COVID-19

I haven't posted in a long time. I missed two birthdays and Christmas, as well as a trip Katelyn and I took to San Diego in February. I'll have to catch up another time. Unfortunately, if I wait any longer to blog about the Coronavirus quarantine, I might forget something.

This last month has been unprecedented... really. Through all of January and February, we had been hearing on the news about the rapid spread overseas of a highly contagious upper respiratory disease which humans have no immunity to. When Kate and I went to California in February, some travelers were wearing masks, and I used hand sanitizer rather obsessively.

On March 9, the kids started Spring Break. We fully intended to return to classrooms after the week, but as the week progressed things started to change. By Friday, the schools had announced that school would be canceled the following week as well. That next Wednesday, the district put out a packet to be printed at home for "continuity of instruction," and was to be used for the rest of that week and the following one. At some point, the governor of Texas closed schools through May 4. And that's where we are right now. Many states have already canceled school for the rest of the school year, but Texas - and Boerne - have not done so... yet. I fully expect the kids to be home the rest of the year.

So, about school. So at the beginning, they had these packets and we were supposed to turn in our work "when the schools opened again." When they realized that wasn't going to happen, they created online assignments and submission. Basically, the boys would do 30 minutes per subject per day (lang arts, math, sci & soc stu). Then this week, the Specials teachers (computers, library, art, music & pe) wanted in on the action and the parents complained it was too much work, so they do math & lang arts on MWF and sci & soc stu on TuTh, with one special per day per week. Basically, my kids don't have nearly enough to do now, and I have to come up with ways to entertain them.

Life is so strange. The first week home, Ryan went to work each day, and Collin had taekwondo at the facility. By the end of that week though, all exercise facilities had been closed, so Collin started training via Zoom (video conferencing software). The following week all non-essential employees were instructed to work from home, and Ryan said he'd "give it a try." After a day of that, we were placed on "shelter in place" orders, and we were not permitted to leave our homes/neighborhoods except for groceries, doctor appointments or medication refills. All non-emergency surgeries, hair appointments, shopping, etc are canceled/closed. 

Before the "shelter in place" order, the boys were taking tennis lessons twice a week at the tennis courts in the neighborhood. A boy in Ryan's Sunday School class is on the high school team, and he offered to teach them for $20/hour. After the "shelter in place" order, I let the boys go play on the courts - since they could walk - but without their coach. Then, last week, the courts were suddenly chained and padlocked, as well as the basketball courts and playground. To be honest, my kids weren't allowed to play on the playground from the very beginning, before they wrapped it in yellow caution tape, but many kids still were.

Anyway, basically, every day or so we lose another activity or pleasure. Ryan says they are gradually taking away anything that causes any joy. For instance, at the beginning, everyone was saying that we should go to all the national and state parks, because nature is a great place to social distance. Then, they said we could go to the public parks, but all the bathrooms, amenities and workers would not be there. You would have to purchase all your permits and passes in advance. Then, this week they closed all national and state parks because they were overcrowded and dangerous to the spread of the disease.

Ok, why all the concern about the spread? Because there is no immunity, the disease is caught by everyone exposed to it. It lives on surfaces for up to 14 days, and a person can be contagious with no symptoms for 14 days. Older people and those with other health problems get deathly ill. In fact, most people have to be hospitalized and placed on a ventilator in order to survive. Unfortunately, most hospitals usually run at about 98% capacity and only have about 2 ventilators. So... this whole social distancing thing is all about "flattening the curve." Basically, we will probably all get the disease, with varying severity, but we can't all get it at once or the death rate will be astronomical. So, we sit hunkered down at home, day after day, waiting to get sick at a slower rate so the doctors can keep up. I guess it all started when an infected bat was sold and eaten at a live-animal, fresh-air market in Wuhan China. I know, it's insane!?

Ok, on to the grocery situation. Back over Spring Break, there was a run on the stores. The shelves were empty, the lines were long, and the crowds were insane. The store CEOs told us there was no need to panic and that there would always be stocked shelves, so we just ate what we had on hand. After a week or two of that, I need to get essentials, and I was able to schedule a grocery curbside pickup for a few days out. Not to bad. The next time we needed some essentials, I tried to order online, but the next pickup time was 2 weeks away. I placed the order, but knew I'd need stuff sooner. At some point, the rules changed so that shopping was only allowed to be one adult per family per time, and absolutely no children ever. I'm glad my kids are old enough to watch themselves so I can go while Ryan works! One morning, I got up early, put on a mask, and headed to HEB thirty minutes before opening. All the grocery carts were lined up in front of the building, and announcements were running on the PA system about social distancing, washing your hands, and not touching anything that you didn't plan to purchase. I waited in a long line outside until the store opened, and then they slowly let in the first 50 people. If you aren't at the front of the line, you don't get eggs, milk, bread or toilet paper, meat. And then there's the stuff you can't ever buy no matter what time of the day it is: yeast, Lysol wipes, bleach, hand soap and hand sanitizer. Once I got inside, it was like the apocalypse - everyone was in masks walking stiffly from item to item. No idle chatter or head nods. No polite "excuse me" or "thank you." Just getting business done, and getting out. Oh, and the sneeze guards! They have installed these tall, long plexiglass walls between the cashier/bagger and the shoppers. They slide your receipt through this precut hole in the wall. It left me on edge and anxious. I haven't been back since that day. But we do need milk, so I know I have to go sometime...

Church! Ok, so we went to Church the last time the first Sunday of Spring Break. It was weird that week because so many people were out of town. By the end of Spring Break, Church had been canceled world-wide, WORLD WIDE! Almost right away, our Bishop approved the weekly administration of the sacrament. So, each week we get dressed in church clothes and Ryan conducts. We have a song and prayer and then a sacrament hymn while Ryan breaks the bread. We have a white towel to cover the coffee table. Collin - who was ordained in January - passes us the bread and water. We use medicine dosing cups for the water. After the sacrament, we have some talks. Ryan assigns who and the topics. After the talks, we have a snack, then we start Sunday School/Primary. This is when we do our Come Follow Me lesson we would have ordinarily done in addition to church. The big boys did the lesson for Easter last week, but I usually do it.

General Conference was obviously different this year too. Last Fall, President Nelson said it was going to be a unique Conference as we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the First Vision. Little did we know how unique it would be! They held the meeting in a small side room at the Conference Center. The only people in the room was the First Presidency, sitting in chairs spread across the front. Speakers must have sat outside the room in some kind of waiting area. All the music was either prerecorded (some in January/February before the quarantine when there were suspicions and some reused from old Conferences.) Obviously, everyone watched from their homes. Sunday morning's session was a solemn assembly where we celebrated Palm Sunday with the "hosanna shout" and waving of handkerchiefs. The Choir sang the Hosanna song, replayed from Oct 2000, when the Conference Center was dedicated. It was good, but oh so weird. 

Ethan and Katelyn were supposed to play spring-season soccer, which was supposed to start the week after Spring Break. The league is trying to do a Summer League instead, but I just submitted our request to withdrawal yesterday. It is too blasted hot in Texas in the summer. Another loss.

At this point, I'm planning for the kids not to return to school this year. I'm hoping they can all start Aug 12 in their new grades (C- 6th in middle school, B - 4th, E - 1st & K - Kinder). We have a camping trip scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, which if the state parks don't open back up, will be canceled. We also have a VRBO condo scheduled for the last week of July at South Padre Island. Right now all the beaches are closed, so I'll want to try to get a refund if that continues. We have another camping trip scheduled at a state park for Labor Day, and I sure hope that one happens. There are some murmurs from government about a slow-track return to normalcy that could begin as early as May 1st, but when China started their return this week, they had an uptick in cases and some people even contracted it for the second time! We'll see.

Whew. I wanted to record all of this for my future self, so there it all is. If you read this soon, I know it's the same where you are, but it's so weird and different from the usual, I wanted to have a record.