Lake of the Ozarks

We had been planning a Princess Party to Disney with our good friends, but decided to cancel after Florida became a hot spot and with Disney having various cancellations and changes that wouldn't be fun for a "one and done" sort of trip.  As an alternative we rented a house at Lake of the Ozarks.   The number one requirement was that it have its own swimming pool.    There aren't many of those but we found a neat VRBO on the lake with a pool and boat dock.   We brought the food we wanted for the week and cooked - or got delivery - so that we didn't have to interact much with the partying and mask-free Ozarks that made national headlines over Memorial Day weekend!   It was a warm, sunny and fun week!  I was thrilled to just hang out in the pool for hours and finish reading two books.   A truly relaxing getaway!

 

Anniversary Dinner

Only a week after all of our social distancing birthday party efforts, William went to his best buddy's in person birthday party.   John and I had trouble deciding what to do - and the friend's parents did, too - but ultimately they decided to host a backyard bounce house party for a few buddies and relatives, and we decided to let him go.

Since we found ourselves with a free Friday evening and patio dining opened on June 1st, we decided to venture out to a sushi restaurant in our downtown to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary.  Our downtown area is very popular for our city of 155,000 people and for neighboring towns, so it's always swarming with people and parking is a pain.    We had no trouble finding a parking spot, but the sidewalks were relatively normal.   John pointed out that was because anyone who was downtown right now was outside.   Normally there are thousands more inside of the restaurants and shops. 

After we put our name in for our table, we stood along the upper tier of the Riverwalk and noticed at there were three or four high school or college age boys who were swimming/showing off/goofing off in the river.   While the river is very popular for kayaks and canoes and paddle boats it is absolutely not for swimming!  I was shocked the police didn't happen by considering they were patrolling in greater numbers after the recent vandalism following more peaceful protests.   But, alas, no one but cold water and boredom eventually got the swimmers out!

We wore masks walking through the downtown streets and into/out of the restaurant lobby (such as when I had to go inside for the bathroom) but no masks on the patio seated at our table.   Instead of a menu there was a QR code to scan to bring it up on your phone.   Waiters were wearing plastic gloves (which I don't think are better than washed hands) but then the waiter touched my phone to show me a drink I might like.  So, clearly a work in progress.    Our food was amazing!  My favorite was actually a vegetarian roll called Green Goddess that had creamy avocado.  After dinner we walked through downtown some more to see all of the Black Lives Matters and other signs that popped up after the protests of the prior week.    Some were hanging on windows and railings and some were plastered over the plywood that covered shop windows. 

A Trip to the City

I had to make my first trip into my office on June 2.   It had been planned for awhile to coincide with when our mail room and tax processing team would have a large batch of tax returns that needed by signature and mailed out.   But it happened to fall right after a weekend of protests following the death of George Floyd, so the Loop was barricaded.   Usually to get to my office is about a 3-5 minute drive from the expressway.   This day all of the drawbridges into the Loop were raised (and heavy trucks also blocked them) to control traffic flow so I had to drive past my usual bridge and just keep going into the detoured traffic flow.   The one that was down where traffic was directed had a security checkpoint.  I had to show my driver's license and say that I was headed to my office and its location.    The reason for the precautions was that many of the looters from the prior days were coming in from out of town.    It took me an extra 30 minutes to get to my building.  And then I'd already been warned our parking garage was locked so I had to park on the street outside the building.  However, streets were totally deserted of people, so I wasn't worried about having my car out all day.    It was an eerie combination police presence to get into the city combined with empty streets and an empty office building once I arrived. 

 

 

 

The building had been outfitting with mask wearing signs on the doors and social distancing markers in the elevators, but I didn't see anyone except the 3 people working on my mailing.  I thought I'd feel very nostalgic about being back in the office but I did not.  It was so weird to see where everyone had been working one day and then were not.   Water bottles on desks; sweaters on the backs of chairs; dressy shoes under desks.   Just like time stopped and the people left.  Though apparently the cleaning crew is in regularly because the plants had been watered and were alive.  I did what I was there to do and left.