California, Here I Am!

….but it wasn’t so easy to get here!

No post about books today (next week), or about grammar, or about words. Just about me. 

Covid has really changed things: travel for one. Who knew we would be in a raging pandemic now, six months after everyone (well, not quite everyone) was  trying to get a vaccine?

Most of the time I have lived in Florida, there has been a pandemic. For the first six months or so, while I was getting my bearings here, Covid was not yet known.  Then, lockdown. So I didn’t really get a chance to get a foothold on the writing/publishing industry here. I joined Florida Writers Association and Florida Authors and Publishers and Tampa Writers Alliance — but everything obviously has been online. So I really don’t know anyone, and no one really knows what I do because I am not one to talk a lot online. 

Finally,  I was scheduled to go to the yearly conference of the Florida Authors and Publishers. I was excited to go meet some other writers and publishers. But then the Delta variant hit. One of the workshop speakers asked that all attendees wear masks. I wrote to the club president suggesting we wear masks to all the presentations. The president said we couldn’t do that because the hotel didn’t have a mask mandate (?????) I knew there would be meals served, indoor as far as I knew. So, the night before I was to leave for the conference, I backed out. I was traveling cross country the next weekend to visit my son in California. I couldn’t risk being with a bunch of people from all over Florida, whom I didn’t know, talking, eating, and socializing. Did they have vaccines? Would they wear masks? I didn’t know. I do know now that in the photos there were virtually no masks. They very generously refunded all the money for the conference, but I did get stuck paying for one of the two hotel nights. They were not following CDC recommendations that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors, so I deserved a refund. 

I am now in California. Ah!!!!!! There is a mask mandate, and everyone takes it seriously. Over 70% of the county has been vaccinated, in contrast with about half the people in my Florida county.

But travel isn’t easy in the time of Covid. 

1. The plane. Actually, this probably had nothing to do with Covid. Everyone followed the mask rules, and the flight was nearly fine. There is only one nonstop flight each day from where I live to San Francisco, and I took it. But this time, it wasn’t exactly nonstop. Something was wrong with a fuel pump, and we were not able to carry enough fuel to get all the way to San Francisco, so we had to stop to refuel in Houston. We left late and then had to stop, so we were almost two hours late. No big deal unless you had a connecting flight.
2. The rental car. Rental cars are VERY EXPENSIVE  now because there is a shortage of cars. I booked a very expensive rental (not an expensive car), and was offered something less expensive online a few days before my trip,  so I changed my reservation. Well, now I know why it was so much cheaper. The line was an hour long because everyone else wanted to save money too. After waiting in line for a rental car for an hour, I was told I would then have to wait until a car was ready, and they would call me. What???? Well, I went back to him to tell him I didn’t see other people waiting to be called. He said my car was ready and which stall to go to. I took the elevator down and went to the assigned stall. No car there. I saw someone driving a car toward that stall, so I waited and said it was probably my car. He told me to go to the man in the window. I did, and he rented me the car.  I was on my way…
3. During Friday rush hour traffic by now. My plane was supposed to land at 9:50 a.m. It was late and then the rental car, so it was now about 2:30 p.m. The traffic was horrible!
4. Hotels are not what they used to be. I had booked a motel of a well-known chain. I was familiar with it because I used to live fairly close to it. I had never noticed the awful neighborhood and the questionable people who were hanging around in the parking lot. They gave me a first-floor room, and I was afraid for my safety. I went into the room. It smelled like mildew, and there was a big handicapped chair in the shower. I went to the front desk. She told me they had given me a handicapped room. She gave me some spray stuff; I sprayed most of the can in the room and tossed the chair into the hallway. The furniture reminded me of very, very old school desks. I was very tired and at my wit’s end by now, so I told them I couldn’t stay there. I felt unsafe and it was dirty. I had booked through a third-party company by mistake, and the price was not what I thought. The weekend prices were outrageous for that place. They offered me a full refund. I booked an expensive place online; I didn’t care by now. I drove over the the nicer hotel. The hallways are dirty, but the room is fine. They don’t come in to clean the rooms until the third day you are here because they cannot find employees these days. I went down for breakfast one day and waited and waited to be seated. Only one waitress doing everything….To her and the chef’s credit, the wait was short and the food very good – and expensive.

I am seeing my son and my friends here. I love it here. I wish I could live here and in Florida, since I have “kids” in both states. I am missing my daughter, my son-in-law and my dog. But I am not missing Florida. It is a horror show with that “governor.” But I will go back on Saturday, and it will seem as if I never left. 

 

What to do? What to do?