Home Sweet Home and Self Quarantine Week 1

Home Sweet Home!

Well ... this coronavirus has really taken a toll on everyone and everything. We were not told at the border to self-quarantine but the news came out later in the afternoon that we are required by our Provincial Government to Self-Quarantine for 14 days after getting back from the USA. This means no going into public places, like grocery stores, haircuts, pedicures, doctor and vet appointments .... all things that I would normally do after getting home from being away 6 months.! Ray is even cancelling his implant surgery with his dentist, scheduled on Tuesday. (Before we found out that all dental offices are closed for regular patients, only emergencies.)
So, Ray and I are complying. I am sure our little grocery store in town will help us out with delivering groceries. I will phone, get them to shop my items, give them my credit card number and they can call me when the order is ready and we can drive the 2km to the store and have them hand it off to us outside. Hopefully this whole thing calms down in the next few weeks but I have my doubts. The worst thing for us is that Kristi and Jason cannot come to visit.

Our grocery store did take my order and delivered it to my door. Thanks a bunch, especially as we had no fresh produce with us coming across the border.

Friday it was quite cold and tried to snow on and off all morning. Most of day was emptying the motorhome, washing everything and putting it away for the foreseeable future. Still have lots to do but now I have 13 more days to do it. lol

Saturday the sun came out and now it is -3C with a very chilly wind. The sun looks nice though, just don't want to be outside to enjoy it. More unpacking.

Sunday -4C feels like -7C upon waking. Brrrrr. Good part is no wind and more sun. Today should actually get up to 6C so quite a bit warmer. Forecast is for warmer temps in the next few days. We spent the afternoon having a campfire in our "outside wood stove" enjoying the sunshine and lake views. Temps actually came up to 8C.

The picture below shows how high our dock rose up in February with the high water. Almost to the top of this piling. Fortunately we put in two extra pilings that are much taller to keep our dock in place.

This guys covered porch at the entrance to his gangway has come off it's supports. The gangway is the only thing keeping it "up"! These people go away for the winter too so probably don't even know that this has happened.

Our view for our campfire this afternoon.

That first piling close to the gangway shows where the dock normally sits on the piling.

Monday another -4C morning but this should be the last one as the temps are warming up considerably this week. Maybe this was the last gasp of winter and now we will get into spring. After morning chores we took a drive around the community as it was a beautiful sunny day and we needed to get out for a bit. Once back home it was another campfire day enjoying our lake view.

According to the news this week is the longest stretch of dry, sunny weather since last October ... we will take it. lol

Tuesday, Happy St. Patrick's Day. Not so happy for bar and restaurant owners as all of the pubs and restaurants have been shut down in Vancouver for the day ... no parties allowed with the coronavirus.

A cloudy start to the day. We spent the day puttering around, taking Freya for some walks and sitting outside on our sundeck with our infrared heaters on. Ray called Irly Bird Lumber to see if he could get some cedar lumber delivered for a planter project. It turned out our Major, Rod Peters, is the owner of this store and when Ray was telling him that we couldn't get any beer from the liquor store as they have nothing set up re delivery etc., he offered to have the beer picked up and delivered with the lumber and then we paid him via credit card over the phone. Within about 4 hours we had beer and lumber. Love this town. Sat outside on our deck with our infrared heaters on, enjoying a couple of hours before it was time to come in.

Wednesday, another beautiful sunny day. Ray and I carried all his lumber to the back yard under the deck to dry out. After puttering about the house in the morning we sat down on the dock in the warm sunshine and tried a little fishing. I did see about an 8" come check out the lure and then swim away so the fish are there, we just need to find the right lure that they want to eat.

Time to sit and just relax.

It got even warmer out and Ray started working on keeping his tan. lol

Doesn't the belly suck in any further Ray?

Thanks to friends and acquaintances for offering to run errands for us. Today we found out that our little Country Grocer store has half their staff off sick now, so no more deliveries. Fortunately I have enough stuff for one more week. I also signed up for grocery pickup at Superstore and Walmart in case of .... for next week. My plan is to shop here as much as I can and if I cannot get what I need here in Lake Cowichan then I will order online for grocery pickup in Duncan and just drive to the store and have them bring the groceries out to me in the parking lot.

We are so fortunate that we live here on the lake and can get outside even quarantined. I really feel for those people who are still stuck on that cruise ship in Europe. Some of the people are stuck in their inside cabins, no windows etc for 24 hours a day. They had over 700 cases but the numbers are now reducing with 3/4 of them recovered. What a horrible place to be.

And so ends Week 1 of our 14 day quarantine. So far no symptoms of Covid 19. Yeah.