The View from the Hermitage, Day 117

Virginia had a very sizeable jump in the number of covid-19 cases yesterday. Part of it may be that they did a higher-than-usual number of tests a couple days before, but that shouldn't account for all of the increase. We'll see what tomorrow holds. I've read that it may take five days to two weeks for symptoms to appear after exposure. It could be that those extra cases were due to July 4 gatherings. We may be seeing higher numbers for another week or so. If so, reopening may become re-closing in at least some respects.

As the seesaw of K-12 schools fully open, fully closed, or some mix continues its ups and downs, I remain relieved that I no longer have kids in those grades. If I did, I know what I would do. Taking into consideration that I only worked part-time, I would home-school them. In fact, I would have started to do so as soon as schools shut down back in March. I have often had people ask me why I did not home-school the sons given their special needs (which are not needs in the normal usage of the terms--they were both doing college coursework in middle or high school). I answer that question by noting that it would have worked very well with one son and would have been a challenge with the other given their different personalities. I'm not going to specify which son was which; I imagine they would know.

The sports pages (there is still only a Sports section in Sunday's Washington Post) have reports daily of which athletes in which sports have tested positive for covid-19. It's not clear how susceptible to poking some of the athletic bubbles are. This means that some of the abbreviated seasons or tournament games may not actually happen, or the number of teams in a tournament may be smaller if enough players test positive that a whole team needs to be pulled out.

It is still not at all clear what will happen with college athletics. Harvard has cancelled all fall sports. The Big Ten athletic conference has said that at least the football teams will only play schools also in the Big Ten. Here, football team members can be back in town and working out on their own. Team practices will not start until next week. There have been no reports of positive test results here, but then there has been no word that testing has taken place. I would hope it has, but then the powers that be have yet to ask my opinion, and they likely won't.

Blogging in real time note: Within a minute of my finishing the above paragraph, a bulletin popped up that two of the football players here tested positive for covid-19. No mention was made as to whether either had symptoms, but neither has been put in hospital. They'll self-isolate for at least 10 days and can't return until any symptoms are gone and they've gone three days with no fever. Anyone who had close contact with either player must self-quarantine for 14 days.

I meant to mention yesterday in my discussion of soundtracks that I have never been able to listen to Bruce Springsteen's "American Skin (41 Shots)" without my heart breaking that there are mothers who need to cover such topics with their kids before they go out to play, go to school, run an errand. I cannot imagine having had to do that with my sons. That any mother has to is a very sorry statement on us as a nation.

The husband gives his summer school final exam tomorrow. Once he's submitted grades, he's done with teaching until fall. Federal income tax returns must be postmarked by Wednesday, so he's not going to be able to rest on his laurels for long. Yes, the last minute approaches, which is when he usually does the taxes. I try to keep my mouth shut and my fingers crossed that there's no fly in the ointment. I think the state taxes were due a while ago, but since our state tax return needs numbers from the federal one, they were always going to be late.

The weekend looms and not menacingly. After all, weekend days are pretty much the same as weekdays right now. Every day could be a Saturday ... except for trash/recycling days.