Colorful Colorado Quarantine

Checking in from Denver, everyone's second choice of where to live (kidding! sort of.)

"I can't work like this!"

We are good here, Coop and I have been partying on my "extended spring break" Spring break was supposed to be this week, but we started it a week early. On Monday and Tuesday of next week, we have teacher trainings on how to do remote learning, and then we start that for the kids on Wednesday, April 1, which feels appropriate. Right now we're only supposed to be out of school until April 17, but we'll see once we get closer to that date.

Jim is working from our guest room, only occasionally interrupted by a little loud dude who knows NOTHING about satellites. His company got an exemption from the shelter in place rule in the Bay Area as it turns out it is hard to build a satellite from home.

Max is super excited that everyone is home to pet him all day, but super disappointed that the only one who actually wants to pet him all day is Cooper, who is still working on "gentle." Max is a great excuse for us to get out of the house and so is getting lots of long walks and runs.

This past weekend we decided to get out of our neighborhood and head to the mountains for a hike. We went to Dinosaur Ridge, with some dino footprints and fossils. I've never been there before, but understand that it is usually pretty crowded. We had the place to ourselves, and then connected to a ridge trail nearby for some good views. The weather has been pretty great here (about 70 today), minus the 5 inches of snow we got last Thursday, which then knocked our power out for an hour. The snow is all melted now, and we are all good.

Still quiet on the Southwestern front...

I’m writing my pandemic update from my apartment balcony as it’s absolutely BEAUTIFUL in AZ this time of year. See sunset photo for reference.

Thank you all for all the love and support surrounding Match Day!! Obviously, it was not what we initially envisioned, but it was still a great celebration! Thank you to The Borings for setting up the livestream and The Di Nolfis for throwing one heck of an Extreme Match Day – Home Edition. Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital here I come!!!

I will start my residency July 1^st, but will be moving to Santa Barbara by early June for orientation and to get settled. General surgery residency looks very different right now as all elective surgeries have been cancelled to preserve PPE. The beginning of my residency will not be as I expected, but that's okay.

My final two rotations have been cancelled and all clinical requirements are now via Zoom lectures, so I spend most days at home listening to older attending physicians shout, “Can you guys hear me?” over Zoom. Aside from my remaining curriculum, I (and every fourth-year med student) have been spending time reading up on all things COVID-19, as becoming a doctor during a pandemic will be quite the challenge.

Luckily living alone simplifies self-quarantining, and I’ve been trying to keep myself busy. I recently finished Outliers by Gladwell and am in the middle of Michelle Obama’s book. Mom and I have been doing crosswords together over the phone and I’m catching on some binge-worthy tv shows.

Hope everyone is staying healthy, safe, and sane!

Jocee

It's all quiet on the Southwestern front...

Thanks to all that were able to tune in to see the excitement of Jocelyn’s learning where she was going to spend her residency.  We are so proud of her accomplishments and as always, we look forward to what tomorrow brings for her.  We are so grateful to Brian and Nani for making that event possible.

Then came Saturday..

Then came Sunday...


Here is a meme we found that sums up how slowly time passed this weekend!

What a strange weekend we just experienced.

Over the weekend, we learned of a distraction on Netflix  called “Tiger King”.  There’s reality TV and then there’s this!  Holy Cow, to sum up, neither one of us will be raising big cats in Oklahoma!

 (4 stars)

We did make a trip to downtown Gilbert via bike (as normal weekend plans usually dictate) and it is a ghost town.  Luckily we are having great weather so we were able to support a local restaurant by getting  takeout and had a picnic in the park.

Today we are both back to work.  C is working from home and has plenty to do.  K is reporting to work as usual but the entire agency has taken a cut in hours/pay.  Arizona considers A New Leaf part of essential services so we will stay open for the foreseeable future.

Our 401Ks are rapidly turning into 201Fs but on the bright side, C scored a 4 pack of TP today!!!

Many chapters are being read and crossword puzzles completed. 

Most of last March we were apart and this March we are mostly together so that’s a nice turnaround!

hope you are all well and happy!

LOVE YOU ALL!

K and C

Update from the Commonwealth of Virginia

All,

Theresa and I are doing fine.  While we'd like to be spending more time with family and friends, we've been following rules about staying home, which really hasn't been too difficult.

Theresa has been enjoying her retirement by reading, exercising, and painting.  (See an example of her work below.)  I've been exercising, working in the yard, and going through boxes in the garage hoping to recycle, donate, or get rid of stuff we no longer want or need.

We've been playing games and Theresa has been crushing me in Ticket to Ride Switzerland.  We filed our taxes today and we're glad to finish that task.

We had our planned Baltic Sea cruise cancelled, which was disappointing but probably the right thing to do. We'll get a voucher to use on a future cruise.  Let us know if you want to consider joining us.

We had a first yesterday when we watched a recorded version of Sunday Mass.  There are no public celebrations of Mass in our diocese so the viewing was the next best thing.  We missed vising with friends before and after Mass.

I'm guessing that most if not all of you have received an invitation to participate in the 2020 Census.  I encourage you to do your part, but I can't guarantee that you will receive a Census 2020 T-shirt.

Please stay safe. Love, Don and Theresa.

Dear Family,

The Pandola family is hunkered down like the rest of you. Tom and I have been self quarantined for a while now. We try to go for walks everyday. We had good weather this weekend and there were a lot of people out walking as well. Everyone was very considerate and practiced social distancing.Steve and Laurel and the girls have been staying in at home in Incline. As you heard Brian is in Cambria and Tony at his house in Espanola.

Mom/Grandma is doing okay but is definitely finding the situation hard, as we all are. The staff is great and is doing their best to keep the residents safe. They have been bringing treats and visiting a couple of times a day to check in with everyone.

Since no one can enter the senior living facility, they have a drop off at the front door where a staff person comes out to bring the items to the resident. Today we will drive over and drop off some things Mom needs. I have one of Mom's very large photo albums that covers several years of pictures. I am going to drop that off as well. I think that will take up a good part of her afternoon going through it and reminiscing.

Ditto to all that Molly said about Jocee's match day. We LOVED being a part of it remotely. We cannot thank Brian and Adriana enough for letting us experience that joyful moment! Congratulations Jocee and welcome to California!

You all are in our prayers! We love and miss you all, Carol and Tom

Pandemic March 2020

Hello!  (I haven’t figured out how to post photos yet, sorry)(added by Sue)

Sande and I are employing self quarantine at his house in Cambria.  I don’t believe any of the cooking pots or pans have  ever been used.  But, it’s great.  We are taking the dogs for a 1 hour walk throughout our Cambria neighborhood  every day.  We saw Joe Burdullis yesterday and talked from the street up to him on his deck. I apologized that, because of the situation, we couldn’t be spending more time together (not). We don’t go to Fiscalini to walk because there’s lots of people and dogs there and it’s hard to keep the recommended six feet social ( now called physical) distance.  Sande and I are playing cumulative score Scrabble (one game per day) and I won my first game today (out of 6 games total). I’m losing by 338 points. 

Brian is next door at Sisters also self-quarantining.  We talk outside maybe once or twice a day, maintaining our six feet.

Matt is at MoJo self-quarantining with his dog Cyrus. He’s off all next week, but Roger’s Gardens is currently still open. So, I’m not sure how long he will be here, but if the nursery closes, he can stay as long as he wants.  Mark is self-quarantining at Newgate Rd.  He checks in with me at night and we yak about day’s events. He may come to the beach at some point, but not sure exactly. 

Brian, Sande, Matt and I have a Qwirkle tournament ( one game daily) that we play online via the app.  First one to win 3 games, is champion. We just started yesterday and Sande was the winner.  We are going to try an Oh Hell! app that looks promising.  Will let you know. 

 Super proud of and excited for Jocelyn. Loved tuning in and watching firsthand.  So nice to have Nani and Brian know how to set that up.  I had tears running down my cheeks when she said “Cottage”.  Our dog, Caramel, was hoping she got Cottage,

All my work has been canceled. My next date is April 29 in Las Vegas...highly doubt it will happen.  We two are doing fine, spending more time together than ever. I told Sande I might have to sleep  by myself in the spare room here,  just to maintain some sense of normalcy. 

Hope everyone checks in and gives a status. 

xoxo

M

Where were you during the pandemic of 2020?

Hello all,

Thought this might be a good way to keep in touch during this challenging time.  I'm curious to know how everyone is doing...who is working from home, who is quarantining, is everyone in your house healthy...?  What are you doing to keep busy?  What books/tv shows/films do you recommend?

Plus, I could really use some pics and videos of the little ones.  They bring a smile to my face and warmth to my heart. I have not been able to figure out how to upload a video, but maybe some of you will have better luck.

Before I catch you up on what is happening chez Lambeth, a big congrats to Jocelyn.  👏🍾🥂So excited that you got your first choice!  Of course, how could there be any doubt.  I'm thinking there are several programs who had you at the top of their list and are disappointed that you won't be working with them.  You're amazing and we're so proud and happy for you.❤️

Doug and I are both healthy. And while the epicenter of the virus is only 2 hours away, there has been only a couple of diagnosed cases in our county.  Of course, that is likely due somewhat to the fact that not much testing hasn't been done.

Social distancing is not much of an issue for us as that is our normal lifestyle 😁. Unfortunately, I was not prepared for the level of hoarding, so had to go out a couple of times before I could finally find what we needed to keep us out of the stores for an extended time.  Even so, i was not able to buy any sugar.  It's possible that we may not be able to keep feeding our hummingbirds, which would be a shame because they rely on us ( ok, Doug. I don’t do anything but enjoy them). Some have been here all winter!

Now that I finally got all the essentials, we are in full hunker mode at our house.  Have to say if you have to shelter in place, this is a fine place to do that.  Right now I'm sitting on the couch and watching bald eagles through the living room window.  It's pretty cool.

Doug has been spending a great deal of time working in the yard.  It's a very big yard, that hadn't really been maintained for several years, but it's starting to look really good.  Spring in just barely starting, so most of the trees are still bare.  It’s going to look really good once everything is leafed  out.  Last month Doug finished building all the raised beds for the garden.

Doesn't it look great?  I've planted a few cold weather things, but it's really too early to plant most things.  If you look closely, you can see our “orchard” to the far left.  We should be getting some blossoms on the trees soon!

I have been planting flower and veggie seeds in the greenhouse.  Doug built this cute little structure for me over the winter.

I planted some spinach, kale and lettuce in a rain gutter inside the greenhouse (Pinterest has some great ideas!) and they are doing well.  Everything else is a long way from being edible.

We have both been reading a lot.  If you're in need of a book recommendation, here are a few:

1.  I'm sorry I'm late, I didn't want to come - an introvert’s year of living dangerously, by Jessica Pan.  If/when the reunion happens, I think this would be a great group discussion book.  It's extremely well written and very funny.
2.  An interesting/disturbing choice to read during a pandemic is The Girl with all the gifts by M.R. Carey.  It's a post apocalyptic novel after a pandemic that creates zombies.  Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, but it's really well written and Doug and I both really liked it. There is a movie of it which I think has just been released or will be soon.
3.  If you're interested in a page turner, Before I sleep by S J Watson, is a good one.
4. Memoirs of an imaginary friend by Matthew Dicks.  I read  this a year ago and I know I’ve recommended it to some of you,  but it bears repeating.  The author creates a wonderful world of imaginary friends.  I really enjoyed it.

As far  as tv shows,  I highly recommend Broadchurch on Netflix.  There are 3 seasons of 8 episodes each.  Really good.

At this time, it doesn't seem likely that the reunion will happen - but I'm not ready to give up hope just yet.  Maybe something miraculous will happen.

Guess that's about it.  I love you all and I hope you are all doing well.  And I really hope someone else will post.  Really, if you’re stocked up on toilet paper, what else do you have to do?