Golf in the midst of a Pandemic: 5 ' 20

I haven't always been the most enthusiastic fan of playing golf, but my appreciation for the game has improved considerably since the Onset of COVID19. We played a round at our home course of Pawleys Plantation last week, and another at Tupelo Bay today. Even though there were a lot of people on the course, we were spaced out enough

that felt like it was just us and the Canada Geese.

The new rules for playing golf at our home course of Pawleys Plantation (and most other courses in the area) have made it one of the safest group sport activities to participate in during this pandemic (and provided us with some much needed out of door exercise) . Except for married couples living in the same house, each person must have their own golf cart. The golf bag drop off crew sanitize all the carts before any golfer can take them out. When you arrive at the bag drop, you are pointed to a cart and told to load your bags onto the cart yourself. The bag drop crew holds out a box with the score cards and pens and ask someone in each cart to take a set. Flags are left in the putting range holes and in the greens' holes. Golfers are asked not to remove the flags to prevent potentially passing on the virus. Golfers also unload their a bags from the carts when the game is finished . Some pub are open for food and drink orders but golfers are asked to take their food/drinks to the out of door patio. Overall, other than the 1 person per cart rule and un/loading your own bags and leaving the flag in the hole, I don't think most golfers would notice a lot of differences in the game. But there is a distinct feeling of safety on the course, that we don't have when we are elsewhere beyond the sanctuary of our home walls.

Gershon Deli: 5 '20

Well Governor McMaster's may wish to open South Carolina, but that doesn't mean its residents are anxious to rush out and mingle with the crowds again. A lot of places are remaining closed, and even those that are open are seeing very few customers. After we left a doctor's appointment in Murrell's Inlet, Bruce and I went over to our favorite Jewish deli to pick up a couple of sandwiches to go. It was lunch time and the place was open for sit-down dining in their high backed indoor booths and at their well spaced outdoor tables, but there was only one customer eating at what used to be one of the busiest places in town. I didn't even see any other take out customers.

Nine-hole Belated Birthday Game: 5 ' 20

I had promised Bruce to play a  nine-hole round of golf  to celebrate his birthday.  Unfortunately  we were locked indoors on April 30th by a  strong thunder-storm and a soaking rain.  The wet stuff stuck around for another two days.  Today was the first day that the greens were dry enough to play one and that we had clear skies.   Bruce woke up to sunshine,  and  promptly grabbed a phone to  check on  start times.  He came back with a big smile on his face,  and  announced that he had booked us a 9:20 am game to play the back nine on our home course,  Pawley's Plantation.

His smile got even wider when  we  tee'd off  on the  tenth fairway.  

 And then Bruce broke into an out-right grin when landed his ball on the signature course's 13th  hole which is surrounded by 3000 degrees of marsh.  For someone who has only been able to  play golf  one or twice in the past year, he was playing really well today.

Two of the nine holes we were playing have sand hazards.  Seven of the nine holes  have serious water hazards (they are bordered by marshes and /or have large retaining ponds).   Some have both, and almost all of them have enormous heritage oaks that have to be played around.  

The Pro-Shop had  paired us with a young, lone-player from upstate SC.

On our first tee-off, it was obvious this young man would  out-drive us septuagenarians,

no matter how skillfully  we played. 

Initially,  we were not happy, but since our new partner was walking the course, we set him up to tee off first,   then had him start walking on the cart toward his next ball. 

By the time he had walked to his ball,  we  had finished our second shots to catch up.

As the game progressed we learned that  our new golf partner had a technical background similar to our  own.   After that ,we found that common-ground, the differences in our skill level seemed a lot less intimidating.

Bruce was exhausted but was so happy that
 he made it to the 18th hole in good form.

It's been months since  either of us have played, so  neither Bruce nor I kept score. 

My impression is that neither of us have lost muscle memory for  how and where to drive the ball,

 but both  of us have lost muscle strength,

and that we need to spend more time at the driving range to rebuild our muscles.

Now that the weather has finally turned a bit warmer, 

the driving range may prove an ideal way to get a bit of 

safe-distancing exercise. 

Long awaited cat- tower has arrived: 5 '20

When the boys first arrived  we expected  them to be jumping onto counters and climbing atop furniture  as they explored their new home and we had prepared  the house  accordingly by moving anything breakable out of reach.  What we were not prepared for was quite how much energy,  endurance and enthusiasm they had  for the adventure.  The last few kitties we'd adopted were senior citizens by the time they moved in with us.  By comparison ,the  bros are still  teenagers.  It  only took a few days for the boys to convince us that they are far too young and active  to  be confined inside our home without some serious cat exercise equipment.  So Bruce went online and ordered the biggest baddest cat tower he could find.

It finally arrived today.

When packed, it weighs a ton.   I could barely  drag it indoors.

Which,  of course, caught the attention of the boys.

One of them  immediately took responsibility for  being the shipping  and delivery inspector.

  

To lighten the load, I decided to open the box 

 and  to remove some of the  components

 before carrying the rest of the box to the back-room where it would be installed.  

Of course.  I had help from the packing inspector,

who was quick to remove one of the cat toys from the container.

Once I began laying the components out  in the room where the tower was to be set up, 

both brothers helped with the inventory count.

 

They also did an environmental study of the proposed site for the structure,

and supervised  every step of the construction the workers made. 

They even insisted upon checking that the dimensions of the sleeping lofts,

matched the specs, before they would allow us to move onto building the next level of the tower. 

When everything  finally met with their approval,

The  Bros gave us permission to set  the tower in place.

It seems to have passed their preliminary inspection,

but final approval is still pending.

Now the question is: 

 Which new cat toy do they like best?

Their new cat-tower ??? or 

or the box it was shipped-in???.

Double Trouble on the loose: 4 '20

The second brother finally decided to  come out of hiding, and is busy exploring the house.

He isn't as  much smaller than his brother than I had first thought, so I am still having difficulty  telling them apart based upon appearance.  ( When they arrived they each had a different colored  temporary collar, but they both lost them overnight).  Right now I can tell who is who based upon which one  seems more comfortable when they enter a room, ( or we do), but   both are pretty friendly, and once both are comfortable inside, it is going to be very hard to know  which cat we are looking at.

Meanwhile we are enjoying getting acquainted no matter what their names are.  

Our family has Doubled in size: 4 '20

My neighbor delivered the two brothers to us yesterday at about 6 pm.   

Their first family  gave them the names: "Lil Bit" and "Teddy Bear."

It was  our first chance to see or interact with them.   

Physically they seem like  identical twins,  so  I have no idea which is which.  We are hoping that their given names mean that one is larger than the other. (If not, they will be given 2nd family names based upon their personalities.)

The first thing we have learned is that there is a big difference in the personalities of the two cats.

The larger is very bold and vocal and friendly. ( In fact I have been having a hard time posting this because he keeps wanting to sit on my lap ( or on the keyboard) to get my attention and /or pets.) and he has become Bruce's new BFF.

The smaller of the two is very timid.  When he speaks it sounds like a low chirp, and while he is not aggressive, he  is definitely not a risk taker.

As soon as I opened the carrier, the quieter one made a beeline into the furthest recess of the cat condo and buried himself in the blankets that came from his first home. I can see he used the litter box while we were asleep, but he hasn't come out while we've been up and about. I am not pushing him. The doors  to the  cage are open, he isn't locked in, and he is watching his brother coming and going and interacting with us. I'm hoping that, his brother will coax him out to join the  family.

Our family is about to Grow: 4 ' 20

Surprise!  Bruce and I have made the decision to double the size of our family

with the adoption of two  five-year-old male black cats.

We had been thinking about adopting a bonded pair of older cats for some time, but of course we were thinking that when we adopted it would be under less dire health conditions when when we could expect to do a meet and greet  be for making a decision.  

 Yesterday morning  neighbor who is involved in cat rescue, contacted me to say that the rescue  organization she works with  had just taken in two black cats.   She said that their elderly owner had died, and the bonded brothers were  scheduled to be euthanized this afternoon.   They re little younger than we had in mind, but otherwise fit our criteria and they really need a home now.

We spent the morning cleaning and  refurnishing out Carolina room.

  Bruce has always been big on protecting  all of the neighborhood  strays during from hurricanes, ice storms and  other natural disasters , so we keep a fair amount of cat stuff (cages, litter, food, soft old bedding towels ) on hand, and we have quite a bit of experience at setting up the Carolina room  in a way that helps reduce the animal's anxiety when it finds itself trapped in a strange place with no means of escape.

What we want to do is to keep the cats in that room  until they feel safe and  then release them into the rest  of the house. I  have set up two of our large wire cages  in a corner  so the cats would be sheltered on two sides by the house-walls.  Then, I put large two large houseplants on the other two sides so they will feel even more hidden from view.  I've covered the floors of the cages with lots of  soft clean towels. And put our a large bowl of water with a circulating fountain so they had a fresh flowing water. 

The prior owner's family has very thoughtfully sent  us all of the cat's personal comforts  including their  blankets and their  personal toys which we've added into the room and cages so they will find things with their own scent to help make the area seem a little less foreign.

Now it is just  time to wait and see how it goes.

Stormy Day 4"20

We woke up this morning to thunder, lightening and

zero visibility rainfall.

It sounds like the world is coming to an end  again

but then again we have a tin roof on our house and even a drizzle sounds like

a hurricane is pounding us.

I tried to turn on the weather channel,  but the TV wouldn't turn on.  

( Damn remote is broken

 and Spectrum is taking their time getting us a new one)

So I  dialed into our Myrtle Beach live news station on my PC.

It turns out that the storm we were expecting yesterday

  has finally arrived complete with tornado warnings .

Unfortunately this station is not as helpful as we would like.

Their  Weather Doppler Station is located in North Carolina (about 50 miles North of us), 

and  some dense tall trees on a neighbors property

 just to the South of that station

are blocking their signal from reaching Pawleys Island.  

The only thing the station's newscaster can tell us about our area is

 that conditions are ripe for a tornado  touching down.  

(Right now that threat seems to be  about 5 miles to the North of us 

and moving in our direction).

 Due to the low visibility  the road conditions are hazardous.  

We are being advised to stay indoors and away from windows. 

Needless to say there will be no COVID emergency meal kits  delivered into the area today;

So this weather-maker  is imposing some very real hardships

 on some of our communities' low income families.

Happy Easter, Y"all: 4 '20

Wishing you all the love and  happiness that only  Easter can bring.  Have a joyous celebration with your family even if it is only shared in cyber space!

Update 4/12/20 7 pm : 

Usually, Bruce and I leave our exterior holiday decorations up ( at a minimum) until the day after any holiday we are celebrating. That is a long way to say that we would normally be putting all our Easter decorations away tomorrow. BUT, Bruce and I have been getting weather advisories on our cell phones all day long warning us that our geographic area might experience wind gusts up to 135 MPH overnight.

I am not sure I believe that will happen, but if it does get that windy, all of our exterior Easter decorations would be sent flying. Rather than putting our own, or our neighbors' property at risk, we brought it all inside this afternoon, (just before the heavy rains started). TBD if we were over-reacting, but in a year of horrors, and exploring unknown climate patterns, we don't want to be the ones who let others get hurt because we chose ignore the warnings. Setting out holiday yard art has been out way, of trying to bring a little joy and fun back into the lives of our selves and our neighbors, Right now I am just happy that we were able to keep our Bunny Family on display through most of Easter Day.

Passover 2020

It seems odd to be celebrating a Jewish  holiday which commemorates  Jews  isolating themselves in their homes to avoid avoid dying from a plague, while  we are isolating ourselves in our home to avoid dying from a different plague.  But then again, perhaps recounting the story of the Exodis is  just a good reminder  of all that we have to  be grateful for.

but here we are enjoying our first night of  Passover supper, 

complete with a Passover Seder plate and a wine glass for  Elijah.

 I have full confidence that this is what we will be doing every night  through the 16th of April.   After all,  if a rag-tag group of ill-fed slaves could  hunker down  to survive 10 plagues followed by wandering around in a desert for 40 years, I am pretty sure Bruce and I will manage to  get through this COVID19 pandemic,  by isolating ourselves in our comfortable home
with a well stock fridge and cable TV. 

It's looking a lot like Easter: 3 '20

Once  I  started decorating outside, it was hard to stop. 

Pretty soon I was hanging plastic eggs  in the  bottle brush

And sticking them in the hanging baskets

and flowerbeds.

 It didn't take long before eggs appeared on strands of Christmas tree lights
draped over the front door and

Lighting up the windows of our screened in porch.

Pretty soon I was putting up  eggs and Spring ducklings in the kitchen window,

 then I  began hanging  eggs 

and setting out bunnies on every table,

and making colored-egg trees  

for every nook and crannie. 

These pretty little things are all  small visual reminders that  we still have many things to be grateful... a home,  food, a job, and each other to lean on.  

Here come's Peter Cottontail: 3 '20

 The National news media has been relentless  in their coverage of  the devastation COVID 19  has been creating, and how it is  forcing everyone to lock themselves inside their homes, devastating the economy,  putting the entire population of the country at risk of death,  and devastating the economy.  After months of this kind of end of the world  news, Bruce and I decided we needed to do something  to remind ourselves, and our neighbors, that the sun is still shining, and flowers are still blooming, and that this  crisis too shall pass.  We decided to set out our Easter wood art earlier than usual.

We put this family of three front and forward closest to the street.

These two little guys with our initials on them were set closest to the house.

And this Little Bunny Butt went into the narrow flower bed  by the driveway.

Our neighbors have responded positively; many of them  have asked Bruce if he would make one for them to put up in their yard.