COVID blog - Day 12 - Enforcement

mostly makes sense. lots of high-touch surfaces.

Well, that answers my “playgrounds on nice days” question.  I wonder about enforcement… it will probably be enforced "socially" mostly, I suppose.  That said, I don’t see why a court needs to be shut down.  There is a kid who’s been getting shots up almost every day of this quarantine.  He’s not allowed anymore?  Why not just have the sign say “courts are closed to group play” otherwise it might as well say “Want to get outside and shoot some hoops just to stay active? Sorry kid, shoulda had richer parents who put up a basket in your driveway.”

Speaking of enforcement, I’ve been seeing more police around lately.  Driving through our neighborhood (which is generally not common) and on a run today I saw a police car driving on the prairie path.  On such a nice day, the path was absolutely packed… I turned off before we crossed paths, but I wonder what he was doing on the path.  It’s a rarity to see a police vehicle there because it’s such an obstruction.  I wonder if they’re just trying to enforce distancing, or if they’re posting officers on the path because of increased traffic to reduce potential incidents, or if they are shutting down the path… which would be sad. 

Lastly, speaking of the prairie path… I ran 5 miles today.  It wasn’t fast, but I haven’t run 5 miles in a while—which I think it weird because I can remember a time in life when that was essentially a “minimum” mileage for me.  Sigh.

I wasn’t going to go for 5… I’ve run 21 out of the last 25 days and didn’t want the accumulated mileage to add up too quickly… but when I mentioned that to Kelly she gave me a look like she didn't fully respect this conservative choice, like: “seriously? 5 is too far” and at that point I would have run 5 miles on one leg.  Heck, I would have traveled 5 miles without using any limbs at all—just using my teeth to bite the ground in front of me and drag myself the 5 miles. 

Listen, I can take a quarantine, and kids climbing on me nonstop, and working from home, and being in bad shape, and having people just FLY past me when I’m running, and running in the dark because of crazy schedules with work and kids, but I can NOT tolerate getting flak from Kelly.  That woman ran a half marathon while pregnant, and then later carried TWO humans inside her diminutive frame for 9 months… I will never out-achieve her physically… but I can’t sit idly by while being mocked.  Plus, now if my knee gives out it will be her fault, and she'll have to take care of me, so win-win.

COVID blog - Day 11 - Walks

Yesterday, Kelly said my post was too dark. So here is a happier note from yesterday: a picture of our family taking a morning walk in freshly fallen snow.  I know snow in March isn’t a “happy place” for a lot of people, but it’s an inevitability in Chicago in March and it was pretty and it was gone by early afternoon… so mostly a win.

I like snow.

These family walks have been an absolute lifesaver.  Kids need to get out of the house. PARENTS need to get out of the house.  Walks are good.  We're always better after a walk.

COVID blog - Day 10 - How Long?

How long?

Kelly has brought this up to me a couple times recently, and I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit today.  How long will it be like this?  There are a few layers to this question… I understand that we might be at the precipice (indeed we might be beyond it at this point - in sort of a Wile E. Coyote suspended realization) of a “new normal”.  But that’s not exactly what I mean.  (And it’s not exactly what Kelly is asking).  Sure, this entire event might usher in an era of new ways to participate in education, commerce, government, etc… but in some of those cases, it’s merely a catalyst for change that was already occurring.  

What Kelly is asking is “how long can we sustain a collective effort?”  Right now, many states are “sheltering-in-place” with mostly broad compliance.  If what we read from experts is true, this will have to remain in place for a while -- potentially with more stringent limitations.  I wonder how long Americans will be willing to do that.  We’ve seen this largely be successful in countries that have a greater appreciation of “collective responsibility” (I’m making a cultural comparison here, not political).  There are countless names for it, but I would contend that American’s have a deeply held affection for what we like to call “rugged individualism.”  Bootstraps and all that.  It certainly has its merits (innovation, expansion, etc).  But it’s also at least adjacent to the kind of “American spirit” that prompts us to shoot guns at hurricanes.  And I wonder how it will impact our response to this pandemic. 

I don’t want to besmirch my fellow Americans… I think on the front end of this pandemic we have been and will continue to go to great efforts (and in many cases, pay great costs) for each other.  As Fred Rogers encouraged us: “look for the helpers.”  There have been a lot of helpers.  But a part of me wonders how long that will last.  How long before a refrain of “I’ll hang out with my friends if I want - it’s a free country” becomes more common?  How long will we be willing to collectively sacrifice our comforts for our neighbors?  

As has been noted, I’ve been running more lately.  I went on a run today around 5pm.  The temperature was in the low 40s… there were people everywhere.  It seemed to me (with one notable exception) that everyone was keeping their distance from non-family members, but I was taken aback at how many people were outside.  Walking dogs, running, playing basketball, riding bikes… there were people all over.  It *looked* nice outside because it was sunny, but again, it was like 44 degrees.  Not necessarily pleasant.

Now, It’s supposed to be high-50s on Wednesday and warmer next week.  If you’ve never experienced an early spring day in Chicago where it’s actually nice out… the city (and surrounding area) just comes alive… you can almost hear David Attenborough narrating, “bleary-eyed citizens emerge from their winter hibernation and greet the sun and each other as new life emerges throughout the formerly bleak landscape.”  Normally, it’s beautiful.  But I almost can’t imagine what it will be like with the current shelter-in-place order.  What will playgrounds look like?  Parks?  Paths?  I can’t see how people will stay 6 feet from each other.  And I’m primarily describing suburban environments.  I can’t imagine what it will be like in the city.  Where can you even go?  I realize “stay in your home” is a potential response, but I think that reaction belies an understanding of what it’s like to come out the other side of a Chicago winter… your body needs to get outside.  

I worry about this.  I worry about recent reports of people pushing to get rid of “lockdowns” to “save the economy” (in the face of a chorus of experts claiming this would be disastrous for human life).  Really though, I worry about our collective will to care for each other over our own interests.  That is not a uniquely American problem.  It’s human nature.  But I worry that in America, we’ve constructed systems and grown used to practices that will make it exceedingly difficult in the coming months...

COVID blog - Day 6 - March Sadness

I still can’t believe we’re not having March Madness.  I know I know I know.  It’s not important in the grand scheme, but I was so looking forward to it as a personal break from a pretty bonkers semester, and also, frankly, as an MSU fan—I thought the team was really coming together this year.  Also, as a father, the twins have really gotten to a point where they can understand and enjoy watching basketball.  It really is a sad omission from our normal spring tradition.

Side note, today is Thursday.  How are we going to distinguish weekend days from regular days?  Or should we just do 7-day school weeks to keep everyone sane and on schedule?

COVID blog - Day 4 - St. Pat's?

It never once felt like St. Patrick’s Day today.  Not for a minute.  It’s not that I’m gung-ho for St. Pat’s celebrations… some years maybe I go outside for a few minutes and get super sunburned.  But as an educator, you’re usually reminded of holidays and whatnot by the regularity of calendar-related festivities and decorations around schools.  This year, it was just a normal Tuesday. 

We’ve started to talk more at work about the potential need for preparing for this being a longer absence than the initial two-week prescription.  Kelly has family in Korea and they have been out of school almost a month (and won’t return until April), so in a way this is not a surprise, but it’s also a shift in perspective to begin to contemplate how it will look here and what might need to be done to make it successful (or at least to reduce academic damage).

I wonder how long this will last and what the impact on education will be for the rest of the semester… at this point, I wonder about relapses in the fall, and even the phrase “how long this will last” implies an endpoint… what will be the new normal we return to?

COVID blog - Day 3 - School

So this is it… the first day of (at least) 2 weeks of e-learning.  Impromptu homeschool.  The twins have MFW afternoon preschool.  The Girl is in first grade.  And The Baby runs his own self-paced leadership seminars throughout the day.  Let’s do this. 

The difficulty here isn’t necessarily providing the kids (The Girl in particular) with activities—there are plenty out there.  The difficulty is how to keep them organized and out of each other’s business long enough for some sustained learning to occur.

We tried to make a schedule – based on this widely shared visual.  I like the inclusion of chores, creative time, and outside time… I am not a fan of throwing kids in front of a TV for two straight hours before they go to bed.  So we shifted it to try to meet our needs and gave it a shot.  The first attempt at many.

I’d say mostly it went pretty well.  I’m working from home so could help in a limited capacity with high-need transition times, but mostly it was Kelly just putting forth a herculean effort, per usual. 

I’m sure I’ll include more details about homeschool-e-learning in the future.  As a former teacher, my views on the societal value of teachers is not unbiased… but in short, I think the vast majority of teachers are remarkable and do immensely important work with less than sufficient recognition.  I think many parents will be confronted with just how difficult some of this work is, especially as homeschools starts to move from “practice what you already know” to “we need to develop a new understanding about something you haven’t previously encountered.” 

All that to say, if I could step off my soapbox, I feel fortunate and grateful that The Girl has had such a great experience so far in first grade this year.  I am routinely impressed at how much she has learned and how much she’s improved some essential academic skills.  Case in point, her reading.  At the beginning of the year, it was a slow process to read even very simple books.  But now she is just plowing through chapter books.  She’s been on a Magic Treehouse kick – she starts and finishes the book the same day.  She can discuss the plot, make predictions, identify clues… all sorts of stuff.  It’s really pretty great.

That’s my big takeaway from Day 1 of e-learning/homeschool/whatever… I’m grateful The Girl is such an avid reader and that she enjoys it so much.  It’s so fun to see.

One last thing that I’ve also been enjoying (I’ll try to share things like this periodically) is Jarrett Lerner’s website.  His free drawing activities are really fun for all ages, and he has great writing/thinking prompts… it’s a gold mine.

COVID blog - Day 2 - Rocks Socks

It’s Sunday - no church of course.  Strange to think that we went just last Sunday.  The timeline of this was so fast.  Kelly and I had discussed the potential for things to shut down, but last Wednesday it felt like someone hit the fast forward button.  Like all those doors shutting on Get Smart - bang bang bang.  NBA season over, March Madness cancelled, Tom Hanks tests positive… the dominos were falling fast.  As soon as the NBA shut down I knew this was going be a major shift in life-as-usual.  And when the NCAA -- an organization that has proven time and time again that they care more about money than caring for people -- cancels March Madness (which made them almost a billion dollars last year), you know you’re dealing with a major disruption.

As an aside, I know my focus on sports is largely frivolous -- especially in light of a global pandemic -- I really do get it.  Sports are comparatively not important.  I agree.  But they also serve as a bit of a marker for me, and frankly March Madness is a truly special time for me and my family.  It’s not more important than health… but to be honest, where the news hit me first was basketball.  I think that’s weird, and has the potential to be MUCH more weird as more people get sick.  Sometimes I seem to process the news differently by the hour.  But also part of the point of this is to allow me to get some of that “processing” out.  And for better or worse, I’m telling you that cancelling basketball for the rest of the year hit me.  I’m not going to pretend it doesn’t matter.  It mattered.  But I recognized at the time (and want to re-emphasize now) that I know it’s lower on the tiers of things I ought to worry/care about. 

I’m not sure to what extent this will turn into a parenting blog… if it does, it won’t be one of those that you want to model or take ideas from.  Case in point: today the twins made up a game called “rock socks” -- it’s what it sounds like.  They put a bunch of rocks in their socks.  While they were still wearing them.  Then they took them off so they could fill them with more rocks.  Then they ran around barefoot swinging socks full of rocks.  It was like 40 degrees out.  On several levels, this was inadvisable.  

why

it's gotta be cold. Twin1 is in a winter coat.

it's a lot of rocks.

Anyway, we almost made it two days before we turned our clothes into weapons.

COVID blog - Day 1 - He ate a what?

First of all… let’s be transparent.  I’ve titled this “Day 1” but is it really day 1?  Is this just an indolent attempt at a two day head start on my quarantine day counting?  It’s Saturday after all.  There is no mandated quarantine and kids aren't in school on Saturday anyway.

Well, there was a state-wide school closure announced yesterday (Friday the 13th) and the zeitgeist is definitely self-quarantine/social distancing… so despite this not being an “e-learning” day for the kids, it certainly FEELS like quarantine Day 1.  By the way, whenever someone says or types “social distancing” a puppy is drowned in the water melted from polar ice caps.  Tragedy layered on tragedy.  Stop it.

So why start this?  Oh, dear reader (and that is intentionally singular, since I assume the only person reading this is my wife - hi honey!), the reasons are myriad.  Let me count the ways:

1. I seem to have slightly more time. For instance, I am not currently commuting 2+ hours every day… so… there’s some time.
2. This seems like a unique time in history - at least in my lifetime thus far - I thought I’d try to document at least a small sliver of it for posterity.
3. True to form for this interweb-based-log, I could stand to lose some weight.  To that end, I have been committed to a regimen of sorts (to be described later) and might as well mock myself in a vain attempt to increase compliance.  In keeping with the full disclosure sentiment of this post, however, I did not intend to publicly mock myself for fitness attempts prior to the onset of the global pandemic.

Anyway, I’m going to give this a shot. We’ll see how it goes - at this point it’s all very surreal.  I think it’s interesting how we process major world news -- primarily how selfish we are.  It’s amazing to read the stories coming out of other countries, try to apply it to the United States, but ultimately just be thinking “yeah, but how does this affect me?”  That level of myopic selfishness is surprisingly ingrained.  Or maybe it’s just me and I’m a big fat jerk.

Not a lot of update today.  Twin2 ate a colored pencil.  How much of it you ask?  I mean… some.. Which is to say, more than “none” which is where I’d usually set a goal for “how much of a colored pencil did my child eat?”

Twin2 couldn't even make it a day without consuming large amounts of a non-foodstuff

Also, it was a watercolor pencil.  Is that a thing?  WHY is that a thing?  It would seem you really sort of want one or the other - we’re getting paints out and it will be a “thing” or I’m going to go with the least messy option: colored pencils.  Leave it to Twin2 to make the least messy option the one that ends with him gagging blue gunk into the toilet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Feels like a fitting commencement to the quarantine...