The 2020 Pandemic

May 19-27, 2020 Oops -- what day is it? Rather long hiatus for the blog, but we are still here. Some business will be reopening in "Phase 1" on Friday, meaning restaurants will be able to serve people outside and 6 feet apart. Everyone in Virginia is required to wear face masks inside businesses. People are still complaining and even protesting (armed protesting...) about their "right" not to wear a face mask in public. The death toll in the US hit 100,000 today. Cases and deaths are starting to slow, but it's not like the virus has been eradicated, and we still don't have a vaccine or universal testing. I am in no hurry to go out anywhere in public. We are thinking of trying to visit Kevin's family in NC sometime in June, but only if we can self-isolate for about two weeks leading up to the travel. We wouldn't make any stops along the way. My friend Lisa is a nurse on the COVID-19 floor at her hospital in PA. She has been self-quarantining t...

Sunday was a lot cooler but pleasant. We had breakfast together and even went on a jog in the morning. For lunch, we went on a picnic at a nearby park. We were the only people in the park area. We loved getting outside to get some fresh air and have a change of pace. We did some work in the afternoon and K ran some errands. I wrapped some of G's birthday gifts. We had a little time to hang outside after dinner with a nice Talisker scotch, but then had to do some work inside for a bit. This week is going to be a lot cooler than we're used to for May.

It was a pretty great day today. K and I played some duets together out front while G took her first nap. A lot of people appreciated it, and it was so wonderful to play my violin again. I really miss it so much, even playing my students' simple songs with them. The weather was hot, but I was able to go for a run during G's second nap. I found a nice new path that was redone with a lovely bridge and a path that goes through a natural area along the water. It was really pleasant and not too crowded, so it felt safer to jog around there. K made a good dinner, and in the evening we hung outside for a while and did a crossword puzzle. The guy who moved into our old house down the street was having a loud party -- it's the first time I've seen someone blatantly disregard the stay-at-home orders and social distancing.

May 7-15. Oops. Missed a few days. We've had a pretty decent week. I did break social distancing and go visit my mom for Mother's Day on Sunday. I drove up (only took 2 hours) and spent the afternoon outside with baby G, then drove right back (again only 2 hours). I felt a bit uncomfortable like I would be endangering them, but I'm hoping everything is okay since we're feeling fine now. School is okay, but I'll be relieved when it's summer and I don't have to "teach" online for a while. It's really depressing seeing fewer and fewer students attend, hearing from parents how they are losing interest. I'm really sad for how much music has been lost. Many of these student will never continue an instrument ever again because that door has closed. It is heartbreaking. I try to remind myself that all I can do is help those I can help. Some states are starting to slowly (or not) open back up. Virginia started today except for Northern Virgini...

Monday through Wednesday is always a mad dash since we both work a lot of the day and trade off with baby G. It was a lot cooler than the weekend, and of course the rain came back, so I haven't gotten to run yet this week. On Monday, I had trouble coming up with something for my students to do during band time, but many of them were excited to play Star Wars music by rote (for May the 4th). On Tuesday we celebrated Peach's 12th birthday (7 years since her adoption day). We celebrated with some surprisingly good walks and some vanilla birthday cake dog treats which smell amazing. We love her so much! There is increasing talk about opening up businesses and having things start to return to normal. I am uncomfortable with this because there's no vaccine and no herd immunity. It basically means we're just accepting that everyone is going to be in danger of getting the virus. The death toll in the US is 74,000 today. I just can't comprehend people who don't care ...

We are getting pretty sick of the rain. I saw a meme on Facebook that pretty much sums it up: Oh look, the virus is still here and it's raining again. Thursday was alright -- busy with teaching and juggling everything as usual. We ordered some more food from the farmers' market to pick up on Saturday. We also started watching a good cartoon called "The Dragon Prince." It feels a lot like "Avatar -- The Last Airbender" with some of the same voice actors and writers. On Friday morning, K went to the grocery store and got a lot of food for us, plus some things for my older neighbor/former student. I need to try to make baby G a birthday cake, so we'll see how that turns out. On Saturday morning, K went to the farmers' market and stood in the usual line. He tries to go early because the lines are very long, although the managers do the very best to keep things moving. I was super excited for the first spring strawberries, but unfortunately I think ...