President’s Message

By Matt Metz SRCA Board President

From Wikipedia: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a positive can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune. Lemons suggest sourness or difficulty in life; making lemonade is turning them into something positive or desirable.”

Coronavirus. Novel coronavirus. COVID-19. Pandemic. Selfisolation. Quarantine. Social distancing. Information fatigue regarding this terrible world-wide disease and its effects. These are all proverbial lemons. How can we in Scottsdale Ranch make lemonade?

There is no doubt that every one of us has been affected by all this. At worst, someone you know, or love may have died from COVID-19. Or maybe a relative or friend has contracted the disease and recovered. At the very least, our normal life routines have been interrupted, curtailed, or turned upside down.

But I’m one of the lucky ones, and I hope you are, too.

Yes, I miss going to the gym. I miss volunteering at Sky Harbor Airport and at SunSounds. I miss my regular breakfast and lunch meetings with friends and former coworkers. I miss visiting face-to-face with my mom – and the hugs and kisses. And even though our Scottsdale Ranch board and committees continue to meet with Zoom meetings, I miss the face-to-face interactions and the handshakes.

But my wife and I have remained healthy. We’re retired, so our sources of income haven’t been affected. We still have a roof over our heads and we still live in this wonderful community called Scottsdale Ranch.

We’re trying to make lemonade, as they say. And we hope you doing the same.

I can’t go to the local gym (right here on Scottsdale Ranch), but I do have early morning walks with one of my friends and neighbors. When we walk, we keep our distance from other walkers (and those being taken for a walk by their dogs), but we wave and smile and greet these other people.

We can’t go to all our favorite restaurants. But we do occasionally dine at restaurants that have social distancing protocols, and we often call in take-out orders to bring home. to catch up on the events of our relatives and former coworkers.

Even our wonderful Scottsdale Ranch staff are doing everything they can. We adapted our SRCA phones so that our employees can safely work from home for part of the week while continuing to serve Scottsdale Ranch residents. Cleaning procedures have been enhance at our offices and Community Center. Most communication with residents is by phone or email, and special arrangements made to ensure safety for the few cases requiring face-to-face contact.

I’m impressed that despite the “lemon” of coronavirus, SRCA staff keeps making “lemonade” by continuing to provide the vital services and day-to-day operations necessary to sustain the quality of life and values in Scottsdale Ranch. Although community social events have been necessarily shut down for now, our beautiful Lake Serena is still being maintained, our common areas are still landscaped and serviced, and our association’s bills continue to be paid.

I am confident that this terrible pandemic will be brought under control soon. I look forward to whatever the new normal looks like. I’m sure it will mean we can return to the gym, again dine out with our friends, and greet each other with handshakes and hugs instead of elbow bumps. We will soon be able to start enjoying life to its fullest again. And I am hopeful all this will be sooner rather than later.

But until then, I hope you’ll take the extra efforts to keep yourself safe, healthy, and sane – and keep figuring out how to make lemonade.