Welcome to Pandemic School
Week 6
Day 35 – Sunday, April 19, 2020
Oh. It’s April 19th. That is a significant date for people from Oklahoma. Today is the 25th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. I can not believe it has been 25 years.
Twenty-five years ago, this morning, I was sitting on an ugly green couch in the living room of Stout Hall at Oklahoma State University. I was finishing up my Junior year for my B.S. in Psychology. I was getting ready to go to work. That was the year I worked for the Dept of Foreign Languages as an assistant to their academic advisor. As I walked to work, I cut across the Stout lawn and passed some Physical Plant workers who happened to have a radio on. I couldn’t tell what had happened, but I knew something was going on. When I got to the office, my boss told me what was going on, and I was of course, shocked. She was the wife of a pastor and knew there were non-work duties she was going to need to help with, so she sent me home. I spent the rest of the morning watching the news in Stout’s 3rd floor lounge with my floor mates. I don’t remember when I finally spoke to my parents (this was before everyone had a cell phone), but sometime later that day. My mom, who was a nurse at Presbyterian (not far from downtown), had been at a meeting at the hospital. She said the meeting room she was in because a triage in about five minutes. That was a life-changing day.
I worked as a camp counselor at Girl Scout Camp Red Rock that summer, and we flew the flag a half-mast until July 4th. People from all over the country sent things to Oklahoma City to show their solidarity. A Girl Scout troop from Beverly Hills had sent a bunch of teddy bears to the OKC Girl Scout council. The bears ended up being distributed at camp (because what do you do with a bunch of stuffed animals?).
Yesterday in Pandemic School land was just another Saturday with five loads of laundry and lawn mowing. Grocery shopping will happen tomorrow, I think.
Tonight, my book club will meet over Zoom and talk about Where the Crawdads Sing. Two members are in Evansville/Newburgh and two in Wichita, KS and we usually have an Indiana/Kansas FaceTime. Now that everyone has to be socially distant, Zoom it is.
Grilled chicken is on the menu for today which means spring is here!
Elijah’s ELO alarm has been going off for an hour… That kid. I’ll try to wake him up in a bit. I only wake him because he really wants to be up, his body just rebels. Yesterday, the 5th or 6th time I tried to wake him up, he had almost gotten out of bed on a previous attempt. His head was on the foot of his bed and his body was on the ground. He got up not long after that. He’s been having weird dreams, which I hear is pretty normal during Pandemic. He said all the ideas came from video games he’s playing and Pandemic… That seems right. I even had a dream that was related to Animal Crossing last night, but that’s all I remember.
Day 36 – Monday, April 20, 2020
I did a 7am Schnuck’s pharmacy and Wal-mart grocery run this morning. I learned that the pharmacist CAN hear you when you are wearing a mask. I saw our school secretary in the Easter candy aisle, and I was convinced to buy EVEN MORE Easter candy because now it is 75% off. I will add a photo of how much $10 worth of Easter candy is these days… Pretty amazing!
I wore one of the Star Wars masks that my mom made. They are made from a different pattern and have a wire across the top, and I have to say they do fit a lot better. I didn’t have a mask creeping up to my eyeballs while I shopped.
They had a small amount of toilet paper (Northern), and I got some. My estimate of one roll per person per week has been fairly accurate. We are almost half-way through the amount I had on hand when Pandemic started, and now the supply is replenished. I won’t feel the need to get more for about six weeks. Maybe the supply chain will be figured out by then.
They had a good amount of flour and quite a bit of sugar. I didn’t look for yeast since I got a jar last week, and that should also last six weeks or so. I saw a few large bottles of hand sanitizer, but still no rubbing alcohol. Ramen was back in stock, but the brand of alfredo sauce I wanted was not available. Normally, Wal-mart bananas are very green, but today they were already freckled. Are people not buying their normal supply of bananas?
Diet Dr Pepper is in short supply. Schnuck’s had none that I saw, and while Wal-mart did, they did not have my preferred CHERRY diet DP… They did have the flavors of sparkling, artificially sweetend, flavored water I like… in cans, which I haven’t seen in nearly two years. I hear there is a CO2 shortage, and smaller label carbonated drinks are having difficulty securing what they need. I’m guessing that’s why the flavored DP wasn’t available. They probably want to save it for their most popular lines.
I’m pretty sure that I was dreaming of fishing in Animal Crossing last night… I’m glad it’s the important stuff.
My big To-Do list for today includes contacting a parent to schedule my last IEP conference of the school year.
I’m supposed to close on my mortgage re-finance tomorrow, but I don’t where, lol.
Day 37 – Tuesday, April 21, 2020
The only reason I have any idea what day it is comes from writing this…
I still don’t know if I’m closing on my re-finance today, or where I’m supposed to go if I do. I did send an email asking for clarification last night.
I left a voice mail with my student’s parent, but I haven’t heard back.
My kids have been wanting me to air fry some egg rolls I bought a month ago, but I kept forgetting. Since you can’t air fry large quantities, and it still takes a normal amount of time to cook, I decided on a “progressive” air fried lunch yesterday. It was fun and delicious. We started with the egg rolls (from Aldi’s frozen section), while we ate those; mozzarella sticks were in the air fryer. Hannah is obsessed with mozzarella sticks, and these were amazing. While we ate, mozz sticks, the chicken fries cooked. By the time we got to chicken fries, Leah was full, so Elijah got most of hers. It was fun to gather the kids at mid-day for an extended period (usually lunch is make your own when you are hungry).
Tonight I am grilling burgers and deep-frying fresh cut French fries. Yum! It’s all about health food at the Rosen house, lol.
Day 38 – Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Time really seems to have no meaning anymore; it is the weirdest thing ever. I know the first week home seemed like a month with all the new information being thrown at us all day, every day. Now, the days seem to just go by so quickly. I can’t believe we’ve been out of school for as long as we have. It’s just downright crazy.
Today, I have my first WebEx IEP Case Conference that I’m in charge of, and I’m just a bit nervous. I work with the mom, and I know she has the tech at home to join the meeting. She’s easy to work with, but there’s still a knot in my stomach this morning. Working from home is not always easy. I can’t run down the hall to a classroom and ask for the information I need. The other conference I need to set up and hold before the end of the school year is currently difficult to set up. It looks like old school snail mail might have to get involved.
Last night’s burgers and fries were a hit, and there were no grilling casualties. The weather was warm enough that I could open some windows to relieve the house of some of the deep fried lard smell. It’s still lingering this morning, but not as much.
We are at that time of year where you sometimes need the heater overnight, but might need the AC in the late afternoon. I failed to turn the heat on last night, and it was fairly chilly when I woke up. That didn’t help me get out of bed!
So far, it’s a beautiful, sunny day! I think clouds are supposed to roll in at some time, and we will have rainy weather for the rest of the week. That’s typical Evansville.
Day 39 – Thursday, April 23, 2020
My WebEx went fine yesterday, my internet was spotty, but was otherwise a non-event.
Our internet has not been great for a while. I pay extra to have 100 mbs, so yesterday I did a speed test. Well, actually, I did half a dozen. The first test was around 50 mbs download with 5 upload, the second 120 mbs with 5 upload, the third 20 mbs with 5 upload… It’s just really inconsistent. If I have a WebEx, my computer is always plugged into an Ethernet cable so I don’t have to deal with WiFi issues… it’s still an issue. Elijah resets the modem and the router daily.
Today, I have an IEP to work on for a 2:00 meeting, but I’m a secondary service provider, not the primary, so I’m not in charge. At the same time, we have a faculty meeting… so I’ll miss that. Maybe I can request some live texts updates on anything major.
My closing happened on Tuesday like it was supposed to. When I drove up the title company, I realized I’d been there before. It must have been for a refinance for the previous house because when we purchased the Wiltshire house, the title company was in Newburgh (this one was downtown Evansville). When I refinanced after my divorce, the title company lady came to my house on MLK day to get everything signed. That was amazing!
No school tomorrow since it was a snow makeup day that we didn’t use… State waiver day on Monday, so girls get a four-day weekend from virtual assignments. Leah will be thrilled! Hannah will probably still watch College Board videos to prepare for her AP tests. Elijah no longer has class on Fridays, and starting in May only AP classes are meeting (he only has AP US History).
Day 40 – Friday, April 24, 2020
I guess this was an interesting way to experience what 40 days feels like. I have generally left the house a couple of times a week, so it’s definitely not a true quarantine for me. Hannah and Elijah, on the other hand, haven’t been in a car since March 30 when we picked up school lunches and they had to be present. Leah has ridden in the car with me a couple of times since then, but the last time was April 13. I would not know that information on my own, but the Life360 app has kept track.
It seems strange to say that we are out of school today when there’s been no physical school for six weeks, but today is a make up snow day, and there’s no school. No virtual assignments will be sent, no Zoom classes, no WebEx meetings, no 6th grade math, nothing. We are excited about that. To celebrate we are going to get Sonic for lunch and drive to a parking lot to have a picnic in the hatchback of the car. We will take camping chairs and eat our Sonic burgers & tots in the fresh air. Leah’s best friend, Libby, will be doing the same, 6 feet away.
The SAT sent notification that the next test date will be in September. Looks like Hannah will definitely need to take it on that date. She was supposed to take it in March and April, but that obviously didn’t happen. She did take the ACT twice already.
The YMCA announced they were planning on opening on May 4th, but not group classes or child watch. I guess they are moving the treadmills and ellipticals farther apart, but you couldn’t pay me to get in the pool.
I do believe Evansville has done a pretty good job with the stay-at-home order (think of all the Easter candy that didn’t get bought for weeks) and is predicted to be able to open sooner rather than later. I remain cautiously optimistic.
Day 41 – Saturday, April 25, 2020
Yesterday was a fabulous day. It’s amazing what a couple of hours out of the house, in the sunshine, six feet away from friends can do for your outlook on things! I’m calling it Pandemic Picnic.
We ordered Sonic from the app and picked it up at the drive-in at the specified time. That was nice. The 5 minute drive to Sonic made Hannah carsick (headache & nausea) mainly because she hasn’t been in a car for nearly a month. I got my all time favorite Sonic drink, a strawberry vanilla Dr Pepper (real, not diet), and it was amazing.
Libby’s mom, Tiffany, and I talked and talked and talked. I was starting to get hoarse when we left (a couple of us needed the bathroom). After we finished eating, Leah and Libby got out some sidewalk chalk and sat six feet apart to chalk up the park. I didn’t look to see how much drawing they did, but they were having a good time. They planned on having a virtual sleepover and watch a movie vie Netflix Party, but Libby doesn’t have Netflix so that didn’t work.
I got my old laptop wiped and MacOS reinstalled for Leah. She just wanted it for Netflix Party… but maybe that can still happen sometime.
We still got Azzip pizza for dinner, but that might have been a bit much after a Sonic lunch.
Today will have a small grocery trip to Walmart and laundry. Lawn mowing was on the to-do list but I think it’s going to rain most of the day. Looks like that might have to wait until Monday…. I have a few clerical things to do to wrap up last week’s school stuff. I guess that wraps up the 6th week of Pandemic School.
8:45am update: I felt the need to write an update after this morning’s Walmart run, lol. There is now lots of liquid hand soap available, and I found rubbing alcohol (Oh! My! Gosh! This is the first time I’ve seen it in six weeks!). Also, the rubbing alcohol bottle is double the size I had in my bathroom cabinet, now it comes in 32 oz bottles. I likely will not need more for years to come. I found a box of my hair highlighter. It was the last one and had been partially opened, but everything was in the box, so I bought it. If I’m going to have shaggy hair, it’s going to be blonde…. In the “seasonal” aisle between men’s clothing and the grocery section, there was a section with everything you need to create Bloody Marys. There was no celery, but everything else. I almost took a photo, but just stopped and cackled instead. Because I was trying my hardest to follow the one-way direction of each aisle, I had to go down a couple of unnecessary to me aisles. I went down the toilet paper aisle (Cottonelle is in stock, that is my preferred brand, but I’m stocked up for a few months) so I could get to the Kleenex. Since I still have three boxes, I can be picky on Kleenex, they didn’t have what I wanted though there were lots of Puffs. In a couple of weeks, I will get what they have. I had to go down the cleaning aisle to get to the drink aisle, and I’m happy to note that there was lots of bleach. I was concerned that there might be a run on disinfectant, but there was not. I got the girls some striped short overalls that I had previously taken a photo of and each had approved, and Leah got a pack of 50 colored pencils to go with the adult coloring book her dad sent (she “only” had a 12 pack with no good colors…). I was happy to stock up on fruit and milk, and grabbed a specific cereal that had been requested by Elijah (chocolate Mini Wheats). Still no flavored Diet Dr Pepper, so I opted for more artificially sweetened, carbonated, flavored water. They were out of peach, but still had strawberry, and I grabbed black cherry as well. It will have to do.
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