Castle in the Clouds

 I have an admission.  Back in November 2020, our little household tested positive for COVID-19. While we were definitely not the only people in America to test positive for it, it still feels shameful to admit we had it.  This may be because I figure if we had just stayed home for the holidays, we likely would have avoided contracting the illness.  We're not 100% certain where we got it and it really doesn't matter.  No one in our circle of friends and family would knowingly and willingly expose anyone else. Also, I did go shopping.  Maybe it was from being in stores that were fairly busy hours earlier... Where we got it from really doesn't matter now, a month and a half later.  But you might be curious to know how it went because it seems COVID affects everyone differently.  Here's what I can tell you about our experience.  We were lucky.  I feel very blessed because our experience was one of mild inconvenience. Ken and I both ran slig...

After having to cancel a number of plans this spring and summer thanks to the pandemic, Ken and I were so relieved to be able to actually keep our cabin reservation on Mullet Lake.  We had been looking forward to spending the weekend on the boat with our good friends, Jeff and Laura.  We had had a great time last year and knew this year would be equally wonderful.  Given the stress of the last few months, it also felt like a very necessary break from our routine. If you're not familiar with Michigan's inland waterway, it stretches from Lake Huron to Crooked Lake, which isn't too far distant from Lake Michigan.  I'm not sure if you can get to Round Lake from Crooked Lake because we've never made it past the sand bar area in Crooked Lake.  I don't believe you can navigate completely from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan, though.   The last time we rented a cabin on Mullet Lake it was back in 2006 when Phil and Beth introduced us to this trip.  That year...

What a blessed relief!  After waiting seven days, the doctor finally called to let us know that KC's COVID-19 test results were in and he was negative.   Everyone was so excited, but perhaps no one more so than this little guy.  After not being touched, held, or kissed by his daddy for eleven days, he was finally able to get all the love and affection he had missed out on during those long days.   Although, I do have to admit that his mommy was pretty excited, too.  She had, in effect, been a single mom from the moment she went into my dad's camper.  I think those may have been the longest four or five days of her young mom life.  You don't realize how much help you have until no one is allowed to so much as breathe on the baby.  So, yes, the little man's mama was a happy camper, too.   Ken and I were, of course, delighted to be done with quarantine protocol.  It was a stressful week and a half.  We tried our best to ...

Well, it's happened.  You'd probably think that given everything Ken and I have done over the last couple of months that we would be responsible for our current situation.  But you'd be wrong.  On a Thursday afternoon, while Ken and I were home working, Allie was upstairs tending to the baby, and Gage was still in bed because he hadn't fallen asleep until around 6 a.m. that morning, we got a phone call from K.C.  He had been in training all day and, about halfway through, it got shut down because one of the attendees had just been notified they had tested positive for COVID.  KC is fairly convinced it was the young woman he had been working with on CPI holds because her phone kept going off and she had to excuse herself to answer it.  Her face fell and she immediately went to find the guy in charge of the training.  They spoke for a few minutes and then she left.  Minutes later, the training was shut down with an announcement that someone in the r...

That's right.  Four months later and the world is still struggling to get the pandemic under control.  I thought I might highlight a few of the more notable things that have happened in those four months on both a national scale and on a much more personal level.   Let's start with some national highlights.  As of today, the New York Times is reporting the U.S. has had a total of 3.5 million cases and 137,319 deaths.   As of today, The New York Times is reporting that Michigan has had a total of 79,081 cases and 6,333 deaths.   No one really trusts the case counts or, as strange as this may seem, the death counts.  Why are the case counts suspect?  Not all states are reporting lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases, some are reporting suspected cases as well, which is allowed by CDC guidelines.  Additionally, the numbers may be inflated by duplicate counts for individuals that are tested more than once.  The death count should be a ...

Despite the sun shining and the warming temperatures, there are days when I feel as if I've stepped out of the real world and into an alternate reality, a version of our world with a slightly more dystopian setting.  University and college courses have all gone online.  K-12 schools have been cancelled for the remainder of the school year.  Restaurants and bars have been shut down unless they can provide a walk-in/walk-out food service.  Small businesses have shut their doors, laying off employees until the world rights itself.  Social gatherings of any size and for any reason have been banned by handful of governors across the nation and its expected more will follow suit. Birthday parties: cancelled.  Retirement parties: cancelled.  Bridal showers: cancelled. Friday night card games with friends: cancelled Bachelorette and bachelor parties: cancelled.  Weddings: cancelled. Baby showers: cancelled. That last one hits close ...