When last we left off, the governor of Kansas had just shut down schools for the reminder of the school year. By the end of this post, Douglas County will have followed the leads of New York, California and Johnson County, KS by issuing a “stay-at-home” order.
Day 5 – Wednesday, March 18, 2020
High School Track Season Cancelled
After sulking in the sunroom the night before trying to wrap my mind around the finality of the school year suddenly coming to an end, I resolved that I would get up in the morning and start being productive. My morning came earlier than usual as the dog was barking at 3:30 in the morning. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I took him outside, brought him back in and then laid back down until about 7:00 AM. Later that day, one of my neighbors posted a message to our Facebook group about being woken up around the same time to someone in the neighborhood rummaging through his trash. It appeared that other residences had been rummaged through as well. This type of behavior is disquieting. I am hoping it was random and unrelated to the growing anxiety the community due to COVID-19, but I am not so sure. These are not times to be jacking with people’s sense of security particularly at 3:30 in the morning. People are on edge.
I went to a meeting at 11:30 AM and it was nice to get out of the house and interact with colleagues even though we had to follow social distance guidelines. The meeting was focused on transitioning to an on-line format for our students and the process of keeping our staff and students engaged through a virtual platform. Meetings with students will be limited to small groups with the expectation that the majority of instruction will be delivered on-line. Readily available technology will make this possible, but it will be curious to see how some of the dinosaurs in the profession adjust to this new teaching method.
The teenagers in the house are still mad at us for the lockdown last week, but they have been encouraged to get outside and exercise, which is good advice for all of us and at least they are doing that.
I received a notification that our daughters’ high school track apparel had come in, but earlier in the day KSHSAA had made the difficult decision to cancel all of the spring sports and activities so that was kind of sad to go and pick that up and have to bring it home to the girls. This track team was the two-time 6A defending state champions. Later in the day, the 200 email notifications from my calendar indicating all of the activities I had put on my calendar were cancelled really hit hard. It really stung that these kids were going to lose their spring season and I felt particular heartbreak for our senior daughter who will not get another chance to wear a uniform for her high school.
As of today, the health department in Lawrence ordered a close of all restaurants and bars. I ran to Hy-Vee in the afternoon to mail a package and while there, checked the TP isle and as usual, it was totally cleaned out. That evening, the weather was decent enough for my wife and I to take the dog for a walk so that felt good.
Nationally, President Trump signed a $100 billion aid package with provisions for emergency paid leave and free testing. Congress has already begun working on a massive economic stimulus package to avoid a calamity caused by the outbreak.
In some bit of good news, Wuhan, China reported no new cases of COVID-19.
Day 6 – Thursday March 19, 2020
Kansas Sunshine
Today would be one of the best days of the whole year – the opening round games of the March Madness tournament. Basketball starts at 11:00 AM and games are played until midnight, but as we know, the tournament this year has been cancelled. Kansas by the way was the unanimous #1 ranked team heading into this tournament 😦
I was fortunate to have another meeting that allowed me to get out of the house today. The situation in Kansas is changing every day, if not every hour. The state board of education has released a document on how continuing education should play out in Kansas. In the document, the state emphasizes that teachers need to understand that “less is more” and above all other things, demonstrate “grace” with your students. If anything can come about from this terrible virus, I appreciate that the state felt compelled to remind all of us that above all things, we must demonstrate kindness. This is a profound and necessary reminder.
It was 75 and sunny in Lawrence today. At least the weather is cooperating as we settle into our new routines. If we were in the dead of winter and the sun was setting at 5 PM every night, this would be way more difficult to deal with.
California (the 8th largest economy in the world) issued a stay-in-place order this evening.
Day 7 – Friday, March 20, 2020
March Sadness
Today is normally a holiday for Amy and me – The first Friday of March Madness. While our anniversary is important (23 years this summer if you are counting), this is the one day we look forward to each basketball season. Every year, we both take off work and find a local establishment to settle into at 10:45 AM and then spend the entire day eating, drinking, talking and watching basketball. Instead, I was up at 6:45 AM to get to Dillons for a grocery run. And in true Kansas form, is was 32 degrees this morning which was just pitiful
There was no TP at that hour of the day. It had been cleaned out by the 6 AM crowd before I got there. However, there was a good supply of meat and chicken and I did a good job of getting as much as I could off of the girls’ wish lists for snacks. I ran into a colleague from work which was nice and it was even nicer when he texted me while I was in the other end of the store to tell me that a worker was stocking the TP shelf. Maybe that is the way to shop these days. Two enter the store and one hangs out by the sanitizer and TP isle while the other gathers groceries. FYI, you don’t have to worry about our family, we have a good supply of TP and sanitizer but I am always amazed at how quickly these two items get cleaned out at stores.
New York City shut down today issuing a stay-at-home order but in a bit of some good news, the tax filing deadline has been pushed back to July 15th!
Day 8 – Saturday, March 21, 2020
The Gambler
After one full week of trying to adjust to a new normal, I can’t tell if I am overreacting or under reacting to what is going on. The news brings little comfort as the number of positive COVID-19 cases begins to rise exponentially and now entire states are shutting down.
I went out to liquor store looking specifically for something we could set on shelf and not open until all of this is over. I found a golden bottle of champaign from the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory last month. Hard to believe that was just this past February. Anyways, the bottle is sitting on the hutch in our dining room just waiting for the day to pop it open. I put a label on it from when we went on lockdown as a family – 3/17/2020
Kenny Rogers passed away today. I am not a huge fan, but Amy certainly is, largely because her dad was a big fan of Kenny Rogers and Amy fondly remembers driving around with her dad in his truck listening to The Gambler. After a day filled with deep house cleaning and a massive picture hanging project in our upstairs hallway, there was nothing left to do but put on some Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits and have a few drinks in the sunroom to put this day to bed.
Day 9 – Sunday, March 22, 2020
Lawrence Joins the Shutdown
Today was just a rainy and gloomy day. Ever since being teased with 75 degree weather a few days ago, the weather has just sucked.
I love that parishes around the state have organized to live stream masses on Sunday mornings, but one of the most joyous parts of physically attending mass is the community of people that comes along with it. Social distancing from this virus has prevented that from happening. Easter is a few weeks away and it has been a long time since we haven’t attended the Triduum and is is becoming more and more likely every day that it won’t happen this year. Will it be safe to let the Easter Bunny into the house?
I am trying to find normal things to do. Normalcy and routine is necessary to get through the crazy days ahead. A Sunday does not bring the finality to a week that it once did. In some ways, the hours and days are all starting to blend together. Sunday feels like Saturday and Saturday fells like Friday. The only real difference is that more and more things around the country gets shut down with each passing day.
As luck would have it, I had ordered a bunch of frozen pizzas earlier this year as a fundraiser from a local basketball program and I was able to pick those up today. These are delicious, gourmet pizzas and was just what we were craving this evening for dinner. Plus, I now have a supply of frozen pizzas that I didn’t have to go out to the Thunderdome and try to scrape up what was left of frozen pizzas off of the bottom of the freezer section.
News came out of Johnson County this evening that a stay-at-home order has been put in place. Since we are right next door and have 4 out of the 64 cases in the state, it won’t be long before we have a stay-in-place order too. At 10 PM, Douglas County issued its stay-at-home order. We will have until midnight tomorrow to get everything we need and then only essential business and people will be allowed to operate. We can still go to the store as long as we are following social distance guidelines and we are still allowed to get out and take walks, so not much will change from what we have already been doing the last few days, but still, this is the first time in my life that I have been told by my community to stay home, and that yes, you will need to surrender some of your current freedoms in order to the protect the common good.
Current Mood:
People rummaging through the trash at 3:30 in the morning and the constant discovery of empty shelves at the grocery store has me thinking….
Welcome to the Jungle – Guns N Roses
#ucandewitt 