Pat and Glenn at Glenn's home in Cathedral City, CA (Palm Springs) Feb. 17, 2025
Normally, this time of year I would be preparing for my annual trip to Palm Springs to help celebrate Modernism Week with Pat and our friend Glenn. Not this year though. I have to cut back on expenses. Maybe next year, if I'm healthy enough. Or even here.
Glenn has a movie star home in Cathedral City, right next to Palm Springs. Visiting Palm Springs was a holiday Pat and I eagerly looked forward to every year until the COVID epidemic descended upon us. Then I was caregiving for Bill for the next three years. Last year was the first time in five years that we returned to Palm Springs and Modernism Week.
Now that I'm no longer working and Bill's Social Security income is no longer contributing to the Casa Tipton-Kelly household coffers, I have to cut back on my wild and reckless spending. Even if I did have the money I doubt if I would physically be able to endure the plane trip out and back. I almost didn't make it back last year, getting lost at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport for my connection back. Then once I get into Philadelphia I have to make the long trek back here to my home in southern coastal Delaware, another two hour trip. I'm just not up to it folks.
Don't cry for me Argentina though, I have many fond memories and I still have my dear friends Pat and Glenn. Thank God for FaceTime and Zoom.
Hey folks! I'm here in California! I arrived after midnight on February 10th. Took me almost twenty-four hours to get here. That's what I always dread about these plane trips, all the hassle and aggravation and I had plenty this time. I should have arrived early but I missed my connection flight in Phoenix, Arizona because my flight from Philadelphia to Phoenix was stuck on the tarmac. The next flight was TWO AND HALF HOURS LATER!
Oh was I frustrated but I soon got over it. I was more exhausted than anything. It's very hard for me to travel now with my arthritis and carrying cane.
All the while I was keeping Pat (in Canada) and Glenn (who was to pick me up at the Palm Springs airport) updated with me iPhone.
All was well when I finally arrived at the beautiful Palm Springs airport and my friend was wait for me with the last leg of my long trip across the country from the snow of southern coastal Delaware.
When we arrived at my friend's house, he took me on a quick tour of his fabulous "movie star" home. I call it a "movie star" home because this is the kind of home you see in the movies. I told him he could rent this home out as a location shot for movies. And he could!
Yesterday I went for a swim in his pool. The first time sine 1967 that I actually swam in a real pool. The last time I swam in an unground pool was when me and Bill lived at Cheswick Square in Roxborough (Philadelhia) Pennsylvania. That pool isn't even there now.
"How was the swim Ron"? COLD! Even though this is sunny California and the temperatures was a comfortable 72 degrees, slipping my sagging 83 years old body in that clear blue pool water was an embracing chill. His pool isn't deep (only four feet) so there was little chance of me drowning what was good because I think I forgot how to swim. I did manage a pitiful doggy paddle and something called a breast stroke which was appropriate for me now in my old age, I have developed breasts.
I uploaded a video my friend took of me but I'm not sure if it will post to this blog since I'm using my Macbook Air computer now instead of my old reliable iMac back at Casa Tipton-Kelly. He's a picture of me in said pool.
Me about to take The Plunge yesterday
I heard that six to eight inches of snow is forecast bad home in Delaware today. SOOOOO glad to be away from that. I have had enough snow this year thank you.
Pat is due down here Thursday. We'll stay here at our friend's place for another few days then this Sunday check into the VRBO Mid Center Modern villa that I rented for next week in Palm Springs. The next two weeks is Modernism Week (which Pat loves) in Palm Springs and that's why we're here in addition to escaping the cold and snow (it's also snowing in Canada where Pat resides).
I'll try to keep you all updated as much as possible which might not be possible when Pat arrives. He keeps me pretty busy seeing all the sights.
Our last trip was in February 2019. Right after that trip (which we used to take every February) COVID hit. Then Bill had his two strokes.
I was Bill's full-time caregiver for the next three years.
Now we're ready to go again to resume our annual Palm Springs Modernism Week trek.
This might be our last trip. The prices have went up and both Pat and I are in different financial circumstances now. Maybe this one last hurrah but in the future we have to be more careful with our resources.
Hopefully Pat's K-1 VISA application will be approved by the time our trip rolls around and we can get married in Palm Springs during this trip. If not we'll get married here in Delaware next summer.
One of my favorite places in the whole wide world is Palm Springs, California.
I discovered Palm Springs by a casual suggestion from Pat's friend Nadege a few years ago when Pat and I were in West Hollywood for our annual wintertime California holiday. She knew Pat was interested in Mid Century Modernism design and told Pat that Palm Springs had an annual two week event celebrating that very Mid Century Modernism.
With that suggestion Pat and I took a one day flyer to Palm Springs out of our two week Los Angeles (West Hollywood) stay. That's all it took folks.
As we entered Palm Springs through the highway lined with hundreds of solar powered windmills, we sensed we were entering some place very special. Thus began an annual tradition, one week in West Hollywood and one week in Palm Springs.
However, that still wasn't enough. For the last two years we've been spending TWO WEEKS in Palm Springs. And that folks, still isn't enough but for now it will have to do.
This video was taken just as COVID was beginning its deathly march across the United States and the world. Little did we know at this time we wouldn't be back to Palm Springs in 2021.
I'm hoping that we can return to Palm Springs in 2022. But that may not be possible either now that I am a full-time caregiver. Bill needs me for everything. Feeding, showering, dressing, pill taking, and monitoring that he doesn't fall. Everything. I cannot leave him at all.
Looking at this video brings back fond memories of our last time in that paradise right here on earth that is called Palm Springs, California.
This is the week Pat and I were scheduled to be in Palm Springs, California for Modernist Week.
Pat and I have been making this two week winter getaway to Palm Springs for three years now. Little did we know last year at this time, when we made our airline and VRBO reservations for this year, that the worldwide COVID pandemic would upend all our plans. Even if it wasn't for the pandemic, I couldn't have made the trip anyway because I have to devote my total attention to caregiving for Bill at this time of his life.
The video above was made at the Tonga Hut Tiki Bar in downtown Palm Springs last year on February 16th, 2020. Pat discovered that band while he was walking around North Palm Canyon Drive, the main drag in downtown Palm Springs, during one of my afternoon naps. We had a front row seat that late Thursday afternoon to this fabulous band. What a great time we had that afternoon. We enjoyed it so much we came back that night to get more. Of course it was more crowded then but we waited until we got another seat on the second floor balcony overlooking North Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs. We also met and made some good friends with other visitors to Palm Springs who were also enjoying this band. Little did I realize at that time how much my life and the world would change in a year.
Talking to Pat this morning on FaceTime (which I do several times a day), we pledged to return to Palm Springs someday, hopefully next year. I still haven't given up the possibility of someday permanently retiring to Palm Springs, with Pat of course.
The first time we visited Palm Springs, on the advice of Nadege (another good California friend of ours we met through this blog), both Pat and I knew we have found something special. Now I know why so many celebrities and just regular folks like us retire to Palm Springs. And of course Palm Springs has a large, older (mostly men, not women like her in the Rehoboth Beach area where I live now) men.
With Bill's medical condition now that he needs a caregiver, the thought has crossed my mind that perhaps someday I will need a caregiver. I would rather have a caregiver living in Palm Springs than here in a cold February Delaware. I love my home here in Delaware and all the "things" I've accumulated over the past seventy-nine years of my life (especially my artwork), but when my time comes, I want to end my days in a comfortable environment with minimal help from a caregiver.
In the meantime, I look forward to next year.
Pat and me in sunny Palm Springs last year during more carefree times
This week Pat and I were scheduled to be in Philadelphia visiting our friend Don McK. Every spring and fall we visit Philly and Don. This is the first year since 2013 we'll miss springtime in Philly. Hopefully we can visit Philly in November. I'm not holding out much hope though. I think this pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future, maybe years.
I fear those days are gone that Pat and I so enjoyed this past February in Palm Springs when we were there immersed in Modernism Week. During one lazy Sunday afternoon, we by chance happened to stop in the Tonga Hut Tiki Bar. On this Sunday The Dirty Lowdown Band out of Los Angeles,
was playing at the Tonga Hut Tiki Bar. Pat had recently discovered the Tonga Hut during one of his solo forays while I was back at our rented condo taking a nap. Yes, I still take an occasional afternoon nap even on our trips. I need my beauty rest. Plus, I wind down like an old clock if I don't have my afternoon nap. Well, what a treat this band was. Pat has given me a new appreciation of live music at bars. Up until I met Pat the only live music I experienced was those too loud piano players at gay bars and gay restaurants singing Broadway tunes. I HATE Broadway tunes, especially sung by wannabe gay Broadway players stuck in the boondocks shout singing to a captive gay audience trying to enjoy their too expensive restaurant meal. I must have been sick that day they handed out the gay gene that says all gays MUST love Broadway tunes. But I digress. Pat and I visited the Tonga Hut several times after that lucky strike Sunday afternoon visit. Our waitress remembered us and always brought me my favorite concoction, a drink called the ChaTai and my favorite snack, chicken egg rolls. Pat had the veggie egg rolls. During our visits to the Tonga Hut we made friends with several very nice people. Here is Pat with "Jennifer"
who lives in one of our favorite places in Palm Springs, Sol Concepts. If Pat and I won the lottery we would immediately buy one of those million dollar units. They are so ultra modern and glamorous. We also made friends with this couple from Iowa who are tiki fanatics. In fact, they had a whole tiki themed living unit at their home in Iowa which they invited us to stay.
Unfortunately Pat and I probably won't be able to make that trip, we're flyover folks. We just do the coasts. I'm saying that jokingly but actually that's all I've done my life, is the coasts. What would we do in Iowa? Oh how I hope we can replicate our wonderful visit this February 2021. If not, at least I will always have our wonderful memories of our trip to Palm Springs last year. That's why I take the videos and photos folks, I can relieve those wonderful times. I just hope this isn't the last time we can all live freely like we have in the past. Stay safe and healthy everyone!
While walking on the main street (North Palm Canyon Drive) of Palm Springs during our annual visit, the live music was so compelling that I just had to put a few moves on in public. Of course being the shy, retiring guy that I am I could only do a minute or two before I handing my iPhone over to Pat to really show us how to dance. Always so much fun to visit Palm Springs, time to let my hair (or what is left of it) down. I love to dance. Of course I realize I "Elaine Dance" but hey, I enjoy dancing none-the-less. Watch out for next year. I really plan to let loose.
