Pandemic at School
Week 49
Day 334 – Sunday, February 14, 2021
Happy Valentine’s Day! I have Snoopy valentines at school to give to my students…. But we haven’t been to school since Tuesday, lol.
I checked the temperature in the garage this morning when it was 7 degrees outside. It was about 34 in the garage, so I was glad that I’d moved all of the drinks inside. I don’t want any frozen soda mess to clean up! The rest of the week the lows aren’t predicted any lower than 9 degrees. They can stay in the laundry room for a few days.
Today, I washed sheets and towels. I vacuumed and did dishes. I tried to get everything ready so I could do absolutely nothing tomorrow if necessary while recovering.
I got my second COVID vaccination today!! There was absolutely NO LINE. It was pretty weird. This injection didn’t sting like the first one did. I barely felt it at all. 3 ½ hours later, and my arm is a little bit sore, I have a mild headache, and a bit of cold sweats.
I had book club tonight where we discussed The Bees by Laline Paull, which was a vey interesting book. It was good to chat with Karen, Sarah, and Melissa.
I made breakfast for dinner, scrambled eggs, bacon cooked in the oven, and biscuits. It was pretty tasty.
Snow is predicted to start around 9pm, and we are supposed to get a couple of inches overnight, then a lot more in a second wave during the day. They are predicting 6-12 inches of snow. All the different models are agreeing on lots of snow…
Day 335 – Monday, February 15, 2021
Happy President’s Day! I’m glad we have a new President.
When I got up this morning, we had gotten an inch or two of snow. There was a break for several hours before it started back up again. There was a lot of drifting, so it was hard to tell how much we got. On the deck, there was a 7.5 inch snow dune drift, but on the driveway it looked like 3.5 inches around 4pm. It started snowing fat flakes as the sun went down. I guess we’ll see in the morning what it looks like. I’m planning on shoveling the driveway and sidewalk then.
When I went to bed last night, my legs were a bit achy from the COVID shot. When I woke up this morning, my whole body was slightly achy, and my right arm was quite sore at the injection site. After I got up and around, most of the aches went away and I was left with just the achy arm. I had planned to spend the day recuperating and I did. I read, and snacked, and drank lots of fluids, mostly uncaffeinated.
Leah wanted to watch a movie, so we watched Mary and the Witch’s Flower on Netflix. It looked like a Studio Ghibli, but the story was pretty weak. It was okay. I read my book during it, and Leah ran off before it ended.
After dinner, I brought in a bowl of snow for the cats to eat. Leah ended up making a tiny snowman out of it.
Texas and Oklahoma had rolling blackouts to keep their electrical grid up. OKC had -2 this morning, and Wichita had -8. We were about 8 which was plenty cold.
No school tomorrow since the roads are horrible. Elijah will have “e-learning”, EVSC is using state waiver days that we won’t even need to make up.
Day 336 – Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Is it Tuesday? What day is it? It’s like Pandemic School all over again.
We had a snow day, and will have another tomorrow. It’s fine, but I hope to get one day at school this week. Elijah will have e-learning, but EVSC is still working through its 8 waiver days from the state. I mean, why not?
I slept late, got out of bed around 8am, ate breakfast and went out to shovel snow around 9am. Two hours later, I had shoveled the entire driveway and the sidewalks all the way to both of my neighbors’ driveways. I’m not sure anyone else in the neighborhood shovels the sidewalks, but I thought the puppers going for walks would like some shoveled sidewalk.
Two hours of manual labor and my FitBit gave me ONE MINUTE of credit for exercise…. I know my heartrate was up.
The rest of the day was spent recovering from shoveling six inches of snow. Around 4pm I had to take some Advil. I held off as long as I could because of my COVID vaccination, but 48 hours after the fact shouldn’t hurt.
We had shepherd’s pie for dinner and Hannah wanted to watch a movie. We tried to download the Peacock app for FireStick, but apparently there isn’t one. So, we looked at Apple TV since I have a free subscription from buying my laptop. I tried to stream When Harry Met Sally, no dice. Hulu for the win. We watched You’ve Got Mail. Hannah seemed to enjoy it. I did have to explain about AOL and how you really had to connect each time and you couldn’t use your phone if you were online….
Tomorrow, Leah is supposed to go sledding with Libby at Helfrich Park.
Day 337 – Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Another snow day, and another tomorrow, and likely Friday as well. Elijah came out of his room for lunch and said, “This reminds me of The Pandemic [when we were out of school In the spring].” I agree, but I’m a lot less worried and stressed than I was then. However, I don’t live in Texas where the power and water has been out for multiple days due to frigid weather.
Hannah and I went to Wal-Mart at 10am to get bread, a few snacks, yarn for Leah’s crochet project, and counted cross-stitch supplies for Hannah. I also got bird seed and squirrel corn (I’m a sucker). On the way home, we stopped and picked up Chick-Fil-A for lunch.
After lunch, Leah and I got ready for sledding with her friends at Helfrich golf course. First, I had to find our sledding saucers. I hadn’t seen them since the move 2+ years ago. I was pretty sure they were in the shed, but I didn’t see them at first. They had gotten tossed up into the loft, so I had to go back to the garage and get the ladder. Thankfully, we had a pair of snow bibs that fit Leah. I clearly had bought them for Elijah, but they still had the tags on them. His size 2 snow boots fit her as well. Once we got there, Libby found us right away. The hill was deceptively big in the snow. It went a lot farther than it looked. I only went down once, because the trek back up the hill was a bit much. Leah was exhausted after an hour which is all I wanted to stay out anyway.
When we got home, we put on My Neighbor, Totoro and the girls worked on their craft projects.
We had chicken and noodles for dinner.
Day 338 – Thursday, February 18, 2021
It’s official, we are having a Snow Week off of school. Elijah only has a two hour delay tomorrow which means I have to both take him AND remember to pick him up. Poor kid.
Today… we slept late. Goofed around doing very little. After lunch, the girls and I bundled up. They made a snow man and I shoveled the driveway. Hannah wore the snow bibs and boots that I wore yesterday, so I had to wear some hiking boots and layer my clothes. I was actually warmer in my layers that I was in the snow gear yesterday.
When we came back in, I turned on NASA tv to watch the livestream of the Mars rover, Perseverance, land successfully on Mars.
We had lots of leftovers in the fridge, so I warmed those up for dinner.
Leah almost finished her first crochet project, a floppy frog bucket hat. However, it ended up HUGE, so she had to unravel it, and will start again, paying attention to how many stitches are in the first circle.
In COVID news, Vanderburgh County is down to 1.5 and yellow. Things are looking good.
Day 339 - Friday, February 19, 2021
I had to get up on the early side, though later than a normal Friday, so I could take Elijah to school two hours later than normal. Hannah wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to buy embroidery floss for a project, so we went after dropping off Elijah. The main roads were perfect. Main Street downtown, was not. The plows were unable or unwilling to plow the on street parking, so it’s a bit of a mess and will take quite a while to melt.
We finally had mail delivered for the first time since Saturday. We got a couple of good things. Leah got a P-EBT card (Pandemic food stamps to cover the cost of food when out of school). Over the summer Hannah and Elijah had gotten them, and Leah’s $$ was included on Hannah’s since both were in EVSC schools. I have no idea why Leah got sent one of her own. Anyway, there was about $13 per kid on both Leah’s and Elijah’s card, and I checked Hannah’s and it had the $91 left over from the summer. I didn’t get it all spent before July 1st and it went inactive. I’m thinking Hannah didn’t get more money because she’s 18, but I can access the previous money. None of that makes a lot of sense. I’m not sure how an 18 year old who is still in high school and completely dependent on their parents no longer qualifies for that sort of thing… but still gets free lunch at school.
Hannah got some “merch” as Leah puts it from IU College of Arts & Sciences. Some stickers and a journal, a cute idea.
I remembered to pick up Elijah on time, but there was nowhere to park on the street due to the snow piles. I ended up in front of the YMCA as usual.
We ordered pizza, from Dominos which was Leah’s choice, and it was late and barely warm.
I re-watched a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey and Elijah wants me to watch The Queen’s Gambit.
Our weather is predicted to return to normal, and the snow should eventually melt off. Hopefully, Texas will get do the same and people will get their electricity and water back.
Day 340 – Saturday, February 20, 2021
I think I’m ready to get back to school after a week and a half off. I was a bit restless today.
We had to get up on the early side because the exterminator was scheduled to come at 9am. He was here for 7 minutes…. He couldn’t do the outside of the house at all because of the snow. He’ll come back and do that after it all melts off.
I did laundry and not much else.
Lauren Fendrich picked up my old Canon color printer that drove me insane. Hopefully, it works for what she needs it to do.
Hannah and Dylan watched Black Hawk Down this afternoon. I was confusing it with Courage Under Fire… both sad and bloody. I guess I actually remember when the Black Hawn helicopter went down in Mogadishu.
We had sausage rice casserole for dinner even though I really tried to figure out something else to make with that sausage. It was good, the prep is just a mess.
After dinner we watched another episode of The Queen’s Gambit, and it didn’t disappoint. I don’t know why I’m reluctant to watch shows that other people recommend… stubborn, I guess.
It was sunny and got above freezing today. There was a lot of melting snow and ice, but we still have a LOT to go. The back deck is probably down to 4 inches of snow from 10. The birds and squirrels dug in it all day retrieving seeds that I’d scattered for them. I put the drinks back in the garage so I could do laundry, and I’ll be able to leave them in there without worrying about them freezing.
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