Us, May 10, 2020: Roy, John, Leo, Shadow, Ondine
Us, May 10, 2020: Roy, John, Leo, Shadow, Ondine
The weather is turning warm again, with pleasant, May Gray mornings and warm to hot afternoons.
Both of our new acquisitions, the blender and the rowing machine, are getting a workout. People are already trying to kill our new blender, sigh. Things just aren't made to stand up to people who don't read the directions. The rowing machine seems to be holding up well, although it's several days newer than the blender so we'll see how it goes once the kints really try to use it. Ondine was the one who researched, selected, and bought the rowing machine, and often uses for a post-dinner workout timed to an episode of The Durrells. John also uses it regularly, but only for 15-20 minutes after lunch while finishing an episode of Time Team.
Speaking of TV, we were saddened that the original British episodes of Kitchen Nightmares suddenly vanished from Amazon Prime. The current available episodes are U.S. based, and the whole rhythm is different. We introduced the kints to DCI Banks, but right now we're working our way through the Star Wars films, half a movie at a time. We just finished Episode 2!
Coronavirus update: The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Tracker shows that COVID-19 has been confirmed in over 4.6 million people worldwide, and has claimed over 310,500 lives. That's an increase of over 400,000 cases and 19,700 lives lost in the past four days. The U.S. has over 1,463,300 confirmed cases with over 88,400 deaths, up over 104,000 cases and another 6,300 deaths in the past four days, an increase in both rate of spread and mortality. In San Diego, our local toll rose to 5,523 cases with 208 deaths.
More and more businesses are opening up, including dine-in restaurants and retail stores (for curbside pickup). On the other hand, more and more businesses are opting to shut down permanently, including restaurants and retailers large and small. Former department store giants Neiman Marcus and JC Penney declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a result of pandemic-related losses, and will be shutting down stores.
Leo just learned that his graduating class will have no in-person ceremony in June, and it's up in the air for July and August. No grad night celebration at Disneyland, no graduation ceremony. Also, no final exams and no coursework since March 13. Functionally, he's been out of school since then. At least we never ordered a stack of fancy shmancy invitations.
Leo got a free Patrick Henry Class of 2020 yard sign, but at first he didn't want us to display it in the yard. It's out there now, though.
Ondine and Leo went to pick it up, and it was really nice, all the teachers were there cheering as parents drove by to pick up the yard signs.
In other school news, the Patrick Henry high school principal, Listy Gillingham, is retiring!
Roy finished all his finals, so he's done for the semester! He celebrated, kind of, Friday when he went out with Danielle for lunch at Shake Shack. So he says, anyways. He never brings us back a shake, so we have no real proof.
Ondine sent her novel to the sensitivity reader, so that's one more step on her journey. Workwise, she's in the swing of working virtually, and has found it rewarding and productive in different ways.
John is finishing his MOOC on forensic archaeology, and is thinking about paying for the final exam and certification. He registered for an online summer class at City College on cultural anthropology, the first step toward earning a departmental certificate in archaeology, but he's currently #7 on a waitlist. If he doesn't get the class, then he'll spend the summer doing GRE prep and another MOOC about a huge prehistoric structure in Britain.
Neighborhood gas prices are about $2.99 per gallon. The stock market closed Friday at 23,685.42.
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