Under the Half Dome sky

A view of Yosemite Falls in the late autumn when it is running very dry.

Above is a photo of our first trip to Yosemite National Park. Several years have passed since this trip. Since moving up to the Bay area, we have looked for the opportunity to visit Yosemite, again, but the timing has never quite worked out. With fire seasons and now Covid, we continue to be stymied.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g61000-i315-k6472796-SF_to_Yosemite_in_RV_HWY_120_or_140_for_first_timers-Yosemite_National_Park_California.html

Greg and I standing 'inside' the giant fireplace of the Ahwahnee Hotel.

The Ahwahnee Hotel is located in the majestic, jaw-dropping main valley inside Yosemite Park near the base of Half Dome and Glacier Point. This hotel, built-in 1927 is a National Historic Landmark Link

We spent a couple of nights in the tent cabins at Camp Curry, now known as Curry Village.

Located right below Half Dome and Glacier Point, Curry Village is the largest lodging facility in Yosemite National Park. Formerly known as “Camp Curry” as it was often called, Curry Village is the perfect place for families to eat, sleep and recuperate before heading back out to explore Yosemite National Park. Link

A short hike off the road takes us up to Bridalveil Fall just in time for the sunset. Link

A stop at the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias        On the bridge in front of Yosemite Falls.

Our first and last views of the majestic mountains of Yosemite Nation Park:  the Tunnel View.

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WINTER IS COMING!

Without even meaning to the state of Wisconsin held two COVID-19 tests in a month.

After the first Primary election, 67 people tested positive for coronavirus. The second was the anti lock-down protests after which 72 people tested positive for coronavirus. 

The numbers are pretty similar. The difference is during the election 400,000 people stood 6 feet apart, many for hours, quietly, wearing masks.

67 got COVID-19 after visiting polls in state's April 7 election but tie to voting unclear

During the protest, 1500 people stood shoulder to shoulder without masks. Many shouting, which spreads an airborne virus farther and faster.

72 got COVID-19 after being at large event

So it only makes sense they would throw there entire state into the petri dish to do the experiment on a large, no ginormous, scale. 

Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes down state's stay-at-home order

Six weeks is when the results from this particular test should be evident. Two weeks to incubate. Two weeks to spread. Then two more weeks for the really sick to start hitting the hospitals in waves. 

I really don't care if YOU wear a mask. If you choose to expose yourself to a deadly disease, it does not affect me at all.

If you are not going to wear a mask, STOP going to the grocery store! Target! Walmart! Where-ever. Order your stuff online. 

Purposely spreading the coronavirus in the US is a terrorist act.

In the past week, some state prosecutors have started to charge coronavirus-related cases as terroristic threat and assault cases.  
dated March 31st 2020

I know, isn't it shocking that you can't purposely make someone else sick just because, "I don't want to wear a mask."
Other people have rights, too!

And raise your hand if you are ripping up those darned socialist checks?

Better not though, they are probably the last government check you are ever going to get. Goodbye social security. Goodbye disability checks. Goodbye unemployment. Goodbye food stamps. And roads, schools, police...

All because when the blue states go belly-up because your Republican Senate won't give them aide, suddenly the Federal government runs out of money. It's not the United States of America, anymore. It's the You Didn't VOTE For Me States of America. Are the red states going to suddenly start paying their own way?

So please, before you go without masks, please be sure to sign your wavier denying ALL medical care if you, in fact, end up with this 'fake' virus. "May the odds be ever in your favor."

Enjoy your summer.

The country is not opening back up because anything at all about this virus has changed. It is opening back up to save the 1%. The 36 million plus out of work, and the recession on the horizon, they aren't worrying about.

A vaccination is still 12 to 18 months off.

Fauci (LINK) delivered the somber warning Tuesday to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions during a hearing about the road to reopening businesses across the nation. U.S. officials have pointed to the development of a vaccine as a key turning point in the Covid-19 pandemic, even though it will take at least 12 to 18 months.

Herd immunity, I know you have heard of it, implies 82-94% of people have had the virus. It is a novel, meaning brand spanking NEW (NO ONE has had it) virus. At least before the last couple of months.

herd im·mu·ni·ty

the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease, especially through vaccination.

"the level of vaccination needed to achieve herd immunity varies by disease but ranges from 83 to 94 percent"

At the lowest 82% and a 5% death rate, which is lower than the USA has right now AT 5.989%, 13,450,000 people in this country die to gain herd immunity. We are at 86,248, as of May 13th, 2020, and that is a tragedy. link

Or we wait for vaccination.

Or we open up the country, go out and pretend this isn't happening and PRAY the virus doesn't mutate, AGAIN!

Because...WINTER IS COMING!

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Six weeks of Covid

It is late, late on a Monday night. The night following the first time we moved our rig all by ourselves. It has been over eight months of moving every three week, still it was the first time of moving by ourselves. 

Augie, our trusted man with the truck, moved back to Texas on May 9th. 

Wide awake, though exhausted, like I have been every night in forever. Sleep always escapes me in the wee long hours of the night, I am perpetually living in a fog.

I have been have been sick for weeks, at least since the beginning of April. Much longer than how long the Covid19 illness is suppose to last. Having had asthma for almost two decades, I have my own nebulizer machine. 

10 coronavirus symptoms you may not be aware of, from malaise and dizziness to digestive issues

As soon as I began to feel a bit short of breath, I contacted my doctor and was able to get a refill of Albuterol sulfate without an appointment, thanks to the whole pandemic thing. It took almost two weeks to get that prescription filled. Thankfully, I still had some Albuterol left over from the last time I had pneumonia.

It started off with just that, shortness of breath. As long as I laid down I did pretty well. If I didn't talk, I didn't cough. I could almost pretend I wasn't sick. For two weeks I stayed in bed and slept. Occasionally I watched television or played Animal Crossing. 

I could still walk out to the couch and sit out there for a little while, then go back to bed. Nothing so bad to make it feel like this dreadful terrifying pandemic going around. 

Until I stood up. And then I couldn't catch my breath.

Around the second week, husband brought my computer into the bedroom and set it up. At last I had access to the whole wide world. At least what I could reach at RV park internet speeds. 

Well, there were the three days I was suspended from Twitter (for the first time in 11 years, by the way) because Luci Kitty laid down on my keyboard while I was logged in. As I slept, he managed to spam tweet me into a 3 day lockout. 

Then, one day, this is almost three weeks in to this sickness now, I couldn't even stand up. Literally. I was so weak and shaky, my husband had to carry/drag me to the bathroom multiple times. 

My arms were too heavy and painful to even lift them up off of the bed. 

For a couple of days they felt too weak to even hold up my Nintendo Switch (birthday gift from my 'essential' Target worker of the North) to harvest my virtual oranges and cherries. This was a tragedy!

My whole body itched so badly I wanted to rip my skin off. My husband literally got rolls of cotton wrap.  We covered the bed in towels and poured coconut oil over my legs and wrapped them up  just so I could sleep. This was all at between the third and fourth week. 

Since I have fought eczema for years, it never occurred to me that the severity of this rash could actually an other symptom of the COVID disease. 

Are COVID Toes and Rashes Common Symptoms of the Coronavirus?

Still, with the use of the nebulizer, as long as I stayed in bed, my breathing was okay. By this time, we had purchased one of those finger 02 sensor, just to be sure. My oxygen levels have never fallen below 95%.

Along with the weakness and body aches, came the headaches, The only thing that would touch them was ibuprofen. I know I was not supposed to take that, but I was not able to swallow the giant Tylenol pills. The headaches were just so bad, I didn't care and took took ibuprofen.

Updated: WHO Now Doesn't Recommend Avoiding Ibuprofen For COVID-19 

At about the end of the fourth week I started trying to spend more time up our of bed. I could only be up about an hour before I just had to lie down again. And, still the shortness of breath held on. Though I only got snippets of time out of bed, I did manage to sew up some masks during this period of time.

The seven county Bay area of California has finally opened up the parks so people go sit in their cars and watch the sunsets. Social distancing strongly enforced. We drove over to one of my favorite places, RANCHO SAN RAMON COMMUNITY PARK. 

Having not been there in months due to #ShelterInPlace it was so nice to just sit there and watch the sun glistening through the wildflowers. The red winged blackbirds reminded me of being back in Minnesota. Our home on Moon Lake used to just be surrounded by blackbirds. 

I miss their songs. And frogs that serenaded us all spring long. 

It was so nice to get out of the RV and just breath the fresh Spring air.




Then, unbelievably, I hit the nausea and vomiting phase! 

WTF universe! 

After those wicked hours passed, I slept for the next eighteen hours straightish. A couple more days without getting out of bed at all. 

This stuff is relentless. 

Finally, I decided that even though my breathing issues have never been serious enough to think I needed to go to the hospital, I thought perhaps I should talk to a doctor.

Starting in June, they will try and find me a doctor! Since I don't think it is life threatening way more people are ahead of me. 

**Update: July 20th. After a round of blood tests for regular physical, doctor comes up with COVID-19 diagnosis from back in the spring. Hopefully it is enough to give me some immunity going forward.

Once I was back on my feet again, or at least back out to the couch more than the bed, I tried to do a bit of walking. Just once around the RV park and I was completely breathless.  I did manage to take a couple of photos of what has become the new COVID-19 testing site.

Not being able to walk but a few yards made me feel lazy and useless like I had been completely wasting my time and not just recovering from having been dreadfully sick. After all, just weeks earlier, we were out walking two to three miles at a time when taking Rocco for his walks.

It is way to easy to hear voices in your head tearing you down, even when you are sick in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

Then there are the people online on more than willing to jump right on board and join into that destructive band of drummers. No science, just opinions! 

All of which will lead to one of my favorite quotes of all time from the TV series Leverage:

Hardison: “...there might be some side effects.”

Parker: “Like what?”

Hardison: “Organ failure, death, deathlike symptoms.”

Parker: “I vote for plan B.”

But the trolls persist.

"It's a hoax...no one actually knows 

anyone who has actually gotten sick."

"Don't wear a mask. It will MAKE YOU SICK!"

Or, my personal favorite.

"Just let the weak DIE!"

After another two weeks, I am starting to feel almost normal.

Somewhere in the midst of this we had Easter, my birthday and Mother's day. Like everything else happening right now, they just got lost to this pandemic world.

Wear a mask, because this is what being 

NOT so SICK you have to be hospitalized with 

COVID-19 is like.

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Lost in Translation

Living in the Bay area has been a unique experience of late. Since the #ShelterInPlace order went into effect on March 19th, the world has practically ground to a halt.



Though, living in an RV park has a totally different meaning to the 'in place' definition. We still have to move our rig every three weeks from one spot to another, mixing our air up constantly, to make sure no one becomes 'residents' of the RV park.

Not much concern about protecting the NOMAD community here. Just move, move, move during #ShelterINPLACE!

This next week the three of us were going to be heading down to SoCal to watch our daughter graduate from college. She has been completing her final semester online these past two months while working as an essential worker and taking three weeks off to fight the coronavirus.

My oldest son and daughter in law got caught up in the whole you must get back to the USA right now mess back in March. They had to cut ten days off of the trip they had been planning to Bali for a year to rush back into quarantine world.

Fortunately, they came back through Los Angeles and did not get trapped in the mess on the east coast and Chicago with thousands of people stuck person to person to  person in the airports for hours  and days.

My youngest son was flying in from NYC for the graduation, as well. He was also going to meet his new nephew, son of his partner's twin brother, for the first time. Just two weeks old now, the family has decided company is a really bad idea. Especially from New York! Not that anyone can blame them. Protect the babies! 

So, no family visits this MAY!

June was the really big month! Wedding time!




The entire family was getting together for the first time in two years. The first time since my eldest son's wedding in July 2018! All six kids.




Three grandbabies! The first time to see my new granddaughter who was born in September! And all of the significant others. Plus my daughter from another mother, as well!

First my daughter's graduation ceremony is canceled. Now, her wedding has had to be postponed...for an entire year!  Hearing people complain able not being able to get their haircut or having wear masks are just selfish t&@$s.




People are dying, losing their jobs and homes. Lives are being completely upended, but yeah, your hair is a bit scraggly, sure.

Meanwhile, as people nay say the need for masks and still ridiculously claim COVID is still a hoax, one wonders how places like Disneyland and Universal Studios have even a chance of opening any time soon.




After years upon years of being spoon feed teeny tiny bits of news intermixed sugar sweet happy thoughts to make it more palatable for thin skinned lives, how does one make a real threat like a death virus running rampant real to the 'faux' news  embracers.

The ones who would rather believe one person saying 'don't wear masks over the hundreds saying do, because that's what they want to hear. 

I want to go to the beaches, the theme parks and visit with family and friends. I miss just sitting in the theater with a large bucket of buttered popcorn watching Iron Man save the world.

Sitting at home and social distancing, zooming instead of visiting in person is our way of saving the world.

Right now, Super Heroes don't wear capes, they wear masks!

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Love--Live

This photo was taken on the way back to MN for my mother's funeral.

Many, many things went wrong trying to leave California. Finally, after spending almost two hours stuck on a New Mexico highway (bad accident way ahead of us) we realized we would not make back to the funeral in time.

We pulled off at the first place we could, to discuss our options. Painted on a wall in that dusty empty no place was, 'A great soul never dies. They just bring us together again."

"Love--Live"

Turning around, we drove eight hours back to the Grand Canyon. We spent the next day just being together inside the amazing beauty of the canyon. When we got back home, we held our own memorial service.

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