It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye
And just like that, more than a month has passed without me having a few minutes to check in here. My birthday was this weekend, and in scrolling through all the wonderful birthday messages on FaceBook (really its last redeeming quality), I ended up scrolling back through some of my early quarantine posts. Early quarantine was a lot more fun and less drudging monotony. I had energy for planning fun activities and finding new outside, socially distant activities. Now we've done all the crafts and either been to all the parks, or other people have found out about them and now they're packed.
Thankfully, we're finally having some warmer weather, so that opens up a new group of activities - water! Water balloons, sprinklers, inflatable pools, buckets of water. Which also creates the need for what feels like 14 outfit changes a day.
One thing that strikes me, 10.5 weeks in to this, is how exhausted I am. And I can look at my monkey and see how exhausted she is. She decided somewhere along the way that she is opposed to sleep in any form, so not only is she no longer taking a nap, she's resisting bedtime and sleep even more than before, pushing bedtime back and costing her body precious time to recuperate. Which only snowballs. We need a long car trip. Or a tranquilizer dart. But I'll settle for giving a weighted blanket a try.
One of the other things that I cannot wrap my head around is how polarized our country is, and how this polarization impacts how people respond to this pandemic. I've never been one for conspiracy theories, but to read the crap that people believe on the internet about how this virus got started, how a potential vaccine is really just the government's attempt to microchip us, even reactions to the suggestion to wear masks and face coverings - it's just mind boggling. There's no acceptance of science, or even simple human decency to be willing to wear a mask if it might protect someone more vulnerable. Yes, guidance has changed over the course of this pandemic - that's because we are learning more and expanding our understanding of this novel virus. It doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to experts because they don't know what they're talking about. Also, when did everyone become an expert?
We are wearing masks. Even the four-year old monkey has adjusted to mask wearing with relatively little difficulty. To kids, it's just another thing that we need to do to be safe. They wear seat belts, bike helmets, life jackets - why would a mask be any different. It's the "adults" that need a time-out on the mask wearing. To claim that your rights are being violated because you’re being asked to keep your germs to yourself? What privilege.
I am eager for preschool to open, and I am terrified of preschool opening. Monk needs the structure, and interaction. I need some focused time to work. I hope she'll start napping again if she goes back, since she's always napped better there than here. But how do you socially distance four year olds, without breaking their little hearts and spirits?
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| New York Times front page, 24 May 2020 |
Virginia is in Phase One of reopening, and people are starting to move more freely and congregate in larger groups. I hope this doesn't lead to a new spike in cases. My office will begin reopening - to ~25% of building capacity - in about a month. That will only be for those that must be in a brick and mortar facility to do their jobs, or are feeling so isolated they are eager to return. My sense is that it will likely be late into the fall, or even next year before we return to a "normal" building population, which will come with many changes. Our employee survey results indicate most folks are not eager to return, and would love to telework. I hope organizations use this as an opportunity to increase flexibility for employees, who have proved that they really can work from anywhere. And in some pretty crazy circumstances.
- Virginia is now at 40,249 cases of COVID-19, with 1281 deaths. Our county, Frederick, now has 296 cases and 4 deaths.
- The United States has 1.7 million cases, and 100,765 deaths. (The population of Frederick County, Virginia is 88,355.
- The price of gas is coming back up. Costco gas reached a low of $1.30 and it's now back to $1.72. Still extremely low. I've gotten gas twice since March, mostly miles to and from the state parks.
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