Pandemic at School Week 29

Pandemic at School

 

Week 29

 

Day 195 – Sunday, September 27, 2020

 

Parenting young adults must be difficult.  A bestie of mine has two young adult children who have both moved far away.  One is several hours away, the other is several states away.  The out of stater has a roommate who has tested positive and they have symptoms as well.  Will they take their mom’s advice?  Nope…. 

 

Hannah will be 18 in less than a month.  She is a great kid who makes good choices most of the time.  I’m not ready.  Right now, she’s driving home from her boyfriend’s house, and I have to distract myself because I worry about her driving in the dark.  I’m excited for her, but I’m not ready.  

 

Today, Leah spotted a fast moving, dark colored critter in her room.  I’m assuming it’s a lizard.  We’ve had a lizard in the house before…. I was startled by a lizard in the bathroom at school last week.  She left the door to her room open all day in hopes that the cats would be interested in said critter, and help us find it.  Nope.  She won’t go in her room even though she’s “not scared of lizards”.  I told her I’d make sure it wasn’t in her bed…

 

I made chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy (Leah made salads for us) with gluten-free flour.  Little to no gluten seems to help me not gain water weigh, and I’m hoping it will help with some arthritis I have.  I was impressed that the gluten-free flour made a pretty good gravy.  I wasn’t sure how much to use and I could have added a little more, I think.  It was a good dinner.   

 

I cut out some masks from Halloween print fabric that I bought back in August.  Then I realized that I didn’t have any decent black thread, so Leah and I took a trip to JoAnn for thread.  For the life of me, I can’t figure out why all the craft stores are within a mile radius of each other on the opposite side of town.  I didn’t get any masks sewn, but I got three cut out.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel like sewing them.  

 

I had my EVV/ICT book via Zoom tonight where we discussed Black is the Body (an excellent book).  It was my turn to pick, and I wanted light and fluffy, so I chose Howl’s Moving Castle.  Everyone was pretty excited which made me happy.  Everyone has so much going on, that it’s hard to read a book that is emotionally taxing.  

 

The state has a color-coded metric for COVID.  Blue is best, then yellow, orange, and red.  My county is currently yellow.  We may narrowly miss moving to orange this week (our positivity rate is currently less than 5%, but barely).  With all restrictions now lifted, I don’t see those numbers getting better.  People are still required to wear masks, but local folk are truly terrible at that.  

 

Day 196, Monday, September 28, 2020

 

 

I saw all the students on my schedule today, except for those who were absent.  My virtual student for the day did not show.  It was a good, busy day.

 

There was a bit of a kerfuffle at school, but I can’t go into details.  That got me a bit riled up.

 

I think I may have a patch of fungal rash near my facial scar.  I’m sure the antibiotic ointment is to blame.  You just can’t win some times.  So, I’m putting antifungal on one spot and antibiotic on the rest… ridiculous.  The whole thing is itchy.  

 

I made Chrissy’s chicken and noodles for dinner, but my chicken and sauce were over riced cauliflower which is definitely not as tasty.  There  were leftovers, so I guess we will need a leftover night this weekend.  

 

Elijah’s school has another positive case, their second.  The student is a freshman, so Elijah is unlikely to have had any direct contact.  I’m not all that concerned about Elijah bringing it home.  It seems pretty clear that the girls and I are a LOT more likely to come in contact with a positive person at school than Elijah is.  

 

 

Day 197 – Tuesday, September 29, 2020

 

This morning at school was spent on a WebEx conference with a parent who seems to believe that the world revolves around her and her child.  It was so frustrating, that I turned my video off for 99% of the meeting because I couldn’t make nice faces.  There was so much eye rolling on my part that I’m surprised they didn’t get stuck that way!

 

After lunch, I was very busy seeing my students.  It was a good kind of busy.  I had one great virtual therapy session and one no-show.  I’m asking for guidance on how many no-shows are allowed before we stop scheduling them.  I did a “what am I” activity with several groups, and “backpack” is one of the answers.  I had two boys, in back to back groups who said, “packpack”.  Of course, one of them likes to have “smowball” fights, lol.  

 

During kindergarten dismissal, when we were down to about four kids a little guy had to go to the bathroom.  When he came back 30 seconds later, he said, “I peed all over the place, even on my mask!”  LOL!!  His mask was on a lanyard, and not on his face…. Only in kindergarten. 

 

Elijah had Business Club after school, so I picked him up around 4:15.  We had appointments for a drive-through flu shot clinic downtown at 5:45, but we had to pick up the girls.  Leah was freaking out about getting a shot, so I bribed everyone with dinner at Chick-fil-a afterward.  Four nurses surrounded the car and gave us all shots simultaneously.  Elijah had been talking up how much the flu shot didn’t hurt so Leah wouldn’t freak out (even though his memory was of a painful flu shot…).  My shot really burned, and I actually teared up.  The kids all said theirs didn’t hurt!  So, that’s done.

 

After dinner, Elijah pulled out the Josten’s class ring information that he got at school yesterday.  He did a good imitation of the sales pitch, lol.  Neither Elijah nor Leah had ever heard of a class ring (I certainly never had one), so they thought the whole idea was ridiculous and comical.  

 

Day 198 -Wednesday, September 30, 2020

 

Vanderburgh county has officially moved to level orange (blue is best, yellow, orange, red is worst).  School superintendent claims there is “no spreading in the schools” so they will remain in person.  

 

I did not put a bandage on my face for the first time while at school.  I wasn’t sure if my mask would irritate it, but it was fine.  I think I may have a fungal rash surrounding the scar, so I need to get that taken care of.  I can’t really start wearing my scar reduction bandages if I have a fungal rash…. Fungus would love that.  

 

Today was my travel day, where I saw kids at the middle school and the high school along with a group lesson in one of my elementary self-contained class rooms.  That was fun.  I saw one of my preschoolers who is a spitfire.  I had to get her to fake cough to try to teach her the /k/ sound.  I’m sure her parents and teachers will love that during a pandemic, lol.  

 

Leah is at a Wednesday night church activity with her friend, Libby.  After I dropped her off, I drove across town to pick up Hannah’s prescription (it’s $100 cheaper at Meijer… so worth the drive).  Now, I’m sitting in the car in the church parking lot waiting for the activity to finish.  It seemed pointless to go home when I’d have to drive back 30 minutes later.  I brought my laptop, set up a hotspot on my phone, and paid bills.  

 

It was a pretty good day.

 

Day 199 (!!) – Thursday, October 1, 2020

 

The school day was busy but pretty uneventful.  I did get stopped by the principal so he could inform me that he’s changing the master schedule…. Starting Monday.  So, my schedule will need some tweaking, but hopefully, not an entire overhaul.

 

Elijah had speech/debate after school, but he failed to tell me beforehand, so I waited for him for the better part of an hour.  

 

We got home around 5pm, and I threw some frozen burger patties under the broiler for dinner.

 

After dinner, Hannah I (almost) finished up The Common App.  There are some school specific essays to write, but none are too long.  We had Parchment send her transcripts to The Common App with no hiccups.  THEN, I filled out the FAFSA.  SWEET. FANCY. MOSES.  I’m pretty sure that anyone without a college degree would need help with it.  I got it figured out, but it’s ridiculous and confusing.  Through The Common App, Hannah is applying to Butler, Indiana University (Bloomington), University of Evansville, and Notre Dame.  We will start regular applications for Univ of Southern Indiana (a mile south of my house) and Indiana State another day, but soon.  

 

Day 200 – Friday, October 2, 2020

 

Wow day 200 of my pandemic journal.  That’s crazy.  President Trump announced that he and the First Lady tested positive for the Novel Coronavirus.  This evening, he was transported to Walter Reed Hospital via Marine One.  Of all the things 2020 has thrown at us, this is the biggest yet.

 

Leah has a sore throat and is congested.  I’m starting to feel something coming on tonight as well.  I will see how we are doing in the morning, and make a decision about testing then.  Maybe, I’m just “Friday evening tired”.

 

It was another busy, but good day at school.  I was sent home with homemade applesauce courtesy of Jan Wolfe, kindergarten teacher extraordinaire.   Normally, the class makes applesauce, this year she made it at home, but peeled a few apples at school.  …due to COVID…

 

There was some puking at school, and I know another student was home with the same.  COVID barfing or regular barfing?  

 

Today, Vanderburgh reported its highest number of positive cases in one day, 86 new cases.  That breaks our record by 12 cases!  Holy Smokes!