The Covid19 Pandemic and major life changes for everyone

(Craig writes) February 2021 A global pandemic has occurred and we have made many life changes as a result. A brief recap would include: -Becky retired from Sumwalt Associates on March 11, 2020 -we sold our house in Cayce, SC and moved to Huntersville, NC August 24, 2020 -due to the pandemic Craig retired in September 21, 2020 My journal entries to date include: Covid 19 coronavirus March 2020 The nightly news mentioned that a virus had started in China that was very serious and fast spreading. Other than feeling sorry for the folks affected in China I initially did not feel threatened by the possibility of the virus directly impacting us here in the U.S.. It only took a few days before reports of the virus spreading exponentially became the leading news for all news outlets. Then the Covid 19 virus became a worldwide pandemic. Schools and “non-essential” businesses were shut down to try and keep the virus from spreading so rapidly. Unfortunately the shut downs, restrictions to travel and social distancing (keeping at least 6 feet away from others) efforts came too late for the thousands who died from the virus or its complications of pneumonia and other respiratory issues. Stay at home orders came from government leaders and health professionals and initially there were not enough Covid 19 test kits to test everyone with. The Federal government blamed the state governments for not being prepared and vice versa. Bec had just officially retired the week before the virus got really bad here in S.C. so was able to stay home and avoid most people contacts. Craig was still working and his job of working on robotic systems in pharmacies was deemed “essential”. This meant that he was still expected to go out and work in pharmacies to help keep people’s meds coming. Since he was already out and exposed he did most of the grocery shopping. Food was still available although many items were sold out quickly in stores. Grocery stores put limits on how many of certain items you could buy and had numerous signs up inside the stores reminding people to maintain the 6 foot social distancing from each other in the stores. Within just a few days the unemployment numbers grew exponentially due to businesses being shut down. May 15, 2020 Life continues to be very different than before the Covid19 virus pandemic started. We now use a service called “Instacart” for home delivery of our groceries instead of actually walking into a grocery store to shop. It was determined that going inside a grocery store was very risky with possible virus infection (especially since we are both over 65 and Bec is diabetic). Bec uses her cellphone to order what we need from the grocery store then someone from Instacart does the actual shopping and delivers them to our house. We pay an additional cost for the service and add another 20% for the shopper/delivery driver tip. Many restaurants are now permitted to have pick up or take-out food/meals and some have even gotten permission to open with limited seating areas. We have not eaten out for months now and do not use any restaurant take out either as we still are not comfortable with the idea of possible virus contamination on food containers or on the food itself. When we get a food delivery from Instacart we tell them to just leave the food on our front porch then after they leave we open the door and begin the decontamination process. The process for getting the food items into the house means we put on gloves and wipe off every item using a combination of alcohol wipes and Norwex anti-bacterial cloths before moving the food inside. I (Craig) continue to work for Parata Systems and have to go inside various pharmacies to work on the robots and pharmacy dispensing systems. I’m thankful to still have a job as over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs in the past few weeks. There is a possibility of exposure to the virus by being out in public or semi-public places so most pharmacies are limiting access to the inside of their stores to a few people at a time and have signs on the floor to help enforce the minimum 6 foot distance from other people at all times. When I (Craig) come home from work I stay inside my car for a few minutes using hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes on my hands, the steering wheel, gearshift and door handle before getting out. Bec then remotely opens the roll up garage door and I walk in and close the garage door behind me. I then take all of my clothes off and place them away from the door before going into the house. I don’t touch anything (other than my bare feet touching the floor) as I walk straight to the bathroom I use and take a hot shower. Bec and I have been using separate bedrooms and separate bathrooms since the virus started. We do this in hopes that keeping away from each other as much as is possible will help prevent me spreading any virus to Bec if I get exposed while out in my work areas. Sometimes I wear a mask for a while when I get home if I feel like I as in a virus safety compromised area that day. February 2021 The worldwide pandemic continues and here in the United States we now have over 26.2 million reported Covid19 cases resulting in over 441,000 deaths in the United States. New variant strains of the virus are emerging and it seems to affect all age groups as young children as well as older adults have died from Covid19 related illnesses. Face masks are now required in most pIaces but many people resist wearing any mask or mouth/nose covering as they seem to think the pandemic is just a political hoax in spite of the overwhelming and obvious facts. I (Craig) decided to retire from Parata Systems back in September of 2020 to be able to isolate ourselves better and hopefully avoid getting the virus. We sold our house in Cayce, SC and moved into an apartment at Matthew and Amy’s house in Huntersville, NC. We made the apartment there by putting up a partition wall in their basement. It is very comfortable and a very enjoyable place to live. Isolating ourselves is easy there as the house is located on a large tract of land with space between the neighboring houses. On January 6, 2020 a very large group of disgruntled terrorists stormed the U.S. Capital building in Washington D.C. in an attempt to overthrow our government. This seditious action resulted in several deaths and severe destruction of the capital building. Thankfully the inauguration of President Joe Biden went smoothly on January 20, 2021 and there was a tremendous security presence to ensure no further terrorist action occurred during the ceremony. We are hopeful that President Biden will be able to return civility and peace to our country and expedite the availability of Covid19 vaccinations to all. Since most of the construction on our apartment was completed and we had moved in before Christmas 2020 Bec and I decided to take some time to travel a bit. We wanted to travel some but remain vigilant in out pandemic precautions. We traveled to Huntington Beach State Park in S.C. and camped in our travel trailer for most of the month of January 2021. We are now spending the month of February (2021) with the Daliks (Ashlea, Tom, Teddy and Tyler) at Topsail Beach, NC. They invited us to join them in their rental beachfront house for the month. It is in a beautiful setting with large windows facing the ocean/beach. Ashlea and Tom have also invited Matthew’s family and Laura to come to the beach for some of the time we are down here. They are all staying in isolation prior to coming down in order to maintain the proper pandemic protocols. Like everyone else we are trying to make the best of living through a global pandemic and are extremely thankful to God for a healthy family that loves us and shows their love in a multitude of ways, a safe place to live, a reasonable retirement income and each other to enjoy.

Enjoying our new home! I will add details later but we are really enjoying our new home and community!

Moving on

It’s that time again! We enjoyed our home at 41 Beacon Hill for 4 years. During our years there we enjoyed having Ashlea, Tom, Teddy and Tyler stay with us a few months, Baba stayed with us a few months and Laura, Tim, Addison and Whitman were also part of our happy home. Matthew, Amy, Natalie, Nicole, Isaac and Nadia visited often and we had Camp NanaPapa at 41 four times so got to use the “Cousins Clubhouse” renovations and “custom paint job” with all 8 of our grandchildren’s handprints as well! Becky and I had been considering a move to the beach at Garden City, SC but eventually our practicality took over and we decided staying in Columbia was a better plan. Laura and Tim liked 41 Beacon Hill so much that they bought it from us! We moved about 2 miles away to Saluda Pointe Apartments (the place I referred to as the Disney World apartments when we first saw them). Becky did her usual decorating magic and our apartment looked like a showplace that we enjoyed for 9 months before finding our next home in Cayce. We are moving next week to our new home and are excited to get in and get decorating! We plan to turn our new backyard into a garden area and perhaps add a water feature or spa pool to enjoy. Between Becky’s Pinterest idea boards and our recent trips to garden nurseries we have some exciting ideas for our new yard. Looks like it’s time for me (Craig) to pick out a new lawn mower again. I’m thinking one of those new Ego cordless electric ones would be fun to use! On to Cayce...

From apartment to shining sea...

(Craig writes) Our housing sojourn continues. Since we decided to sell our home in Columbia back in 2006 and try a few different living situations ...apartment chaplains, 5th wheel camper in the backyard, then 5th wheel camper at a campground, small garage sized cottage, 2 BR duplex, 3 BR house, 2 BR city apartment and now a 1 BR downstairs beach house we are living in while waiting for the closing date on a 4 BR home back in Columbia. Seems like we would get tired of all the moving, setting up and taking down, packing up and unpacking and actually we have. The choices made to remain "open, fluid and available for opportunities in ministry and otherwise" have left us with a desire to go back to a more normal lifestyle of being in a home of our own again. Home means different things to different people at different times in their lives. At one point it meant a symbol of stability and sameness for us that had a sense of safeness and civility. That gave way to the feeling of a liability, an anchor holding us to one location and mindset of servanthood to a geographical location. We enjoyed the lifestyle of keeping options open and not being too tied down for a season. Now we seem to have come full circle in that the desire or felt need for a type of freedom from geographical anchors has reversed and we seek to re-establish the nesting instinct by buying another home. Becky is excited about decorating, tearing out walls and painting as well as restocking our once scarce supply of furniture. I am excited about the same things as well as having a lawn to mow, a driveway to pressure wash and house trim that needs painting again. Maybe advancing age put these desires back into us or maybe we are just a bit weary of living life backwards...nah, it is just time for another change. Home ownership again, bring it on! Now if I can just find my paintbrushes, my rakes, another lawnmower and my way back to the Lowes Home Improvement Center...

Its been a long, long time...

Craig writes:
So much for keeping this blog updated with current info on our lives!  Its been a while since we recorded anything so a brief but not comprehensive recap would include:

We moved from the Rosewood area of Columbia back over to Irmo for a year then decided to move back into town again.  The apartments where Laura and family lives had an opening across the hall from them so we took a two bedroom apartment on Saluda Street and now are neighbors with Laura, Tim, Addie and Whit!  It's great to have them so close and enjoy meals, coffee and just hanging out together.

My work continues to go well and I continue to enjoy it even with all of the traveling involved.  We recently returned from a cruise that went to Cozumel, Mexico - Belize City, Belize - Roatan Island, Honduras and Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island.  Has a great time with Ashlea, Tom, Teddy and Tyler as we discovered new places and visited a children's orphanage ministry in Honduras.  After leaving the ship in Tampa I got sick on the way home and we ended up staying in Palm Coast, Florida for the night.  Becky then got sick(er) but we made it back to Columbia Monday afternoon, went straight to a Minit Clinic, got $350 worth of medicine and came home to recover from the flu (Becky) and bronchitis (Craig)!

Thanksgiving this year was observed at Cathy and Bobby's house and we had most of the family able to attend.  Ashlea's family and Addie had traveled to Delaware to visit Tom's parents and then do some sight seeing around D.C. and Philadelphia.

Our search for a "church fellowship" continues.  We got a lead from Matthew this week about a pastor in Columbia that had been involved with Grace Ministries in Charlotte so will be contacting him to see about getting together.

More to come...at some point!

Camp NanaPapa 2011

(Craig writes) We had a great CNP in September with 7 of our 8 grandchildren able to attend the annual Camp NanaPapa. The theme this year was "The Swiss Family Robinson" with stories from the book, decorations with an island theme, food with strange names (snake eggs, frog eyes, live wiggly worms, dried ants and jungle juice - a.k.a. frozen grapes, garden peas, hotdog strips, raisins and lemonade/tea punch) as well as building a treehouse. The treehouse was actually more in between and around trees rather than actually being built up in one thanks to the engineering skills of Papa and his desire not to harm any live trees in the backyard. Tom and Ashlea also brought the bouncy house for us to use during camp week so the cousin campers had plenty to do outside. Each of the children got a chance to hammer some nails and put in some screws while building the treehouse but Addie seemed a bit more interested than the others in drilling holes and putting the wood together. She also wrote and directed a play, "The Red Headed Cousin" that all 8 grandchildren (with a guest appearance by Nadia) presented to Baba, Laura, Amy, Rita, Becky and me.

Becky is already making plans for next year and is considering making it a "Little House on the Prairie" theme complete with native american crafts, a visit by a real horse to ride around the yard, authentic food (gluten free of course)...you get the picture. The treehouse will probably be converted to a "prairie soddy" or suitable housing to afford as realistic imagining as possible as the children hear the "little House" stories read.

On another front, Becky and I were given gift certificates by our children for kayaking tours for our 40th wedding anniversary and we are looking forward to using them in the very near future!

Thanks for the memories...

(Craig writes) Our 40th wedding anniversary party was a blast. About 90 of our family and close friends were able to join in the fun with us. Seeing so many familiar smiling faces at one time brought back many memories of life events that span over our 40+ years together. Many conversations of "remember when we..." followed by laughter punctuated the evening. One of the major highlights for me was when our children shared a few words with us on their reflections of being parented and loved by us over the years. Wow, between Bec and God we ended up with a truly wonderful family! Thanks God and Becky for a wonderful life, and thanks for the meaningful memories that have made it a full one.

The next phase of our lives together continues and I am excited about what God will do with us as we continue our journey down "the road less traveled."