical!

Excitement surrounds us.  The whole day stretches ahead of us.  We don’t know what we’ll do, but we do know that we’ll be together all day, every day.

“Don’t have children unless you want a little playmate”

This is a something very wise that Dan often says.  

And it is what we wanted....little playmates.  We loved playing with our babies, toddlers, young children, and teenagers.  And we love spending time with our adult children.  Now they are all grown up with children of their own.  

This means we have children to play with again....our grandchildren.  Boy, do we love being grandparents and having adventures with our grandchildren!  

Dan and I are in our early seventies.  We look back through all these years and say, “We spent our days well.”  We had idyllic 1950’s childhoods with endless days filled with fun and when summer seemed to last forever.  And as adults, we have wonderful memories of playing with our children and grandchildren.  

A few days ago we got to watch Alison and Calvin playing with their baby, our sweet granddaughter, Aryana.  

Alison and Calvin sure are enjoying their precious little playmate!

Celebrating my birthday at the Sonoran Desert National Preserve

We had been here before, about a year and a half ago.

We liked it here because we saw few people, the hiking was different because it is a very flat desert, it is close (less than two hours from home), and there was a lot of history in this place.

For my birthday trip we were there five nights, and took five hikes.

On my actual birthday, we got to Facetime with Jules and Emily and their families.  They all sang Happy Birthday, which actually sounded pretty good considering how difficult it is to coordinate something like that over Facetime.  Of course, because it was them, anything would have sounded really good to me.

A few days before, Candice, Stella, and Marina had come to visit us and gave me a Surprise Birthday party.  Here we are, outside, social distancing, with masks.  Vicky took a picture of everyone singing a muffled happy birthday while I (unmasked) was blowing out the candles on my cup cake. :)

 

After my Facetime birthday party in the Sonoran Desert, I had my choice of dinners.   I chose nachos.  Looking at them, wouldn't you have made the same choice?  I mean, desert southwest, nachos, desert southwest?

And they taste even better when the cook and server are Vicky!!

I got gifts!

 

Yes, I know it is "Bridal Shower" wrapping paper, but we don't waste anything.

Look what was inside!  If John Wayne doesn't care if it is Bridal Shower paper, why should I?

Then, later, I had cake and ice cream.  Vicky made Red Velvet cake, my choice.  One of the reasons I chose it was that it was the last food my mother ate before she died.  She had asked Vicky for Red Velvet cake, so Vicky made one in Washington and we flew with it to her in Fort Collins.  She ate some, and then a few hours later, with Vicky and me there, she slipped away.  

I wanted to grab her and yank her back, just as I wanted to grab my father and yank him back.  "Wait! I'm not done with you!  I still need you...."   But that's not how life goes.

As the years pass I find I miss my parents more and more.  I want to tell them, over and over, how much I appreciated them and the love they showed to me.  I worry frequently that I never let them know, but the rational part of me knows that I did.  There were two times in particular that I remember.  One was about 12 years ago when I and they were at Serrano's for lunch.  

After lunch we just sat in the booth for two hours, and I told them all about my childhood memories and how good of a childhood they gave to me.

Another time, also in Serrano's, was with them and Vicky.  I did the same thing.  Over and over I ask Vicky to remember what I said, and she actually made a list for me.

So, I thought it would make my mom happy to have Red Velvet cake today, the day of the birth of one of her two children.  And it would make my Dad happy to know that Mom was happy.

I opened my cards from my family.  And thought about each of them so far away.  But it was like they were there with me, as they are always there with me and Vicky.

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For the next several days, we hiked in the mornings and then did our projects in the afternoons.  So very relaxing and peaceful.

Projects:  models and knitting
 

Vicky is making a blanket in bright desert colors for our home.

And at night, the sunsets were beautiful.  And in the morning, the sunrises were beautiful.  

It was the desert's way of saying "Goodnight Vicky and Dan," and then "Good morning Vicky and Dan....where will you walk today and experience my beauty?"

And maybe it was also the desert's way of saying to me:  "Dan, be at peace....your parents knew you loved them and recognized and appreciated all they did for you and your family."