A Fortnight
We've survived inside our privileged little quarantine bubble for two whole weeks. I pulled the car out of the garage on Wednesday to get the trash cans out for pickup, and we drove about a half mile on Friday to a trail for some more serious scooter riding. That's it; we've put in more miles than that on the scooter and bikes and wandering around the neighborhood in the evening.
I've survived another week's worth of conference calls and video conferences with only one sustained interruption by the Monk. I've hidden approximately 19 dozen Easter eggs for finding. I've downloaded coloring pages and connect-the-dots and made carnival games out of cardboard boxes. I came up with 47 popsicle sticks worth of ideas for activities she could do by herself, and each one seems to last approximately 3 minutes. Mostly, the monkey is unimpressed by my suggestions and just wants to play, and I'm only sad that I can't play with her all day long. She continues to mostly allow me to work during the day, and I do what I cannot after she goes to bed, and then get up 5:30 and do it again.
This week I had Friday off due to my compressed schedule, so we took advantage of some lovely weather to take her scooter over to a park trail for riding. It was definitely weird to see all of the exercise equipment tapped off and signs in the park, but there were lots of people on the trail and mindfully maintaining the appropriate social distance. Saturday we put together her new big girl bike, and spent hours riding around the neighborhood, and again on Sunday. We've chalked the sidewalks again and are generally just soaking up as much time outside as we can before Monday comes again.
Even before the panic buying of toilet paper, getting Monkey to use an appropriate amount of toilet paper has been a challenge. So it was rich this week when she questioned what I was doing with this TP tube and accused me of wasting some, which she kindly ripped off for me to use "next time."
COVID-19 is starting to hit closer to home - the first case was diagnosed in our county on March 22, and as of today we're up to eight. One person in my office building has been diagnosed. Virginia now has 890 diagnosed cases and 22 deaths. The United States has 122,653 diagnosed cases and 2,112 deaths. It took 48 hours for the death toll to double from 1,000 to 2,000, and it's expected to grow exponentially in the coming weeks. We still don't have adequate testing, and hospitals in hotspots like New York are becoming overwhelmed. On March 25, New York City EMS received 6,406 medical 911 calls - the highest volume ever recorded in the city - even more than on September 11, 2001.
I've survived another week's worth of conference calls and video conferences with only one sustained interruption by the Monk. I've hidden approximately 19 dozen Easter eggs for finding. I've downloaded coloring pages and connect-the-dots and made carnival games out of cardboard boxes. I came up with 47 popsicle sticks worth of ideas for activities she could do by herself, and each one seems to last approximately 3 minutes. Mostly, the monkey is unimpressed by my suggestions and just wants to play, and I'm only sad that I can't play with her all day long. She continues to mostly allow me to work during the day, and I do what I cannot after she goes to bed, and then get up 5:30 and do it again.
This week I had Friday off due to my compressed schedule, so we took advantage of some lovely weather to take her scooter over to a park trail for riding. It was definitely weird to see all of the exercise equipment tapped off and signs in the park, but there were lots of people on the trail and mindfully maintaining the appropriate social distance. Saturday we put together her new big girl bike, and spent hours riding around the neighborhood, and again on Sunday. We've chalked the sidewalks again and are generally just soaking up as much time outside as we can before Monday comes again. 
COVID-19 is starting to hit closer to home - the first case was diagnosed in our county on March 22, and as of today we're up to eight. One person in my office building has been diagnosed. Virginia now has 890 diagnosed cases and 22 deaths. The United States has 122,653 diagnosed cases and 2,112 deaths. It took 48 hours for the death toll to double from 1,000 to 2,000, and it's expected to grow exponentially in the coming weeks. We still don't have adequate testing, and hospitals in hotspots like New York are becoming overwhelmed. On March 25, New York City EMS received 6,406 medical 911 calls - the highest volume ever recorded in the city - even more than on September 11, 2001.
Single parents struggle to home-school and work as their support systems disappear
In search of silver linings
In search of silver linings
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