SIX MONTHS IN

On March 15, 2020, I started keeping a journal to document the pandemic.  It was about the time that Ohio started on lock down.  Not only did I document in writing, but also in photos.

My grandparents were in their 20s when the last pandemic hit, and they never talked about it!   I wish I knew about it when they were still here.  I would love to know how they survived it.

So I am documenting for MY grandchildren.  

I first started hearing about it in late January, after we returned from a cruise.

We go to a lot of basketball games in the winter – between Fairmont and UD women’s games, we’re at games several times a week.  And this year was a year to remember.  Fairmont girls  had a winning season, UD Women won the Atlantic 10 conference and were headed to the NCAA tournament.  UD Men were ranked in the Top 5 in the country!    2020 actually started off  pretty good.  

They say that if March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb (with regard to the weather).  This March came in like a lion (with the coronavirus) and turned into a monster.

In the last six months, I have written in a journal every single day.  I’m on my third journal.  Several times a week I include data for that day.

My first entry on March 15:

“We are doing a good job.  There are only 15 cases, and no deaths.”

A week later, there were 3000 cases and 65 deaths.

 

Six months later,  the United States is closing in on 6,000,000 cases and 200,000 deaths.  (and as we all know, those 200,000 deaths mean 200,000 families , friends, and colleagues affected).  While I do know several people who have tested positive, I don’t personally know anyone who has died from Covid.  Yet.

 

I take this very seriously.  I listen to the experts.  And I do a LOT of reading.  If I learned anything from my daughters death, you need to be informed.  If there were anything I could have done to prevent her death, I would have.  In the case of Covid, we have a LOT of information.  I do what I do to protect others and my family.

In the lasts six months, I didn’t hug my son or my grandsons for six weeks.  They dropped something off  once and I kissed them through the glass of the front door.  (once we created our own “bubbles”,  we started seeing them again.   At first , we kept our physical distance, then I couldn’t stand it anymore and I threw a blanket over the kids to hug them.  I was desperate.  

 

In the last six months,  we’ve missed birthdays.  Weddings.  Funerals.  Concerts.  Vacations.  Dinners out with friends.   

 

BUT the last six months have been good, too.  We walk 4-6 miles a day.  We get carry-out and eat on our newly covered deck.  And swim in our pool.  And eventually we had friends over.    We use FaceTime a lot more.  And HouseParty with friends (I’m on a HouseParty call every Thursday with four of my high school friends-3 are living out of Dayton.

 

I write more.  I appreciate the times I can get together with friends – whether it’s at Carillon Park – with our own dinners and our own chairs, or at Delco for a walk.

 

Eleven and a half years ago I socially isolated myself after Melissa passed away.  I had to learn how to live without her.  FOREVER.  And somehow, I’m still here.  Some days are harder than others.  

 

But with THIS,  everything we are doing is TEMPORARY.  (as long as we take it seriously-we’ll live through this!)  I can wear a mask as long as it takes.  I know

THIS won’t last forever.

 

There is obviously more going on in the last six months…not only are we in a Pandemic, it’s a Presidential election year.  Unfortunately, that is always ugly.

And there are fires burning out of control in California.  Hurricanes.  Protests.

Shootings.  More accidents in short periods of time than I remember before.

Some schools open.  Some online.  Some schools have sports, some don’t.

No BIG 10 Football.  Or UD spring sports, Wright State,  and on and on.  

Winter is coming with flu season.  There is a real possibility that there will be no winter sports either.  

 

But with all this,   I try to stay positive.    I (we) have made it this far and somehow we’ll get through the winter too.

 

I think my pictures are a positive light on how we survived.  

During the last six months, not only did I keep a journal and take lots of pictures, I also did screenshots of memes and information I wanted to remember.   I follow the science.  I believe the scientists over politicians.   

This was the April 23,2020 Dayton Daily News.  Headline speaks for itself.

Tree in a yard on our walk.  Right about the time masks were mandated for the State of Ohio.

This book reminds me of Trump.  ME FIRST.  This was a book that I always read to the kids at school.  It applies to all ages.  Including adults.  It's about a Pig Scout who always had to be first.  Turns out, it's not always a good thing.

Too busy playing golf to attend to other things, I guess.

More concerned about his ratings than most anything else.  I am not putting words in his mouth.  I listen to what he says.  

In the beginning,  Ohio Governor Mike DeWine gave daily coronavirus briefings at 2pm.

People in Ohio started calling them "Wine with DeWine".  Happy hour started a little early.

Eventually, Dr. Amy Acton, who was the state's Health Department Director, resigned because her family was getting death threats.  I felt like she was doing a great job, and although I didn't vote for DeWine, felt like he was handling it better than most states.  Some people in the state did not like that businesses were closed (only temporarily )to get the numbers down.  Eventually, ARMED protesters were at the statehouse and HER house, and DeWine caved.  Although he did mandate masks for the state, which made me feel safer.  The mask mandate is still in effect, and I feel like the majority of people comply.  No different than wearing a seatbelt. Or putting your infant in a car seat.  Or stopping at a red light.  Or a stop sign...I could go ON and ON.  

People over 60 are higher risk for getting a more severe case of covid.  At least that was in the beginning, when they didn't know much about it.  

This was early on as well.  While the US was hurting for PPE in March, we learned that these same medical supplies were sent to China in February.

Don't get to see this guy very often.  I think he's the only albino squirrel in the neighborhood.

Really enjoyed spring walks this year - more so than ever before.  So many things we take for granted.

Gas at an all time low.  I don't remember the last time gas was this cheap.  Since March, we've been spending about $35 month for gas.  Saving money.  Another good thing!

In the beginning, the media really tried to keep it positive.  Between every commercial, there was a positive spot about "We're all in this together."  In the beginning, I felt that way too.  Then the protests came - about reopening everything.  People got tired of being inside.  I know a lot of businesses suffered, and I hate that.  But until we learned more about this disease, they had to come up with ways to re-open safely.  Which they have.  I think we reopened too soon, though.  We just passed 200,000 deaths in the US, and cases are still rising in some areas in the US.  Reopening schools, colleges, and sports are still waiting to see how it goes.  Some schools have reopened  in person, some are online.  I truly believe every Administrator is taking this seriously and is doing what is best for their community.  Right now, Montgomery County is still in the red zone.  UD had a lot of positive cases when the students returned, but cases seem to be getting better.  Administrators basically threatened to send them home if the numbers didn't go down.  Parties had to stop.  And everyone has to wear a mask.  I think we can get through this if we just take the advice of the experts and wear masks and social physically distance.  

I'm out.

As a country, we aren't very good about making sacrifices any more.  Not like during WWI and WWII.

The only thing that is asked is that you wear a mask to protect OTHERS.  Some states have done nothing. 

Looks like our leader (?) is leaning toward Herd Immunity (or Herd Mentality, as he called it).  Herd immunity is when 70% of a population (ours is 330million) is infected.  Of that 70%, right now, there is a 2.7 mortality rate.  The last photo does the math on this one.  Not good.

We ALL need something positive to get through this.  This was posted by a former student of mine.  I was on his list!!!! Made my day.

Someone was pretty desperate...and had a little time on their hands.  If you hang this on the wall, the spinner will always land on beer.  Hmmmm...I kind of like this game.

For those of us who couldn't watch his press briefings (which he eventually stopped after he got some flack for saying "maybe we could inject bleach to get rid of the virus".  I know some of you refuse to believe he said this, but I HEARD him say it.  I tend to believe what I SEE with my own eyes, and what I HEAR with my own ears!) This was just another fun little game to play if you watched.  Which I couldn't.

This was in April.  A hail storm.

With my Kroger points, I got it down to $.95 a gallon!  Haven't paid that since the 70s maybe?

I had lots of things on my calendar that would pop up after everything closed.  

This was going to be our last Trolly Stop Bloody Mary Saturday for awhile.  And we didn't get to go.

Sung to the tune of "50 Ways to Leave your Lover"

Something to think about.

God is letting us know we will be alright.  Or Melissa sending me a rainbow.  

I'll believe BOTH.

Finally went to see Roz.  Didn't go inside and kept our distance to keep HER safe!

She's doing great, still.

This must have been April/May.

After George Floyd, kind of felt like you had to choose sides.  But we DON'T.

I RESPECT good cops, and EXPECT something to be done about bad cops.

And everything else she said!

YEP.  

It's not all about ME.

I love clouds.  I have LOTS of cloud pictures.  Someday, they are going to be in a book!

I tried to grow zuchinni and squash. They flowered, but never got the fruit.  Didn't do so well.  Peppers didn't do well either.

But got lots of tomatoes this summer.  I'll try again next year.

I have a butterfly (not real, but flies around like it's real) in a jar by the bay window. One day I heard pecking at the window.  It was a bird trying to get the butterfly.

Masked up with Max at Andrew's game.

Andrew's first game against Beavercreek.  It's a win!

Donny, Nick, Max and Michael.  This is the new normal at games.

New normal for the players too.  If they want to keep playing (this year anyway).

Doing everything they can to keep everyone safe.  I'm ok with that!

Just a reminder that while you think Joe Biden (our next President) is a socialist, we ALREADY have socialist programs in this country.  This is the list.  You might find a few things that you think could be privatized, but socialist programs aren't meant to be profitable.  They are meant to ensure that the basic needs of the American population are met.  For the GREATER GOOD.  

A wonderful visit from my high school friends, Karen and Charley.  We DID social distance on the deck, but hard to do that for a photo.  It was only a minute and we weren't breathing on each other. (I know, excuses, excuses.)  Sure was great to see them though.  

This scares me more every day.

Jen and Tammy.  Rugby friends of Melissa.  Tammy lost her battle with cancer in Sept.  So very sad for her wife Philly, her daughter, Piper and her Kelts family.  

Ok.  Here's the math for "herd immunity".  Almost one million will die to attain herd immunity.  And some might not die, but have lasting illnesses related to the virus.  We don't know enough about it STILL.  

My question to you is, WHO is dispensable in YOUR life?  NO ONE is dispensable in my life.  If wearing a mask will keep my loved ones (family AND friends) safe, then that is what I will do.  If there were something I could have done to save my daughter's life, you BET YOUR ASS I would have done it.  ANYTHING.  

I'll be back in a week or two to post excerpts from my journals.  I thought I was going to do that today, but found more pictures (that I didn't post on FB).  To be honest, I continue to do this for Andrew and Max.  Someday, maybe they can share this blog with there children and grandchildren.  In 100 years (2120) there will more than like be ANOTHER pandemic and maybe history won't repeat itself.  They'll learn from the past.  We certainly didn't.