New month, new Covid restrictions for us here in Okinawa ... but I don't want to get ahead of myself. As stated in the previous month's edition, we are basically doing online learning and I am so not happy with this situation. I know, I know, we are late to the game compared to the USA. We can still go to off-base grocery stores and on our last visit Lilly picked up some tapioca powder to make her own boba tea pearls. Personally I am not a fan, but the kids LOVE them. I don't want anything chewy in my drink thank you very much.
I got roped into making face masks for the single Marines on base by a neighbor and have been cranking them out by the dozens. Lucy has been going with me to drop them off to the USO who is distributing them at the barracks. They aren't the most fashionable options but they get the job done.
Lilly is still trying to get scuba certified! Originally we were trying to find time between soccer games and school on the weekends, but now those are a thing of the past and we are dealing with stormy weather. We can't seem to catch a break! Finally we had a nice weather weekend and she was able to finish her certification!
We all went down to the sea wall to get in some PT while Lilly was diving. Of course Lucy and Ben quickly decided they were over it and decided to walk the 3 miles back home instead. It still counts as PT so we let them do it. We had decided to meet at the Stairway to Heaven and we all ended up getting there about the same time.
I finished making the masks for the single Marines just in time to find a different pattern that is way easier to make - NO PLEATS - so I started to make masks for us. I decided we needed several dozen. I didn't want to have to wash the same masks every night. That and I kept finding fabric that I really liked. My family thinks I have a problem. They might be right.
We are currently getting temperature scanned when we walk into the commissary and exchange buildings as well as when we come on board base. Sometimes we also get scanned leaving a base. In addition we need to wear a mask while we are going through a military gate and signal our health with either a thumbs up or a thumbs down gesture. However, in true USMC vs AF tradition, depending on which base you are entering the thumbs up sign could mean you are good to go or that you indeed meet one of the three restricted criteria - fever/chills, traveled outside of the country within the last 14 days or had a persistent cough. On any given day I have had my temperature checked over 10 times in just going to the commissary or exchange. Needless to say, this new normal has really changed my mind about running a quick errand.
Our time in Okinawa is ticking down. Jim just received orders to Yokota Air Base outside of Tokyo for early June. So now we really need to get cracking on our "must do" bucket list. It is hard to do everything we "need" to do in just 10 months, add in the Corona virus restrictions and we are having to severely pare down that list. The Saturday before Easter we decided to attack one of the "must do" items. Mount Katsudake Loop is a 3.3 mile trail that offers scenic views and is rated as moderate. After a 1 mile in, I feel that rating should be bumped up to terrifying. It is not "hard" but the trail isn't marked all that well and we ended up in a few family "not-so-safe" areas. Jim's coworker joined us on this hike since he had done it previously. We foolishly thought that would give us a leg up. I should have known we were in for a sporty adventure when we passed the multiple caged goat clusters on the side of the road. I don't know what a gathering of goats is called - but this was definitely a goat rope. We did not heed their devil eyed warning.
We decided to do the loop in reverse so we would end up at the car instead of having to walk back up the hill to the parking lot. That turned out to be the best decision of the day.
Aside from the usual grumbling when these kinds of adventures start, everything seemed to be going pretty well. As stated earlier, we started at the most difficult part of the trail justifying our hard work at the onset would pay off with an easier descent after we were tired. Sounds logical, right?
Turns out this wasn't part of the trail, rather just an offshoot to a viewpoint. It was beautiful, but I think we would have been just fine without seeing it.
Once we got back on the trail we were about 1 1/2 mile to summit. Everyone was in better spirits which is exactly when disaster struck.
Jim was turning around to say something to either me or Lucy when he tripped and essentially fell straight backward onto a sharp rock. Instantly he knew something was seriously wrong. He gripped the back of his calf and we could see the blood. Quite a bit of blood. Thank goodness Jim Harp was with us. We both were thinking we would have to end up carrying him the rest of the way. Thankfully that ended up not being the case. Jim was able to continue after he secured a makeshift tourniquet out of Ben's socks and Jim's T-shirt. The next decision to make was whether or not to continue in the direction of the car which also meant we would have to make it to the summit or turn around and try to get back to the trailhead and then one of the adults would run back to the car and drive around. As painful as it would be, we decided to press on to the summit.
In typical Jim fashion, as we neared the top, he wanted to make sure someone got a photo. While it isn't nearly the photo he was looking for, I did indeed get one. We made it back to the car and headed directly to the hospital some 40 minutes away. We dropped Jim off at the ER and then I drove everyone back to our housing area, got the kids set up for dinner and drove back to the hospital to be with Jim. Originally I was not allowed to enter the ER, but eventually a nurse came outside to escort me back to Jim while he was getting stitched up. He ended up with 16 internal and 24 external stitches. I have some really NSFW pictures of the wound but won't subject you to them. He will be sporting a pretty gnarly scar from here on out.
Thank goodness he wasn't badly injured. He was EXTREMELY lucky to not do any damage to the muscle or hit any main arteries or veins!
The next day was Easter Sunday! With no actual services to attend due to Covid-19 safety measures, all we had on our agenda was the annual Wellons Family Easter egg hunt and dinner with our neighbors. Gone are the days of early morning egg hunts. Now we are lucky if we can get the kids out of bed before 10AM and we have converted the money in the Gold/Silver/Bronze eggs to yen! The things we parents do to maintain a tradition! HA
With Covid-19 completely ruling our lives at the moment, people are scrambling to find ways to celebrate special occasions that we normally just take for granted. One of our neighbors asked us if we would help her make her son's 16th birthday memorable. Of course we were all in! She decided she was going to do a scavenger hunt. He usually goes for a run in the evening so she gave him a clue that would send him to another house that had been decorated with birthday sign and a clue sending to another house and so on. She had him crisscrossing our entire housing complex! The kids and I decided to break out the dinosaur costumes from Halloween and they would chase him when he left our house on the scooter/y flickers. I am not sure who had more fun. Our kids chasing him or him running from them!
Ok, I have to admit I might have gone too far with the mask making operations. In my defense there are 5 of us and you are supposed to wash the masks after each use. If I had only made a few then I would be washing them nonstop. I am also giving them away to friends and family so I don't feel quite so bad about the actual number - which is high - very high. Jim wanted me to figure out just how many I have made but I lost count.
Ok, so we have been in restricted movement for a month and hanging out with just ourselves is getting old. We got tipped off that even more restrictions were coming down so we decided we needed to get out of the house and spend some time with other people!
We linked up with some friends and hit up a local castle ruins and a nearby beach. We made sure to social distance from our kids while we all caught up in PERSON! Good thing we made it happen when we did, by the end of the day we are no longer able to eat off base at all or gather in groups larger than our own families plus 2. Sigh.
Since we haven't actually been allowed to do anything I am finding it hard to fill the blog with quality fodder. Things that normally wouldn't get much attention are suddenly fascinating! That being said, Jim is convinced that his hair has really grown out of control since the USMC has turned off weekly haircuts. His feelings were hurt when the children had not noticed he hadn't gotten a haircut in over a month.
While everyone in the states is hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer we here in Okinawa routinely have to deal with shortages of EVERYTHING - randomly. This week apparently we are going to go without yogurt. I wish I could say this is Covid related. It isn't. This happens weekly.
My neighbor recently gifted Yoshi a cat tower. Apparently, her cat wasn't interested and I thought Yoshi might like it. But before I gave it to him, I decided a makeover was in order. The kids and I rehabbed some cat towers in Yuma for the Humane Society and had some leftover jute rope. How that jute rope ended up making the move to Okinawa is a mystery but since I already had it this was a perfect way to make it go away!
Perfect! 15 minutes later and Voila - new cat tower. That Yoshi promptly wanted nothing to do with. Great. Good news is I have another neighbor whose kitty was thrilled with it. Really and truly it is all for the best, Yoshi is getting his front claws removed next week and Jim was less then thrilled about having a cat tower in the house.
Lilly came home after going for a run and was super upset. Seems she tripped and not only dropped her phone, but pretty much trashed it. Not sure how long it will take for us to get it repaired. Ben and Jim had great success in repairing a cracked iPad screen last month so fingers crossed. Lucky for Lilly Nanny had sent Ben her old iPhone in February and we had not made the switch for him yet. She damaged her SIM card so currently she has no data but she can still manage with wifi or hotspots until we can get this one looked at.
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| I am really tired of looking at this sign |
Covid has really forced us to spend more quality time with one another. Lucy has decided she still needs some alone time and it is hard to find in the house so she has found a little patch of grass down the street where she can go to listen to music and do crafty things. She has recently taken up cross stitch and is getting back into her artwork. Some days she is down there for hours. On this day she had a couple of visitors.
April is rolling to a very slow close. May looks to be equally quiet. We have plenty of do in order to prep from the move to mainland Japan. Fingers crossed we will be able to cross off some of our bucket list items before we go.
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