Unwitting participants in the pandemic- Day 1
Friday, May 13
This isn't day one of the pandemic but it's the first full day that we've been greatly impacted by it. I feel an inclination to document what has transpired the past few days and how it's impacted us. I don't know if I'll write something every day but I'll definitely write when I have words to express about it.
For the past three weeks or so, I'd been reading a lot of news articles about the coronavirus. I was tracking which states it was in, how many people were becoming ill, etc. I found it interesting (and, of course, heart breaking, to read about deaths from it).
We were first impacted by coronavirus and the great fear of it spreading last weekend when Donnie and Abby's plans for the Arnold Sports Festival changed. The fitness expo that they planned to attend in Columbus was canceled. On the scale of life impactfullness, this was very low. It was mildly disappointing, that was all.
On Monday of this week, our world started to shift in its axis a bit more. I was subbing at the school where I do most of my work. I stopped by the office as I do every day at the conclusion of the school day to turn in my badge. The administrative assistant and another sub were talking about how Ohio State U. had just canceled all classes in person and was going to have only online classes until the end of the month. Whaaaaat? I texted one of my friends whose son goes to OSU and we began chatting about it via text. She said that the dorms and dining halls would be open (bigger whaaaaaat than ever- it made no sense to cancel classes but to continue to allow students to live and eat together. Also, OSU didn't initially cancel labs. Did administers think that students who had labs were somehow less likely than the general OSU student body to have/ get the virus??).
There were only four cases of it in Ohio. That wasn't to say there weren't others who had it and just hadn't been tested but the number seemed very low to have that kind reaction/ response. As we were to find out in the days forthcoming, Ohio decided to take a very precautionary approach to the coronavirus. Within a couple of hours, all public colleges (and probably most private ones) had declared their intent to cease in person classes and do all/only online classes. We contacted Jacob to tell him that UC was moving its classes to online (he hadn't heard yet...). Most of Jacob's classes are conducted in large lecture halls; online instead of in person wouldn't change the tenure of his education as much as someone whose classes were all small. Still, it would be a significant change to his education.
Thursday was the last school day of the week for students in Springboro Community Schools. Friday was a teacher work day. On Thursday, I was subbing in the same school that I'd been at all week. I was subbing for the same teacher all week. She and I had been texting about the progress of the week. On Thursday morning, she texted me that I needed to have her language arts students bring the novel home that they were reading. That seemed really odd. Students always kept the language arts books they were reading at school. Teachers collected them at the conclusion of class. Teachers didn't want students reading ahead, forgetting their books at home, etc. One strange thought popped into my head: teachers were preparing for students to not come back to school on Monday. But that seems too strange to be real. The virus seemed to be only causing extreme sickness and death to the elderly or those with underlying health issues. Kids weren't getting it. Canceling school over a sickness that wasn't in the school seemed oddly extreme. At first I thought there must be another explanation.
But, no. The school was preparing for education to be removed from the school buildings and into students' homes. During the day on Thursday, there was no official word that students wouldn't be coming to school buildings on Monday, but plans were being made/ formed to move school to at home school. If teachers assigned work to students via Google Classroom then students would be e-learning and the day would count as a school day. If students did no classwork during a day at home, then the days at home would be tacked onto the end of the school year. Since no one wants that, e- learning or school at home seemed the best option.
Springboro schools up to this time had only used one of its five "calamity" days- freebies where if school was missed (presumably due to inclement weather) those days didn't need to be made up at the end of the school year. The idea, should the governor ban students from going to school at school, was that Springboro would use its four remaining calamity days for Monday through Thursday of the following week. That meant that no e- learning needed to occur on those days. E-learning would need to commence on Friday. So, that's what the teachers worked on, relayed to the kids on Thursday. It was a crazy day to be at the school, that's for sure. Teachers stressed to the students that school was not canceled on Monday but that they needed to be prepared for it in case they didn't go to school on Monday. Students were instructed to bring all of their binders and workbooks home with them.
After the school day ended, the official word came out: the governor canceled all public and private schools in Ohio for three weeks starting on Monday. Even though it was expected, it was still... odd and surreal to me.
Right after school ended on Thursday, I drove straight to Drug Mart. I heard reports of little to no toilet paper in many grocery stores. With the odd school day just behind me (preparing for the long haul of no school in the buildings), I felt a compulsion to prep for life's latest twist- that the world as we knew it was ending (hopefully only very short term but still). One thing I knew I for sure, I didn't want our family to be bereft of toilet paper. Drug Mart had a decent bit of toilet paper. This was likely due to only permitting customers to purchase two packages of it. I bought my two packages plus some hand soap (we were almost out at home), sanitizing wipes... and Reese Eggs. The latter because, chocolate.
Thursday evening, we found out that our church was canceling in- the- church building- church. Instead, our preacher would record a message and that would be made available for us to view at home. We found out that Abby's upcoming dance competition will be postponed.
So...... those were some of the events leading to Friday- what I consider to be our first full day of being greatly impacted by the fall out of cornavirus fears.
The girls and I were at home on Friday. This was a planned day off school so not being at school didn't seem strange. What did seem strange was that we had no idea how long we would be home for (there is an end date to the no school in school but realistically, it's going to get pushed back. The number of cases in the state is only going to increase).
Since the "official" announcement of no school at school hadn't come until after the school day ended on Thursday, the school sent at email that the school buildings at would be open Friday morning. Students could come to their buildings and get all items out of their lockers that they'd need for the near future. So, Friday morning, we went to both girls' schools and they retrieved their items.
We went straight to Walmart from the schools. We needed some supplies. I didn't want the girls spending their days looking at screens. Of course, the following Friday, they'd start e-learning but that would only take a fraction of the time they'd be at home. We had Monday- Thurs. of the next week with nothing that we had to do. I wanted to get some art/ crafts supplies so the girls could engage in some creative endeavors. I wasn't expecting that they'd create works of art- hence Walmart supplies sufficing- I just wanted to make sure we had things to do besides stare at electronic screens. We picked out items and then walked through the grocery section of the store. It was fairly crowded but not overly so. Certain aisles were bare- the toilet paper aisle and few were very sparse- canned soup and rice but overall there appeared to be plenty of food, drinks, produce, candy, etc.
Alyssa wanted to go to a friend's house to work on a school project so I drove her to her friend's house. Before that, Abby and I went on a walk. Abby's foot has still not healed 100% (back from November) and she has been in a boot and avoiding walking for prolonged periods of time. But, she can start transitioning out of the boot per her doctor at her last appointment and, realistically, she likely won't be dancing this spring because the competitions will get canceled. So we took a short walk into town. It felt good to be out and about and walking with Abby :).
When Alyssa was at her friend's house, I received a text from a friend. President Trump was about ready to talk to the nation and many felt he was going to declare a national emergency. As soon as I read that text, I called up to Abby that we were headed to Kroger right then and there. I knew Kroger was busy earlier (we'd passed it on our way to Wal-Mart) and I figured that it would only get busier if Trump declared a national emergency.
Kroger was packed and, unfortunately, out of some items I'd wanted to buy. Ground beef was no where to be seen nor was there any chicken in the packages which is what I normally buy. I saw some chicken in the meat service area and decided to buy it there. The man working at the meat counter was friendly and garrulous so we chatted while he wrapped up the chicken breasts that I bought (after my chicken acquisition- not too, too much, there was only about four pounds left he told me). I asked him when supplies were going to be replenished. He said they were told earlier that they'd be getting a truck with about 30% of what it normally has on it the following day. Then he told me they heard that they'd not be getting a truck at all on Saturday. That changed the trajectory of my shopping. I bought more items than I'd intended to buy initially on hearing that news.
Donnie came home from work a little later than his normal time. He's wondering when his business will feel the impact of the shutdowns/ changes that are our new norm. He said he was really busy on Friday but that wasn't the reason he was home later than usual. There's a hardware store that sells Dot's Pretzels (Kroger is usually always out of them worldwide pandemic or no) and so he stopped there on his way home to buy two big bags (the ones that cost $12 a bag 😲).
When Abby and I walked on Saturday, our destination was downtown Springboro. We stopped at the Sparc and Go facility. It has information about bikes paths in Springboro
The Sparc and Go facility has a vending machine... for bike accouterments and other items not pertaining to bikes but that you might need in the course of a bike ride. It's always interesting to look at the contents...
There are batteries (good to keep in mind for general life purposes). Maps were $10.That seems... excessive
The free items were "sold" out
Lots of Dot's... Here are the bags of Dot's that Donnie bought on Friday. The Dot's pretzel crumble is something that Donnie ordered off of Amazon after Alyssa saw them on Instagram. Donnie and Alyssa are crazy about Dot's.
This isn't day one of the pandemic but it's the first full day that we've been greatly impacted by it. I feel an inclination to document what has transpired the past few days and how it's impacted us. I don't know if I'll write something every day but I'll definitely write when I have words to express about it.
For the past three weeks or so, I'd been reading a lot of news articles about the coronavirus. I was tracking which states it was in, how many people were becoming ill, etc. I found it interesting (and, of course, heart breaking, to read about deaths from it).
We were first impacted by coronavirus and the great fear of it spreading last weekend when Donnie and Abby's plans for the Arnold Sports Festival changed. The fitness expo that they planned to attend in Columbus was canceled. On the scale of life impactfullness, this was very low. It was mildly disappointing, that was all.
On Monday of this week, our world started to shift in its axis a bit more. I was subbing at the school where I do most of my work. I stopped by the office as I do every day at the conclusion of the school day to turn in my badge. The administrative assistant and another sub were talking about how Ohio State U. had just canceled all classes in person and was going to have only online classes until the end of the month. Whaaaaat? I texted one of my friends whose son goes to OSU and we began chatting about it via text. She said that the dorms and dining halls would be open (bigger whaaaaaat than ever- it made no sense to cancel classes but to continue to allow students to live and eat together. Also, OSU didn't initially cancel labs. Did administers think that students who had labs were somehow less likely than the general OSU student body to have/ get the virus??).
There were only four cases of it in Ohio. That wasn't to say there weren't others who had it and just hadn't been tested but the number seemed very low to have that kind reaction/ response. As we were to find out in the days forthcoming, Ohio decided to take a very precautionary approach to the coronavirus. Within a couple of hours, all public colleges (and probably most private ones) had declared their intent to cease in person classes and do all/only online classes. We contacted Jacob to tell him that UC was moving its classes to online (he hadn't heard yet...). Most of Jacob's classes are conducted in large lecture halls; online instead of in person wouldn't change the tenure of his education as much as someone whose classes were all small. Still, it would be a significant change to his education.
Thursday was the last school day of the week for students in Springboro Community Schools. Friday was a teacher work day. On Thursday, I was subbing in the same school that I'd been at all week. I was subbing for the same teacher all week. She and I had been texting about the progress of the week. On Thursday morning, she texted me that I needed to have her language arts students bring the novel home that they were reading. That seemed really odd. Students always kept the language arts books they were reading at school. Teachers collected them at the conclusion of class. Teachers didn't want students reading ahead, forgetting their books at home, etc. One strange thought popped into my head: teachers were preparing for students to not come back to school on Monday. But that seems too strange to be real. The virus seemed to be only causing extreme sickness and death to the elderly or those with underlying health issues. Kids weren't getting it. Canceling school over a sickness that wasn't in the school seemed oddly extreme. At first I thought there must be another explanation.
But, no. The school was preparing for education to be removed from the school buildings and into students' homes. During the day on Thursday, there was no official word that students wouldn't be coming to school buildings on Monday, but plans were being made/ formed to move school to at home school. If teachers assigned work to students via Google Classroom then students would be e-learning and the day would count as a school day. If students did no classwork during a day at home, then the days at home would be tacked onto the end of the school year. Since no one wants that, e- learning or school at home seemed the best option.
Springboro schools up to this time had only used one of its five "calamity" days- freebies where if school was missed (presumably due to inclement weather) those days didn't need to be made up at the end of the school year. The idea, should the governor ban students from going to school at school, was that Springboro would use its four remaining calamity days for Monday through Thursday of the following week. That meant that no e- learning needed to occur on those days. E-learning would need to commence on Friday. So, that's what the teachers worked on, relayed to the kids on Thursday. It was a crazy day to be at the school, that's for sure. Teachers stressed to the students that school was not canceled on Monday but that they needed to be prepared for it in case they didn't go to school on Monday. Students were instructed to bring all of their binders and workbooks home with them.
After the school day ended, the official word came out: the governor canceled all public and private schools in Ohio for three weeks starting on Monday. Even though it was expected, it was still... odd and surreal to me.
Right after school ended on Thursday, I drove straight to Drug Mart. I heard reports of little to no toilet paper in many grocery stores. With the odd school day just behind me (preparing for the long haul of no school in the buildings), I felt a compulsion to prep for life's latest twist- that the world as we knew it was ending (hopefully only very short term but still). One thing I knew I for sure, I didn't want our family to be bereft of toilet paper. Drug Mart had a decent bit of toilet paper. This was likely due to only permitting customers to purchase two packages of it. I bought my two packages plus some hand soap (we were almost out at home), sanitizing wipes... and Reese Eggs. The latter because, chocolate.
Thursday evening, we found out that our church was canceling in- the- church building- church. Instead, our preacher would record a message and that would be made available for us to view at home. We found out that Abby's upcoming dance competition will be postponed.
So...... those were some of the events leading to Friday- what I consider to be our first full day of being greatly impacted by the fall out of cornavirus fears.
The girls and I were at home on Friday. This was a planned day off school so not being at school didn't seem strange. What did seem strange was that we had no idea how long we would be home for (there is an end date to the no school in school but realistically, it's going to get pushed back. The number of cases in the state is only going to increase).
Since the "official" announcement of no school at school hadn't come until after the school day ended on Thursday, the school sent at email that the school buildings at would be open Friday morning. Students could come to their buildings and get all items out of their lockers that they'd need for the near future. So, Friday morning, we went to both girls' schools and they retrieved their items.
We went straight to Walmart from the schools. We needed some supplies. I didn't want the girls spending their days looking at screens. Of course, the following Friday, they'd start e-learning but that would only take a fraction of the time they'd be at home. We had Monday- Thurs. of the next week with nothing that we had to do. I wanted to get some art/ crafts supplies so the girls could engage in some creative endeavors. I wasn't expecting that they'd create works of art- hence Walmart supplies sufficing- I just wanted to make sure we had things to do besides stare at electronic screens. We picked out items and then walked through the grocery section of the store. It was fairly crowded but not overly so. Certain aisles were bare- the toilet paper aisle and few were very sparse- canned soup and rice but overall there appeared to be plenty of food, drinks, produce, candy, etc.
Alyssa wanted to go to a friend's house to work on a school project so I drove her to her friend's house. Before that, Abby and I went on a walk. Abby's foot has still not healed 100% (back from November) and she has been in a boot and avoiding walking for prolonged periods of time. But, she can start transitioning out of the boot per her doctor at her last appointment and, realistically, she likely won't be dancing this spring because the competitions will get canceled. So we took a short walk into town. It felt good to be out and about and walking with Abby :).
When Alyssa was at her friend's house, I received a text from a friend. President Trump was about ready to talk to the nation and many felt he was going to declare a national emergency. As soon as I read that text, I called up to Abby that we were headed to Kroger right then and there. I knew Kroger was busy earlier (we'd passed it on our way to Wal-Mart) and I figured that it would only get busier if Trump declared a national emergency.
Kroger was packed and, unfortunately, out of some items I'd wanted to buy. Ground beef was no where to be seen nor was there any chicken in the packages which is what I normally buy. I saw some chicken in the meat service area and decided to buy it there. The man working at the meat counter was friendly and garrulous so we chatted while he wrapped up the chicken breasts that I bought (after my chicken acquisition- not too, too much, there was only about four pounds left he told me). I asked him when supplies were going to be replenished. He said they were told earlier that they'd be getting a truck with about 30% of what it normally has on it the following day. Then he told me they heard that they'd not be getting a truck at all on Saturday. That changed the trajectory of my shopping. I bought more items than I'd intended to buy initially on hearing that news.
Donnie came home from work a little later than his normal time. He's wondering when his business will feel the impact of the shutdowns/ changes that are our new norm. He said he was really busy on Friday but that wasn't the reason he was home later than usual. There's a hardware store that sells Dot's Pretzels (Kroger is usually always out of them worldwide pandemic or no) and so he stopped there on his way home to buy two big bags (the ones that cost $12 a bag 😲).
When Abby and I walked on Saturday, our destination was downtown Springboro. We stopped at the Sparc and Go facility. It has information about bikes paths in Springboro
The Sparc and Go facility has a vending machine... for bike accouterments and other items not pertaining to bikes but that you might need in the course of a bike ride. It's always interesting to look at the contents...
There are batteries (good to keep in mind for general life purposes). Maps were $10.That seems... excessive
The free items were "sold" out
Lots of Dot's... Here are the bags of Dot's that Donnie bought on Friday. The Dot's pretzel crumble is something that Donnie ordered off of Amazon after Alyssa saw them on Instagram. Donnie and Alyssa are crazy about Dot's.
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