The 43

Day 366 ... One year ago today, I blogged about the pandemic for the first time. The last year has held the strange distinction of feeling it went by super quickly and that it was never going to end. But here we are, more than a year into the pandemic, and I can't help but reflect about how things evolved in the last year. That first month, everyone was so shellshocked by the emerging crisis. Between the lockdowns and the initial reports that the virus was far more infectious than it was, people were genuinely freaked. There were so many unknowns, so a sense of dread and helplessness was natural. The country needed about a month more of serious measures last spring than we actually had. People got too antsy -- Americans just aren't a patient bunch, and the political climate didn't help. The second wave, and then third and fourth waves, happened and lived up to the worst fears scientists had predicted.  However, we learned to live with the pandemic. The more we learned abou...

As a condition to play sports while preventing the spread of COVID-19, all high school athletes in Utah must be tested every two weeks. After a fall in which seasons were canceled because of unchecked cases and rumors surfaced of coaches telling their players not to get tested if felt symptoms, the state clamped down by instituting this testing protocol. So far, it's worked out well -- the message is getting through to athletes that they need to be smart or risk ruining the season for their teammates, and the rate of positive tests for these students has been low. The boys have been tested three times, including twice via the rapid testing their school is offering. This morning, they needed to go in at 6 a.m. to be tested -- in order handle about a hundred students in a couple hours (and allow them to practice after school), the school had to start early. So far, we've heard of no positive tests -- at least nothing that would cancel Michael's games this week or force a quar...

By my calculations, from the first day the lockdown began in earnest and the reality of the impending pandemic became inescapable , today is Day 240. Eight months ago, I figured we would be out of the crisis by now.  We aren't. As I write this, an alert came over my phone that Utah's governor is holding a press conference in a little while to announce new restrictions. The state has been spiking for weeks, but in the last week, it spiked really badly -- almost 3,000 new cases on Friday. We weren't getting that many in a month back in the spring. A combination of apathy, pandemic fatigue, politicization of the crisis, poor planning, and young people not giving a crap if they get infected has got us to this point. I can't say that if I was in my 20s I'd be as much of an asshole as the youth of today are being, but much of the latest fuel to this fire, at least locally, was people hanging out at Halloween parties. The biggest rate of spread in Utah is in the 15-35 age ...

Ben graduated from the Open Classroom nearly two weeks ago, and his last official day of school was a week ago. Granted, he hadn't been in the school in nearly three months, but after weeks of online learning, presenting his eighth-grade project virtually, and a nice video graduation , the end nonetheless arrived. We were proud, and whether graduation was live in the OC gym or virtual, of course we would be joyful and sad. After 11 years in this community -- and with co-oping and committees and the friends we've made along the way, it really has been a community -- the end for us was never going to be easy. However, I still don't feel closure. The last 10 weeks of school should have been our chance to say goodbye after so many years. I would have co-oped one more time. I would have walked the halls one more time, and popped in the Michael's first classroom. I would have thanked the teachers and strolled the courtyard. I would have taken it all in ... and then say goodb...

Without too much fanfare, Ben turned 14 today. The last couple years, we didn't throw any sort of birthday party for him until summer, so not hosting a celebration beyond our immediate family around his big day was nothing new. I was going to borrow an idea that we could celebrate while sheltering by having a water balloon fight -- really, pelting the birthday boy with water balloons -- but I didn't get to the store and the weather turned cold and cloudy by mid-afternoon anyway. We ended up ordering food from El Chihuahua (Ben's favorite restaurant) and singing "Happy Birthday" to him twice. I don't think Ben minded the birthday in pandemic much. We surprised him with a Switch Lite -- kind of a combined birthday/graduation present -- and his eyes lit way up. He'll get a normal party sometime this summer. Until then, with his new toy (and Michael is buying himself one as well), I don't think he'll get bored.

In the two weeks since I blogged last, nothing has stood out that inspired me to write. That's not to say nothing has happened during the pandemic during this time. More things are opening up -- probably too soon -- and the politics are too stupid; I'm walking a fine line (and falling off it) on avoiding pandemic news that just gets me distracted and annoyed. However, I haven't been driven to record any of these events. I may have hit a threshold on how much I want to think about all this, and it may just be the days and weeks are severely blending together, with little variety to each day. On Day 65, this has been going on for more than nine weeks, but the last month, one day ends, a new one begins, and nothing seems different. I'm hoping summer brings something unique to each day -- and I know I'm the one responsible for finding that unique. I find myself missing the NBA playoffs here in May. I associated baseball with these months, but I'm realizing bas...

A week has passed since I blogged last, and here we are on Day 51. Some paced steps of normalcy started up again over the past few days, but we're choosing to honor the social distancing recommendations. We may break a little to get haircuts (under controlled rules by the woman who cuts our hair), and the boys are going to the dentist this week. But otherwise, business as usual as May, my favorite month of the year, kicks into full gear. Last week was an intense blur -- hours of challenging writing for work, which drained my will to blog (although I did publish a post on my sports parenting blog ). And then this weekend zipped by before I knew what to do with myself. Michael and I did get some more yardwork done, and Ben and I went for a long walk tonight. This upcoming week will be much less intense for work, and working outside last week was wonderful. Summer is approaching, and even if it might be a little hampered by the pandemic, it still will be so welcomed. That said, th...

I've come to a conclusion today, Day 44, as I sit on the porch this gorgeous evening, a half-hour before sunset, listening to the less-than-six-feet-of-distancing outdoor group gathering thrown by middle-aged neighbors despite all the recommendations that small intimate groups like this spread the coronavirus: The second wave is coming, and it will waste all the progress made over the past six weeks. And it will be the result of Americans of all ages, political persuasions, wealth, and job status being selfish, lazy, weak, bored, and inconvenienced. I'm typing all this out because if it the reopening does go south -- and I'm hoping that I'm wrong but we are six weeks in and the flattening hasn't quite happened yet -- I want to pinpoint when and why. Granted, we've weathered the pandemic better than others, but there is so much evidence that others who are as fortunate as we've been are more thinking of themselves than the greater good. Perhaps the pe...

After getting Michael out of the neighborhood Friday , Ben and I went on our own little adventure today. We drove down to Lehi, through Eagle Mountain, up to Tooele, and then to ... West Valley City. I was thinking maybe we could hike a little today, but the skies were alternately ominous and sunny, and Great Salt Lake Park looked a little crowded. So instead, we went to In 'n' Out near Valley Fair, via the efficient and socially distant drive-thru, and ate our lunch in the mall's parking lot as a seagull eyed the RAV4 longingly. The sky was angry at the Pony Express Trail parking lot. I swore I wasn't going to nap after we got home, but the Sunday need to doze overtook me, and I fell asleep a little longer than anticipated (hopefully, it doesn't ruin my sleep routine tonight ...). After a little yardwork, a little writing on the porch, and dinner, Ben and I went for a long walk with the dog. He said he had a good day -- he needed to get away as much as I did,...

I've been alternating between optimistic and gloomy all day. On one hand, I think the social distancing is moderately working and that people have mostly adjusted to the new temporary reality. I'm seeing more masks worn, fewer groups that shouldn't be gathering, and a general acceptance of sheltering in place. I think that, despite the bad statistics, people see an end in sight -- even if it's weeks off -- and that we can cautiously endure until then Yet, there's a small but noisy segment who wants the social distancing to end now, a potential spike in deaths and probably even more damage to the economy be damned. I worry that the lockdown measures will be pulled back too soon, there will be another spike in June and we'll be back to sheltering in place, and all the isolation and financial pain that was undertaken to stop the pandemic will be for naught. These are things beyond our family's control. The best we can do is continue to follow the reco...

On Day 32 of the lockdown, the hammer fell on the school year. Many other states had called off school for the rest of the spring, but Utah had only shut it down until May 4. We were holding out hope that maybe in-person classes would resume for the last month of the school year, but as the days passed and the pandemic worsened, that seemed less and less likely. Utah's governor made it official for the state's public schools this afternoon, and the diocese followed suit this evening: The kids won't be returning. The news rolled off Michael, but we're having trouble reading Ben. Eighth grade at his school is a big deal, and we don't know what will happen with graduation, the eighth-grade dance, and everything else that makes the end of the kids' journey (and Ben's journey at the Open Classroom began in kindergarten) special. Yet, he seemed to take the news in stride. We've been preparing the boys for this possibility, and I think they might have b...

Except for a few years, our Easters in Utah have been a family-only day. In that way Easter 2020 wasn't much different than any other year. Of course, the reality is vastly different -- there's a pandemic in progress, something that has been impossible to not think about. Here on Day 30, I'm becoming more and more convinced there will be a Day 75 and that these posts will overlap my annual summer blog posts. And when things start to normalize, I don't foresee going from social distancing to social butterfly in an instant. The virus is still out there, and until there's a vaccine or it truly fizzles out, I likely will still be wearing a mask and keeping 6 feet away as much as possible. Yet today, the pandemic didn't change a thing. Lori made a delicious Easter meal -- ham, rolls, and broccoli cruton cheese casserole. We watched "Lethal Weapon" and "Onward" (and I also watched "Goldfinger"). Michael and I walked the dog for abo...

Day 25. As much as I'm hoping we're halfway through the isolation, I'm realistically thinking we're at a third. Fifty more days puts us at May 28 -- after Memorial Day. That seems far off but really isn't. I'll be happy with somewhere in between. There are signs that the pandemic is slowing in Utah, but I have a weird feeling it's about to spike here and we're being lulled into a false sense of security. I hope I'm wrong, but even a little jump probably closes the schools for the rest of the year and cancels out May. If things go back to normal too soon and the disease comes roaring back here (well, everywhere), we'll go back to sheltering in place into June -- and I don't think people are ready for that. The pandemic is becoming really devastating in other parts of the country. I've resisted looking at websites with confirmed cases and death tolls, but I know today was the worst day nationally, and nothing is suggesting the disease i...

We're up to Day 23 (at least by my count here in Utah) since the pandemic and social distancing and, eventually, sheltering in place began. Oddly, last week kind of zoomed by -- I wasn't struggling to the weekend finish line like I had the first two weeks. I'm looking at my week ahead and thinking it will be mellow. Plus, the forecast is for temperatures in the 60s all week. Optimistically, four weeks of this remain, although I'm steeling myself for seven. Sunny skies, warm temperatures, and soon-to-be green trees should make the hiatus more bearable. People are going to need every ounce of optimism, because government officials are beginning to give us the "Hold on to your butts" warning as the pandemic is set to start peaking the next two weeks. We have one more grocery trip to make and can probably go 2-3 weeks without needing to go again. Michael has been a bit stir crazy, but he's enjoyed some reprieves just driving around. However, I didn't...

The one thing that might have provided some normalcy this spring is the start of the baseball season. However, like every other sport, no games are being played. That means nothing to watch on TV, and nothing to listen to on the radio. The lack of sports must be a burden on people who rely on consuming sports to escape the stresses of everyday life. Here we are faced with a huge stress, yet there's nothing to turn to. Even though we haven't as many sports televised since we cut the cable cord, I still love listening to ballgames through the MLB radio app. The new (top) and classic Strat-o-Matic boxes Plus, the start of baseball is the surest sign that the winter was survived and that summer is just around the corner. Without that milestone, along with no basketball, it doesn't feel convincing that spring has begun. What's helped is YouTube and Strat-o-Matic. I've blogged about my affection , now almost four decades old, for the Strat-o-Matic board game. Th...

There are two sides to the trepidation of the coronavirus lockdown. The first is the life disruption -- the economic chaos, thinking about toilet paper, getting stuck on the news and worrying about the pandemic, trying not to go stir crazy. Surprisingly, some if this hasn't been so bad. Yes, the news can stress me out, but that can be avoided or at least minimized. I miss the freedom to work somewhere other than the basement, but sheltering in place (which isn't official here but it seems most people are adhering to the recommendations) hasn't been so terrible. The other side is the health equation: What if I or someone I love catches this? Although most people recover from it, there's always that fear that I'm the one whose lungs go crazy, or Michael's exercise-induced asthma has a bad reaction to this, or Lori or Ben struggle with the virus. I know the odds of that are low, both because of the isolation measures we're taking and just because for most peo...

Today was not so bad -- it seemed to go fast. I slept well last night and woke up at a reasonable time. Work wasn't super productive but not a total bust, either. I'm optimistic for Tuesday that I will be at my full creative power. I allowed myself a little bit of news and social media today (and the couple things I did see pissed me off), but I'm hoping for a full blackout tomorrow. The difficulty is websites that I'm not going to for COVID-19 news, such as YouTube or my email accounts, are still providing it to me. But I didn't let myself go all in on news today. I still have the crisis more on my mind than I want to at 9 p.m., but I'm hoping to unwind enough for the next couple hours. We found out Ben will be out of school until May 1. Michael is already out until April 20, but I bet that gets extended. I was hoping we'd only be looking at three more weeks of distancing, but I'm betting five is more realistic. The crisis is supposed to spike this ...

I haven't blogged for a couple days because, believe it or not, Friday I forgot to. After the news embargo , I slept really well Thursday into Friday, then kept the ignorance up all day Friday. I wasn't perfectly insulated from the all the news, and I wasn't in a completely optimistic mood, but the combination of some late working and just being exhausted led me to go to bed without even thinking of writing. After realizing that Saturday, I wasn't in a hurry to again write. I'm sitting on the porch on what I'm calling Day 9, with another week of work looming -- and I'm feeling a little bit of apprehension. I'm fairly confident I'll be more creative and less distracted than last week. I know that avoiding news sites helps with avoiding stress. The novelty (no pun intended) of the changed reality has passed. We've been good about social distancing, and we're getting plenty of exercise. Also, I'm thinking we won't have another earthq...

Day 6 was productive, less stressful, and even a bit enjoyable. I didn't sleep that well again last night, and I'm still paranoid I might be running a slight temperature -- to the point I told Lori to hide the thermometer (I was never higher than 99 degrees). The social distancing is still in progress, and were making do the best we can, which, honestly, has been somewhat good. What made today better was I declared a personal news embargo. I determined that I was looking at too much news about the crisis, visiting websites with updated case numbers too often, and stumbling into other people's struggles on social media more than I need to. I'm not dismissing friends' real need to communicate and vent during this crazy time, but I'm allowed to not expose myself to it in an effort to keep my own stress under wraps. I was planning on attempting this yesterday, but then the earthquake hit and it was difficult for the journalist in me to not want to know more. To...

Someone forgot to tell the ground beneath us that there is a pandemic in progress. A 5.7 earthquake woke me up this morning. I probably slept through the first half of the temblor, which lasted about 20 seconds. At first, I thought it was just Lori getting out of bed that caused the stirring. After a second or two, when the shaking became stronger, I realized what was happening. A funky 10 seconds later, it was over. Lori was rattled, waking up the boys and instructing Michael to get the pet carrier and put the cat in it. I believe she was thinking what if we had to get out or part of the house collapsed and we couldn't find Maggie, but after a couple minutes, she regained her composure (she really didn't lose it, but again, this freaked her out wide awake -- I only experienced the quake groggy), and we both had the same revelation: "Are you kidding me?" Nothing in the house was damaged -- the quake was centered 15 miles west of us, we only experienced the shaki...