Inside the Pandemic, Day 6

 Monday, April 6, 2020

This is the original day the quarantine was supposed to end, but it’s been extended several times since then. It’s now supposed to last until April 19, according to Governor Kelly’s order 20-16. (Governor Kelly). When I walk around Hiawatha it’s like a ghost town. Except for Sonic--everyone’s going to Sonic and it is HOPPING! Of course, everyone’s staying in their cars, but it is really busy. I just hope the folks that work there are washing their hands. I’m sure they are. Right? Right. (San Pedro).

Today, I almost forgot that I was supposed to have a staff meeting at 9:00 and joined a minute late. Most of the staff was already there and Mr. Mills was talking, so no one acknowledged me, for which I am grateful! One of my personal pet peeves is lateness, so I’m very embarrassed that I would be late to something. Shame on me! 

Mr. Mills did point out that teachers should--collectively--have only three hours of work for high school students (Bush). The long and short was that we were assigning too much work. We don’t hear that very often! The state of Kansas Task Force sent out a document that says the same, so we teachers have to back off a bit and do what is good for students. In this case, what is good for the students is actually LESS work, rather than more. It’s such a strange, strange world!

Inside the Pandemic, Day 5

 April 3, 2020

It’s the end of the day, and even though I know better by now, I looked at the Johns Hopkins Corona virus page. Over 1,000,000 confirmed cases. The CDC is now (as of today) recommending that people wear cloth masks (but not gloves) when they go out in public. (Recommendations) The logic seems a little fuzzy to me, but they’re going with it anyway. President Trump says he agrees with the CDC, but will not be wearing a mask. Like I said, a bit fuzzy. The problem is the same with the gloves. First, the average person is not a medical professional, so does not know how to safely wear a mask and gloves without cross-contamination. Second, medical professionals actually NEED medical-grade masks and gloves to maintain their safety. So, to wear mask or not? Dunno.

In other news, it snowed/sleeted this morning, so this is the first day in almost a week that I did not go outside the house. I did work out in the basement, but it’s not the same. The weight-lifting was fine, but I’d rather go for a walk outside than use my Gazelle. I know, First World problems. That said, I know that spending time outside is essential for my mental health, so I miss it when I can’t do it. I enjoy being at home and I have lots of stuff to do, but I also like to go outside. Should be nicer tomorrow. 

A good number of students have turned in their assignments already. I put the due date as midnight tonight, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’ve also started working on pulling the yearbook into its final format. We have 17 pages that will be blank if I don’t cobble something together. That’s a significant portion of a 96 page book! It represents what we’re missing from this school year--especially the seniors. What a weird world we live in!

Inside the Pandemic, Day 4

 April 1, 2020

So, I braved Wal-Mart yesterday and it was a bit better than the first time. Still plenty of empty shelves, but I actually found toilet paper and everything else on my list--so I consider it a win. I purposely did not watch the news this morning because I didn’t want to be depressed first thing. It hasn’t really been good news for a while--since December, I guess. However, on Facebook, I found John Krasinski and the “Good News Network” (France). If you are a fan of The Office, or like Krasinski’s work directing and acting in the movie A Quiet Place, you know who he is. I also watch lots of baby animal videos to stay upbeat.

Yesterday, I got out in the garden and pulled weeds, which is also very therapeutic. Even though I hurt all over by dinner time, it was nice to be outside in the fresh air. One upside to this whole pandemic is that with fewer people driving and generally polluting the air, the earth is having a chance to clean and renew itself. Both nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide levels have decreased slightly, according to NASA (Patel, 2020). Very slightly--like 1%-- but at least SOMETHING good is coming from all this. That, and we get to spend time with our families. 

The Johns Hopkins site today shows world-wide confirmed COVID cases at 883,225 and US at 189,753. Here’s the good news. So far, of all those confirmed cases, worldwide, 185,377 have recovered. Here’s the question--once those people have recovered, what now? Can they still spread it? Can they get it again? Are they immune? Can we create a vaccine from the immune people? So many questions, so few answers! I know scientists are working as fast as they can, but it’s not fast enough for those who have the virus. 

Inside the Pandemic, Day 3

 Tuesday, March 31, 2020 

Just checked in with the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus page and our total numbers are up to 803, 313, with US cases at 164, 719. We’re still in the thick of things, at least according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is America’s expert, a member of  the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984 (Anthony S. Fauci). This is the man who advises our president, so I think we should listen to him! One of the bad things about modern times (which is also a good thing) is that we have access to so much information, it’s hard to know who to trust!

In our morning staff meeting, we talked about the term “pivot and turn” as well as “be gracious”. That is, acknowledging that we must be flexible with each other and to be kind to each other--teachers and students--as we go through something that is new to everyone. It’s not a lie to say that this is a scary time for everyone. It’s also boring, frustrating, irritating, and at times freeing. You can go to a meeting in your pajamas, but you can’t go over to visit a friend unless you both agree to stay 6 feet away from each other. No one knows what the news will bring each day, but we all want to know what is going on in the world. It’s a very hard time for everyone, so being gracious and flexible is just good advice. 

One thing that has been especially scary for me, personally, has been grocery shopping. I went for the first time since Corona started in the US a few weeks ago and I was sincerely shocked. Whole aisles contained empty shelves--eggs, milk, bread, toilet paper, hand sanitizer--just empty. More than any other piece of news or phone call or anything made me terrified. This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen in America! We are literally the land of plenty, we have established supply chains, equal access to stores and transportation. Except when we don’t. I have to go back to Wal-Mart today because we are running out of some stuff and I’m really nervous about it. I’ll go anyway. 

Inside the Pandemic, Day 2

 Monday, March 30, 2020, 8:00am

So, President Trump has extended the “stay at home” order another 30 days--until April. The US is preparing for a surge in cases, deaths and hospital usage and is generally hunkering down, ready for a fight. We are a resilient people and I know we’ll get through this. It is terrifying, however, to watch the news and see the number of cases rising, the number of dead rising. It feels very much like being in a movie I didn’t get invited to. As of today, there are 737.929 cases confirmed, worldwide and 143,055 cases in the US alone. (Center for Systems Science and Engineering 2020). We now have the most cases of any nation. Yikes. I tried to find a place on the Johns Hopkins map that does not have any cases--it’s literally everywhere, even Greenland. 

On a more positive note, I’ve been out walking the dog and walking/jogging myself and I’ve been noticing the flowers popping up. Lots of daffodils, hyacinths and such. Tulips are just starting to come out, no buds yet. My dog and the new cat in our house are really enjoying having all of us home. Here’s a picture of my dog, Kyla. Is she spoiled? Yes, and she likes it that way. She’s about 10 years old and her hips are starting to really bother her, but she’s ALWAYS excited for a walk. I’ll take some pics of the spring flowers next time we’re out so I can include them here. I guess what I’m trying to say is that life, and the world, goes on no matter what crazy stuff we humans get up to. 

Today we’re having online/virtual class for the first time. I’ve had a couple of these virtual meetings so far, and I can’t say they are my favorite format, but they really aren’t that much different than regular meetings, we’re just not all in the same room. I am a little nervous about leading the meeting myself. I haven’t had a chance to practice that, so we’ll see how it goes when we get there. I am really excited to see my student’s faces! I haven’t seen anyone since before Spring Break and that seems like it’s been a long time. 

Just for reference about how fast this Corona Virus (also known as COVID-19, Novel Corona Virus or 2019-nCoV) is moving, the numbers I posted above have already changed (as of 2:12pm) the total cases now stands at 766,336 and the US cases at 153,246. So, yeah, scary! (same source)

Inside the Pandemic, Day 1 2020

 Thursday, March 26

Today marks day four of working from home, and I have to say it’s not all bad. For one thing, I get to have a lunch hour, something I haven’t had in 13 years! When I worked in industry, an hour for lunch was the understood norm. Wonder how many employees get to have an entire hour for lunch? Actually, law states that employees are only granted 30 minutes for lunch if they work at least five hours. (US Dept. of Labor, 2020). It’s not that I don’t get lunch at school, but I often have students coming or going, work to copy, things to grade, and so on. This makes my 25 minute lunch period go by very quickly. Before I became a teacher, I didn’t really understand what teachers were talking about when they complained about their lunch hour. Now I get it--it’s not an hour. Why do schools force you to slam down food? It’s not good for kids or adults, but I guess it’s not worth adding an extra 30 minutes to the day just to “socialize” or “digest”. In fact, a study from Japan (bias alert--it studied 1,700 young women only) found that eating more slowly made you feel fuller sooner, which meant that you ate fewer calories overall.  (Zelman)

At any rate, we (and by we, I mean me) do tend to get caught up in the small things, when in fact there is a huge, enormous, world-shaking event happening right now. I think, though, if we focused on the big stuff, we’d get easily overwhelmed and then would be good for nothing. The event is the Novel-Corona Virus, or COVID-19. It has other names as well, but corona viruses are not new. SARS was a corona virus. This one is called “novel” because it’s new to humankind. Unfortunately. That’s the trouble, you see. There’s no cure and we didn’t know anything about the virus back in December of 2019 (thus the “19” on the end of the name) when it first popped up in Wuhan, China. 

Big things, like the Corona virus, are hard to deal with, moreso because there are new announcements, addendendums, notices and laws coming out hourly. If you have the news on, it’s always about the virus, but things are changing so fast that it’s hard to keep up! So, sometimes I don’t. I’ll go out and take the dog on a walk, or lift weights, or read a book or take a bath. Sometimes it’s easier to do something familiar for a while and shut the world out. 

What happened to 2017?

Well, that is a long story. So much. Many tears on behalf of loved ones (no one died, though) and work situation. Loneliness, frustration, anger, despair.

However, it's over and done--I've moved on (literally and figuratively) and much has improved. Personally, Robert and I had been living separately because he was hired by a small rural community action program to be their chief financial officer. We still had our house in Kansas City and he was working/living in Hiawatha during the week and coming home on the weekends. Less than ideal in several ways. Most of the time it was just my son and I at home (eldest daughter being away at college much of the year) and I felt much like a single parent. Son was at a good college-prep school and we didn't want to take him out of that. Also, when Robert first started working in Hiawatha as a contractor, the housing market was poor, so we didn't think we could make a good deal on our house if we sold it.

So, long story short, we finally moved to Hiawatha this last summer. I quit my job with the Olathe school district and was hired by the South Brown County district to teach English 9/10 and yearbook at tiny Horton High School. My son transferred to Hiawatha high school for his senior year and we bought a house. Our KC house sold in three days (!!!) and went for over the asking price. Hard to believe but true! The new house needed some work (still does) but is larger by about 100 sq. ft. and has a two-car garage. The town is absolutely beautiful and so far I love living here.

In the summer, Hiawatha (The Beautiful City of Maples) has lovely tree-lined streets with sidewalks almost everywhere. The dog and I explored many of them and look forward to warmer temps (must be at least in the positive numbers) so we can resume our exploration. There is a hospital and a Wal-Mart, but most importantly a movie theater. It's a two-screen theater, but movies are movies. There is also a thriving theatrical society (HAATS) and the majority of people I've met so far have been pleasant and intelligent. Many people commute out for work and drive back home to live. So far, I've seen every type of house imaginable and they are all interesting in some way. All are different architecturally from each other and though some are poorly maintained, those few are interspersed with beautiful homes which somehow makes the poor ones not so bad.

As for my profession, for the first time ever, I've had students say they enjoy English! It's a real rush and an incentive to be creative and energetic in my field. I look forward to going to work and really enjoy my students and co-workers. This year, also for the first time ever, I have a textbook to fall back on that's thoughtfully put together and full of good resources. Since I already have plenty of teaching resources in my personal toolkit, this year has gone pretty smoothly. Still a bit of a learning curve, but I'm having fun.

My son is doing well at his new school and for the first time ever has joined an activity--scholar's bowl. He had friends before, but here he has made some new friends already and seems much more contented than he did in Kansas City. Less stress and he is back together with his father again. That's been good for all of us, of course.

As I write this on the last day of Christmas break, I look forward to what 2018 will bring. Whatever that may be, I face it with my family together.