This page has many sections and updates. Use these in-page links to navigate:

Intro Week 1 (Spring Break) Week 2 (Extra Child) Week 3 (Distance Learning) Week 4 (Work From Home) Week 5 (thru 04.11) Week 6 (thru 04.18) Week 7 (thru 04.25) Week 8 (thru 05.02) Week 9 (thru 05.09) Week 10 (thru 05.16) Week 11 (thru 05.23) Week 12 (thru 05.30) Week 13 (thru 06.06) Conclusion (early June) Harmonia (06.09) Further Notes (thru 07.21) Week 21 (thru 08.01)

Week 23 (thru 08.15) Week 24 (School Wk 1) Week 25 (School Wk 2) Week 26 (HALF A YEAR) Week 27 (School Wk 4) Week 29 (School Wk 6) Week 30 (School Wk 7) Week 31 (School Wk 8) Week 32 (School Wk 9) Week 33 (School Wk 10) Week 34 (IN-PERSON) Week 35 (School Wk 12) Week 36 (School Wk 13) Week 38 (Thanksgiving) Week 39 (School Wk 15) Week 40 (School Wk 16) Week 42 (XMAS) Notes

Everyone who lived through this time will have stories from the Covid-19 pandemic. They will be very unlike the stories of “where I was when JFK was shot” or “on 9/11, I was...” Because those marked singular moments — signposts if you will — in our lives, but what we’re living through in 2020 is an entirely different type of disruption of global culture and lifestyle. Entire cohorts of high school and college seniors finished senior years at home with graduation ceremonies canceled or online-only. Entire sports seasons, from tiny tots to major leagues, were canceled or postponed. Small businesses dropped like flies into bankruptcy. Millions of individuals and households suffered similar fates. Hundreds of thousands died in this country alone, over several months. At the same time, huge numbers of people pretended the pandemic was “overblown” and then ignored all recommended precautions while the rest of us resented them for it — because it prolonged everything for everyone.

There’s kind of a hole in the timeline, if you will, in which very little was normal. And it lasted long enough that “going back to normal” will feel very strange.

Whatever the eventual outcome, we’ll all have our stories. This one is mine. I began telling this tale in mid-March 2020, hoping to avoid forgetting early details, and then I updated repeatedly as Covid-19 continued to affect our lives.

Week 1 (Spring Break)

We first heard of the “new coronavirus” in late January or early February because we are regular news consumers, but it seemed like previous “outbreak” stories — a curiosity of the headlines from other countries. Wikipedia says the first case in the U.S. was in January, but we didn’t hear about that at the time. The news remained focused on the presidential primaries; anything related to Covid-19 was in that context. Total confirmed cases in the U.S. didn’t pass twenty until the end of February. By then we had already booked accomodations for our Spring Break trip and Covid-19 was only barely on our radar — just enough that we were telling our kids (more than usual) to wash their hands and quit touching everything.

On the first day of our Spring Break (March 9), we saw our first in-person signs of people taking it seriously. At Kemah Boardwalk, lines were short and parking ample. That evening, I went to the Walmart in Webster, Texas, to buy a roll of toilet paper (as I usually do because hotels typically don’t have usable toilet paper), and saw multiple aisles entirely empty — toilet paper, bottled water, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies. Employees seemed dazed when I asked them about it. One employee directed me to the last remaining four-pack of Angel Soft, which I bought. The next day at Space Center Houston the parking lot was nearly empty. The whole thing seemed surreal.

By the time we got home to Killeen, similar effects could be seen. (See related photo.)

The last few days of Spring Break, our local school district (KISD) insisted school would resume as usual, but then Friday evening (March 13), they sent mass text messages saying school would be delayed a week out of an abundance of caution. They framed it as an extended Spring Break during which custodians would use “hospital grade” disinfectant in all facilities. Since the announcement came at the last minute, many parents were left in the lurch, unable to arrange childcare for the coming week (about the same time, daycare centers, YMCAs, and city rec centers all closed too.)

That same weekend (or so; I don’t recall the exact days), we learned our son’s soccer season was over and that our daughter’s dance studio was shutting down, including cancelations of competitions for which we’d already paid and bought costumes.

Week 2: An Extra Child (March 15-21)

During the first week of school cancellation, I watched three children — one of my wife’s coworkers wasn’t able to arrange childcare quickly enough after the school’s announcement. I volunteered mostly because I’m a nice guy, but also because I sometimes selfishly plan strategic acts of kindness in the hopes of future returns. So my kids had a built-in playmate for a few days. It was more pleasant and less stressful than I had envisioned; the child in question behaved exceptionally well.

We couldn’t do much, wanting to avoid contamination, so I organized educational and entertainment activities for the three children in my care. I think each day got progressively better as all of us grew accustomed to the situation. I limited screen time when possible; we played games, learned stuff, ate healthily, and exercised multiple times, including bike rides in our neighborhood. I enforced hand-washing on the children after and before each activity. (See related photo.)

Most of the week, KISD kept saying it was ready to see the kids again the following Monday. But Thursday (March 19), I got an automated call from the school district saying they were closing March 23-27 too. Then the governor superseded that, closing schools for two more weeks. Suddenly theaters closed, restaurants closed their dining rooms, city libraries shut down, etc. The governor strongly recommended not congregating in groups of 10 or more people.

We received a barrage of emails, text messages, and robo-calls from KISD at the, notifying us that “distance learning” would start the coming week. For our children we were given a choice: (1) kids have “access to technology” or (2) we’ll pick up a packet. It turns out that by “technology”, KISD didn’t mean computers or tablets, but printers. We don’t have access to printers and some of the assignments must be done on paper (because Texas education is stuck in the 1980s?), so I made plans to wait in line outside the school on March 25 to pick up their packets.

I began this entry Friday, March 20, already aware that more would be added later. My wife was still going into her office each day as usual. It seemed no one in the federal heirarchy had any idea what to do — more accurately: the people who knew what to do weren’t the ones with authority. No one in the chain of command had yet figured out how implement work-from-home. We had all the groceries and supplies we needed — because we always do. We weren’t out of anything when people began to hoard toilet paper, sugar, canned soup, etc. — there was a certain order to the hoarding: first cleaning supplies and toilet paper, then bottled water and medicine, and finally it filtered down to other nonperishable goods. Perishable goods were still in plentiful supply.

None of us had any symptoms related to Covid-19. (Our son coughed/sniffled through Spring Break but it cleared up; our daughter went a few days after. My wife had allergy-related issues, and I had minor headaches, possibly stress-related.)

My confidence level remained unchanged (very low). None of my worries and/or fears were related to Covid-19. I continued to assume world leaders will do next-to-nothing about the climate crisis, that the incompetent buffoon in charge of the U.S. will flounder and lie and change his mind daily, on almost every subject, that giant corporations will milk their customers and workers for every ounce of profit they can find without much restriction.

By the time I started this entry, we had heard of the checks the government wanted to send out, possibly $3,000 or more for our household, the news stories said. (We immediately decided to use it to finish paying off my wife’s last student loan.) It looked like we’d finish the pandemic with a bit more wealth than we started with — because there were less ways to spend money.

To end Week 2, we visited Dana Peak Park (Saturday, March 21) in Harker Heights, Texas, knowing few people would be there. We made it to the top in a few minutes and RnB explored pretty much on their own. I made a few pictures. (See related photo.) In the afternoon, the children rode their bikes for a few minutes, but it started raining again. It’s been raining a lot. We watched Jumanji 2 via an online streaming service. It was funny, and I think a tad better than the first one.

Week 3: Distance Learning (March 22-28)

Week 3 began with a trip to Urgent Care because R had swimmer’s ear (despite not swimming recently). Both she and my wife were questioned about their health and recent contacts before they were allowed into the facility. At the pharmacy, there were taped-off areas so customers could remain at least six feet from one another, the first we saw of that sort of thing. Once back home, M and the children “went to church” via YouTube — someone at their church had videoed a service and put it online for the stay-at-home parishioners.

That afternoon, I filled out our 2020 U.S. Census forms online, a first for me (I’ve been counted in five such counts by now, three as an adult). It’s the first time our children have been counted in a census. The form was decidedly shorter than the paper packets I filled out in 2000 and 2010. This one was only about the people in our household, their ages, their “races”, and their relationships to one another. That was all. So it only took about ten minutes. (See related photo.)

For the school week, I made a loose schedule, just enough for the children to keep moving from one activity to the next like they’re accustomed to at school. (See related photo.) It included (1) an hour of education each morning and each afternoon — mostly online but also with notebooks, conversations, and reading; (2) some P.E. using an app on Roku called “GoNoodle” that has guided workouts; (3) TV time; (4) play time; and (5) outdoor exercise — usually a 20-minute bike ride. Our HOA hadn’t yet closed down the playgrounds, but we avoided them. The children grew accustomed to our new system and were fairly easy to handle. On Wednesday, we picked up packets of educational materials from the school, which both children found easy to complete in less than the allotted time (and we found out Thursday that we’ll turn in the packets and pick up new ones next Monday). Wednesday we also started using Duolingo, B and I learning Spanish and R trying French. (See related photo.)

My normal chore-doing pace slowed considerably, due to corralling and cajoling children — who aren’t accustomed to spending this much time together. I kept up with the main things like laundry and cleaning bathrooms. My personal reading time shrank to almost nothing and my writing time was limited to updating this blog entry. Online, I saw people complaining about the lack of personal connection while social distancing; I had the opposite problem: not as much solitude as I’m accustomed to (and desire). Still, I’m grateful that I’m able to have direct involvement in my kids’ education.

Monday evening, my edger/trimmer broke. I rushed to buy a replacement before Lowe’s closed — because the county’s “shelter in place” order began at midnight that night and I didn’t know which stores would be open the next day. There were six-feet markers taped on the floor but few people took note. Lines were very long and slow-moving. I got out just before closing time. Roads were noticeably emptier than usual. I assembled the trimmer the following day. Tuesday, Ft. Hood went “mission essential”, which means most servicemembers will stay home. (My wife is mission essential. Her superiors scrambled to think of ways to do these jobs from home.) Thursday, my wife was told to bring home some of her tech to see if she can connect to the work network from home; she could. We worried it would be difficult for her to work from home — we have a small house; no extra rooms, no extra space. We decided she would work in our master closet, the quietest place in the house. (I finally saw the wisdom of the McMansions all around us. Now it makes sense to have all those extra bedrooms and media rooms and multiple living areas.) Friday, she was told she must work from home next week, because her building is being taken over by the Army hospital nearby. Also Friday, I filled up the minivan with gas for $1.689 per gallon — its first fillup since Spring Break.

During this week we noticed even perishable items disappearing from stores. Butter, eggs, milk, lunch meat. We started making forays each evening (and my wife went on her lunch break a few times), a different location each time, hoping to find what we were starting to run out of. Customers began doing better at following the six-feet rules. I witnessed a customer freak out because the store had limited certain items and he wanted more. A manager had to be called, but I think what finally solved it were the large and rough-looking guys behind me voicing their opinions of the freaking-out man. Neither my wife and I came near the freaking-out point, but we did begin to wonder whether our diets would start to change in strange ways, if the stores were unable to stock the staples.

Most days, we observed multiple neighborhood kids playing together with zero social distancing or awareness that anything was amiss except school being out. Some were outside from dawn till dusk, leaving me to wonder if they’re doing any of their school work. We took care to avoid these herds. While on our bike rides, we continued to see people (teens and adults) playing basketball on the neighborhood courts and others (children) on the playscape.

We set heat records on Wednesday and Thursday (89°F and 90°F), enough that B asked for a haircut, which I provided.

Saturday, we drove to Inks Lake State Park — after researching first to learn of any Covid-19 restrictions, which turned out to be reasonable: all but one bathroom closed, all payments via website prior to arrival, check-in with park ranger at a distance, and keep away from other people while in the park. We chose this particular park because the part we hike is almost always empty of people (last time I was there, I saw no one except the ranger I checked in with), and this time was similar.

We hiked for nearly two hours. I found a rattlesnake and showed it to the children (it was out of reach and too cold in its rocky burrow to do anything except move its head). Quite a few lizards scampered to avoid the children, though they seemed happy to sit still for me. Apparently I am non-threatening enough that even skittish animals seem relaxed in my presence. We ate in the car on the way home, and stopped at a Burnet supermarket to see if they had eggs, rice, or paper towels out there. They didn’t.

For all my photos on this day, I used the two lenses I bought last year: the Irix 150mm f/2.8 Macro Dragonfly and the Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM.

Week 4: Work From Home (March 29 - April 4)

Sunday, MRB did church online again (this time a mass from Denver). Then we drove to Chalk Ridge Falls Park; it was closed. Nearby, we found an abandoned park (which Google Maps calls “Overlook Park”. It was on the opposite end of the dam (Stillhouse Hollow Lake) from Chalk Ridge Falls. We walked around for an hour. Families began to show up just as we were leaving. Most seemed to be keeping their distance from one another. We had a “picnic” in our minivan and then looked again for grocrey items that have been out citywide. M found rice and paper towels at a Walmart Neighborhood Market, but still no eggs.

M’s first week of work-from-home went as well as could be expected. She spent a lot of time in our closet (her phone calls are confidential). The rest of that is her story; I won’t tell it here. We did our best to stay out of her way; we continued to use phrases like “have a good day at work” and “Mommy’s home!” to reinforce to the children that despite technically being at home, M can’t be bothered every few minutes. In her evening free time, M joined Duolingo too, choosing French (which she grew up hearing). She took sick leave on Friday, because she has plenty of it saved up and didn’t want to be stuck in the closet for a fifth day in a row.

Except for the Monday drive to the school to drop off packets and pick up new ones, I kept the kids on a schedule like last week’s: education hours in a.m. and p.m., play time, exercise time, and daily walks or bike rides (though we began avoiding evenings due to increasing crowds). with people. Wednesday, we tried one park in Harker Heights but found it crowded; Community Park was emptier, so we walked a mile there. Thursday, we learned that next week KISD will mail the packets to us and we’ll keep the completed ones until they tell us otherwise. It should save time and trouble for parents, but it means getting the packets later in the week. B organized his room. R continued her dance lessons via YouTube with her local studio instructors. (At first, they insisted on Facebook, but my wife just as forcefully insisted that we weren’t joining Facebook.) R posted two videos to her YouTube channel, both talking about the pandemic and stay-at-home measures from a 9-year-old’s perspective. Watch them here: March 31, 2020 and Day 1 With The Pandemic. (Note: both are shaky with constant camera movement, especially the first. If that sort of thing makes you nauseous, don’t watch them.)

I kept up with Duolingo (“Yo soy un estudiante de español”). One reason I began with Spanish is that my ex-pat country of choice has Spanish as its official language. More on that later, depending on the outcome of the pandumbic and the November elections. I’m supplementing with Google and other websites in order to answer questions that arise in my head when using the app. I started keeping a notebook for Spanish lessons because it helps me to write things down and organize them. I figured out how to enable international keyboards on both my PC and tablet (for those symbols we don’t use in English). I updated my website to include a persistent “top of page” link in the lower right corner (at least on my newest pages) to ease navigation. I trimmed the big tree in front which was getting too close to the house and too low over the driveway. I had to do it quickly because of the hordes of non-distancing children all around, many of whom think I’m nice enough to approach and talk to and haven’t been warned enough about the current pandemic. In order to help my daughter with her school work, I had to re-learn all about trapezoids, parallelograms, rhombuses (rhombi?), etc.

I finally found eggs at an out-of-the-way and not very reputable corner store. (See related photo.) The main supermarkets are still entirely out of them (and other staples). The eggs cost about twice what we normally pay. On Tuesday, we learned KISD extended the closing from “April 7 or thereafter” to May 1 (at least), which means at least four more weeks of homeschooling. (Doing education at home wouldn’t be so bad if (1) we’d had a little advance warning to prepare, (2) it could be done entirely online instead of requiring printed packets, and (3) if it wasn’t at the same time as social restrictions.) By Wednesday, the sheer number of people, mostly children, who aren’t following the social distancing guidelines started to get me down. It gave me a bad feeling that this whole thing will have to get worse before some people will take it seriously (or, if it never really gets bad here, their negative opinions of “liberal media” will be reinforced.)

 

Saturday was cold! (42°F, which is rare in April here.) So we stayed inside all day. Movies via streaming, Duolingo, Legos and Beyblades, and talking to cousins and friends via Google Hangouts or Duo or something.

Received RnB’s report cards in the mail. R’s improved from the low point of her most recent progress report, and B’s was simply stupendous (two 100s, three 99s, and a 94). Weirdly, each child’s lowest score was in the subject he or she is best at — B’s in math and R’s in reading. (And I doubt all of R’s scores, since her teacher has been absent since before Spring Break.)

When I noticed a lack of neighborhood children outside, I briefly thought the cause was that locals were suddenly taking the pandemic seriously. In hindsight, I think it was the cold snap.

Week 5 (April 5-11)

MRB again “attended” church via YouTube, the first Palm Sunday in many years that my wife hasn’t actually been in church. I realized it’s historically significant how many people will stay home this Easter season, compared to hundreds of previous Easters — which is the most-attended service of the year for many churches. (Yes, some megachurches in Texas and other states are still gathering to help spread the virus, and some number of Christians believe that the magic of Jesus can protect them from the virus, but in order to stay sane I must believe they are a minority.)

Neighborhood kids were back out today, with the addition of adults and teenagers freely associating two or three feet from each other, two-year-olds tottering across the street alone, and more. It was a huge disappointment. The pandemic will keep going as long as people ignore the stay-at-home recommendations. I wonder what it will take for people here to get serious? Will it have to be someone they know becoming severely ill? Will they continue to risk it even then?

Note: The Department of Defense finally issued a decree that servicemembers and civilian employees on DoD property must wear facemasks, though the rule is tempered by “when they cannot maintain six feet of social distance in public areas or work centers”.

Supermarkets seemed to recover from the initial outages. On Monday, my mind was blown by a friend’s photo of the interior of a supermarket in Oklahoma — how much food was available. But later in the week here, we began seeing tiny stacks of eggs, butter, and other staples that had been previously missing. By Friday, I found toilet paper, though a brand I’d never heard of.

Wife: second week of work-at-home was better than the first, now that we’re used to it. Again she took a sick day on Friday in order to spend more time with the children (and to give me a bit of a break).

The stresses of being cooped up began to flare a little this week. Fortunately, I’ve been watching out for it so I was able to catch a few squabbles in early stages. I reminded the children that all of us are experiencing stresses, that we can catch ourselves before exploding in anger or bursting into tears. This week, the school mailed the packets; we didn’t get them until late Friday, so this week’s education time was with apps, websites, and workbooks. Tuesday, M’s new laptop arrived (an HP Stream). The children took turns using it for schooling. (Our old laptop still works, but barely.) We rode bikes every day. R created and uploaded multiple videos, including Day 2 Pandemic (warning: very spinny), Up & Up Face Wash Review, Clean & Clear Gel Moisturizer Review, and Clean & Clear Facial Cleanser Review.

In addition to my regular household labor, I reformatted this blog entry — organizing it by weeks instead of days, which makes more sense for the long haul, and changing the way photos are displayed (all of them are on Flickr, if you want more resolution).

On Tuesday, Bell County cases of Covid-19 were at 71, with two deaths; by Friday we had 84 cases (24 recovered) and three deaths. Local health departments began (finally) recommending masks in all public spaces when full social distancing isn’t possible. (I wore a cloth mask over my face when shopping mid-week.) On Tuesday, the governor shut down all state parks and historical sites.

Saturday: made cookies.

 

Week 6 (April 12-18)

Easter Sunday at home (MRB watched a Denver mass on YouTube). We walked on both neighborhood trails, ate cookies made yesterday, picked up food from a drive-thru (Panda Express). Today, our county surpassed 100 cases of Covid-19 cases. (See related photo.)

 

Monday-Friday (April 13-17)

Wife: Being in a closet four days a week is getting to her. And she’s having “pandemic dreams” (apparently a thing). If I was making bets, I’d place money on her sanity lasting the longest in this household. One frustration: having run out of library books, she attempted to use library ebooks but none of the apps/portals set up by our local libraries would work on any of our devices.

Children: Scholastic’s free lessons ended last week, leaving one less thing B can do online. We continued daily education, daily PE with GoNoodle, daily bike rides. I struggled explaining fractions to R. RnB both needed help with their packets, so after Monday we staggered their work with computers and packets so only one at a time would need my help. The children made informational signs for their doors, like “Don’t bother me right now” or “I’m sleeping, please leave me alone until 7:00 a.m.” I didn’t say anything, but I think they found a very creative way of dealing with the stress. On Thursday, R had her first Zoom videoconference with her replacement teacher and some of her fellow students. They’re supposed to do another conference each week.

Early in the week, B surprised me by telling a story something like (I’m paraphrasing): “Once, the Earth only had nature, just plants and then animals. And then the humans came and started chopping down the trees and killing nature. Now we don't have much nature left. The humans are really the bad people on Earth.” A day or two later, he mentioned “The Lorax”, which he had never seen before, and said he wanted to see it. So on Friday we rented it from Vudu and he watched it, enjoying it very much. Then he told us he had seen a much shorter version of the Lorax (in kindergarten, he says), and apparently recalled every detail.

Me: I caught myself several times this week raising my voice over minor things. My stress is not from isolation, because I don’t have any; it’s from the enforced non-isolation.) If such a thing as a “mental health barometer” existed, and if I had one, I’m certain my score changed this week. Not as bad as a few other times in my life. I think I can make it. For fun, I ordered a microphone for my PC, which I thought might be useful for composing digital audio files or studying Duolingo, but the mic that arrived had a 1/4" plug, which of course fits zero jacks in our house. Fortunately, I had an adapter from several years ago and it worked. About 15 minutes after plugging in the mic, as I was testing it, a hyperactive young child ran past, snagged the wire with his foot, and snapped off the adapter plug. Just like that. (I responded by ordering a new adapter from B&H, but then the next day I found another adapter here at the house. But the PC’s front jack was damaged in the incident so now I have to plug in the mic via a difficult-to-access jack in the back of the tower.)

Wednesday, our stimulus check showed up in the “processing” section of our online banking dashboard. When it cleared Thursday, I immediately sent the final lump-sum payment to my wife’s last school loan — our household’s only remaining debt. So, going forward, the X dollars per month that used to go to the loan company will now go toward our next house’s downpayment (assuming we will move someday, which we are still discussing). Also this week, my wife noticed her car’s registration sticker has been expired for about two weeks — something I had been about to take care of when the pandemic suddenly took top priority. Fortunately, I found online that the Texas governor had (before our sticker expired) announced exemptions from certain states laws, including vehicle registration. There’s no end date to that exemption that I could find. So... whew. (I still plan to take care of it soon, if allowed, in case we encounter a local badge wearer who isn’t aware of, or doesn’t care about, the exemptions.)

Saturday, we got the news that our governor announced plans to “re-open” Texas, beginning with allowing “retail-to-go”, re-starting nonessential surgeries at hospitals, and re-opening state parks starting on Tuesday (with restrictions like masking and staying apart from other people, which should have been what they did in the first place).

We stayed home, watched movies, baked bread, and practiced on Duolingo.

Week 7 (April 19-25)

To be clear, “Week 7” in my counting is the seventh week the children have been out of school. The first week was our actual scheduled Spring Break. The second week was when we were told we would only miss an extra week of school; there was yet no “learning at home” set up by the school district. Week 3 was when we actually started doing school work at home, and Week 4 was when my wife began working at home.

So, while this is the seventh week covered by this blog entry, it is only the fifth week of distance learning, and only the fourth week of my wife working at home.

In almost every way, this week was the same as the last few. Death tolls continued to increase. We got word school will be out for the rest of the semester. I used my new microphone to try to record a multi-track vocal music file, but there was a slight delay (half a second?) which makes it difficult to sync the tracks — but then I managed to solve that, so... click here to listen (if you dare). Our son had his first Zoom “meeting” with his class.

Saturday, we attempted to hike up Dana Peak again, but it was too crowded for our tastes. Instead, we parked down the road a ways and hiked some non-hill trails down toward the lake. We saw maybe two dozen people in there; all were respectful of our distancing — at each meeting, one group or the other would move over to allow others to pass. We found an off-trail place to walk and explored a little until the children got tired. Then we picked up KFC to go on the way home, played Clue in the afternoon (I won! Yay!), and then watched Clue the movie.

Week 8 (April 25 - May 2)

This week Texas began its “soft reopen”, and other signs began to show that our situation is changing. To be clear, Texas was never “locked down”; we were always free to move about — and as I’ve mentioned, many people here never social distanced. But certain businesses were shut down and they are now reopening. State parks were shut down and are now reopening. Supermarkets are catching up on the items that were wiped out (though we’re still not seeing all the normal brands and many items are still on “limit one” lists).

My wife was informed she’ll return to the office in mid-May. It looks like our daughter’s dance studio will reopen about that same time (we’ve continued paying for her lessons, mainly because it’s a small, locally owned business that would otherwise go bankrupt).

Wednesday, I bought a new bicycle for B, with six speeds and a brake on each handlebar. It’s too large for him, but it was the smallest size that came with a gear shifter and “grown-up” brakes — which he is ready for. He has difficulty climbing on and getting started, but otherwise is comfortable on it.

Friday, R’s new tablet arrived — it took longer than projected. It’s larger and faster than her previous device, with a much better camera and battery. The camera is rotatable (around the edge, so it’s both a front and back camera), and the device has a built-in stand. Her previous tablet got reformatted for the boy (his was becoming inoperable due to his rough treatment, which is why he has to settle for a hand-me-down). Both children can use their tablets for distance learning, and the girl especially uses hers to “create”. Both will use them for continuing Duolingo lessons.

The boy was begging to rearrange his room, so Thursday I spent some time making a to-scale drawing of his room on a piece of construction paper, with moveable rectangles for his furniture — bed, dresser, and two tables (which have to be coordinated around two doors and two windows). He moved the items around on the paper and came up with a plan that he liked, which I approved. Friday, he helped me move stuff in his room and he likes the new setup. I made photos, which will be on Flickr soon.

Dreams: I’ve had stranger-than-normal dreams lately, but only one stayed with me. In the dream, I was standing with my children, near some other children, in our neighborhood. I don’t know if it was in our driveway or at the bus stop, but our street was nearby. One of the other children, an older boy, was making fun of my six-year-old son — it began as good-natured back-and-forth ribbing, but the older boy escalated it to deeply hurtful insults (I don’t remember exactly what). While I watched my son’s face screw up as if he was about to cry and as I debated what exactly to say and how strongly, suddenly my son sprang forward and blasted the other child with a flurry of powerful blows, blurred because his arms were moving so quickly. The older, larger boy crumpled backward under the unexpected assault, both of them falling into the street, and the other children jerked back, startled. I made several aborted attempts to speak or move forward, uncertain as to how long I should let it go on. Just as I was about to pull my son off the other kid, my son sprang backward to a standing position, his chest puffed out, his face both raging and triumphant. I could tell he was about to say something like “that’s what you get for messing with me”, when suddenly a fast-moving automobile zipped past, pulverizing the other boy who had been struggling to get up. I awoke at that point, my heart bashing into my ribs, adrenaline aflow, and extremely troubled by the entire scene.

Week 9 (May 3-9)

The battery in our bathroom scale had been dead for weeks; I assumed we were gaining weight but didn’t want to worry about it. So this week I finally replaced the battery in the scale and learned — to my surprise — that I’ve been losing weight. I realize that for many people this would be a moment of relief and good cheer. In my case, I’d already dropped to what I considered my ideal weight. If you need a number, here it is: I’ve lost 10 pounds during our Covid-19 shut-in. In hindsight, it makes sense: I’ve been bicycling with my children once a day. We’ve been eating out less (only picked up take-out a few times and of course zero actually eating inside restaurants). I’ve been keeping up with calorie-burning chores like vacuuming, laundry, etc. Not to mention that yard-work is back in season. And I haven’t added any snacks or desserts. But now I’m increasing my portion sizes and paying more attention; I don’t want to end up dangerously thin.

This was my wife’s final work-at-home week (concluding six weeks of work-at-home). Her facility is semi-reopening next week, with most employees staggering days and with several new precautions that haven’t been entirely ironed out. At first, it was suggested she would come in three days a week and work from home the other two days, but then someone pointed out to her boss that my wife has literally been stuffed in our closet this whole time. “I thought you were joking!” the boss said (paraphrased). M had told them this from the beginning, but most of her coworkers have larger homes than we do and couldn’t imagine her not having some extra space to fit into. (They also couldn’t imagine her trying to keep separate her work and home lives — she wasn’t going to conduct sensitive therapy in front of the children or try to do her paperwork while I’m sitting next to her practicing Duolingo.) So she gets to return on a full-time basis as a special case. It means we’ll have to start buying gas again; fortunately, prices around here are hovering in the $1.40s (I saw $1.39 per gallon at Sam’s recently, but we didn’t need any gas.)

Friday, while buying staple items at the supermarket, my wife found hand sanitizer in stock, the first we’ve seen of it since Spring Break in early March. She bought some. (I have hand soaps on the way via online order, because they were difficult to come by in person.) Also this week, our masks finally arrived. It seems anticlimactic to get them after the eight weeks of being shut in, but that’s when they became available. (Prior to this, we’d been wearing the not-supposed-to-be reusable surgical masks my wife brought home back in March, and a few times I’d used one of my old bandannas.) The new masks are washable and reusable.

Though our state has begun to “reopen” (the harsher restrictions are being lifted), we have no current plans to run out to the cinema, eat inside restaurants, or begin touching random people. Prior to the pandemic, we had planned a June vacation — most likely to New Mexico to take our children through Carlsbad Caverns — but by mid-March we had shrugged it off. We will do that some other time.

Week 10 (May 10-16)

This whole thing is coming to a close soon, at least where we live. The children would have begun summer vacation in a couple of a weeks anyway — so they’d be at home with me most of the time with or without a pandemic (and we would be indoors most of the time, due to summer heat). For another, things are opening up (slowly) around here. Also, the local economy is more dependent on the presence of the Army base than it is on any number of civilians being at work or not.

This week, my wife was back at work. Wearing her mask, yes. Washing her hands often, yes. Making sure others followed the procedures, yes. But still back at work.

The children seem to have fully adjusted to this type of life already; this was the easiest week I’ve had so far. Both did their school work without complaint, played together very well in their free time, rode bikes once a day, and did their chores.

We filled up with gas on Sunday for $1.359 per gallon, which seemed like the lowest in decades, but my records indicate prices were this low four years ago. On Monday, I drove the children’s schoolwork packets — several weeks’ worth — to the school and dropped them off. I was handed a bag of school supplies and textbooks for each child. Everyone was wearing masks and remaining distant from one another.

We also made family portraits this week.

Week 11 (May 17-23)

Signs of re-opening are all around us; more traffic, for one. The city’s recycling center re-opened this week, so on Monday I took all the jam-packed and sorted tubs from the garage to the drop-off location and dropped it all off. There were lines of vehicles there, something I’ve never seen, most of them waiting for the bulk trash disposal area, which also has now reopened.

I’m still seeing shortages of some items in stores. For example, Walmart’s sewing aisle was nearly empty — maybe from people making their own masks? Or getting so bored at home they’ve taken up sewing? Cleaning agents are still in relatively short supply. Weirdly, it seems that even more people than before are wearing masks in the stores; maybe up to 50% this week. I attribute this to how long it took for masks to actually become available; there were weeks when every site we checked was out of everything, and when we did finally order masks, they took weeks to ship and arrive. (One of our mask orders still hasn’t arrived, ordered in April.) Several very large gatherings took place in our neighborhood this week, dozens of visiting vehicles cramming the streets around specific homes. My family has taken to calling these gatherings “covids”.

Next week will be the children’s final week of at-home schooling. This week, we received emails regarding pre-registration for the fall, which can (finally) be done online. I plan to continue some at-home education throughout the summer, as I’ve always done in the past.

I’m thinking of rewriting this entire entry when I decide it’s over. Sure, it’ll take time, but it’s also enjoyable to me to edit, to improve a piece of writing. My thinking is: (1) there was a lot of repetition above, as some of the same things occurred week after week, and (2) most of the things, when I first mentioned them, I didn’t know how long they would last or other characteristics. A rewrite, should I choose to do it, could shorten the entry significantly. For example, my wife’s “work from home” experience could be its own section instead of mentioned each week in which it occurred. Same with the mentions of schooling at home. I don’t know. I think it would be better, long-term, to have a rewrite, but I also don’t know what my life will be like after the pandemic. I might make myself busy with other things; I might become inspired to write other entries and no longer feel like working through this again.

(ADDENDUM: Inspired by a comment below, I think it’s a better idea if I leave this “diary-style” entry in place, perhaps with some careful editing, and write a companion piece to go alongside it. It might or might not be like the rewrite I envisioned above, or it might be/become something else.)

Week 12 (May 24-30)

Let’s see... Monday, I replaced the light fixture in the smaller bathroom. (Remember when I used to write entire standalone blog entries for such a thing? Ha.) Short version: bulbs occasionally blinked out (and came back on if we thumped a wall). New fixture works fine. Yay. Performed other to-do items: replaced windshield wiper on minivan, bought spark plugs for Neon, mowed/edged.

This was the last week of school-at-home. R seemed disappointed. I assured her we have plenty of educational material/apps for her to slog through during the summer. Note: we’re all still learning languages on Duolingo daily. (Todos los días estudiamos lenguas con Dúolingo.) I’ve filled more than half a composition notebook with notes, lists of related nouns, sayings, and conjugated verbs. I think it’s possible I could survive a few days in a Latin American country using only Spanish. If nothing else, I can ask directions to the university, comment on the elegance of the bathroom, and inform listeners that my cat has a specific number of lives.

Fewer people have been on our neighborhood walking trails lately; maybe because other parks have reopened. Traffic is up to ninety percent of normal.

Week 13 (May 31 through June 6)

I decided to end this blog entry. Not because Covid-19 is over (because it isn’t — new cases are still on the rise in Texas, and have barely tapered off nationwide), but because our personal interaction with the pandemic is basically over. My wife is back to work, the children are officially on summer vacation, business in our city/state has returned to (almost) normal, traffic is back to 100%, and the supermarkets are fully stocked once again. Going forward, we’re going to be more cautious than most people we know, and our neighborhood’s pool is still closed, but otherwise we’re so close to “normal” that I no longer think it worthwhile to add weekly updates here.

So this will be my last update (I hope). I might do minor edits or corrections, and I still might write that companion piece we talked about, but this is done.

Sunday, we went to Chalk Ridge Falls Park and found it not terribly crowded, but we were the only people wearing masks and we were among the very few who seemed concerned about social distancing. One family began to (without malice, I assume) follow us, getting uncomfortably close until I found a sneaky trail through the woods that the other family couldn’t or wouldn’t follow. It got hot pretty quickly, so we didn’t stay long.

Also Sunday, our daughter had her first communion, which is kind of a big deal for Catholics, though it was unlike anything one might expect due to social distancing, mask wearing, and the inability of any guests to attend (even B and I had to stay home). She has now completed three of the (seven?) Catholic sacraments. She received some money and some gifts and was very happy.

Our son received his report card this week, topping his previous bests and once again it was the best report card either child has ever brought home. ALL 100s AND 99s. Very proud of him. (By week’s end our daughter still hadn’t received hers.)

Weather shifted into full summer mode this week, with straight 90s. Also this week, our final order of masks finally arrived.

I lost another two pounds, so I’m now 12 pounds lighter than when it all started.

Friday, our son went into a business for the first time in twelve weeks, when I took him to the supermarket to pick out his birthday cake. We both wore masks and he stayed in the shopping cart the entire time. (The daughter had already been to church a handful of times, and to Target once.)

Saturday, we celebrated our son’s seventh birthday a few days early, at home with only a couple of guests via videoconferencing. It was also the 14th wedding anniversary for my wife and I. FOURTEEN! Good grief. I love her so much.

Conclusion (Early June)

Parts of this have been fun. Personally, I enjoy staying home most of the time, and have always pushed for our family to be less “on the go” (I was the only one who thought this). I have enjoyed our daily bike rides. I have also been fascinated by how each of us dealt with it — mostly by knowing it would someday be over — and the weird ways the various stresses expressed themselves.

I did not like having to take over the role of first grade teacher and third grade teacher, because despite my natural tendency to explain things, I have long recognized that I don’t have the patience (nor the knowledge or education) to be a teacher. Longterm homeschooling would only work in our household if there was some kind of certified app and/or interactive website run by actual teachers (and if that app could also make sure the children were paying attention, and if it could answer their questions instead of sending them running to me). I no longer remember nor care about the differences/similarities between parallelograms and trapezoids and rhombuses, and my children need someone who’s qualified and paid to teach them that.

I know we are/were fortunate to have a steady, relatively reliable household income, and to live in a nice (still-almost-new) house that’s completely paid off. And to be in a neighborhood with good sidewalks and a walking trail. And to have no personal acquaintances or family members who came down with any deadly viruses during this time. I recognize that not everyone was so fortunate during the pandemic. Millions lost their jobs, and quite a few of those are going to lose homes, cars, savings, and healthcare, if they haven’t already. More than a hundred thousand people have died from covid-19 so far, nationwide (only five in our county), and that number will, I assume, continue crawling upward. With that in mind, we have donated reasonable amounts from our excess and tried to do our part to keep the virus from spreading.

Addendum: ‘Harmonia’ (June 9)

I will add the following example of how my children’s thinking has changed during the pandemic. This morning, while cleaning and doing laundry, I overheard them playing Legos and talking about a new disease called “Harmonia”. Following is my nine-year-old daughter’s explanation:

History of Harmonia: There was a war between Lego City and the Minecraft Realm. The reason they were fighting is because they didn’t want Harmonia to be a thing again — Harmonia came from the Minecraft Realm. Harmonia is caused by harming potions in the Minecraft Realm. Lego City won the war, but one hundred years later, Minecrafters came back to Lego City because their realm had been destroyed. They brought the harming potion with them. They used it to stop bad guys, but it went into people’s houses in Lego City and people began getting sick.

Symptoms of Harmonia include: hair turns different colors (red, blue, green, or gray, mostly), hair can fall out (not bit-by-bit as with chemotherapy, but all at once), neck changes into a cylinder shape and it becomes difficult to breathe, legs can fall off, bladder shrinks to the point that victims begin peeing on themselves, skin might turn grayish purple or very pale green, severe weight gain, head can change shape (cubes, pyramids), vision is impaired, ears can shrink, coughing. Victims begin dying with two days.

It is transmitted by coughing, sneezing, spitting — anything that comes out of the body which then contacts another person’s mouth, eyes, ears, nose, and some other parts I don’t want to mention.

Protective measures include: masks, goggles, noseguards, ear covers (or completely sealed helmets).

Treatment: You have to go to the hospital. There is no cure yet, but Lego City scientists are working on it. There are only two nurses in Lego City, which has a poor healthcare system.

Clearly, disease and medical care is on their minds, even if M and I don’t mention the pandemic very often (other than regular reminders to wash hands, bring masks if we’re going out, etc.)

Addendum: Further Notes

• 2020.06.15: Wife begins “vacation”, which will just be five days off work, spent mostly at home.
• 2020.06.15: Drove to Ikea in Round Rock (after two months of trying to order a desk and chair online for B but Ikea’s website and online ordering isn’t useful). Very nice orderly line outside with social distancing; almost everyone wearing masks; easy in and out; finally bought desk & chair for B.
• 2020.06.16: Both children baked cookies.
• 2020.06.17: Received survey from school district (KISD) regarding the coming fall semester and what precautions we would like to see. Filled it out immediately.
• 2020.06.17: Tried to register car (Kia Soul), which expired in March (but was exempt due to pandemic). Inspection was completed quickly, but registration office required prior appointment (which I didn’t know about until I got there). Found out how to renew registration online and did that instead.
• 2020.06.20: Covid-19 cases continuing to skyrocket in Texas as almost everyone pretends that nothing’s wrong. (Worried for my neighbors who ignored all precautions for three months — haven’t seen several of them leave their houses in several days.)
• 2020.07.06: Catastrophic failure occurred when attempting to update my old WordPress blog sites. I spent several hours trying to rectify this without success. So all my entries prior to late 2018 (when I switched to this hand-coded format) are currently unavailable. I plan to add some of them back when I find the time.
• 2020.07.08: My wife picked up the children’s school yearbook this morning, which took several extra weeks due to the pandemic. For two days in a row, she’s taken the children to local parks to walk on new trails (they’re drastically bored with the one in our neighborhood). All were careful to stay away from other people.
• 2020.07.19: I finally won a “league” in Duolingo, which is more difficult than it sounds. And the league I won was the highest one available. So, yay for me.
• 2020.07.20: We have been appraised of the school district’s reopening plan — we have a choice to send the kids in, or keep them home. A LOT was unclear about the plans, and how they would be carried out. We are hesitating to make our decision.

ADDENDUM: Week 21 : thru Aug. 1

I currently have no plans to pick this up again, certainly not on a daily or weekly basis. But I always retain the right to update my blog entries as I see fit. We’re still in the pandemic and things are still happening.

I want to note that in June and July, we were invited to two multi-family gatherings in Oklahoma, which were attended by people from multiple states and included several people in the so-called “at-risk” categories. We declined as politely as possible. (One was for my grandmother’s birthday; the other for Fourth of July.) My capacity to be surprised and disappointed by extended family apparently knows few bounds.

Sometime in late June or early July, our daughter decided she was done with dance. We asked her to think about it for a few days, just to be sure, but it was time. After five years and loads of good times, it was time to hang up the ballet slippers. (And tap shoes, and whatever they wear for jazz.) This year was supposed to be her first “company” year, which involved a lot more showcasing in the annual recital, plus multiple out-of-town contests. All those were canceled early in the pandemic, and lessons moved online. R simply lost interest. (She might have anyway; there’s no way to know.)

In late July, we signed our children up for the stay-at-home option for this school year (school starts Aug. 17 here). A few days later, the school changed its mind (about there being an option) and said ALL students will be “virtual” for the first three weeks. They also continue to say the situation is “fluid”, so who knows where we’ll be in three to six weeks.

On the good news front: the last few times I went grocery shopping, mask-wearing was up to 100% at both Walmart and HEB. I still see the occasional person pulling down a mask to speak to someone, or wearing it without covering both nose and mouth. And I still see people touching (hugging, shaking hands, patting arms) when they see someone they know. But not as much as before.

On the bad news front: our county is up to (as of Aug. 1) 3,390 confirmed cases (not including Ft. Hood), about half of whom are confirmed to have recovered. There have been 190 hospitalizations due to Covid-19 and (coincidentally) 19 deaths so far. Most local cases are of young adults (20-29 and 30-39).

For anyone who missed it, I published another short story in July: Nonanos. I had hoped to have written more by now, but... pandemic.

ADDENDUM: Week 23 : thru Aug. 15

Okay, so maybe I’m updating this regularly again.

The final two weeks of summer vacation were much like previous weeks. A few differences: we started to get tons of emails from the school, many of them announcing decisions or policies that were immediately overridden by the next email. (We also got automated calls/messages and text messages.) It was frustrating. I admit to immediately deleting most of them as there was no point — nothing they said seemed relevant or helpful.

Finally, in the last few days, we got emails from the actual teachers our children are assigned to, along with instructions as to which apps to use and how to sign them into those apps. R’s process went very smoothly, but B’s did not. None of his log-ins seemed to work. After emails and calls, we got new logins for him that work part of the time, but rarely remember that they’ve been used and sometimes don’t work at all.

Saturday (Aug. 15), I went searching for a laptop for R, so she wouldn't have to do all this schoolwork on her eight-inch tablet screen. Every store in Killeen was out of laptops. I went to Sam’s, Walmart, Target, and BestBuy (and my wife went to OfficeMax, which only had a display model). So we ordered one online.

ADDENDUM: Week 24 : First Week Of School

The first day of school was rough. R was mostly fine, after I solved a problem with audio in her Zoom meeting, but since her laptop hadn’t arrived yet she spent the whole day on her tablet (Lenovo Yoga Tab 3), which is a fairly decent model. B and I had the most trouble, and I was pretty much glued to his desk all day. I eventually diagnosed the issues, some of which were solvable and some of which were not. Several factors combined:

• The app (Seesaw) is NOT intuitive. The UI is poorly designed; assignments are difficult to find and complete.
• Neither B nor I (nor his teacher, I think) knew how to use the app or work around its poor design.
• The Zoom meeting links only worked sporadically (and were difficult to find in the app).
• Teacher posted some links in the parents-only area, so B couldn’t access them from his interface. (I straightened that out with a phone call.)
• Tools used to complete assignments (in Seesaw) are poorly laid out.
• Zoom kept locking up.

B kept saying, with a sour expression: “The first day of school is ruined.”

That afternoon, the new laptop arrived (just two days after ordering it), and I spent several hours setting it up. Just going through the initial turn-it-on process was like 30 minutes, and then there were hours of uninstalling crap and installing useful things like Chrome and Firefox, not to mention the sudden influx of updates that Windows 10 had ready-and-waiting. By evening, it was ready to go.

The second day was a bit better, and by the end of the week my only real issue was keeping B focused on schoolwork while he’s sitting a few feet away from his toys. (And training him how to type, because he’s never had to do assignments this way before. He’s only seven years old; they’re expecting him to type: “One thousand one hundred eighty-four” in WORDS as well as numerals. A few times, when time was short, I just typed for him while he told me the answers.)

I solved most of our Zoom issues by checking the CPU meter on B’s computer — Zoom uses ALL the processing power it has (remember, this is a new laptop too). So, once Zoom is connected, we can close the browser and all other apps, and then Zoom works. Sometimes. I solved the rest of them by asking the teacher if B could skip most of the Zoom meetings and focus on assignments in Seesaw, explaining that we can watch the videos in the app without locking up the computer, instead of watching her show the videos over Zoom. She said that was fine.

That also solved my lunch problem. R is scheduled for lunch at 11:30 or so, and B is supposed to wait until 12:45(!). But once I got him excused from most Zoom meetings, it meant they could both eat at the same time.

R’s new laptop is quite a bit more capable than the one B is using, apparently; it doesn’t have any trouble running Zoom alongside her other apps.

ADDENDUM: Week 25 : Second Week Of School

This week, I was more prepared, and so were the children. We started jumping through assignments like experts.

Tuesday: B got a switched to a new PE teacher, but we could never get her Zoom meeting link to work, so he kept “attending” PE with the previous teacher.

Tuesday night: school district notified us via email that in-person learning begins MONDAY (Aug. 31), a week earlier than they’d last told us, and the announcement came on the heels of dozens of other states announcing spikes in child coronavirus infections due to school starting. I will keep our children home until Covid-19 has abated somewhat (which it could do NOW, if people would simply follow the expert advice).

Though the children can’t do their daily bike rides anymore due to school (and it’s WAY too hot to go out in the evenings), I’m still doing mine at 08:30 or so each day. Yes, I reckoned the risks of leaving children home alone for a few minutes (in the past, the most I would do is walk to the mailbox). I figured: I’m not leaving the neighborhood, my bike rides never last more than 10-12 minutes, and the children both behave fairly responsibly while doing assignments on the computer. I figure the chances of something bad happening to me during that time is pretty slim, and even slimmer are the chances of something bad happening to them. (Also, I have my phone with me, and R knows how to use her tablet to contact my phone.)

ADDENDUM: Week 26 : HALF A YEAR

This week marks HALF A YEAR of pandemic. Twenty-six weeks since the U.S. half-heartedly began to embrace safety measures that few would fully follow, in the hopes of slowing the pandemic, and then more strict recommendations that almost no one would follow. As a household, this year’s emotion ranking was about as low as during 2016.

Something like 85-90% of local school students returned to in-person learning this week. Our children stayed home of course, because we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Zoom meetings dropped to zero as the teachers had to focus on the kids actually in their classrooms. That freed up a LOT of time for both our kids. It also meant they could start doing bike rides with me each day (in lieu of watching PE videos on their computers).

R continued to do just fine, though I caught her daydreaming a few times. I moved B into my office (instead of his bedroom), so I can sit in my own chair and do my own work next to him while he does his school work. This seemed to work well.

ADDENDUM: Week 27

Nothing much this week, except schools around the country began to re-admit students. We continue to check the Covid-19 numbers daily on both local media (and the school district’s “dashboard”) and in national media like The Washington Post. It looks like Texas numbers continue to drop from their mid-summer highs. I suspect that in a week or two we’ll see our numbers creep back up once all the back-to-school cases show up.

(Friends report to us that kids in school ARE wearing masks and that there is more spacing between them than before, but of course no one can wear a mask while eating, so the cafeteria is packed full of hundreds of children without masks, sitting a few feet from each other for 25 minutes at a time.)

ADDENDUM: Week 29

In Week 28, both children had “MAP tests”, which are administered by a “proctor”, so it was difficult to do at home. We had to use one device for the Zoom meeting (so the proctors could watch the children taking the tests), and another device for them to actually take the test. As it turned out, the testing website didn’t work on any of our devices (other virtual learners had trouble too), so we drove to the school to check out an iPad, which worked fine. And then I had to keep it here because more MAP tests were scheduled for the future.

(While driving up to the school to get the iPad, we saw dozens of maskless children standing in close clumps on the playground, confirming my decision to keep my children at home.)

Benjamin has also started speech therapy (through Zoom meetings), which is provided free by the school system. He has enjoyed it so far. (In addition to having lost FOUR baby teeth in the past few weeks, he still has trouble correctly pronouncing words that end in “er”, “or”, “ur”, etc., and a few other hiccups that normally pass by his age.)

My previous prediction was correct: Texas did experience a spike in Covid numbers a couple of weeks after mass school openings. But then they began to taper off quickly again. The local school dashboard shows a slight recent increase in local cases, but not as bad as we’d feared. Still keeping an eye on it.

September has been unseasonably cool for us, which means really nice weather.

ADDENDUM: Week 30

Turned in the iPad after final MAP test. Replaced loose towel rack in kids’ bathroom with four hooks that the children can reach. Ordered new oven/stove for kitchen (current one was cheap builder model and burners are beginning to randomly fail); it’ll be delivered next week. Touch-up paint in various rooms.

This arrangement is wearing on me more than anyone else in our household. And I know the longer it goes on, the more toll it will take on the children (lack of socialization, missing out on teaching by people actually trained to teach, learning to sit still, etc.) I’m watching the numbers closely still, hoping for the decrease that will give me the excuse to send RnB back to school. But, sadly, I suspect the ignorance (and maybe obstinance?) of 37% of the population will keep us here much longer.

ADDENDUM: Week 31

School was only four days this week (Nice!) and the weather continued to be near-perfect. With Friday off, we visited Inks Lake State Park (wanted Enchanted Rock, but as usual it was entirely booked) for two hours in the morning. Good exercise and plenty of fresh air and social distancing. Only the daughter didn’t have a good time — she saw a couple of beetles and pretty much cried for two hours straight as we hiked around.

Saturday morning, we drove to Ikea in Round Rock, where we bought enough towels and wash cloths to replace all the ones the children have been using. (The old ones, I repurposed as garage rags.) Also: new placemats, teakettle, lamp for B’s room, and a few other items.

Just as we got in the minivan to head home, the delivery team from The Home Depot called to say they were almost at our house — nearly two hours early. I told them to take their time; they skipped to the next delivery and then called again as we were nearly home, and they arrived at the same time we did. While my wife slipped out to pick up lunch, the delivery team brought in our new stove/oven and hauled out the old one. The new oven (see public photos on Flickr) is beautiful, has a convection fan, has the glass top so crumbs and spills don’t get stuck under the burners, and (I think) will add somewhat to the resale value of our home (next year?)

ADDENDUM: Week 32

Sunday we celebrated R’s 10th birthday, which means all four of us have now had pandemic birthdays. She got a few nice presents, several cards from relatives, and some money to spend for herself. Her teacher messaged her with birthday wishes.

Due to the federal holiday celebrating an incredibly terrible person, we had only four days of school this week. B aced his way through everything. R showed improvement but I also caught her unfocused and daydreaming several times.

On Thursday afternoon, I voted in the general election. It was my second time voting during the pandemic — the first was in the primary for this same election. This time, I took RnB with me and they were the only children there. We waited in line maybe 30 minutes, and it took about 10 minutes to vote. Saturday morning, M voted; her wait was about 90 minutes. (Though these lines aren’t as long as some you hear about on the news or social media, they are far longer than they should be. Our county has hundreds of voting machines sitting unused while lines persist at all early voting locations. The only possible explanation is to discourage voting — otherwise known as voter suppression.)

M and I held serious talks about sending RnB back to in-person schooling. We agonized over the upsides and downsides, looked at statewide and local coronavirus infection rates, and asked their teachers (during Zoom conferences) what it’s actually like at school. Texas’ Covid-19 rate is still higher than it was in March when schools first closed, but it’s lower than mid-summer highs and lower than the post-Labor Day bump. For the entire semester, the KISD dasbhoard has shown zero cases at our school. Both our kids need more face-to-face time with actual teachers and more conversations with children their own age. I decided to call Monday to ask what the process is like for switching them to in-person.

(Yes, I worry that we’re making the decision for selfish reasons. I worry that B still touches too many things without thinking — he’s very tactile. I worry that the more than six months out of the classroom has eroded their ability to sit in one place longer than five minutes. But none of that will improve by keeping them home even longer. As any good parent should do with any important decision, I’ll second guess myself no matter what happens.)

Saturday evening, we attended our first multi-family gathering of the pandemic, with people from M’s job. We maintained distancing, stayed outside (the weather was perfect), and wore masks when near other people. M and the kids really needed it, but I was on pins and needles the entire time.

ADDENDUM: Week 33

We didn’t end up sending them back to school. Monday, I did call the school and ask about the process, and I did drive over to pick up the forms necessary for switching them to in-person learning. Then M called to ask if I’d done it and I said I had. Then, not one minute after hanging up with her, I received a robocall and email from the school announcing that a student at the school had been diagnosed with Covid-19 (see related photo). Later in the day, we got another robocall and email (see related photo), saying a staff member also had it. I immediately decided (and M agreed) that we should undo our decision from last week. The next morning, KISD’s dashboard had been updated (see related photo) to show the two new cases at RnB’s school.

This week seemed more difficult than most, for me. Maybe it was because I’d gotten my hopes up and began thinking about having the house to myself again. But I think it was also that the children — both of them — suddenly began needing more help with each assignment, leaving me with fewer minutes than I’d had before. I’m squeezing bits of chores into three- and four-minute holes between their requests for help.

One thing that made it better is that both children received straight As on their report cards. B’s was ALL 100s! R’s was significantly improved from her mid-period progress report.

Still probable: When our zoned school returns to zero cases, we’ll begin the process of switching RnB to in-person learning.

Saturday evening: drove to a few city-sponsored locations with outdoor "Fall Festival" (Halloween) events. They got to paint a pumpkin, collect some candy, toss ping pong balls in cups, etc. All (I think) of the volunteers staffing the events were masked and gloved, and they were sanitizing items between uses. *Most* of the people (maybe 60%) showing up for the events were masked too. When they weren’t, it was entire families at a time. We kept our distance. Afterward, the kids played for a few minutes at a city playground, but not for very long — fewer than 10% were wearing masks at the playground. I felt physically sick at seeing dozens of maskless children running past each other and touching the same bars and posts.

ADDENDUM: Week 34 (Back to School)

I forgot to mention something a few weeks ago, but the memory stuck with me, playing over and over in my head. B had a Zoom meeting with an old friend; we were trying to keep the kids connected with “real life” as much as possible. B asked his friend: “So, what have you been doing with all this time alone?” I remember being impressed with his formation of the question, his attempt to develop a rapport with someone else who’s been shut up in his house. The other boy said: “I’ve been out playing with my friends.” Oof. I was proud of B for immediately pivoting to another subject after only the smallest of pauses. He started asking about toys and the two soon had an hour-long conversation. I don’t even know if B remembers that initial exchange, but it hurt me. Sigh.

Monday, RnB’s zoned school showed zero cases again, even as the state’s Covid-19 infection rate continued to rise. Tuesday, still zero. Wednesday morning, still zero. So I filled out the forms to switch them in in-person instruction. R still had schoolwork remaining after lunch, so I left her at home to finish it, while B and I went to turn in the forms. Just as we were walking out the door, the phone rang with a robocall from the school, announcing a new case. Ugh. I sat down and called my wife. We decided the odds are still very low. We don't think these (three, now) cases were caught AT school. We assume they were caught elsewhere, because families still aren't taking enough precautions. Our kids are inculcated at not touching things, wearing masks, staying distant, etc. So I went and turned in the forms.

I’d been told previously that it might take up to five days to process the switch, so the lady at the school office surprised me by asking when the kids were returning. “This afternoon?” she asked. “Tomorrow morning?” Well, it didn’t make sense to wait an extra day and start them on Friday. Monday would be fine, except they have appointments scheduled then, so... I said, “Tomorrow, I guess.” So, I emailed their teachers and made sure RnB finished all online assignments for Wednesday. I had trouble sleeping that night due to second thoughts.

Thursday morning, I drove them to school and brought them into the office, and an employee showed them where their classes were. I spent the rest of the day doing more chores than I’ve been able to do in a week, trying to catch up. (Playing second- and fourth-grade teacher has been very time-consuming.) I kept looking at my phone, expecting a call from the school that there had been some problem, but there were no calls. I picked them up at 15:30, and R said she had “a really good day, better than I thought it would be”. B said he didn’t have any specific complaints, but it wasn’t his best first day of school ever. Both had a couple of funny stories, like when there was a fire drill and one teacher’s plastic face shield blew off in the wind and struck a student in the face (no injuries, I was told), or when B was called down for telling a classmate how to spell something.

Friday went more smoothly and I did more catch-up chores at the house, leaving me time to finish a draft of a short story.

Saturday, we didn’t go trick-or-treating, though many in our neighborhood treated the evening like any other Halloween. Instead, we spent the afternoon at a friend’s house, mostly outdoors, mask-wearing when close to other people. The weather was again perfect. Our host had prepared several fun games for the children, and we adults managed to talk pleasantly for a couple of hours. (Separately from that event, I had bought each of my children a bag of their favorite candy, which I know is bad for their health and teeth but which I hoped would make up a little for not being allowed to trick-or-treat.)

ADDENDUM: Week 35

One of B’s classmates lives on our street, and they played together a few times this week — outside, wearing masks. R has also reconnected with a couple of neighborhood friends. Both of them were missing this, especially B. (Not all the kids playing outside on our street wear masks while they do so, but we’ve made it clear to both our kids that they must keep their distance from anyone who doesn’t.)

RnB each came down with very slight fevers — and yes! my gut wrenched and worry shot through the roof! — but both appeared to be normal school-type illnesses that they’ve avoided by all the time at home. Both cleared up quickly (B within 24 hours and R within 48 or so), and both were just as the weekend began, so it was easy to keep an eye on it without either of them missing school.

We paid careful attention to national election results throughout the week — disappointed but not surprised at Texas results, while pleasantly surprised by national results. By the weekend it was clear we’ll get a competent administration next time around, but it sure would be nice to have one now, as the pandemic in the U.S. reaches its worst point so far. All four of us watched the victory speeches on Saturday evening. When B saw Kamala Harris, he asked me: “If she goes for president next time, you’ll vote for her?” I said yes, probably. I was impressed that he was already looking ahead to future possibilities. Both children were startled and amazed that the new administration has to wait until January to take office.

ADDENDUM: Week 36

Covid-19 rages on, now at a higher rate nationwide than at any time in the past. Texas is creeping quickly back toward summertime highs, and many states have already surpassed those marks. And still, the covid-in-chief refuses to resign, or even concede his badly lost election. Sigh.

The kids are all right. I expect progress reports next week and I think both are struggling just a bit with the return to in-person education — they had been using me as a crutch to double-check their work and now they’re missing that badly. It’s okay. It’s part of the reason we sent them back. (My wife and I both suspect that all schools will have to shut down anyway, within a couple of months, due to increased coronavirus infection.)

I mowed/edged on Friday, Nov. 13, which I mention because it seems like my last mow gets later each year. Despite a couple of cold spells in late September and mid-October, it’s been warm and pleasant lately and our grass is still green. Leaves are still green on our big tree (though maybe 15% have fallen off already).

(Also, Friday, someone tried to use one of our credit card numbers via PayPal, and our bank refused the transaction and notified us immediately. Good for the bank. We had to file a fraud report and the card was automatically canceled, to be replaced by a new one. I guess that’s better than the days when people would just conk you on the head and run off with your pouch of money.)

Saturday, B had a meetup with a longtime friend at our neighborhood playground (the one from the “oof” commentary above). Everyone wore masks and the wind was blowing strongly, so we felt okay about it.

ADDENDUM: Thanksgiving

Week 37 went okay — nothing to report — and then RnB were out of school for Thanksgiving break on Week 38. (M was off Wed. thru Fri.)

The kids enjoyed their time off from learning but clearly became restless and stir-crazy by the weekend.

As is our custom, we had Thanksgiving here at home with just the four of us — I think in 2017 we ate with cousins and we hosted guests in 2018 — so the pandemic Thanksgiving holiday wasn’t unusual for us. (M had relatives from out of town visiting other nearby relatives, so we offered to meet up with them outdoors, masked, but they declined.) As usual, M cooked Thursday morning and as usual it was brilliant and filling. I look forward every year to this feast of plenty and she always delivers like a champ.

(Click here to see me posing with RnB and the food or click here to see M posing with RnB and the food.)

The weather that day was gorgeous — we took a long afternoon walk in short sleeves — and then it turned cooler and rainer for the weekend. (Our tree out front still has at least half its leaves.)

ADDENDUM: Week 39

One staff member and one student at RnB’s school came down with Covid-19 this week, according to the automated announcements we receive. We’re still assuming they’re getting infected outside school — because if it was IN the school, the numbers would be higher, right? (There are around a thousand students at this one school.) Still waiting on the “Thanksgiving bump”.

Wife and I wrapped up watching The Queen’s Gambit, the first chess-themed media I’ve watched since the Bobby Fischer movie in the 1990s. Naturally, it reminded me that I used to play chess quite a bit, and that I taught M to play after we were married, and that I had taught R to play a few years back. So we got out the chess board and I re-taught M&R how to play and taught B for the first time. I searched “chess clocks” online (I’ve never owned one, but used them a few times during a college chess touranament). Considered buying one. Instead, I downloaded the app made by Chess.com and it works very well. My seven-year-old played me to a stalemate on his third or fourth game (EVER), which means I am dustier than I thought (or he’s smarter than I thought).

Friday was another “virtual day”, in which all the teachers at the school catch up on stuff they can’t do during the week and the kids just have packets. This time, the packets were extensive, and both children required all day (plus some time on Saturday) to finish their work. It also required an awful lot of MY time, which I realize it part of the job of parenting but gets pretty frustrating for someone who’s not trained to teach.

Fingers crossed that the (multiple) vaccines in production right now are effective, that the right people get them first, and that Covid-19 gets beaten before too long. Unlike historic pandemics, for which we can forgive most people by saying “they didn’t understand how diseases worked in the 1300s!”, history will record this one as: “they DID understand how diseases worked in the 2020s, but enough people were willfully uncompliant in the U.S. that everyone had to wait for the vaccine until the pandemic calmed down.” Soon, it won’t matter whether we beat it by being smart from the beginning (we didn’t) or beat it via effective vaccines (likely), because the damage has been done — economically, emotionally, politically, and socially.

ADDENDUM: Week 40

M was notified she could get the vaccine next week. (The first part, I mean. It’s a two-part vaccine so the second part isn’t available until a few weeks later.) No word yet on when RnB or I can get it.

A friend of B’s invited him to a football game on Saturday, so we all went (after confirming that masks would be required). It was an 8U league game, held at Belton High School’s Tiger Field in Belton, Texas, about 30 minutes away. Not only were masks required, but at each gate someone was taking forehead temperature readings of everyone who entered. And there was plenty of seating so no one had to sit next to anyone if they didn’t want to. It was B’s first football game, so he really didn’t understand the game, though I tried to explain it to him bit by bit. Two of his school mates were on the team that lost (badly), and another classmate of his was sitting in the stands a few feet away from us. I think it was worth getting out for this (though I philosophically don’t think youth sports should be going on right now).

ADDENDUM: Week 42 (Xmas)

This time, my decision is final: I’m ending this entry with the end of 2020. If I have more pandemic-related news to relate, it’ll be in a similar entry for 2021. Hopefully that one will wrap up quickly with vaccinations and herd immunity and (finally!) an administration that’s prepared to do the work of governing our country.

M got the first half of her vaccine on Dec. 15, and will receive the second half in the first week of January 2021. She’s a federal employee with face-to-face clients and therefore was near the front of the line. The children and I will have to wait — to our knowledge, there is yet no vaccine for children, and who knows when the general public (me) will get ours.

Christmas shopping was brief and strange this year. I did most of it in one day, getting almost everything the children asked for in about three hours (with a couple of items ordered online, but most in person here in Killeen and Harker Heights). Most of what the children received from outside the household was gift cards, cash, and a check — amounting to over $100 per child. We let them spend that money in the days immediately following Xmas, and I think they made decent choices. (R even used some of her money to buy presents for friends.)

During these final two weeks, I finished a sci-fi story called The Moral Minority, which I think is fine but will be more interesting if/when I ever finish the novel I’m working on.