Us, January 19, 2020: John, Leo, Shadow, Roy, Ondine
Us, January 19, 2020: John, Leo, Shadow, Roy, Ondine
Welcome to our life in quasi-isolation in an era of social distancing! It seems as if there's more going on than ever before, partly because of a rapidly changing pandemic situation and partly because we're all stuck inside cheek by jowl with each other.
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracker shows that COVID-19 has been confirmed in over 1.7 million people worldwide, and has claimed nearly 105,000 lives. The U.S. has nearly 503,600 confirmed cases, with over 19,700 deaths. And in San Diego, the numbers rose to 1,693 cases with 44 deaths.
On the other hand, the news turned positive for the first time this week, with cases leveling off. That's hopeful! Already some are talking about planning for re-entry into normal life. On the other hand, John wonders how long after everything returns to normal he can get away with the rules of social distancing, because he likes it.
We ventured outside only twice this week. Ondine went to ship her Cabi return at a FedEx drop-off, and John gave her a long list of grocery items so she did the big shop at Smart & Final as well. Then, a couple days later, John took Leo to the bank for a replacement debit card and to pick up Leo's Invisalign trays from the orthodontist (more on that later), and stopped at Keil's for a quick shop. Keil's, being smaller and more agile than the big chains, had sourced industrial/commercial cartons of unbranded toilet paper, limited to two rolls per customer, and they had full shelves.
One new wrinkle is that stores no longer let customers bring in reusable bags; instead they're giving the plastic ones away free. We've always washed and dried our 16-year-old cotton grocery bags, but there you go.
When we're outside the house, we, like everyone else, wear face masks. John's making do with his Mt. Whitney topo map bandana folded over and tied off.
The rain did stick around this week, mostly at night. Friday it rained pretty much all day, heavily at times.
Leo is now in his Invisalign braces! We picked them up at the orthodontist, who is right next to Keil's. The office is closed, but there's one person there for a few hours every weekday answering phones and emails and handing out Invisalign trays. It was a contactless pickup; John called ahead and the office set it out on the front door to take. Leo has two sets of clear plastic trays, each with a top and bottom tray. Each set should take him through three weeks of treatment. When they're on you totally can't tell they're there. Leo can feel them, though, and is getting used to them. He needs to wear them at least 22 hours a day, removing them only to eat.
Meanwhile, the school district has put together an online schedule for classes, so teachers can use a designated time for Zoom lectures or conferences without overlapping another teacher's scheduled time. We haven't seen much of it, though, maybe because Leo is a senior and most of his classes are electives. Or maybe he's fine with his grades as they stand, since they're good enough to graduate. Doing more schoolwork can't do harm and can only help improve grades.
Roy worked on his taxes for 2019, a milestone, our child is filing taxes for the first time! He found that he owed California $15. He had two W-2s, one for his short-lived summer job at Wendy's and the other for his box office job in Colorado. He also did his online classes.
Ondine is settled into a system of working from home, setting up on an exercise ball and laptop table/TV tray in the bedroom where the window looks out into the back yard so there's lots of natural light. She's been doing a daily haiku project, which she's been posting to her Instagram account.
John finished the first week of a FutureLearn course on forensic archaeology, which seems slanted more toward forensics than archaeology so far. And, he's watching, or trying to watch, a ton of Shakespeare online. The Globe in London is releasing a play a week on YouTube and the Globe player; this week's is Hamlet with artistic director Michelle Terry in the title role. The National Theatre is releasing a free play on YouTube every Thursday. Last weekend John watched James Corden in the farce One Man Two Guvnors, and plans to watch Jane Eyre this weekend. And, the Metropolitan Opera has its free daily streams, so John watched Verdi's Macbeth and Falstaff. He'd like to watch Gounod's Romeo et Juliette but may not have time; shows are up for only a day. He's seeing a lot of theatre! He's also worked up to 55 minutes of riding time every morning on his exercise bike, in the "cross training" program so it's interesting.
Shadow is loving having everyone around. The rain this week kept us indoors, so we didn't get our nighttime walks with him as often.
Easter! We printed out some Easter egg coloring pages and got out the crayons. We put the finished art up in the front windows so neighborhood kids can have a social distancing egg hunt going around and spotting eggs. The big Ishida clan Easter gathering was canceled, of course, so we'll be having a quiet little at-home Easter with us and Barbara.
Neighborhood gas prices are about $2.89 to $3.09 per gallon. And the stock market closed Thursday (for Good Friday) at 23,719.37, the market's best week since 1974 although still well off the heights earlier this year.
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