April through June, 2020

One for the History Books


Brandon and Kendal Model Pauline's Face Masks

Our biggest news for the second quarter of 2020 is that Kendal and Brandon are expecting a child, due around Thanksgiving. This will be our first grandson.

The year 2020 will certainly be the object of many studies for decades to come and should produce many academic papers in the fields of economics, health care, epidemiology, virology, …. We hope the lessons learned will be taken to heart by future generations.

We had planned to return to Montana at the end of April, but the Coronavirus caused us to delay to the end of May in the hopes things would get better. Things did not get better, so we developed a plan to limit our exposure during our return: we loaded up a cooler with all the food we needed, drove one day to son Dan's place south of Lake Tahoe, stayed with him a few days, then did a marathon 15-hour drive from there to Bridger Canyon. That way, we limited our exposure to getting gas and taking bathroom breaks. We had considered selling our little RV but have now decided it is the perfect solution to long trips between MT and CA; in it we can limit our exposure to getting fuel.

When we first arrived in PB, the cumulative rainfall for 2020 was almost zero. By the end of April, the cumulative rainfall was over 400% of normal. This kept us indoors a lot and resulted in massive red tides that put a damper on fishing. However, it turns out the organism that created these red tides is bioluminescent and glows blue if disturbed by fish or surf. This resulted in amazing surf.

Our extended stay in PB meant we could babysit Jade several times per week (daycare was closed) while Paul and Xue worked. In spite of work duties, Paul and Xue managed to keep sheltered so we could have them over for visits and dinners frequently. We also managed to have a couple of “socially distanced” meetings with Marcus, Samantha, Lauren and Allison. Pauline conducted board meetings on Zoom and we had regular “video happy hour” with a number of friends. Most of our shopping could be done online, with deliveries to our door. Sometimes we shared things with neighbors if one of us managed to get things others needed. Back in Montana, our distance from neighbors and town was a bit of a problem, but for most things we could shop online and do curb-side pickup.

During our extended stay in PB, Pauline kept busy making face masks for anyone who needed them, customizing many of them to the customer's desires. She made over 100 face masks. Brandon and Kendal model their face masks above and a few variations are shown here.

Except for Samantha and Arthur, the kids were able to work from home. Samantha's job required her to be present, and Arthur was out of work for a short time before he could return on a limited basis as a chef. Kendal started doing online classes and could still visit the hives she maintains throughout the Bay Area. Alixandra's work as an event planner was cut back because so many events had to be cancelled or delayed. And, one of the events affected was Arthur and Alixandra's wedding. Rather than cancel or delay the wedding, they decided to downsize to meet limits on the size of gatherings. They may also do a webcast of the ceremony.

Work on getting BCL ready for sale is still underway. Pictured here is work on the landscaping; the area over the garage will now be covered with rock to allow maximum drainage. We hope the landscaping will be finished before mid-July. Unfortunately, the stucco on the rear of the house is still under repair and will not be finished until some time later in July.