Two kinds of lockdown by Sue Robin

On the 18^th of January we flew to Costa Rica from Los Angeles to celebrate Russ’ 83^rd birthday. This was a long-awaited trip, twice postponed due to Covid and a death in the family. We weren’t fleeing snow drifts and freezing temps, but we were looking forward to the beach and the lush surroundings.

On the 20^th, the hotel provided balloons, a cake (slightly bigger than a cupcake) and sang happy birthday to Russ in Spanish. The next day Russ woke with what he thought was a cold. Snotty nose, no fever, tired. It progressed to a bit of cough and a fierce sore throat. He holed up in our room and I spent the next couple of days doing water aerobics, reading, getting to know the local pharmacist and providing food service for my sick honey. The day before we were to leave, I succumbed to the close quarters and the bug he had caught. We returned home bedraggled and sick. Truly it felt like a cold, but, just in case, we tested for Covid. Since the pandemic began, we had isolated, masked and obtained every vaccination available, but now the bug had caught us. We felt lousy and added a layer of guilt for all our human contacts on the way home. Now we were on lockdown again.

Paxlovid helped me, but the timing for taking the medication had passed for Russ. We easily fell into our covid era routine and made lovely breakfasts and sat on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine. As we healed, we started counting the days to when we could test and leave the house. Once we tested negative, we masked up and ran a couple of errands and returned home for naps. It was a small taste of normality for us.

But now we are on a lockdown of a different sort. An atmospheric river dropped over 4 inches of rain in 16 hours with two more inches expected in the next 24 hours. The Los Angeles River has gone from a trickle to white water in a flash. Houses are being knocked off their foundations. The 405 has impassable lanes due to mud slides. Topanga Canyon, where I once lived, has had to evacuate many residents. Hundreds of trees are down, over four hundred mudslides (both major and minor), rockslides (a ten foot diameter boulder in Malibu Canyon) and flooded roads abound. Malibu Canyon is closed. Pacific Coast Highway is closed. Mulholland is closed. Beverly Glen is closed. As night falls away, we will know more about the damage left behind.

In Northern California four people lost their lives when trees toppled onto them. Over 850,000 were without electricity.

It seems that these cataclysmic events are happening more frequently.

We had to put out a pan to catch the drips and towels to soak up the water coming in the poorly sealed door. The storm is on the way out. The wind has died down and the rain is now a soft gentle one. The meteorologists warn that with the saturated ground that even this light rain could trigger devastating slides.

We ventured out to breakfast and the market once the rain eased. Just on this short little outing we saw six mudslides. The remnants of the Fryman Canyon one that took out three homes and five smaller ones, that, while not blocking Mulholland or Laurel, look threatening. The work crews were out clearing the mud, re-opening the drains and putting red cones over the worst of the potholes. It is going to be a long clean up and restore period.

We are regaining our energy albeit a bit slower than we would like. The city workers have restored the electricity and have begun the major repairs to restore our state. I am reminded yet again that the notion of control is only an illusion.