Sunday March 1st we decided to get in one more day of skiing and drove up to Whitetail. Nina went to ski school, and Jill and I hung out in front of a fire before taking a run. The warmth of the day had made the snow chunky and Jill was done after a run, while I wanted to try the blue trails. The conditions made my thighs hurt after a while, and I took a break before it was time to pick Nina up. When she hadn’t shown up after 15 minutes, we talked to the school. Turns out they were confused and thought she was a full day school student, and was feeding her lunch. But she got her wish and we all took a run together, then Nina and I did another couple runs together. On the way back, we stopped at Family Meal for a scrumptious early dinner plus some good beer shopping next door at District East. We finished watching Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as Wizards Unite had an event coming up that would deal with events in the sequel.
The coronavirus was on our minds all month as it graduated into a pandemic. But first Nina got a cold on Sunday the 9th so she was home from school the Monday (Jill off) and Tuesday (I took care of her until Jill got home, then went in for 8 hours). She was back at school Wednesday but we could see the writing on the wall. We started stocking up on groceries and I asked for a laptop from work so I could start teleworking. Sure enough, as the closings started to come fast and furious (including lots of concerts), Fairfax County schools closed on Friday the 13th. The governor of Virginia closed all schools later that day and we started our home schooling with a half day of work and a half day of play for Nina (I managed to get my work done too). Saturday we stayed at home (but we decided the kids could play outside) and worked hard on getting all the books out of the office as the carpet was getting replaced Monday. Jill caught Nina saying “It’s time to chill with Art.” That night, after starting Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, I took a late night trip to Safeway to see the pasta, rice, flour, meat and hot dogs sections vacant. Good thing I was mostly after produce and staples not in those sections. Sunday I went into work to work a half day as no one else was there, then needed to bring home some things I was missing (including my chair).
Monday the 16th started our full time social distancing. Jill had her day off that day, but I had to stay upstairs as well since the carpet guys were there, then the room needed airing out the rest of the day. The rest of the week was hard as it was me and Nina until Jill got home around 4:30, trying to balance her studying and recess time with my telework time. Unfortunately I had to work after she went to bed some days. We started the week still playing outside with other neighborhood kids, but by the time the week ended the news had gotten worse and we stopped (it was hard on her with the spring weather starting and the cherry blossoms blooming). We still had St. Patrick’s Day on Tuesday with low sodium corned beef and cabbage.
Sunday the 22nd we started getting a lot more virtual. The Shantytowne stitch and bitch started the previous week morphed into a general catchup, and we had to move off Google Hangouts to Zoom because of the 10 person limit in Hangouts. Nina started doing her Tae Kwon Do lessons online, and on Tuesday our friend Seth taught Nina and Penny the basics of flight during a virtual teaching session. We still had plenty of food after stocking up and on Monday we had a four course dinner delivered from Equinox (the pasta course was my favorite). The week was a lot easier on me as Jill’s surgery center changed to only be open 1 day a week, and they didn’t need her, so she was the teacher all week, and I got to work mostly uninterrupted downstairs. They also announced on the 23rd schools would be closed for the rest of the year. There are some silver linings. If the rest of the maple syrup hadn’t been sold out, I would have never known about bourbon barrel aged maple syrup.
On the 25th we did a Zoom call with my sister and her family. Later Jill said “Today’s first homeschool activity: spelling/vocabulary
I explain the meaning of synchronize and use a couple of explanations: it’s when you make the same movements at the same time, like the Rockettes kicking or synchronized swimming when they’re all doing the same routine at the same time.
N: What if one person is doing one thing and then right after the other person does it?
Me: nope, it has to be at the same time
N: what if the 2 people are dancing different moves at the same time then switch those moves?
Me: no, same movement at the same time.
N: what if there are 20 dancers and 10 are doing 1 move and 10 are doing the other move?
Me: well, there are 2 groups of synchronized dancers.
N: but what if…
Me: Look, this is what the word means. I’m not going to change what the word means!
… 19 words to go….”
Friday the 27th we used Zoom to play Cards Against Humanity with the Cannons after Nina was asleep. Saturday was gloomy and Nina had an online drama class while I worked on restoring the library while Jill made pierogies (she said “Adventures in cooking with lots of time on my hands…. pierogi. They’re stuffed with sauteed cabbage and I really hope they’re yummy because whoa. A lot of work.”), then we did another Zoom call with the Cannons over dinner (it was mostly Nina and Penny playing). Sunday was really nice in the afternoon, so we took a walk, finally got the boat out, and grilled and ate dinner outside. Monday the governor finally issued an official stay at home order, so we knew the previous two weeks had been just a preview. Jill said about the boat ride “Doing our very best version of social distancing. We said hello to many of our neighbors from a safe distance this afternoon. Many of us were out enjoying the sunshine!” Monday Jill saw this and said “Thank goodness. Just what I needed to read right now. Any parent trying to navigate with school aged kids right now, here’s a common sense, concise article filled with wisdom.” Tuesday she said “I know people love the full bloom of the cherry trees, but this part, when it rains gentle pale pink petals, is my favorite. Redbuds then Dogwoods after that! It’s still Spring, after all…”
