Evening Update

Indio, California: This post was to have been from Las Vegas, where we would be well into the Ducks playing in the semi-final of the men’s PAC-12 basketball tournament. Didn’t happen.

We came back from Los Angeles, just to re-pack for five days in Las Vegas. Lisa was so concerned that we would DIE if we went to Las Vegas (a major Petri dish of germs on a good day) and kept urging us not to go. I started thinking Our Girl was right. Then, the Ducks beat The ‘Furd, earning the right to a bye in the first round, so we were able to delay our drive to Sin City by one day. I phoned the Aria Hotel to change our reservation - cancelling the first night. The agent was fine with cancelling the Wednesday (11 March) reservation and then went on to inform me the price on our remaining nights were basically dropped by half!

But Lisa kept working on us to cancel (due to our advanced age) and I began to work on My Driver, and he was finally convinced to cancel. I was able to get a complete refund on our deposit, with no penalty on the hotel reservation, but we were going to have to eat the $500++ (each!) PAC-12 tourney tickets.

And... since we were not going out of town, we had to go to the grocer to buy fruits and veggies!

I’ve lived in Oregon the past 25+ years and this is what happens in the supermarkets when ONE INCH of snow is predicted in Portland. Panic! The market was also out of hand sanitizer, hand wipes, and water.

I can understand the hoarding of hand sanitizer gel and wipes in a pandemic, maybe even the need to have a few weeks of TP in stock... but is your tap going to run dry? Why are people stock-piling water? Confused.

Thankfully we did stock-up on fresh veggies and fruits, because the Coachella Valley was drenched in a two-day rain fest. We received 1.25 inches of rain in 24 hours. So much flooding. So many road closures (so we heard, we did not leave our resort). There was a massive thunder and lightning storm (pretty rare here), black skies and the constant sound of rain pounding on our roof. (Very loud in a recreational vehicle.)

When it finally ended at sunset last night, it seemed everyone came out of their motorhomes and did a little dance. Maybe while popping a cork or shaking a martini. It was a very long and very loud lonely day during the storm.

As you probably already know, the PAC-12 men’s basketball tournament was eventually cancelled, with the Ducks never even playing. Thank goodness, we did not drive all the way to Las Vegas... only to have to return the same day! Our expensive tourney tickets were refunded - and think of all the money we didn’t spend on meals, $32 arena cocktails and handbag shopping.

Win-Win.

Except for the kids. I feel so sad for all the senior players (especially Our Ducks) who will never know what could/would have happened on their way to March Madness. There was a very good chance the Oregon women would win the National Championship! We will never know.

And then there was a steam-roller of closures. College tournaments. NBA. MLB. Etc. I am expecting a large birth-spike in 9 months with no sports to watch or attend. What will people do with the time devoted to sports? My family is sighing over our annual March Madness Tournament Bracket competition. No sports on TV? What will fill all the hours on all the sports channels? Repeats, I suspect.

Then, the biggest closure of all for our family: Los Angeles schools. Probably for up to the middle of April. Giving the rug-rats a bit of quarantine, I have urged them to come out here to the fresh air, miles of bicycling, chlorine-filled swimming pools, and Bubbe’s cooking.

Enough with being stuck inside our rain-soaked RV. We went to Tacos Gonzalez for lunch today and braved Costco.

We didn’t go to Costco for water or TP. I We went for gin. A girl can’t be too cautious, and gin can also be used as a hand sanitizer in an emergency. We also went for corned beef: St. Patrick’s Day is next week.

Until my next update, from the soggy desert, I remain, your stocked-up correspondent.