The View from the Hermitage, Day 115

Starting off on a less-than-cheery note, older son sent me the link to an article reporting that the novel coronavirus can survive in air for hours. The researchers do note that they did the research in an artificial laboratory chamber as opposed to real-world atmosphere with light or wind. Still, it's food for thought and more evidence that following public health guidance (think mask and social distancing here) is needed if we are ever to slow the spread of the virus.

I Zoomed with my mother this afternoon. They did the point prevalence coronavirus testing at her senior care facility today. I told her that I'd heard the long swab up the nose was somewhat unpleasant and asked her how it had been. Yes, the long swab up the nose is somewhat unpleasant. It probably did not help that they interrupted her breakfast to do the test. She did not know when the results would come in. I'm betting that the facility will let both Mom and me know given that they sent the consent form to me first.

Mom said that if no one had it, perhaps they would let visitors come again. I explained that if no one had it, that was all the more reason to keep visitors out. If no one has it, the only way someone might get it would be if someone brought it in from outside.

I played with words in my mind as I skied to nowhere this morning. A reader used the word "hermetic" in a comment. Her-met-ik. I do like the sound of that. What if the word had a gender? Might "hermetic" be the feminine and "himmetic" be the masculine? My mind then drifted to other word pairs and related questions. Why is "inept" listed as an antonym for "adept" when "adept" is not listed as an antonym of "inept"? And isn't "inept" a good antonym for "apt"? If it is, why do we use "inept" rather than "inapt"? I know that I can look these things up in a good dictionary, but not while I'm skiing to nowhere on my NordicTrack ski machine. And let's not forget the oldie but goodie that we"drive on a parkway" and "park on a driveway."

This led me to thinking of a book I once read on survival. The following text is apparently read differently by people who will survive than by those who will not:

                            OPPORTUNITYISNOWHERE

Do you see that as "opportunity is nowhere" or do you see that as "opportunity is now here"? You can probably guess which group had a better chance of surviving. And are you "impossible" or "I'm possible"? Perspective can be everything.

Back when I worked for the public K-12 schools, I frequently heard the word "stakeholder" used. I typically then thought of "steakholder" and had images of the stake used to kill a vampire stuck through a steak on its way into the vampire's chest.

That's one thing I like about what could otherwise be a mindless cardio workout. It is often more mind-freeing than mind-less. It can be something like a weird dream where something that happens leads into something else with seemingly no connection or relevance. I find myself noting in the morning what a strange dream I had the night before but unable to remember what made it strange. I know where I started or ended up but the intermediate stops are missing.

How this all relates to the novel coronavirus I do not know. I do know, however, how nice it can be to find myself having gone an hour without dwelling on the virus or covid-19. Some days I spend that hour going through scenario after scenario of how things might or might not turn out. Today, I just played word games.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 114

One of the (few) regular readers of this blog posed two interesting questions in the comments. What personal surprises have I encountered doing this daily writing and would I have started had I known I would still be writing 114 days in? Personal surprises is a tough one. There have been days when I sat down to write without an idea in mind, but one comes as I start to write. I did not really expect to progress from mostly commenting on the big picture to including more of the personal side, but I should have since one reason for starting this was to have a daily journal of how things progressed and how I dealt with life as a hermit.

Would I have started if I'd known how far away an end date might be? I would have. For one, I can write this without feeling guilty about taking "me" time to do so. I've always wanted to try writing on a regular basis, and this has been a good exercise. I do keep in mind that this is not a private journal. I will admit that there are topics or details I would include in a private journal that I don't include here. (Don't take this personally, Mom. I've left out a thing or two I might have said to you that I wouldn't want non-family members to read.) Will I still feel good about doing this on Day 228? I hope so, though I also hope that it might not be necessary for mitigation measures such as masks and distancing to last that long.

Speaking of such things as mitigation measures, the husband had a physical today and inquired of our family doc if I was being paranoid about hermitting ("hermitting" sounds so much better than "quarantining"). She said I was not, that avoiding potential exposure was not a bad thing for someone with my underlying conditions. I'm not sure what I might have done had she said that I was definitely over-reacting and it would be okay to resume normal activities. I'm actually not sure what I would call normal activities during a pandemic. All the meetings I might have attended have been moved online via either email or Zoom. Working out with a trainer when the trainer has to stay 10 feet away? Not gonna happen. Hermitting for the win!

The doc also told the husband that the hospital staff (it was not clear if this was the entire staff or just the doctor types) will be undergoing a 20 percent decrease in salary. This will clearly hurt the lower paid staff members--orderlies, housekeeping, etc.--more than it will hurt the docs or the administrators. On the non-hospital side, salaries have been frozen, but the only ones taking salary cuts have been the top administrators.

So the Education Secretary in HWSNBN's cabinet says K-12 schools should go back to in-person instruction five days per week in fall. And the governor of Florida is saying the same thing, only what he says carries weight. They say that kids don't get covid-19 or don't get it as bad as adults. Florida has so far recorded some 7,000 cases in children. And it's not clear at all if kids are contagious to adults, something I don't think should be tested by totally reopening schools. And HWSNBN has said that colleges and universities should also go back to full-time in-person instruction. Can a person sue the federal government if their professor spouse catches covid-19 from a student and dies? Not something I want to find out first-hand.

Once again, there are no easy answers and more than enough questions. We've never been through this before. There hasn't been an international pandemic in a century. We are all, even the experts, playing it by ear to a certain extent. It would be nice to be able to say "been there, done that." Maybe someday.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 113

It seems that Harvard University has announced that all 2020-21 classes, undergraduate and graduate, will be held online. Interestingly, they are encouraging freshmen (what the university here calls "first-year students") will be invited to live on campus though they will still take courses remotely in their rooms. The reasoning is that freshmen need to start building a network of Harvard people and resources, something best done in person. One possibility for the spring semester is that freshmen will move home and seniors will be invited to live on campus. I can't say I disagree with that. They need to tie together their network of Harvard contacts just as the freshmen need to start theirs. Any student choosing to live on campus will be tested every three days. Finally, fall tuition of only slightly less than $50,000 will not be lowered for students learning only online.

Harvard is by no means the first to make such an announcement. Cambridge University announced in May 2020 that all classes until summer 2021 will be streamed online. Decisions about attendance or not had to be made in June, explaining the May announcement date. That was about the same time that the California State University system announced that it was moving all fall 2020 classes online.

The University of Southern California has moved its fall 2020 semester online. Students can still live on campus, but they will learn virtually from their campus housing. USC is serious about not letting the novel coronavirus on campus or allow it to spread should it arrive. Here's a look at their basic requirements. If students do not follow all of these, they are out:

Daily Requirements

• Residents are required to complete and submit a daily symptom screener.
• Residents are required to wear a mask at all times when outside your room/suite/apartment.
• Residents are not permitted to bring any guests/visitors into the residential community.  This includes parents, guardians, siblings and other relatives.  This restriction will be in place for move in days.
• Residents are not permitted to have any person in their room/suite/apartment that is not an official occupant of that space.
• Common spaces (i.e. lounges, recreational rooms, gyms, etc.) within the community will be closed. Some of these spaces will only be available for telehealth meetings.
• Laundry rooms and elevators will be limited to no more than one person at a time.
• In residence halls, residents are restricted to designated bathrooms on their floor as well as specific stairwells and entrances for accessing their building.

Rumor has it on the Charlottesville sub-Reddit that the university here is rethinking its decision to open in person while doing all classes online with no in-person instruction in classes with 40 or more students. There's some evidence rumor may come true; the deadline by which students must pay their housing deposit has been extended to August 5. And arts and sciences administration has announced that all discussion sessions, even small ones, will be held online.

Also on the education front, Georgia apparently will not require students to wear masks, something that has university faculty members angry. I can't say I blame them. I would not want the husband teaching a room full of unmasked anyone, students, peers, anyone. I know that some would wear masks even if they were not required, but I doubt they would be in the majority.

And so life goes on with seemingly endless possibilities. I read a report of a person who knew he had covid-19 who still went to a large gathering on July 4. I've seen the footage of a tightly-packed crowd of people throwing around a giant beach ball. I cannot believe that the case numbers will not be worse in a week or two. I wonder if the bookmakers in the United Kingdom are taking bets on what will happen in terms of specific aspects of the virus. I'm sure there's some action under the table here. If I were a betting woman ... but I'm not, so I have nothing to offer here.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 112

Sweet 16 weeks? Sixteen candles make a lovely sight? Roughly four months ... 16 weeks ... 112 days ... let's not keep progressing down to hours, minutes, and seconds. Let's just agree it's been a hell of a long time. I will admit that when all this started, I did not really consider how long it might go on. Now, though, I can say four more months or even a couple of times that seem quite possible. At least my bangs will have grown out by then.

Working toward the floor refinishing fiasco, I have been going through all sorts of boxes not to mention younger son's bedroom, the one room in which the floors will not be refinished. That's where we hope to put much of the master bedroom furniture. I also went through some boxes packed when I moved my mom out of her condo and into senior living. I found three expired passports. Evidently in the century before this one, families could travel on one passport. I've heard of this being done in other countries, but never knew it was done here as well. The "family" page of two of the passports are shown below.

The page on the left is from a passport valid from 1970 to 1975. Note that it lists "wife" in addition to "minor children." It actually reminds me of what I've heard about Saudi Arabia's not letting a woman leave the country without the permission of a husband, father, or other male relative. The page on the right is from a passport valid from 1975 to 1980. "Wife/Husband" would, I guess, mean that a husband and minor children could travel on the wife's passport. The fine print at the bottom of the page on the one on the right (but not the one on the left) is "Persons included herein may not use this passport for travel unless accompanied by the bearer."

The times they have been changing. If I remembered where I put it, I'd pull out the tennis trophy from Mom's victory in the Housewife's Tennis Tournament at the country club to which we belonged from my grade 2 through grade 5 years.

Mentioning my own elementary school years makes me wonder how a pandemic might have been handled then, before virtual education was possible. Interesting aside or "fun fact" here: I spent grades 6 and 7 at a small school operated by a university where their education students could student teach or do practicums. In grade 6, we did some math from a university in California. I remember sitting at what I later called a Dec-Writer or something like that, a bulky typewriter-like machine with wide paper output. A problem would get typed out, and we would work the problem and type the answer. Virtual learning before it was really a thing.

Anyway, the local school divisions--one for the city and one for the surrounding county--are supposed to announce their plans for fall as early as this week. So far, they've said that school will start some three weeks later than it otherwise would have, on September 8. The city is talking about grades K through 6 attending school in person four days each week. For grades 7 through 12, parents may be the ones deciding if their kids do all virtual or attend in person a couple days each week. But here's the key statement from the local paper's article: "Neither Charlottesville nor Albemarle have announced plans to require masks for the upcoming school year." At least in the city, there's a petition going around among teachers arguing for masks. Included with the  petition is a list of very good questions that one would hope are being or will be considered. Things such as what symptoms might get a kid sent to the nurse's office. What about parents who give their kids acetaminophen to take a low-grade fever down if schools monitor temps as kids arrive each morning. Substitute teachers were hard to find before the pandemic; how will a teacher's absence be handled. And what will the guidelines be for students or staff to return from quarantine.

Some years ago, several people tried to get me to run for a seat on the county school board. I declined. I would hate being on the board now. There is no right decision here, certainly no one size fits many, let alone all decision. The issues for K-12 overlap some with issues for higher education, but there are some pretty big differences. Child care for one. What does a working parent with elementary-school kids do on the day(s) they are to be using virtual education? I've heard this same point made with respect to middle- or high-school students. There are valid reasons a working parent might not want them left home alone all day.

Meanwhile, records of new-case numbers continue to fall. We are not far from seeing 60,000 new cases in one day, well on the way to the 100,000 per day suggested by Dr. Fauci. And we will go over 130,000 deaths tomorrow if we didn't today. Sixteen doesn't sound so sweet any longer.

The View from the Hermitage, Day 111

The lead article in the Style section of this morning's Washington Post is "On the razor's edge of anxiety." The subtitle text is "Women desperately want their hair done. The salon owner longs for the stylist-client bond and an income. At what cost?" Pennsylvania closed its hair salons and barber shops on March 14; they were one of the first states to close those businesses. Hair establishments in the most populous counties were allowed to reopen on June 26, one of the latest reopenings in the country. The article centered on Sorelle Hair Studio in a suburb of Philadelphia. When the governor announced the reopening date, Sorelle received 750 emails and 500 voice messages from clients seeking appointments. On the day covered in the article, the salon's owner worked from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm, seeing 20 clients. Social distancing requirements meant that clients sitting while their highlights or color set had to do so in their cars. Clients desperate for color did not mind at all.

If I remember, Virginia opened hair salons and barber shops on May 15, with salons at half capacity, no drop-ins, and only half the chairs in use at a time. My stylist texted me and asked if I wanted an appointment. I replied that with my asthma and other risk factors, I would be laying low for some time yet. She also has asthma issues, and replied that she wished she could do the same. She and a partner run the salon together; they are the only stylists. When salons reopened, only half the stylists were supposed to work at the same time. Since Ciera and Jan work in different rooms, that may not have been an issue, though there is only one hair-rinsing station, and it is in Jan's room.

Without knowing it, I timed things just right. I had a manicure and pedicure on Thursday, March 12, and a haircut and highlights on Friday, March 13. I tipped both hair stylist and nail lady extra on those visits, figuring that it might not be clear how much longer they'd be open. Both said they greatly appreciated it. The following week, things went downhill fast, and I began hermitting. My nail lady texted me this past week, saying that she was starting to work again if I wanted to come in. I replied that I'd be staying home for a while longer. She replied that she was only coming back part-time for now and to let her know whenever I might want to come in.

My hair is getting quite shaggy with the bangs either in my eyes or being brushed aside. Despite going without the highlights I normally get every two months, my hair is still very blonde. The nails are holding up. I have at least not resorted to biting or picking at them as I have been known to do when nervous. I am probably lucky in that I do not have a job to return to nor do I have to video conference for any professional reason. I've never been big on hair anyway, preferring the styles I've have that are essentially wash and wear.

HWSNBN essentially rallied at Mt. Rushmore last night. He's doing the same on the Mall in DC this afternoon or tonight. Last night, he gave only very, very brief mention of the pandemic. I will leave discussion of the nature of his address to others or at least not discuss it here. If you know me, you know my political leanings, but just in case you don't, I'd rather not raise your blood pressure and mine. Mine's already high enough on its own.

It appears that the executive order on reopening schools in the fall contains language that facial coverings are required inside public buildings then a few bullet points down notes that the requirement excludes K-12 students and students at higher education institutions. It's not easy on the nerves at times to have the husband battling technological gremlins, power outages, and the ringing of a phone we forgot to disconnect while trying to tape a lecture. If the alternative would be for him to stand in front of a class of 70 or so students only some of whom might be masked, he's not going anywhere. He knows how afraid I am of being exposed to the novel coronavirus (I still so love those two words together), and respects that. I may be being overly paranoid (he's going to ask our family doc about that at his physical on Tuesday), but he respects that. After all, I only went to the doctor and discovered I had had pneumonia for several weeks when he refused to drive me home and took me to an urgent care center instead.

The number of new cases in Virginia rose slightly yesterday. We may not be a surge state, but I'd be happier at least seeing a straight line. My fingers are crossed that case numbers don't start spiking in a week or two, but I actually expect there will be a spike. I desperately hope I'm wrong about that. I have not been encouraged by the discussions I have heard about contact tracing in Virginia. The last time I heard it mentioned at one of the governor's briefings (now scheduled only as needed), it was still in terms of the number of tracers the state had yet to hire.

Happy Independence Day! If only it were independence from the pandemic that we were celebrating. Maybe next year?

The View from the Hermitage, Day 110

As life things have turned out, I shall have the chance to be even more of a hermit later this month. It turns out that we will not be able to live in the basement while the hardwood floors upstairs are refinished. Not wanting to look for a hotel that would accept the family dog and cat, and not wanting to board them, we inquired of younger son and his spouse-equivalent whether we could use their cabin for a week. They live in Richmond City, but own 155 acres north of the city on which currently sits a simple two-bedroom house or cabin. They of course said yes, because that's what families do. It's not clear exactly which week we'll be doing this, maybe the week of the 20th or the next week.

It turns out that using the Internet at the cabin requires driving out to the main road and down it about a mile to a church parking lot. That's also the closest spot at which it's possible to get a cellular signal. If the husband needs Internet access for something major, he can drive back here (it's less than two hours driving) and stay with older son. I expect I will spend much of the day we come back here deleting superfluous emails and otherwise tying up digital loose ends. To be safe, I guess we should plan that one of us will drive to the church every evening just to check for any near or other emergency messages.

Needless to say, I have already created a pile of creative things to take with me. There will, after all, be lots of time that needs filling. A couple of needle felting kits I've neglected. Some fabric ink plus t-shirts and a canvas bag that need embellishing. My new small loom and some yarn that needs weaving. A book to finish and a couple more to start. I will, of course, take too many things, but that is definitely better than not taking enough and having to drive into civilization to buy things I don't really need.

The final plus side of this is that we may not need to rent a pod in which to store our furniture. If we will not be living in the basement, there's a hell of a lot of space down there. We can shift things and get half of the garage empty for things such as a long couch that will not make the curve to go down the stairs to the basement.

Meanwhile, the number of covid-19 cases in Virginia creeps back up. And who knows what this long weekend might spawn. Setting Virginia aside for a moment, I cannot imagine what it must be like to live in a state such as Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, or Texas. I expect my anxiety would be somewhere through the roof and in the clouds even were I hermitting as seriously as possible. No matter what I read or learned, I would likely feel as if virus seeds were wafting in the air all around me just waiting to slip in.

They took three more Confederate statues down in Richmond yesterday. One was of Matthew Fontaine Maury, known as "pathfinder of the seas." Naval ROTC at the University of Virginia resides in Maury Hall; I wonder how long it will be before the powers that be rename that building. The other two statues were cannons erected at the request of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society. The inscription beneath one is "This cannon marks the location of the second line of the Confederate defenses of Richmond." The inscription beneath the other notes that it commemorates "the spot where in 1861 a large earthwork of the inner line of defense was constructed." Upon hearing those inscriptions, older son and the husband suggested that the cannons might have been left there with a line added to each inscription noting that those defenses did not hold. The Confederacy lost. As one of the advisors of HWSNBN noted, history is written by the winners.

Combining the novel coronavirus with the current wave of demonstrations, an article I read yesterday suggested that the demonstrations did not contribute to the surge in covid-19 cases. I find that hard to believe. Evidently, the Memorial Day gatherings did contribute to the surge. If so, I expect that the July 4 gatherings tonight and tomorrow will contribute to their own surges. Lots to look forward to this month.

Speaking of July 4 gatherings, older son has endured nightly fireworks barrages set off by his neighbors. He noted that he's not sure what fireworks they might be planning for the weekend, but yesterday watched as a porta-a-potty was delivered to their yard.

The View from the Hermitage, Days 108 and 109

Yesterday was not the day I expected. The good news is that we had already postponed the birthday dinner until Friday, so the plan for a relaxing evening was not undone. I Zoom with my mother Wednesdays at 2:00. We were rudely disconnected mid-conversation when the phone started flashing "no line." No line means no Internet. Ten minutes later, it all came back, just not for long. It turned out that one of the box-like things through which the signals must passed got fried by lightning. The phone folks said we'd have phone and Internet back by this morning. That was the good news.

The bad news was that the husband had not yet taped the lecture he was to show today, nor had he uploaded the midterm the students would take prior to the lecture. Fortunately, at the outset of the home studio misadventure, older son suggested using his house in town and fiber optic connection as a backup should something go wrong. The husband packed up his computer and large monitors plus my laptop (in case he needed a spare) and went into town. I threw a peanut butter sandwich to him as he was packing. He got back about 9:30, exhausted. It looked as if all had worked, though. He said he ended up being able to do everything using my laptop.

The morning started a bit too early with a phone call form older son asking for the login code to my laptop. It was not clear the lecture had uploaded. It turned out all was okay (well, except my having been rudely awakened on one of the too-rare nights in which I did not need to get up and pee). Since we by then had phone and Internet, the husband went into town and retrieved everything he'd taken there last night.

So I did get my pancake breakfast. Younger son and his spouse-equivalent Zoomed with their own pancake breakfast, and we "partied" for two hours. Most of my gifts were spinning or weaving related since that's what I've been playing with lately. Older son emptied his "spare cat parts" container and brought me the contents in case I want to felt or spin yarn for a replica of his long-haired Maine coon cat. After telling me that he'd lend me his small "sampler" loom on which to practice things that had been giving me trouble on my larger loom, younger son gave me a brand new sampler loom. That stinker! We're doing a birthday dinner tomorrow night; older son is making the birthday cake.

We did fly the Canadian maple leaf flag at the top of the driveway yesterday. We attempted a rousing chorus of O Canada! that is better left unheard. When I was much younger, before I knew July 1 was Canada Day, I used to ask why I could not have been born on July 4 so that I got birthday fireworks every year. I've come to prefer birthday pancakes, knowing that many parks in Canada are hosting their own pancake breakfasts.

Finally on the birthday front, every year I clip from The Washington Post's horoscope the "if today is your birthday." I'm not sure how to take this year's entry:

Highly sensitive and giving, it is essential that you move out into the world to be fully successful. Once there, you are most often adored. That which you love generates a good income. I single, you can become depressed and must overcome this to let a partner know your personal feelings. If attached, marital bliss is assured as long as you can still feel emancipated. Capricorn is very protective of you.

As for moving out into the world, I'm just fine here. Yesterday's birthday added a bit to the risk factors I already have in relation to the novel coronavirus. Capricorn? That's December 22 to January 19. While I know some people born in that time frame, I would not consider myself especially close to any one of them. And a good income from that which I love? Not! That which I love to do usually involves outgo, not income.

Speaking of income, I need to find out if I'm still employed. Long story shortened: I resigned from my job in May 2019 as my mother's health and my life were basically in tatters. The boss told me to take leave for the summer and let her know in August if I wanted to come back. We're talking a part-time work-from-home job. Come August, I again said I wanted to leave. The boss asked me to at least stay on the payroll so that if anyone in the office had a question about something I'd done, they could email or call and I could get paid for the time it took to answer the question. This went on until May just passed, when I told the boss that the office had now done one complete year without me meaning that any questions should have been asked and answered. She said she wanted me to stay on through the end of the fiscal year, which was Tuesday. I have heard nothing to indicate that I have been "retired," leading me to believe I am still considered employed.

Okay, back to the current pandemic. I say "current" because there are bound to be more pandemics though I hope not in the rest of my lifetime. Of course, the current one may end up filling all the time I have left. There were more than 50,000 new covid-19 cases yesterday, and it would not surprise me to hear that there were even more today. The 100,000 new cases daily floated by Dr. Fauci sound all too possible. Speaking of Dr. Fauci, I saw a clip of the lieutenant governor of Texas slamming Dr. Fauci who supposedly has been wrong in all his predictions or specific statements. At least the governor there is rolling back some of the reopenings as are the governors of several other surging states. At least we are not surging yet, though the number of new cases creeps up a bit almost every day. The governor did revise the Phase Three order to prohibit people sitting at bars drinking. To drink alcohol, one must be at a table and consuming food as well as liquids.

Richmond, site of 33 straight days of demonstrations, took down the statue of Stonewall Jackson on Monument Avenue yesterday. It's not clear to me, or I missed it in the publicity, what will be done with the statue now. I keep thinking of Presidents Park outside Williamsburg. The park is home to 43 large (20-feet tall) busts of 43 presidents. They used to be in a park with manicured lawns and sidewalks; now they sit, seemingly abandoned, in a field. They could find a similar field and deposit all the removed Confederate statues there. For extra measure, they could add any other statuary deemed offensive, such as the Charlottesville one of Lewis and Clark standing above their guide, Sacajawea, as she could be reading the trail.

A belated Happy Canada Day and premature Happy Independence Day to all and to all a good...wait, it's not Christmas yet, is it?