Saturday was a big day. We were having our first actual visitor in quite some time. Auntie Kallin, our good friend and Amelia’s godmother, was coming to stay with us.
We’ve had some almost-visitors in the past year, but the pandemic has tended to spike and rear its ugly head at all the wrong times. We are very COVID cautious, and so is Kallin, so we talked a little while back and decided to give it a try. She double-masked it up to board a plane and headed out way.
The kids have been talking about it all week, excited to see our good friend. We’ve had Zoom Uno sessions and done our best to stay in virtual touch, but this was something really cool we all looked forward to.
We got the house ready, and in the morning the kids and I went out to do our weekly Trader Joe’s run. We do our shopping in Boulder, which is about 30 minutes away. I mention this because when we were about 10 minutes outside of town, I noticed that our “miles to empty” meter in the car was reading ZERO.
I went into a nice little panic and set about finding the nearest gas station. Fortunately we made it before sputtering out on the freeway and having to hitchhike to Trader Joe’s.
Gassed up again, we got the store and took our place in line. Part of the reason I like shopping there is that they are very strict about occupancy and while we do have to wait in line, we know that we won’t be overcrowded once inside. What we did do, however, was overestimate the temperature. The kids both wanted to skip wearing coats, and usually we don’t need them, but this day wound up being pretty brisk and windy. Amelia complained about being cold, so I lent her my coat. She then turned right around and shared it with her brother, which, OK, I admit pulled hard on my parental heart strings.
We eventually got inside, got what we needed and headed back home. It was a quick unload of the groceries and last minute tidying up of the house. Islay helped out with some mopping.
Then, all of us got back in the car and set out for the airport to pick up Kallin. It felt weird driving to the airport for what was the first time in almost a year. In the old days, I traveled probably twice a month for work and was at the airport all the time, but since COVID I hadn’t set foot there. It didn’t really hit me until I was driving toward the terminal and had to remind myself not to steer toward airport parking.
But anyway, fortunately Kallin’s flight went really smoothly, the airport was spaced out and generally deserted for her, and we were thrilled to see her. We drove back home and enjoyed some time catching up.
That evening, another friend in our general bubble came to babysit and Erin, Kallin and I were able to get out for a couple of hours to enjoy dinner at a restaurant we love and trust. Strict guidelines and low occupancy, we had a nice isolated table and a delicious dinner at one of our favorite places in Denver.
After a long time on our own, it felt good to have some interaction with our friends from near and far. As we have for many months, we take COVID very seriously, play it very safe, and try to find sensible ways to do things and tiptoe softly into anything resembling normal where we can. It’s tricky times and everything is a risk, but we try our best to strike a balance.
