March 21, 2021. I’m sitting in bed in my land home in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, listening to the drizzle of rain and the splash of passing cars while I reminisce about 2020. I’m reading this post from a year ago and thinking of all that has passed by. This was the last time I went for a walk before Arthur took me down (arthritis) and how I’m now enjoying a new knee and looking forward to taking that walk again!!

In my last post I asked my readers to share what they learned in 2020. Big or small, good or bad, please drop me a line on the blog site or email me @ ahruthbrown@gmail.com. When we learn and share we may enrich our experience. I’m enjoying the responses from across the continent, and look forward to reading yours.

How to spend a COVID-19 Birthday – 2020

Sideways Sally wakes up this morning happy to be in the boat bubble.  She flew back to Maple Bay from Vancouver two weeks ago to look after the Skipper who was very sick. After a few seconds of reorienting herself while buried under blankets in the V-berth she thinks, “Snug as a bug in a rug.”  OMOO is the “happy place.”

The Skipper has again evaded doing his own spring cleaning by coming down with pneumonia.  Now THAT is taking things to the extreme if you ask SS!!  As his wonderful Doctor says, “if it’s not one thing, it another.”  BUT, the good news is he’s on the mend again!!  This cat has used 4/9 lives!!

After a week back on board SS found the floor, counter and table top.  It took a bit of self medicating at first.  She came across some napkins that were buried in the galley, they said “wine is better than therapy” which reinforced her method of coping.  Things became even more optimistic when the food storage lockers became accessible and were full of canned and dry goods from last year.   Only one shortage, toilet paper.   If worse comes to worse, there is LOTS of moss here on the Wet Coast (that is not a typo).

Come along on a mossy walk, just around the corner from Maple Bay.

So SS got to thinking outside the boat, imagining becoming the hunter gatherer of all things essential.  Breakfast is covered because she uncovered the stockpile of oatmeal that will last for approximately 9 months.  This was originally for earthquake preparedness.  Lunches look pretty good with canned salmon and tuna coming out the ying yang.    So SS is picturing herself fishing, crabbing and prawning and making fresh seafood on a bed of rice, along with trying some seaweed salad.   OMOO can’t wait to get back out there in the summer sun. The wind and currents are calling.

This whole isolation protocol has not really changed the Skipper’s lifestyle too much.  He’s always content to while away the hours on his computer, leaving his colon to be the only one working.   The amount of research done on OMOO is astounding, but it’s always put to good use (wink wink).

Now that SS is here he has someone to share all his research with but she fails frequently when asked questions like “what were the Lone Ranger’s bullets made of?” and “what did he name his horse?”  While SS vaguely remembers the TV shows in her younger years, mostly Beverly Hillbillies, Bugs Bunny and Bonanza, the Lone Ranger escapes her.  Perhaps she wasn’t born yet??  Answers to both burning questions were “Silver.” “Why silver bullets?” SS asks, thinking that’s got to be expensive, well… according to google…

“The Lone Ranger uses silver bullets in his pistols. Ranger Jim forges the silver bullets using ore from the Ranger’s silver mine. … Secondly, the silver bullets are a symbol. They serve as a reminder of the preciousness of life, and the high cost of pulling the trigger.”

Then without missing a beat out comes the history of the Lone Ranger, and how the actor Clayton Moore was quite in love with the character and long after the movie came out, he frequently went to malls dressed in character.  But, he didn’t own the character so he got sued by the movie producer.  Clayton Moore dealt with the lawsuit by changing the mask he wore to go to malls to large sunglasses so that he was not fully in character.  He would not let it go.  He was born in 1914 and died in 1999, at age of 85.  SS silently thinks “how can someone who can’t remember where he left the last screwdriver he used remember so many names and dates.”  It’s truly mind boggling.  Keep in mind these questions tumble out at the same time he’s tumbling out of bed.

SS suggests these type of questions should be banned until at least three sips of coffee, or even better, three sips of evening wine!!  Next the Skipper breaks out into the old tune from the Oak  Ridge Boys  “Elvirus, my lungs are on fire, from Elvirus.”  Some levity about how Covid-19 would be lethal to someone that already has pneumonia.  SS can’t help firing up the blue tooth speaker and blasting out some good old “Giddy up, giddy up, Ompa Ompa pa Ma Ma.”

 

This gets the Skipper going and geared up for tackling a small project, and away we go.  “One thing a day and eventually it all gets done” is the Skipper’s motto.  He frequently admits “I’m a plodder, and I keep plodding away.”  It’s hard to believe unless you see it for yourself that stuff actually does happens on OMOO.

So  SS and the Skipper will get through this forced hibernation and hopefully evade the  COVID-19 pandemic.  OMOO can’t wait to get back out there in the summer sun.  The wind and currents are calling to take off for the wild blue yonder.

Somehow life becomes richer, deeper and more precious when priorities get put in a blender.

A most sincere  birthday wish to all our friends and family to stay healthy and safe during this weird unprecedented time of our lives.

Love and Respect,

Sideways Sally