Day 15 - California Reopening Plan - Phase 3
Carpinteria Bluffs…
Tuesday.
6:30 - 7:00 - The dog is actually barking this early. I take her out and give her cheese, then return to my room. I’m so sleep-deprived - I feel absolutely awful. I lay in bed, listen to The Daily, and drink my water. Why do I keep doing this to myself???
7:00-7:45 - I start taking my braids out. I listen to Martinis and Your Money. The host is featuring black guests this week, but the shows are all reruns…
7:45-8:15 - I grab my coffee from downstairs and drink it in the shower, trying to wake up. It’s working…
8:15-8:45 - Lotion. Hiking attire with my bathing suit underneath. I check my beach bag and make sure I have everything. I listen to Start Here. Spoiler alert: I end up forgetting my hat.
8:45-9:15 - light make-up.
9:30 - 11:45 - B arrives and we drive to the Carpinteria Bluffs. We take the trail, cross the railroad tracks, and end up cliffside, looking down. Perfect weather and the “hiking” - I’ll use that term loosely - is really fun. The view is amazing.
While walking the trail, we come across a transient who, from a distance, has his pants down and is shitting near a big tree. At first I thought he was vomiting - we weren’t close enough to hear sound, if that’s any indication how far away we were - but then I could see that he was pooping, just like a horse, for anyone who has grown up around horses. I won’t go into detail. Check-and-redirect and we turned and went the other way. I discover later that we ended up missing the seal sanctuary and the tombstone of a young man who fell to his death, because we changed direction. Next time…
11:45-4:00 - We’re right next to the beach and we packed for it so B. and I drive to public parking and we find a parking space. It’s “mandatory 2 hours only - violators will be towed” so we park, grab all of our stuff, and camp out at the beach. We have chairs, a large beach umbrella, my beach blanket, and food and alcohol. Perfect. B.’s a risk-taker - one of the things I like about him - and we never bother returning for the car. Weather=perfect. Beach=perfect. For the first time, I feel comfortable being retired. This is great - the beach on a work-day! Coincidentally, the beach is packed, but everyone maintains social distancing, although I’ve maintained that’s what everyone does at the beach anyway. People are foul - I don’t want to be around them as a general rule.
Get this: in light of Covid-19, Parks and Rec closed all the stalls in the main public restroom, which is located in a parking lot, between the Carpinteria campsite and the beach itself. They also turned off the water to the outdoor sinks and showers. INSTEAD, they have 4 disgusting porta potties, and ONE outdoor sink with soap - you turn on the water to the sink with your foot. Don’t you think this makes the viral spread even worse? Why would you close 7 public restroom stalls? I waited in line for the porta potty and a young woman came out, proclaiming that using the porta potty was the most traumatic experience she has ever endured in her life.
In order to get to the public restroom building, you have to walk along a series of somewhat narrow ramps that are strewn together, kind of like walking ‘the plank’ or a narrow pier. There are lots of people on this pier pathway and nobody bothers to social distance, mask, or even turn sideways to let people pass. Allegedly, Covid-19 dies in sunlight and new information has emerged stating that outdoor transmission is extremely rare, but still… as a society, we’re all pretending like the pandemic is over, I guess myself included.
4:00 - 7:00 - It starts getting chilly, so we leave. The car is still there. I tell B. that BJs is open for dine-in and I’d like to check it out. He’s game, so we drive to the BJs at our mall, park, and walk up.
So, here’s the new normal: You don’t need a reservation. You have to mask when you enter the restaurant and there are signs on tables throughout that say, “closed for social distancing.” Originally, we’re seated at a table, but I’m a barfly through-and-through and want to sit in the bar area, so we ask waitstaff and he says ok.
I notice sports are on all the big screens - what could they possibly be watching as sports have been shut down for months? - but all chairs from the bar counter are removed. Instead, there are 4 to 5 bar “tables” in the bar area, where we end up sitting. I see that a 2010 world cup hockey match is playing, but also - something strange - is a virtual basketball video game on the biggest screen of all. It is so funny! B. notes that “somebody must be playing it” in real time and so we watch the video basketball game, probably being played live, on the big screen. I can’t quite believe it - a basketball video game to replace the real thing! Somehow, it works.
Our server is wonderful, masked, gloved, AND wearing a mask “shield”, like the rest of the employees. He said he’s miserable with the shield because the humidity is trapped all around his face, making it super hot. Our server was unemployed for two months, and took a financial hit, even with the $600 PPP federal assistance, because he has always done so well with tips. He had two bartending/server jobs and they abruptly ended, leaving him…adrift…is the only way I can describe it. He had nothing to do and it was very off-putting for him to be abruptly out of work for 2.5 months. He says he’s glad to be back. I can tell customer service is his forte.
B. lets me order the appetizer and I pick calimari. We have 2-drinks each - we’re a 2-drink couple - and it’s just like old times, except it’s…not. When we leave around 7:00 p.m., there are no customers in the restaurant. I’m shocked to see that with everything that’s happened, even in the middle of a pandemic, we are still charged happy hour prices. Our drinks are very reasonably priced! - about $4.00 a piece. This is my first dine-in experience since the governor quarantined us in March and it. is. wonderful.
7:00-9:00 p.m. - Back to my house and I make B. two 7 & 7s and we chill on my patio, in the backyard. B. says the backyard looks nice which makes me feel good because I’ve worked so hard on it lately.
9:00 - 11:30 - B. leaves, mostly because I have a French Final tomorrow, and I clean everything up and go upstairs. L. and I start a new series: Love After Lock-up. The premise: an inmate serves his/her time and then moves in with his/her boyfriend/girlfriend, whom they’ve only met/known while in prison. What could possibly go wrong? These people are so dysfunctional - after watching episode No. 1, I know this is going to be a great series. Unfortunately, it’s $1.99 per episode, even if you have Amazon Prime, so we charge it to her Dad’s account. Oops…
11:30-12:30 - nighttime ritual and bed. It was a really great day!