“Von Luger: Are all American officers so ill-mannered? Hilts: Yeah, about 99% Von Luger: Then perhaps while you are with us you will have a chance to learn some.  Ten days isolation, Hilts. Hilts: CAPTAIN Hilts. Von Luger: Twenty days. Hilts: Right, Oh, uh, you’ll still be here when I get out? Von Luger: (visibly annoyed) Cooler!”

We are still here, gallows humor and all, making the most of the situation.  I am sure that most of the country, if not the world is into “Social Distancing” and isolation.  We are all trying to keep our wits about us.  Life goes on, a bit slower, perhaps, but it does.  You can talk to the family and trust that everyone is good and that is all that we can do, travel is not essential.  We are actually trying to keep to a schedule, my Bride is for sure, as she is one of the fortunate ones that can work remote, so from 8:30 to 4:30 she is manning the computer and phone, I mean she went so far as to have her desk phone at work transfer all the calls to her cellular phone, so that she doesn’t have to retrieve messages.  As for me, I have been practicing being retired, and perhaps I will go back to practicing when this is all over, but I am retired with no place to go and no one to see.  We check the morning newspaper for the latest changes if any and then we also will check the official rules listed by the State Police.  We will get out to see the daylight beyond our thirty-minute three-mile walk.  I am not laying down watching television, I gave that habit up almost forty years ago, just like smoking, salt and coffee, but I still enjoy wining and dining.  I also discovered that I am drinking more at home then in my entire life, only because unless we had company over, we normally did not drink at home, but we did drink out.

So far, between the two refrigerators and the one chest freezer, and the two pantries we are surviving quite comfortably.  As I have stated before, my Bride once had a bad stretch and she never wants to repeat those days again, so she has always bought groceries anticipating Armageddon.  It paid off in spades this time, as we have besides groceries, cleaning supplies of all types, alcohols and disinfectants, medical supplies and paper products.  We won’t have to rip pages out of first editions and hopefully the price of toilet paper will be normal, by the time we need to buy it again.  I am even thinking, but only thinking that perhaps I might even go through all of the spice containers and maybe consolidate what we have and see if the ones that we have are still worth saving; who knows I may even organize the DVDs.  Anyway, my Bride is trying some new dishes and it has been good.  She made Chicken Piccata, a dish that we usually have if we want something lighter when we go out for dinner.  She was very happy that it was much easier than she had imagined and she didn’t use as many capers as the recipe called for, so she was glad and as for me, I just enjoyed the dinner. 

I decided that I wanted a red wine for dinner, as we have had quite a bit of white wine, as that is what she still basically grabs as her go to wine.  Chicken with lemon, garlic and capers made me think a bit, as to whether I would attempt a red, but I figured why not, if it didn’t work, we have whites on reserve.  I am a realist.  So, I went to some of the more esoteric reds that we somehow accumulate and then I sneak them in, especially at parties, where wine tends to evaporate.  The wine I selected was Bodegas Piqueras Black Label 2015.  The winery is in their fourth generation and is found in Almansa, a newer DO (1966) located in the much larger Castilla La Mancha of Spain.  They have been growing wines there since the Sixteenth Century in an area that is known for their lack of rain, but the gravelly limestone soil seems to hold the necessary water for the season.  Almansa “prefers” red wines, but the DO does “authorize” some white varietals as well.  The most famed grape for Almansa is Monastrell, or Mourvedre as it is known in the rest of the world, and this particular bottle is half Monastrell and the other half is Syrah, another grape that does exceedingly well in Spain.  The wine is aged four to six months in a mix of French and American Oak barrels.  The wine had a natural spice to me, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and I thought a kind of frizzante finish which I know shouldn’t be there, I really enjoyed it for a change of pace, my Bride, not as much, but she did say that a day later when we reopened it, that she felt that it was much better the next day.  Even wines like to get into fresh air.