The View from the Hermitage, Day 138

Today looks like a win on the weather front. Yesterday was the 35th straight day of 90-plus degrees Fahrenheit. Today seems a struggle to get to 80 degrees, though it probably has. Every time I've checked the temp, it's been in the high 70s. Looking ahead at what I know can be unreliable, there's only one day with a forecast high of 90 or higher in the next eight or nine days. Now if we could only win on the humidity front.

Both local school systems are starting all-virtual, though the county system does plan to have some sort of in-person instruction for English as a Second Language students and special needs students whose educational needs cannot be met virtually. Both will reassess halfway through the nine-week term as to what they should do for the next nine weeks. The county school board did give the superintendent permission to, at any point, close any in-person teaching. Should the county make it through the first nine weeks okay, kindergarten through grade 3 students will have some in-person classes during the next nine weeks. I have not yet heard if parental outrage has risen its ugly head, though there would have been parental outrage in the other direction were the schools to go in-person in any way.

I was interested in how some of the local private schools were going to handle fall, so I checked the websites of three. One had a discussion of how they handled things in the spring, but made no mention if that was the way the fall would be. The other two had no mention at all, not even something left behind about the school's closing back in March. Do they think that putting something up about going online only will force applications down? The three schools I checked are not cheap; I know that a year at two of them costs more than a year at the local university for an in-state student. It just seems a bit dishonest not to put up on the school website what the plans for fall might be. Or perhaps they have yet to decide.

Several colleges and universities in the Washington, DC area have announced plans to go totally online for the fall semester. One is even refunding a small amount of tuition as compensation. The new case numbers in DC and Maryland are similar to those in Virginia, not rising steeply but not headed down in any noticeable way. The local university is holding on letting any students who want to come back come. They would be doing virtual classes from their dorm rooms. Given that all classes with 40 or more students will only be offered online, it's probably first- and second-year students whose large introductory classes won't be in person.

Older son and the husband were discussing the advantages that taped lectures and virtual office hours can offer. A student can stop the lecture at any time and try to work things out on their own. They can also make a note about what to ask the prof about the specific item. I do remember a class or two in which something just flew by me as I was trying to take notes on what had just been said. The prof who oversaw my dissertation research handed out copies of the notes at the start of class for that very reason. He wanted students to be paying attention and not taking notes.

The husband just left on his first trip to the university to meet with his graduate students. When he comes home, he will enter through the basement, shower, put on clean clothes, and deposit the clothes he wore into the washer. This is the procedure we're looking at for the coming semester. If I have to go into public for any reason, I'll do the same when I come home.

I go now to restock the liquor cabinet or at least the bottles back in their new location. We so rarely drink liquor as opposed to beer or wine that I'm not sure why we have as many various bottles as we do. After that, I may get back to reading Mary Trump's book.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 137

No news on what the local K-12 public schools will be doing in the fall. I'm sure there's some debate going on. I think one of the boards was going to meet this afternoon, in which case the 6:00 local news will enlighten me. New cases were down to 911 across the state. I wonder if local numbers will increase noticeably given that we're two-plus weeks out from all the student parties for Midsummers. And the beat goes on... I don't know why that melody just popped into my headspace. It's prettier than "same old same old."

The Atlantic Coast Conference is going to allow fall sports which means I can't--so far anyway--test my theory that without football, the university would close to any in-person classes. There has been some debate on the Charlottesville and university sub.reddits about what might happen in the fall. Evidently, if you leave university housing before six weeks of the semester have gone by, you get a refund. A large number of commenters have offered that closing the university on the six weeks and one day timetable would be too obvious, so just how long after six weeks will they wait. The suggestion has also been floated that since the university will close at some point in the fall, students should party hearty as often as possible until then, social distancing and mask wearing be damned.

HWSNBN has suggested delaying the November election until all the voter fraud issues he sees can be handled. Fortunately, it appears that the Republican leadership in the Senate does not agree with him, since it is only Congress that can change the date of a national election. And should no election be held and the results certified by noon on January 20, then the Speaker of the House will become acting president. I'm assuming that should Nancy Pelosi win reelection to the House, she will continue as Speaker. That would be so pretty to see...Pelosi refusing to pardon or offer any legal protection to HWSNBN.

Unpacking the house is proving difficult. The husband did locate the shelves for the pantry closet, so I reloaded the pantry, tossing expired things as I went. I did the same thing as I put the small jars of herbs and spices back on their racks. I also divvied up sharp implements so that the rack on the counter contains those we use most often. The others can sit in a cabinet. My goal is to have fewer things on the counters than I did before. The de Quervain's tendonitis in my right wrist makes it hard for me to lift heavy things without the wrist brace (and I know, I shouldn't be lifting them even with the wrist brace on), and wearing the brace limits the fine motor movements I can make with my right hand. I'm stubborn for now and refuse even to email my hand doctor (doesn't everyone need their own personal hand doctor?) to let her know what's happening.

The story of Noah's ark maintains that God promised never again to subject the world to 40 days and nights of rain. I don't think there was any mention of 40 days of 90-plus degree (Fahrenheit) days. I think we're into the 30s here now, and the old record was 21 or 22 days. Unless one wants to walk or run in the dark, it's wicked out there even should the humidity be on the low side. ("Low" is a relative term here. We do not have "dry heat" or "dry cold.") At one point HWSNBN suggested that the virus would disappear in hot weather. I have news for him: It's not going away even in this heat!

I just checked the forecast, and the forecast high for tomorrow is only (?!?) in the 80s. I'll believe that when I see it.

The View from the Hermitage, Days 135 and 136

I'm back. Give "back" the two-syllable intonation of some horror film character. Chuckie the doll-like guy? Never having been a fan of that genre, I'm not too familiar with the characters.

We drove back yesterday and felt as if we were walking into a new house. New, and empty. The echo of the door closing was impressive. Now the refurnishing begins. That's "refurnishing" as in putting the furniture back not in getting new furniture. I figure it will take at least six months. It will give me something to do to fill the time of the pandemic.

I chatted today with someone in the quilt guild, someone I actually feel comfortable with. She is of the same mind as I in terms of the pandemic. Other than shopping runs, she's not going anywhere with other people until there is a reliable vaccine and a reliable treatment. It was nice to find a kindred spirit.

The numbers in Virginia are not, at least to me, looking good. The number of new cases on Sunday was noteworthy in that it was so damn high. Normally, weekend numbers seem lower. Not this past weekend. The Biocomplexity Institute at the university updates their covid-19 model weekly. The latest update suggests that we could be looking at 2,000 new cases daily come September. Shit gonna get real.

The local school systems, city and county, will be announcing their models for the coming year tomorrow. I'm predicting they'll give parents a choice between hybrid--virtual and in-person--or virtual only. I predict that but will be hoping that they go only virtual. The gym at which I used to work out runs a summer camp/day care. They reported their first case last week--a camper not a staff person. They did not give the age of the camper, but since all the kids there are likely to be middle school age (maybe) and younger, that kid could also have been in a classroom not a camp. In fact, with there being more outdoor activities during a camp compared with indoor, closer-type activities in a classroom, there's some reason to be concerned here. But that may just be my muddled0by-life brain.

Given the muddled brain, I will stop here and go see what help the husband might need with whatever he's working on. That may well be his home office which for the coming academic year will be his office period.

The View from the Hermitage, Days 126-134

What follows are the entries I wrote while we hermitted in younger son's cabin so that the floors of the home hermitage could be refinished. They look outstanding, though it means I need to put the furniture back as if we were moving in for the first time. That may take the next six months of the pandemic. 

Read these or don't. That' why I put them all together. I'm putting yesterday and today in a separate post.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 126 (Sunday, July 19, 2020)

Settling in at younger son’s cabin. Cell reception is sketchy. Texts come and go easily, email less so. We brought too much food, but it was hard to think ahead for seven days that might stretch into 10. Younger son and spouse equivalent also left us provisions from gin in the freezer to the husband’s favorite Cadbury Fruit and Nut Bars. Dinner tonight was simple ham sandwiches and the leftover tossed salad brought from home.

Home is bare with all the furnishings hidden from view. Older son thinks the house looks smaller without the furniture. I think it may look a bit bigger. I look at the bare walls and think how the furniture should go. I figure I won’t get the chance again to completely start over décor-wise. I lose some flexibility by being the grandchild who ended up with maternal grandparents’ player piano converted to regular piano and paternal grandparents’ pump organ. There are only so many places the piano can go. We did discover, in moving the organ, that the ornate top part complete with mirror so the organist could see behind came off. Both the husband and I think it looks much less imposing without that piece and don’t plan to put it back on.

The organ does have a story behind it. My grandfather ran a lumberyard in a small Nebraska town. A farmer’s barn (I think) burned down, but the man did not have the money to buy the lumber. My grandfather traded him the needed lumber for the somewhat beat-up organ. Grandpa restored it, and I remember playing it as a child. (I remember playing the piano as well.) The stool for the organ is a reworked milking stool with a needlepoint top done by my grandmother.

The olden days had many difficulties, but I think people trusted each other more then. My grandparents lived through the 1918 influenza pandemic, though my grandmother lost her hearing as a result of a high fever. Today’s pandemic continues. Yesterday’s case count for Virginia continued the slow rise. I have heard more than one public school teacher say that they will resign if they are asked to teach in-person classes. They signed contracts two months ago, and it is not clear that the divisions would release them from the contracts. With no release, they could lost their licenses if they don’t stay on. Not a decision I would like to make. One teacher whom I first met when he was a high school student and we both did the same martial art reminded me that I can send an email to the local school board as a concerned citizen. He made a good point, and I plan to do just that. I can compose the email here, off the web, and send it when we get home. The board doesn’t meet again until July 30.

Older son read a report that noted the rate of virus transmission is highest from middle-school and high-school aged people. Just the news one needs to hear as the debate over reopening schools comes to a head. A case has also been reported in which someone who had recovered from covid-19 caught it a second time. Not the news we want to hear. There is also research out of South Korea that suggests asymptomatic cases may appear asymptomatic due to the virus acting in an analgesic way. It deadens the nerve receptors so that the effects are not felt. If that is true, it makes me wonder what comes next. Every time we think we have the virus even roughly figured out, it finds a new way to surprise us. I picture the virus as a court jester with a painted face and a peaked hat with baubles hanging down. As its act wears down, SURPRISE!!!!! There’s a new act starting!

The View from the Hermitage, Day 127

Decompression is a good thing. So are good books. I just finished The Detective in the Dooryard: Reflections of a Maine Cop, by Timothy Cotton. That’s “Tim,” not “Tom” as in the extreme right-wing Senator from, I think, Arkansas. I discovered Tim Cotton’s writing through the Facebook page of the Bangor, Maine Police Department and its famous Duck of Justice. Google the Duck of Justice. It’s a very real thing, and I intend some day to have my photo taken with it.

I thought that I would devour this book when it arrived. As I sometimes do, I read the acknowledgements first. They were the most heartfelt acknowledgements I’ve ever read. Simple and straight from the heart. I liked that. Then there was the dedication directed straight at me and, I will admit, quite a few other people. “This book is dedicated to anyone who was ever picked last—for anything—and refused to let that day define them.” I was picked last a lot in elementary school. High school, too, for that matter. I survived. In fact, I probably learned a lot from those moments.

As I moved to reading the book itself, I quickly knew I could not read it quickly. Like a good meal, it had to be savored bit by bite. The essays in it are short, some not more than two pages long. Some I had to reread right away; others, I know I will reread later. Some made me laugh out loud, while others made me want to weep. Life is like that, and Cotton captures that so well. If you’re looking for a good gift for a dear friend or even a parent or child, this book would be one. Cotton writes in a talking fashion, and I’d like to get the audio book when it is released. He recorded that himself, and I would love to hear how he reads some of the entries. I’d also like to hear Ellie, his boxador, vocalize the profanities present in some of the entries describing professional police encounters. Rather than bleeps, they’re using dog sounds.

There is intermittent cell coverage here, but I have resisted the urge to check the news especially that related to the pandemic. I did see the status of a Facebook-only friend, someone I used to work out with but now just have the Facebook friend connection, no real social one. She was asking the Facebook world if there was any place in a certain area at which she could get a covid-19 test with the results back ASAP. Why? She wants to be able to hug her mother. Her father just died; you can see why she might want to hug her mother safely. The father’s death was not due to covid-19 though I guess there is the remote chance it contributed to his death after cardiac surgery. I hope she can find a quick test with quick results (that might be harder than finding a quick test), and would hope that her primary care doc might be able to scare something up.

I find myself thinking of ways to arrange furniture when we return home. I also think of things to donate, gift, toss. I can’t say that the desire to downsize came with the pandemic, since I started it at the start of the year when we were at repainting and maybe refinishing the floors, the good old days when we commoners had no inkling of the novel coronavirus brewing in Wuhan. Putting things into boxes makes you look at each and every object, some of which are clearly not worth keeping. I don’t want to go all Marie Kondo and spout about what brings me joy. Forget joy; does this object deserve space in my world? Does it merit space in anyone’s world? Some things are easier to pass on that others. I will not, for example, be passing on m copy of The Detective in the Dooryard.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 128

Fortunately, the husband is good at repairing things. Younger son warned us that the water to the cabin occasionally stopped working, just as it did this morning. The husband had just attempted to start the washing machine, something younger son said they had never done. It is not at all clear if that had anything to do with the missing water since the problem appears to be that some contacts in the pump were not making good contact. Thanks to the husband’s being here and younger son’s having a circuit tester and sandpaper in the non-weapons closet, the problem may be no more.

Yes, I said “non-weapons closet.” There is a closet here with various implements of destruction on some level. All the trails that have been cleared including what may be a road to their house site have been cleared with a sword. Younger son and his souse-equivalent came by last night to see how things were going, and younger son demonstrated his technique when we took a walk. It might be easier to use an axe or a chainsaw, but not nearly as fun.

On the home front, there were 996 new covid-19 cases in the state yesterday, after the number reported for the day before yesterday was down a wee bit. How high does the number have to get or how sharp myst the slope of that line get before at least some of the reopening gets reversed. What this will do to all the schools at every level remains to be seen as well. A large number of the local child care centers have not reopened, which will have a huge effect no matter what decisions the school systems make.

Someone posted Dr. Anthony Fauci’s mailing address (the government one, not his home) and was encouraging people to send him thank you cards or messages. Just in case any reader is interested whenever I get to post this week’s entries, it’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, c/o NIAID Office of Communications and Government Relations, 5601 Fishers Lane, MSC 9806, Bethesda MD, 20892-9806. I’m debating waiting until I’m back at home versus doing a straight legal pad note now since I did bring along some envelopes and stamps.

It turns out that there is on-again, off-again cellular service here, enough to go through emails and scan some news websites and some social media sites. That’s how I learned about the thank you cards to Dr. Fauci. I also sent my mother (hi, Mom!) best wishes for her 88^th birthday today. I’m hoping I’ll be able to visit her before her 89^th. I can’t complain, though, because her senior living facility has done a stellar job of keeping their residents covid-free.

Scanning the headlines on the news websites is all the news I can take right now. I know how fast we’re travelling on that highway to hell. The husband is as relaxed as I’ve seen him in a while. And fixing the water issue is keeping his mind elsewhere today. No, I did not plan it. Yesterday, he read the three-volume set of Gahan Wilson’s cartoons for Playboy. When he’d finished that and was starting in on Facebook or the news, I handed him the book  Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park. It kept him distracted until younger son and spouse-equivalent arrived for their visit. I’ll have to think of something else to distract him when he finishes that. I don’t think that the book I’m reading on the 1918 influenza pandemic would fill the bill.

And so continues life in the auxiliary hermitage. The family dog is stretched out on one couch and the family cat is sleeping at my feet. I assume the husband is still alive in the crawl space, and that there will be water in which I can boil the fettucine for one of the recipes I’ve discovered during the pandemic, a fettuccini and corn salad.

The View from the Hermitage Day 129

So far it’s been quite an acceptable day, ignoring as it were, the state covid-19 stats (1,022 new cases yesterday, up from 996 the day before) and whatever nonsense HWSNBN is generating. The husband is more relaxed than he’s been in a while, especially if I keep his focus away from his smartphone. I was actually hoping for less reliable cell service here than we have. We have yet to drive down to the Baptist church to get a signal. I guess it could be the carrier. We use US Cellular, while younger son uses (or used the last time I heard him say anything) T-Mobile.

The saga with the water or no water actually continued after I wrapped up yesterday’s post. The husband had already showered from his first several trips to the crawlspace, with his work clothes having been thrown into the load of wash that kept upsetting things. He stripped to his boxers, went under one more time, and everything has been working fine since then. The laundry got done with no more issues, meaning I had clean leggings for this morning’s walk. It’s pretty much too hot for walking in leggings, but there are enough biting and/or sucking beasties out there that long pants tugged over high socks offers a bit more protection.

I managed to get the 10-inch SampleIt loom younger son gave me warped this afternoon. The manual that came with it is written for a true beginner, which I am. The manual for the 32-inch loom I got for Christmas last year assumes the user knows more than I do. I tell myself that everything I weave right now is a practice piece. I did order a kit to make kitchen towels that I will use as a first “real” piece. For now, as Yoda might say, the learning curve is steep with this one.

Being here, with just the news headlines and few details and more want-to-dos than must-dos, is more relaxing than I thought it would be. The family pets have settled into their routines. We’ve learned where most things we need are. There was a momentary power outage last night, off then back on about two seconds later. It came in conjunction with a thunderstorm that may be repeated this evening. I did bring stamps and some envelopes. There are two letters I should write, but in the interest of those want-to-dos, I haven’t given any serious thought to them. Tomorrow, tomorrow, is only what? A heartbeat? Something? Away.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 130

Another hot sunny day in paradise? I don’t know that I’d go that far, though it is nice to only have news headlines to digest. Covid-19 cases in Virginia dropped a bit; it’s not totally clear whether one would say cases are rising or falling. I do know that most local people I know express fear at thousands of university students returning in a month. Anyone who thinks that the majority of those students will stick to the mask and distance rules is sorely mistaken. They won’t. We’re fucked.

HWSNBN is sending federal troops into more cities controlled by Democratic mayors. As angry as HWSNBN makes me, the Republicans in the Senate enrage me even more. They encourage HWSNBN by not taking any action that might suggest he’s in the wrong with this. News now is that people in both parties are concerned about what if HWSNBN loses the election but declares it invalid and refuses to leave the White House. They’re only now thinking of that? I saw that coming years ago. I picture soldiers escorting him down the steps at the front of the White House, though since he would still be Commander-in-Chief who might order them to do that is unclear. I used to dismiss claims that we would have another civil war (lower-case since it’s not a definite event … yet), but I’m getting less certain about that almost every day.

Spending the day reading, writing, weaving, or petting the family animals really does make this feel like the vacation we might otherwise not go on this year. It reminds me when we used to take the sons to the beach each summer and rent a cabin at a state park. We did things, but in a relaxed fashion. Dinners were simple, often eaten outside, and followed by a walk on the beach or through the natural area through which, interestingly, the sons now run a 30-kilometer race every December. There was always a board game along and a jigsaw puzzle to be done. There is a puzzle in progress here, but it was there when we got there and assuming the cat doesn’t have her way with it, will be untouched when we leave.

I’m wondering how sharp the re-introduction to new details will be whenever we get home. It might not be pretty.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 131

It’s Friday, and word from the floor guys is that we can come home tomorrow. The husband figures we should wait until Monday just to be safe. One thing that means is that he and I will be restoring what furniture we can without older son’s help. He’ll be working. The small educational consulting firm for which he works has decided to close their physical office and let everyone work from home permanently. Most of the staff is already working from home, spread over at least two continents. Older son had his fingers crossed that this might happen. He needs to fix up a more permanent home office, but he’ll get to that.

New covid-19 cases in Virginia went way up yesterday. And Virginia has been added to the list of states from which New York won’t admit people unless they spend two weeks in quarantine. I wish that was something to be proud of, but it isn’t. It makes me feel as if we might be a bit more fucked than I thought. It also makes me feel even more afraid of the thousands of university students who will be arriving in a month. They are supposed to self-quarantine for two weeks before coming, something I figure fewer than half will really do. The husband expects that many of them will get the covid-19 test the university is requiring and submit the swab without having taken a sample. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but he unfortunately may be right. C’mon, Atlantic Coast Conference, cancel football so that the conference schools can go totally online in the instruction department.

I saw one news report this morning—from CNN I think but wouldn’t stake my life savings on it—suggesting that the US needs to start over and consider this the start of a pandemic. Close things back down; stop the sports that have restarted; keep schools at all levels online only. Doing all of those things is not really feasible, but any of it we could do would certainly help. I don’t think for a minute that crowds will disperse or even maintain mediocre social distancing. There will still be a large number of families who believe that schools should reopen normally, full-time and in-person. I understand the issues for families in which parents can’t telecommute and can’t afford to lose their job and livelihood. I’m not sure what the solution for that is. Maybe Andrew Yang’s universal personal income (I think I got that right) is more relevant than anyone thought.

The husband put a harness on the family cat and tried taking her outside this morning. She slipped out of the harness within seconds. Luckily, she was too scared to run anywhere other than underneath the front porch. She was more than willing to go back inside when I opened the front door. Needless to say, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Older son is coming tomorrow to see the place. He saw it from the outside before the sale to younger son was finalized. The family dog will be ecstatic. No one can walk her like he can, at least in her humble opinion.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 132

Should I cheer or weep that Virginia had its fourth highest number of new cases yesterday? And that number was within spittin’ distance of the third highest. I haven’t seen anything to tell me that the governor is planning any sort of response, but it is the weekend. The city (at home, not here) is meeting Monday night about joining the county in going back to Phase Two.

I saw a tweet to the effect that the tweeter had asked three of the docs at the local university whether the university should be bringing thousands of students back in a month. The replies were “No,” “No,” and “Hell, no.” The husband maintains that the university administration is listening more to the accountants than to the doctors. He may be right. I have lost the reference, but I read an article the other night that put colleges into one of four categories based on their endowments, quality stats, etc. Each quadrant represented the likely result were the university to go totally virtual for the coming year. The local university fell into the highest quadrant, “thrive.” I continue to maintain that they are bowing to the athletic side of the equation. If you can’t bring students back, how can you ask student-athletes to come back? I do recognize that many of the big financial donors are alumni whose memories of and hopes for the university are tied to intercollegiate athletics. If those donors truly love and respect the university, they should be donating now to help it provide the best virtual education it can.

It did just occur to me now and should have occurred to me a while back that if the university were to go totally virtual or online, it would then be competing directly with Southern New Hampshire, Phoenix, WGU, and the other online colleges I see advertised on television. The purely online schools as opposed to Liberty (Jerry Falwell’s legacy) which has a large number of online students and advertises that it has the lowest tuition rates, but which still is primarily an in-person school. Some of the universities the local one views as peers (Ivy League ones) will be totally online, but I find the thought of the local one having all the online ones as peers of a sort.

And that appears to be the sum of my random thinking today. I’d call it a day of rest, but I walked five miles this morning. Tomorrow may be a day of rest all around.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 133 (Sunday, July 26, 2020)

We are apparently not going home tomorrow. The husband thinks giving an extra day for the floor to sit is not a bad idea. Fortunately, I was compulsive enough to make sure we had a bit of extra food and reading material.  Gotta have reading material.

We’re at 19 weeks and counting. A week from now will be 20 weeks which pretty much counts as five months. Maybe I should just start marking months and not weeks. I’m not sure if that would be pessimistic or realistic. I don’t think it would be optimistic.

Virginia’s number of new cases was down a bit yesterday. And the governor put an announcement on Facebook yesterday that he was monitoring the situation and hoped not to have to move the state or parts of the state back in terms of reopening phases. I have a feeling he might just move the beach area back a phase despite the local governments here wanting to go back voluntarily. I wonder if they think theat will help convince the university not to bring its thousands of students back. Of course, those with leases starting August 1 could be coming back next weekend regardless of whether the university will open for in-person instruction. If they’re going to do only virtual classes, they could easily do that here and still have the best of all parties.

I just remembered that the university has apparently added the cost of a meal plan on to everyone’s bill regardless of whether they will be living in a dorm and eating in the dining halls or living in an apartment and fending for themselves. A lot of students and, I would imagine, parents are not too happy about that. I find myself thinking that they could not have done something like that in error. It’s too big a thing. I know that finances will be an issue whether they open in person or not, but maybe they’re hoping some people won’t notice? I know the question has been raised of why students should pay a fee to use the gym and fitness facilities if those gyms and fitness facilities will not be open. So many things to sort out. I am quite glad not to be in the full-time position I occupied from 1983 to 1988. I might have to be writing the justifications for things such as that.

Older son came up from home yesterday, and younger son and daughter-in-law (I have decided to begin to call her “daughter-in-law” rather than spouse-equivalent, domestic partner, or some other artificial name. Both the husband and I think of her as a daughter-in-law.) came up from Richmond. The family dog was delighted to see older son, and they managed to nap together while I walked through the woods to see the probable location of the house to be built. There will be a special yard for the tortoise(s) they hope to get when they’ve moved out here. Apparently, ten animals—four rabbits, three snakes, two cats, and a parrot—are not enough.

I feel shortchanged without news details on which I can pithily or otherwise comment. There will also be the travails of moving back into an empty house with which to deal. “May you live in interesting times” really was a curse not a blessing.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 134

Working on a not-so-good day all around. Over cereal,, I saw Virginia listed as one of the dozen or so states with the fastest rising rates of covid-19 cases. Then, hoping to walk 5 miles, I managed to roll my left ankle not once but twice; I figured I might not be able to walk back to the cabin were I to roll t a third time. I blame all typos on tying with my right wrist I  a brace from thumb down about eight inches. I don’t think weaving on a small (10-inch) loom has been good for the DeQuervain’s tendonitis that has been plaguing me more and more lately. I’m hoping I can find enough things to do that won’t worsen it further because, as with my knee, I can only get so much cortisone, and after that surgery would be the only option.

As for Virginia’s quickly rising number of cases, yes, we’re fucked. Normally the number of cases on weekend days is lower than weekdays probably since you need to be feeling pretty bad to go to the ER on a weekend. Under that reasoning, yesterday’s number of new cases being the second highest since the count started is not at all a good sign. The sharp rise seems more due to the area around Washington, DC than the  area around the beaches. There was no Facebook word that the governor is holding a briefing today, but that may still come. I’m not sure the weak cell signal here will be strong enough to stream it, though.

Older son has commented on the number of shoppers at Wegman’s not wearing masks. According to a post on the Charlottesville sub.Reddit (I know how to say it but am not sure how to spell it), there was almost a brawl there over someone’s refusal to put on a mask and anger at being told they had to. If we drop back even to Phase Two of reopening, the general mood could get even edgier.

I realize that our family has had it much, much easier than many, maybe most, families during the pandemic. I’m (supposedly…it’s a long story) retired, but the others have professional-level jobs that can be done at home. I fact, older son’s job will remain a telecomputing one; the company is cutting costs by getting rid of the office space they were renting. Things have been working out so well with telework that they figure they can stay that way. The kids are now adults, but were they still in the K-12 range, they would likely prefer to learn at home or attend the local community college or university online. Since I returned to work when younger son was in first grade, I worked part-time and basically from home. Child care so that both parents could work outside the home would not have been an issue. We also started before having kids putting my income aside for saving or special things such as family travel.

In other words, I can not really understand the pressures on families or single parents who may be living from paycheck to paycheck and are worried about keeping food on their table and a roof over their heads. I never had to struggle with what to do with kids if I had to leave the house to go to work. I never had to view school as child care. I can’t imagine what that must feel like. At the same time, though, I think of the teachers I know or have know. They are ready, they have to be ready, to take a bullet for their students, but must they also be ready to take a coronavirus particle? They must also consider that they could infect a student rather than be infected by one.

I read an op-ed by a grade 5 teacher last night who described her normal classroom. Desks in clusters, pillowed reading areas, antsy children able to move as needed. My elementary years were spent in separate desks facing forward, facing the blackboard. No moving around and no (I really did love this) working in groups on a daily basis. This sounds remarkably like the “new normal” classroom  with social distancing. Learning could occur in such an environment. But eating lunch at your desk and having no recess were things I never had to deal with. Those would not have helped my attitude toward learning.

We’re still defining the new normal, and it’s hard to say when we might be done.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 125

Number play ... today is Day Five to the Third. The next perfect cube is Six to the Third, aka 216. What are the odds I'll still be doing this then? That's lots of catchy post openings and closings to engineer.

I can skip detailed discussion of the latest covid-19 counts of cases or deaths, locally or nationally, and simply repeat that we're fucked. I just read of mask-less parents with no social distance between them, shutting down a board meeting in Utah called to discuss requiring that students wear masks. The state of Illinois is suing a couple of schools, at least one of which is a "Christian Academy," that are saying masks will not be required. Their explanation? "We're not anti-mask. We're pro-choice." Can we pull out part of that and say that they actually support a woman's right to choose when it comes to pregnancy?

I am getting a wee bit tired of reading "if only" analyses or op-ed pieces relevant to the pandemic.I am afraid that by the time the next pandemic rolls around--and I'm betting it's less time than the 100 years between pandemics that we had this time--will we even recall all the "if onlys"? Can we wrap all the "if onlys" into a user's manual of how to handle a pandemic? Oh wait, didn't we have a group that was going to act like a user's manual to handling a pandemic? Didn't someone decide we really didn't need it? Wouldn't it be nice if we'd kept that user's manual up-to-date?


The floor guy came this morning to pick up the keys and get contact info for older son who will be our pipeline to the outside world. We talked things over, ten feet apart, all masked. He said the reality of the pandemic was driven home to him when one of the local hospitals called him to ask if he had some N95 masks he could sell them. You know something is up when a hospital calls a small, local, floor-refinishing company for needed equipment. He said that now, after four-plus months, the masks he can find to buy for his company cost five or six times as much as they used to and are not the same quality.

Life is getting real when it comes to the floor refinishing.  The family dog is a bit nervous but is coping well. She's not really letting me out of her sight, though. That's understandable given that the ASPCA thinks she was dumped. The last time she saw a house being packed up she might have been shoved out of a car that drove away. The family cat is hiding. I can't say I blame either of them. I mean, it does look a bit strange.

That pretty darned empty space is what passes for our living room. (Like the "accent wall"? My blog post on whether I should get an accent wall has been read by almost 800 people though I can't tell you why or how they found it.) Once I publish this post, I will take up the carpet tiles shown. The husband and older son will empty out the rest of the furniture tomorrow morning.

I recognize that this will give me the opportunity to "stage" my house, something I would otherwise never do. We started this whole process six months ago; it may take longer to put everything back in place, in a different place, in a thrift store, etc. As things have emptied out little by little, I have come to like how the space looks with less stuff in it. I intend to be judicious in what I put back where and how I plan to use it.

Tomorrow at this time, I will either be on my way off the grid or already there. I have gone on international trips before on which I heard little news of what was going on at home, "home" then being the United States. Now, I am going a mere 90 minutes driving time away, but will get only what news highlights I can get in the nightly check-in call with older son. Will the world I return to even resemble the world I am leaving? I think of The Twilight Zone or Outer Limits, with episodes in which a character (usually just one person because someone has to be on their own with no help possible), comes out from somewhere (a night's sleep, time away at a cabin in the woods) and finds the world totally changed. All the people are gone; the streets and buildings are empty. I know nothing like that will happen here; still, I have a younger son who would comment to that last thought something like "nothing will have happened yet."

Since I probably won't post anything before we head out tomorrow, I'll "see" everyone on the flip side. I don't want the world to have changed to that extreme degree in the time we're gone.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 124

I awoke (too early thanks to the family cat) to a news notification that the county Board of Supervisors last night indicated that it wanted the county to revert to Phase Two of the coronavirus reopening guidelines. It's not clear if the county can do that without authorization from the state government. The county attorney thinks that the board could declare a special emergency and revert without permission from the governor, but not everyone agree with that assessment.

Among the reasons cited were the county's increasing positivity rate and the return of thousands of university students. It's not clear that all the differences between Phases Two and Three could be easily implemented and enforced. Fortunately, the difference that seems the easiest to implement and enforce is the one the board views as the most important to change. Phase Three allows outdoor social gatherings of up to 250 people, five times the 50 people allowed under Phase Two. The reduction would certainly help, though I'm not convinced how much good it would do. It would not take many of those 50 people to spread the virus to 50 more people.

Virginia is fortunate, though, not to have bars per se. At some point in the past that I think might have been in my lifetime, the state enacted a law that more than 50% of the profits of a restaurant-type establishment must come from food sales. Establishments relying on the sale of alcoholic beverages that existed at the time the law was enacted were grandfathered, but no new ones could be opened. Restaurants can have a bar area, though, based on the experience with bars in the hardest-hit states, the governor here said no person could be served at a restaurant's bar. You can't be there just to drink; you must also eat.

As for yesterday's number of new covid-19 cases, we broke 1,000 again, though barely, with 1,002. The seven-day moving average is also up slightly, as one might expect. The new cases now are very likely a result of July 4 weekend social gatherings. If so, then daily increases for the next several days should not be surprising.

While we're fucked in terms of covid-19 cases, there's also the fact that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's cancer has returned. Chemo appears to be working for now. Almost four years ago she announced her intention to stay on the Supreme Court until HWSNBN was no longer president. If he were to add another one of his ilk to the court, it would point the court off-center for decades. That's a definite down side to lifetime appointments.

I go now to continue moving what I can to the basement and making sure we have packed what we will need or want at the cabin. I dislike that I probably won't be able to keep posting here. It also has occurred to me that unless we can pick up NPR on the clock radio, I won't have access to coronavirus updates. The husband and I can make bets on what craziness happens while we're off the grid. I'll try to get at least a short post up on Sunday, but that will depend on if the router has been disconnected and moved to high ground.