Ethan is Back!

Today, we drove up to Sonoma to pick up Ethan.   It has been 6 and half weeks since he left, and with the curve dropping off locally we decided that the risk of him getting sick at home was probably less than the risk of the psychological damage inflicted by continued isolation.   Plus we had a 'virtual' appointment with his Rheumatologist last week, who suggested that data thus far does not show that kids on the medicine that Ethan is taking are at higher risk than other kids.   So, yeah, it was time.

Ethan was elated to be coming home, and reuniting with him was really great.   It was weird to see but not hug Gary and Eileen though.  What strange times.  

Alaina was perhaps even more excited than us to see her brother again.   Let's hope that lasts.   I am willing to bet that the fighting will resume tomorrow.

Virtual Passover, Easter, and a new Au Pair

Well, another interesting week has passed.  A week, I might add, that was supposed to be our spring break.  We had planned a trip to Utah that I was really looking forward to.  We were going to visit Capitol Reef, Monument Valley, Canyonlands, Arches and visit some friends in Moab.   But, instead of vacationing, we mostly cleaned and organized the house.  What a break, woo-hoo.

On Tuesday, we took Leticia to the airport at 11am.   It may as well have been at 3am.   I have never seen the airport so dead.   Jason walked in with Leticia and the United Airlines agents were literally running up to help them with her bags.   Jason couldn't help but ask "What happened to my airline?"

On Wednesday, we drove out to the East Bay to pick up our new au pair, Paula.   Paula is also from Brazil, and is leaving her host family because her mom was fired with everything going on.  She seems great, so I hope she sticks around longer than Leticia did.

Wednesday night was the first night of Passover.   We did a virtual seder with Jason's family over Zoom.   I did my best to make the typical fixings, which turned out ok.

Today, Easter Sunday, we did a virtual Easter Basket hunt with Ethan on FaceTime, which was pretty depressing.   I also had sent him some goodies in the mail, so at least he got some treats to enjoy.

Tomorrow, virtual school starts again.  I really hope our school district can get its act together.  We still have 2 more MONTHS of school left, and the things they have been sending out thus far are really quite pathetic.

End of Week 3

As Ethan reminded me on Saturday, he has been away for 3 weeks.   A LONG time.   And no end in sight.

At work we have a shelf of paper bags, each with our own reusable N95 masks.  We are using these now for all patients in the OR, even if they are not sick, since asymptomatic people can carry the disease.

We have had endless work meetings discussing what is the safest way to care for these patients.....with no consensus reached.   I am telling you, it is like the Wild West.

Today, I got out my sewing machine and made a few cloth masks for our family.   We have been getting some pretty dirty looks not wearing them here in Marin, so time to join the club I guess.

As an added bonus to add to the general good will and merriment, our au pair announced this week that she was really scared to live with us and has decided that she wants to go home.   Truthfully, I cant's say that I blame her.   We are still working in the hospital and our home routine has turned upside down with home schooling.  So we have spent an incredible amount of time this week searching for someone new.   If you can imagine we aren't exactly most desirable host family right now, so it has been tough.    

This week Alaina had her first Zoom class session.   She seemed to get a kick out of it at least.   Seeing small kids interact on Zoom is so strange.  Nobody really knows what to say!

So, yeah, it has been a tough week.   I have alternated between angry and sad pretty much all day, every day.   Meh.

Time for cooking

One upside of the quarantine is that we have plenty of time to make home-cooked meals.   On Saturday, I managed to score the last remaining package of yeast from Safeway.   Today, it went to good use to make a great Italian meal.

We made fresh ravioli, using the recipe we learned at our cooking class in Tuscany in 2017.   We stuffed the ravioli with a mix of ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan and a bit of pesto.

On the side, I prepared a pan of focaccia.  I found the recipe on Food network and it was amazing.   It was also a fun family activity to cook together.  The meal turned out delicious, and certainly is not something I would have had time to do with our usual weekend routine.

So, we are doing our best.

CoVid19

Well, it's time for me to write about the Corona virus epidemic that we have been swept up in.   Last Friday, Ethan and Alaina's school district closed.  At the time, the plan was for two weeks.   Since then, the Bay Area has been put on 'lock down' for 3 weeks.   So we are away from school now for at least a month.   Most likely longer.

In the meanwhile, we have had major changes at work.   Both Jason and my hospitals have stopped elective surgery to "make room" for patients admitted with CoVid19.  The truth is that we do not have that many truly positive patients, yet.   But, almost every patient who presents with any sort of respiratory complaint now becomes a "person of interest" or PUI, and if you can imagine, this causes quite a bit of general anxiety, among patients and hospital workers alike.

My poor Grandma was a PUI in a Milwaukee hospital, after she presented with shortness of breath and a pneumonia from her rehab facility.   As they have basically shut down these facilities and the hospitals to all visitors, she has also had to endure the medical system without a proper advocate--which is daunting for anyone, but certainly more so for a 97 year old.   I feel so bad for her, as she has become a second victim of the circumstances.  And I know that she is not the only one.  In fact, I'll bet that by the time this has settled down, the patients who suffered from lack of proper care due to the virus may be equal to or greater than the patients who actually suffered from the virus.

But, I am no in anyway trying to minimize the situation, which has the potential to become quite dire.   Our hospital do no have enough masks or gowns for us, and no one really knows what the coming days will look like.

Because Jason and I are very high risk for contracting the illness at work, we made the decision last weekend to quarantine Ethan in Sonoma with Jason's parents.  With his immunodeficiency, it just didn't seem responsible to keep him home.   He has been miserably lonely up there, and we miss him very much.   At least FaceTime lets us see him each day to check in.

Back home, we have started to 'home school' Alaina.   When school closed, they sent home a 2-week packet of work for the younger kids to complete (Ethan gets daily assignments on Google Classroom).   We have joined forces with one of Jason's colleagues to get school done by swapping off days at each other's homes so we can all still work as needed.   The kids have been adjusting to doing their work at home, and I think that the peer pressure helps.  I am not sure what we are going to do when the packet runs out.

Meanwhile, we feel lucky to live in a temperate climate, and have been trying to get out each day to hike.  Today, the three of us took a lovely walk on the steep ravine trail to help clear our heads.

So we are surviving.   Certainly not thriving.   I am worried about my Grandma and Ethan, and work and really, the world.   What a mess.   But, anyway,  one day at a time.

Jason and Marla Head South

Last week, I had a work conference in the Bahamas.  My dad agreed to watch the kids so Jason could join me.  Since Jason had to take a full week of work off we decided to travel beforehand.   We didn't want to spend the whole week in the Bahamas.  As it turns out there are not a lot of direct flights to the Bahamas--flights to Miami, NYC, Atlanta, and (randomly) Panama City, Panama.  So, instead of spending the rest of the week in the US we decided to check out Panama City.

We flew overnight to Panama, and had our temperatures checked by masked agents when we got off the plane.

We spent the first day in Panama City, checking out the old city, or Casco Viejo.

 

Although it was Carnival, we were too tired to party, so after a good meal at a restaurant called "Lo que hay", we headed to bed.  Early the next morning, a shuttle driver arrived to pick us up at 5am to drive us to the San Blas Islands, where we planned to spend 3 nights on a catamaran.

The San Blas Islands is an autonomous region of Panama in the state of Guna Yala.   It requires a border crossing, and strangely, the van was required to display the flag, which contained a backwards swastika.   Very strange.

Anyhow, we shuttled with 2 other couples and were dropped off at a random dock filled with many people waiting to be ferried out to their boats.

Somehow, we managed to make it to our home for the next three nights--"The Bay Dreamer".

The boat is owned by a Swedish family with two small kids, and they were very kind hosts.   They have been sailing around the work for the past 7 years.   They also had a first mate, Simon, who cooked us breakfast each morning.

Unfortunately, I got a text from my dad when we got on the boat saying that my Grandma was not doing well--weak and nauseous--and was headed tot he emergency room.   I then promptly lost service.

The boat took us out to beautiful islands, inhabited by the local Kuna people.

Jason tried his hand at spear fishing--and snagged a puffer fish.   This was more drama than he bargained for, as these fish are filled with poison.   It was quite an experience for our captain to release the fish from the spear without getting poisoned.   yikes.

The next morning we head closer to shore so I could get internet service again.   I found out the my Grandma had undergone emergency surgery for a gall bladder infection overnight.   Yikes again.  I called my Dad to encourage him to head home to see her, but he decided to hold off, as she was doing better.

We spent the remaining two days sailing among beautiful islands.   It was a really cool way to see a part of the world that is pretty inaccessible.   The drawback was that it was very hot and I got eaten alive by sandflies.    Jason did not get a single bite, so I must have had bad luck with that.

After leaving the ship, we had one more night in Panama City.   We had better cell service again, and found out that my Grandma continued to recover.   We headed to the canal, where we got to see several ships passthrough the locks and learn about the history of the canal.

 

I found it to be fascinating.  We had one last dinner in Panama City at a  great restaurant called Brutto.

Early the next morning, we headed to the airport and we promptly told we could not go to the Bahamas without proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination.   We obviously had no idea this was necessary, though the gate agent told us it was "in the fine print" before she ripped up our luggage tags.   Nothing like service with a smile.  Eventually we called my dad at 3am California time, as we have had yellow fever vaccinations, so he could take photos and email them to us.   The airlines decided to "make a special exception" and let us get on the plane.  Whew.   Lots of close calls on this trip.

Unfortunately, when we arrived in the Bahamas, I had to transition to work mode, which was not too fun.   I had three days of meetings and two presentations.   Jason was able to enjoy the pools and waterslide (the conference was at the Atlantis Resort).   The resort itself I found to be overpriced with mediocre food.   It is also aways from downtown Nassau, so we were a captive audience.

 Due to the conference we had to fly out of Nassau on Sunday evening, and we didn't get back to our house until almost 2am.   This made for a rough week.   But I am glad we had the opportunity to go.   The first part was definitely an adventure, and we came back with some great stories to tell!

A Beautiful Day for a Hike

Although Jason was on call on Saturday and Sunday, he was off today.  Originally we planned to go skiing, but he was at work quite late and didn't feel up to a 7 hour car drive.  

So instead we decided to drive out to the coast and go for a hike.

We hiked to the top of Alamere Falls, which is a waterfall that goes directly onto a beach in West Marin.  The weather was perfect--clear and in the 60s.   The hike was crowded, due to the holiday and the weather, but still lovely.


The kids did great--it was over 8 miles, and we had only minimal whining from Alaina.  Next time, we will extend a it a bit and go to the bottom of the falls--but this time we thought it might be too much.  You can actually scramble to the bottom of the falls from the top of the falls--but it is extremely sketchy, with crumbling cliffs--no thanks!

Anyhow, here are a couple of pics:

We are lucky to live where we live!