We are back from California.

The rental that we stayed at had live stock. Cows, pigs & chickens.

The trip itself was emotionally draining. My father-in-law is 90. His health is declining and he now needs regular help. With Covid, we don't want to move him to an assistive care facility.

There is a bit of a plan now-- a cousin will move in with the father-in-law for a while.

Of course it's all more complex than that. My father-in-law doesn't want anyone to worry about him. He'd rather sit in his apartment and rot than ask anyone for help. It took a lot of patient listening until we figured out what is going wrong and to hear his concerns.

Yesterday we drove to central California. We are staying here for a week to visit the husband's parents and to get a little R&R. 

We are not actually on vacation.. We rented a nice apartment for the week. Both of us brought our laptops and are going to work during the day. 

Two thoughts on this... First, the husbands parents can be tiring if you spend more than a couple of hours with them. By renting a place and working during the day, we can visit with them every night for a week. 

Second, COVID means we must work remote. Travel is very restricted. Lets try new things and see how they go.

Over the weekend Brown had a BBQ at his place. He lives across the Sound, so we had a good ferry ride to visit him.

The dog has been groomed for the first time in months. With short hair, she is not heating up as quickly, and has regained a lot of energy.

Got him. It only took two months and, um, an expensive new camera.

Corona-virus thoughts-- lately I'm feeling different about this situation. I used to feel like I just had to bear down and power though it. Now I'm feeling... acceptance?

I want to start exploring how to live in a world where will must perpetual distancing.

I'm going to clean and organize my office like I'm going to work there permanently. Right now it's just a desk with a bunch of stuff I shoved aside back in March.

We are also talking about driving to California to visit the Husband's parents. It will be a working trip. Both of us will work for the day, since we can work from anywhere. We can hang out with his parents in the evenings. 

A slightly better picture of Rufus.

We were away at the ocean over the weekend. A friend has a cottage in ocean side village and invited us along.

We've had a couple of big road trips over the past few weeks. It's had me reflecting on our social distancing strategy.

Restaurants in this county have reopened at one third capacity. Saturday evening we went out for dinner for the first time in months. The waiters wore masks. Hand offs of plates and bill were all careful.

We ate breakfast in the cottage. The rest of our meals were take out. We wore masks to pick up the food.

I'm not sure I'd call this all a great example of social distancing though. Cases and deaths are way down in Washington but the pandemic is far from over. Things may be quiet over the summer.

We've avoided the protests in Seattle. One of my employees lives in a condo above a park with many demonstrations. I'll get the news from her today.