The Year of Pandemic

2020 has been a year like no other. At the end of 2019, there were news from China about an outbreak of a new deadly virus.  Most of us didn't think too much of it. It was all the way on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. As the months went by, it had reached Europe.  Italy was hit particularly hard with the highest death toll then it came to the States.  At the end of March, while I was working in the office, the Shelter in Place order came from the County Official and the State Governor. We were told that we needed to "flatten the curve" of the virus infection rate. Within a few hours, we were all making arrangements to work from home. 

The following week, all the retail stores and restaurants were closed.  Only essential businesses were open such as grocery stories and hospitals. Suddenly, it felt like we were in a war as the city streets, mass transit and freeways were empty.  Everyone's weekend outing plans were cancelled. Schools were closed. All non-essential air travel was cancelled.  My home became the safest and only place I could be. 

With all the time staying at home, I started working on the garden and other home projects every weekend and sometimes after work. My old garage door was in need of a fresh coat of paint. I thought instead of just painting it with one color, why not paint something interesting on it.  Although I have done much drawing in recent years, I made a pencil sketch on paper.  Within a week, I repainted my garage door with lilac color hibiscus flowers on a bright golden yellow background. Many people in the neighborhood stopped to compliment the painting.  Most of my neighbors were surprised that I can draw and paint a mural.  I often see people stopping on the sidewalk taking photos of the painting.

There were tentative plans to lift the shelter in place order on June 1st.  Unfortunately, people couldn't stay home during Memorial weekend.  The infection rate shoot up again after the holiday weekend. 

During July 4th weekend, I picked as many plums as I could to give away to people in the neighborhood.  For some reason, every plum tree in El Cerrito were covered with super juicy sweet plums.  Many people were giving away plums on NextDoor.

After all the plums were gone, I decided it was time to get rid of the grass and plant some bee flowers. I started with the small patch on the sidewalk.  It took me about a week, one hour a day, to dig up all that tough grass.

By now, some businesses were allowed to open as long as certain guidelines are followed. I made a trip to Annie's Annuals and Perennials and got a bunch of bee and butterfly friendly and drought tolerant plants. I am particularly excited about the hollyhock.  After all the plants were planted, someone in the neighborhood was giving away extra mulch since they ordered too much for their yard.  I was able to get enough to cover the area. 

It's been exciting to see many people taking advantage of this time to redo their gardens.  Last weekend, I have finally removed all the grass in the front yard.  Now I am just waiting for the HomeDepot gift card to arrive in the mail so I can go get the soil and compost for the new front garden.

End of the Year Road Trip

After working furiously for the last days of December, we took off for the long waited road trip. We made our first major stop at Joshua Tree National Park.  We were a little surprised to find that dogs were not allowed on any trail other than the parking lots and campgrounds.  We took a few photos near the entrance then spent a night at the Chiriaco Summit Dry Camp, which is a free campground just one freeway exit away from the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. 

As we drove across the border to Arizona. I noticed the landscape on both sides of the highway were a lot like Joshua Tree. Many of the plants were the same.  We arrived Holbrook, which is the nearest town to Petrified Forest National Park. Unlike Joshua Tree, dogs are allowed everywhere in Petrified Forest except inside of buildings. However, the park is closed one day a year on Christmas Day. We arrived in the afternoon of December 24, so we decided to spend two nights in Holbrook.  Luckily, it only costed $35 per night at the Motel 6.  On December 26, we arrived at Petrified Forest early in the morning, so we could spend an entire day there.  We really enjoyed checking out the sights, taking pictures, and hiking through the trails. I will have to thank the friend who highly recommended this national park. 

By the time we went through all the points of the interest in Petrified Forest, it was in the evening. We didn't want to spend a third night in Holbrook, so we looked for another nearby city and ended up in Winslow because it was only $30 plus $10 pet fee to stay at Econo Lodge.  It was a big room with 2 queen sized beds, microwave, mini fridge, hair dryer, and a full bathtub.  Breakfast was also included. What a deal!  This is another reason I prefer to travel through small towns.  We didn't encounter much traffic once we left California, and accommodation costed a lot less. 

Cracus and the statue of Glenn Frey, which was added after he passed away

After we settled into our room, I Googled Winslow and was surprised to read about its number one attraction - Standin on the Corner Park.  Two of the Rock 'n Roll legends passed away in January 2016.  First it was David Bowie and then 8 days later, Glenn Frey. I never forget that month and where I was when I found out Glenn Frey passed away. The song Take It Easy, placed Winslow on the Rock 'n Roll map. It made sense now the hotel room key card has "Take It Easy" printed on it. After leaving the hotel next morning, we drove down the street to the Corner. Many people were there taking photos already.  We took several photos of our own.

We headed back to California after departing Winslow, but we were not ready to go home yet.  For more than 2 years, I have wanted to visit Porto's Bakery. It didn't matter which Porto's location.  It would take about 8 hours to get to Porto's West Covina location from Winslow.  As we drove through Flagstaff, the snow came down hard even though it was sunny, so we had to take a break.  We took another extended break in Needles for a nap.  We left Needles around 2 am so that we could arrive at Porto's West Covina around the time they open the shop at 6:30.   We arrived around 7 am, and people were already picking up their cakes and pastries. The bakery did not disappoint me. The architecture of the building is beautiful. The staff was efficient, and the pastries were amazing.   We could take a trip down Southern California just for a Porto's tour since they have 5 locations and possibly 1 more in the near future. 

We also visited a friend and some relatives before returning home on December 30. I did want to be on the road on New Years Eve.  We were all happy to be home.  Now we can plan our next road trip. Happy 2020, everyone!

Snowy Thanksgiving Road Trip

Gold Run Rest Area

We have been planning on taking a road trip during Thanksgiving holiday. All of a sudden we got the first rain of the season with more rain to come. After monitoring the weather forecast closely for several days, we decided to head up north instead of south.  The forecast indicated a dry Thanksgiving and Black Friday before the rain resumes.  There is also snow up in Tahoe area.  Since the pups have never seen snow, we decided to drive north and see how far we could go before snow chains are required.

We made a few bathroom stops at Davis, Sacramento, and Auburn.  Shortly after we passed Auburn, snow appeared on both sides of the freeway.  We pulled into Gold Run Rest Area so the pups could experience snow for the first time.  I made sure they didn't stay in the snow too long so they wouldn't freeze their little paws. Cracus seemed to enjoy it more than Sace.  

Historical Downtown Truckee

We spent the night in Truckee because it got dark fast and the snow started coming down rapidly. It was hard to see.  The next morning, the Subaru was covered in snow. I had never driven in so much snow before, so I felt a little unsure. However, it turned out to be quite smooth with the Subaru Forester. We made a stop in Downtown Truckee for some photos before heading over to Donner Memorial State Park.  The snow started coming down again as we were heading to the park.  The park was deserted and the visitor center and camp ground were all closed and covered in snow.  I got out of the car and took a 360 degree video. I have been here before many years ago during the summer.  Now seeing this weather, it gave me some perspective of the weather condition the Donner Party was experiencing.  As I drove further up Donner Pass, I came to an intersection where only cars with snow chains or 4WD/AWD cars with snow tires were allowed to pass.  Initially I thought everyone needed to have snow chains. The Caltran worker looked at my Forester and said it was fine for me to take the scenic route.  I reached the Donner Summit without any problem although I had to go slow due to poor visibility. There were very few cars and everyone was going slow. I saw a Corvette got stuck in the snow and a Jeep driver was trying to help it unstuck. I got a set of all terrain tires for the Subaru in September.  I was able to drive over the snow and icy roads as normal. I was quite amazed.

Learning the Mighty Ukulele

 

 A little over a month ago, I heard the local Arts & Culture Committee was looking for people to sign up as a members of the community orchestra.  I was intrigued and almost wanted to join but then I thought to myself, what instrument would I play?  A better question was, what instrument would I want to learn?  The only instrument I have learned to play as a kid was koto, a traditional Asian stringed instrument, which I have not touched for more than 30 years.  Nevertheless, I thought a stringed instrument would be a little easier for me to learn.  I have attempted to learn guitar in high school, but it was difficult to stretch my fingers to play the chords. Suddenly I remembered - ukulele! I always thought it would be fun to play an ukulele!  It's small, cute, portable, and cheerful. It has only 4 strings.  In compare to the 13-string koto I used to play, it should be manageable.

I started looking through Youtube tutorials on ukulele including its history and what to look for when buying a uke, etc. I started looking at ukuleles on Amazon and local stores trying to decide which one to get.  About a month ago, I happened to stop by the Goodwill store in Downtown Berkeley. I spotted one used soprano size ukulele in dark purple - my favorite color! I looked at it carefully to make sure it was in decent condition other than superficial scratches and dings. I bought it for $8.00 and started playing it by watching online tutorials.  I found Cynthia Lin and Bernadette to be my favorite teachers after watching countless tutorials by people around the world.  Little did I know that both of them are from California, my home state.

A clip board is all you need to turn an extra tripod into a music stand

After playing the $8 uke for a month, I visited the iconic Subway Guitars in Berkeley, which I have known for most of my life but never had the opportunity to go in.  I left the shop with an Amahi slim body concert ukulele.   Last week I also converted one of my tripods into a music stand.  I just glued the part that would attach to a camera onto a clip board.  I removed the screw that was meant to screw onto the bottom of a camera from the removable plastic unit. I also scraped off any loose component on it before applying Crazy glue to it.  I also used duct tape for additional reinforcement.  The tripod of course is fully adjustable in height, direction, and angle.  It's much more sturdy than a cheap music stand. It also didn't cost me any extra money. 

After leaning the ukulele for more than a month, I learned a few things that I never realized before. One, my fingers are short compare to my two favorite ukulele teachers.  Two, singing and playing an instrument at the same time is much more difficult than I thought.  It's been very hard for me to do both simultaneously so I focus mostly on playing the uke.

Last weekend I attended my first Youtube livestream to celebrate Cynthia's 300K subscribers.  I am not good enough to play along all the songs, but it was fun and inspirational. I also got my ticket for Holiday Uke Jam in Berkeley. I can't believe I will get to see Cynthia Lin in person, and I can't wait to meet other local ukulele enthusiasts!

Life with Dogs

Cracus and Sace running around at Pacifica Esplanade Beach

2018 was a year of Goodbyes, and one more goodbye came in April this year. In June 2018, my boss at work had to take a medical leave due to cancer. She was in and out of ICU for months.  In January, I heard that she only had a few months to live regardless of any more medical treatments. In early April, just a month before her 60th birthday, she passed away. I think about her often just like I think about Kelsey.

Cracus has a new sister now. Her name is Sace, and she is about the same size as Cracus.  We want to enjoy the life we have before it's too late. A couple weekends ago, we took a day trip to Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve in Guerneville. It was one of my boss' favorite places to go.  It was our first time there. We took a nice walk and had a picnic in the redwoods in memory of her.

Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve

Armstrong Redwoods State natural Reserve is also the entrance to Bullfrog Pond Campground, which allows dogs.  We plan on going back and camp on the top of the mountain when the weather is cooler. In the meantime, we will continue to explore beaches and other dog friendly destinations whenever we can get away.

Life is too short to just sit around and watch tv.

Point Isabel Regional Shoreline