Chapter 4: The Kids Are Alright

Psst! Have you Met the Family yet?

Well I guess I’m fortunate enough to have work. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I kind of wish I could have some time off. I’m getting really sick of it. My hours were cut when I returned from maternity leave, and they have yet to go back up, though April is normally the start of busy season. Stupid Corona (the virus, not the beer).

              Back in November, I started a work-from-home job captioning videos. Since my hours had been unexpectedly reduced, I figured this would be a way I could help keep us afloat. And it’s done alright. I wanted to maybe just quit my regular job and do this full time, but even work for this company has slowed down tremendously. I don’t think I would be able to make even close to what I’m making part-time at the place I'm at now. And what projects I do find to work on are 99% about the Coronavirus. Isn’t it amazing how such a miniscule organism can bring the entire world to its knees? Pinky and the Brain were doing it wrong all those years.

              Anyway, we’re still surviving, I guess. Work probably won’t be opening up the pool until July, which is quite unfortunate for poor Megan. She’s going bonkers not being able to go swimming. I really feel bad for her and all kids right now. Their entire worlds have just been turned on their heads, and I’m sure that’s utterly terrifying. But they’re troopers, and they’re making it through, one day at a time. I can only hope next year is better than this one, ‘cause I’m about ready to demand to speak to 2020’s manager and demand a full refund, in true Karen fashion.

              This week’s weather was pretty nice for the most part, though, with the exception of a couple of days here or there. We were able to get outside and have some fun. We did a scavenger hunt which was kind of a mix of for-fun and for-school. I hid a couple of stuffed animals in a toy treasure chest, then created a series of clues which took them on what was more or less a wild-goose chase through the neighborhood, as the treasure was hidden back home in our yard. But the point was more to have fun solving clues than anything. But before they could get their clues, they had to answer a question from each school subject. Once they answered the question, they would then get their clue which was in the form of a riddle that they had to solve. They had a ton of fun, but definitely facepalmed when they found out the treasure was essentially back where they started. I had a lot of fun with it, too.

              I’ve been seeing videos of people creating “sensory walks” for their kids and it reminded me of back when Megan was in kindergarten and struggling to learn to count by 5’s, I created a hopscotch-like game with chalk to help her learn it. Since Jack is now in kindergarten and struggling to learn how to count by 5’s, as well as needing a lot of practice reading, I decided to combine that game idea with the sensory walk idea to help reinforce the concept of counting by 5’s as well as reading and following directions. He did really well with it and I was really proud of him. Plus, he had a lot of fun with it, so that’s always a nice bonus. Even Megan had fun with it, even though it was far too easy for her. I thought about creating a similar one with a “blast through the past” theme to help her cement her social studies lessons in her brain, but I was so incredibly sore after making Jack’s, I could barely move for three days afterwards. I’m obviously not as young as I once was. But I did enjoy watching the kids have fun with it.

A nice day for learning to skip count.

              And I guess the last thing is the bittersweetness of the realization that my baby girl is growing up. I was in the middle of making lunch when I realized we were out of milk, which I needed for what I was making. I was going to run down the street to the convenience store and grab some, but at that moment, Ronan woke up and that plan was out the window; as he was demanding to be fed. Steven was working, so I was left with only two options: skip everyone’s lunch or send Megan to the store. It was a big, scary decision, but for the sake of all of the rest of our starving stomach’s, I decided to send her to the store. Surely it wouldn’t be too difficult to purchase a gallon of milk from around the corner, right?

              I was scared, I was nervous, and I second guessed myself every second she was gone. Is she capable? Will she know what to do if she has trouble finding the milk? Will she be able to carry it home? (She insisted she could). Will the cashier call the cops because this little girl is in the store by herself? (She may be 10 ½ , but she’s a very small 10 ½ who looks more like 7 or 8.) But, before I knew it, she was back home with not one, but two gallons of milk. I was impressed, mostly at the fact that this scrawny little girl carried two gallons of milk all the way home from the convenience store. That would have been uncomfortable even for me. I only asked for one, but she went above and beyond, which is great because we use a lot of milk. She apparently has noticed that. I guess the only thing I have to worry about now is whether she used her manners with the cashier or not. But I guess there’s still plenty of time to work on manners.

              Well, I suppose that’s all for this week. Things are beginning to reopen with restrictions, so some sense of normalcy is returning. Hopefully it won’t be long before we’re all back to normal and we can look back on this insanity and laugh. Stay well, my friends!

Chapter 3: Staying Sane?

As if grocery shopping weren’t enough of a drag as it is. Now they’ve got designated “one-way aisles”. Each aisle runs the opposite way from the aisle next to it. And somehow, I can never seem to end up on the right freaking side of any given aisle that I need. Add that onto the reduced store hours, and you’ve got crowded aisles of confused people, all trying to figure out how to get to the one item they need from this aisle or that aisle. I think these “social distancing” tactics are backfiring.

              Checkout is no better. Every other self-check station is closed. I get that’s so people aren’t standing too close to each other while checking out, but what do you think that does to the line? Right. Makes it longer. And since the stores haven’t grown any larger, people have to stand even closer to each other in line just so they don’t block the aisles. If you ask me, this social distancing BS is just a load of crap. Maybe it was started with good intentions, but the further they take it, the less effective it seems to be. I can’t wait to go back to staying home and avoiding people on my own terms.

              Anyway, we’re managing to stay sane. Megan misses swimming like crazy, but is hopeful she’ll still get to swim at some point this summer. Jack is just glad to still be able to play outside, when the weather isn’t bipolar. To further help keep them distracted, we’ve done a few activities. I drew some Pokemon tattoos on them with Sharpies one evening. My Pokemon drawing skills leave much to be desired, so their options were Jigglypuff or a Pokeball. Both chose Jigglypuff. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fun and they both loved them, so there’s that. I’m gonna have to hone my skills, ‘cause now they want more, haha.

Jack, the most jiggly Jigglypuff.

Megan, the slightly less jiggly Jigglypuff.

              Probably the most notable event was the drive-in theater. When we heard they were allowed to re-open,  we jumped at the chance to get out and do something that somewhat resembled normalcy. There are restrictions, sure; you have to call in your concession order and only one person at a time can pick up an order. You have to call to check availability of the restroom key and only one person can use it at a time, and it and the key have to be sanitized between uses. You don’t get to use a speaker box, instead you tune in on your radio. And, of course, you have to stay inside your vehicle; no sitting in truck beds or on blankets on the ground. But that’s alright, the kids had never been to a drive-in so it was fun to take them for the first time. We watched Sonic the Hedgehog and they loved it. Ronan got a little fussy during part of it, but he fell asleep pretty quickly and wasn’t too much trouble after that. He did wake up near the end and fussed for a little bit, but calmed down when he saw the screen. He was pretty entranced by that. It was late by the time we got home, as it was a 45-minute drive one way to the theater, but it was worth every minute. Hopefully we can go again another time.

              We aren’t the only ones finding ways to enjoy ourselves. The dog’s got a favorite squeaky toy, but we’ve had it put away for a very long time, because the incessant squeaking was driving us absolutely bonkers. But we finally decided to be nice and get it out for him. Oh. My. God. He has been the absolute happiest dog anyone has ever seen. He’s even made sure to keep the squeaking to a minimum this time; he does not want to lose that thing again! He’s been chewing it almost non-stop since we got it out, and even whining in joy (I guess like a human would cry tears of joy?) while chewing. He even taught himself to play fetch with it. We never really taught him to play fetch, but he just started doing it all on his own. He’d set the toy on my lap and look at me playfully until I, by reflex, threw it. He immediately chased after it, brought it back, set it on my lap, and the whole process would repeat until he was so exhausted he literally just plopped down on the floor instead of chasing it. As we speak, he is lying on the couch next to me, chewing and whining his joy-whine. It’s pretty adorable, actually. I never knew a dog could whine in joy. Ya learn something new every day, I guess.

Apollo, the whiniest happy dog you'll ever meet.

              Well, I guess that’s about it for this last week. We’re starting to learn how to navigate life in this crazy world we all live in nowadays. It’s not always fun nor is it easy, but we’ll get through it, I’m sure.

Chapter 2: Are We There Yet?

I have to say, all this pandemic crap is getting old. They want us to stay home, and do what? Spectrum’s channels have been blank for a month, and most shows haven’t aired new episodes in just as long. Although, a new episode of Nancy Drew did record on Wednesday. But that’s the first one in forever. I’ve tried contacting Spectrum via chat to find out what’s up and point out the fact that if we’re not receiving the service we’re paying for, there’s no point in us paying. I waited on hold for two hours the first night, and for three hours the next. I never did get through, but I did get down to 88 bottles of beer on the wall, typing it out line by line. I gave up after that, haven’t tried again since. I’m afraid to try calling, who knows how long I’d be on hold there and I just don’t have time for that BS.

Waited for another hour after this point.

              I stayed up so late that night trying to get through to Spectrum that I was essentially a zombie the next day. We had to make a trip to Walmart for some supplies to rescue poor Jack’s last remaining fish from suffering the same tragic fate as the other two. He meant well, but didn’t realize the dire consequences of overfeeding fish. But hey, he’s six, what do you expect? Also, Megan needed new shoes because wouldn’t you know it, her feet decided to grow for the first time in two years. Anyway, we got in, got our stuff, and got out, somehow without losing Jack. He seemed to want to take this social distancing stuff to a whole new level; lagged behind the whole time. We finally made it back out to the van. I buckled the baby in the back, put the stroller in the trunk, and got in the passenger seat (Steven was driving). I flailed around for my seatbelt, but to no avail. Finally, I looked behind me and realized I had buckled Ronan’s car seat in using my seatbelt. Doh.

              It would have been so much easier if Steven could have gone to the store himself the night before, during hours when nobody would normally be out shopping anyway. But these stores don’t seem to understand the concept of social distancing and would rather limit the hours people can shop so that everyone has to go at the same time and create larger crowds of people all at once, essentially rendering social distancing impossible. Whatever, I guess. Long story short, it’s all getting old very quickly and I’m ready to be done with it.

Chapter 1: And So It Begins

Want to Meet the Family before reading?

Well, after assigning Megan to write a journal about her daily life through this whole madness we call COVID-19, I decided maybe I should keep one as well. Since I actually enjoy writing, and she’s been fighting me tooth and nail every night to write her entry. I’m trying to make English class fun for her, but nooo. Can’t have any of that.

              Well anyway. I guess it all really started right around my birthday, actually. I think it was maybe a week before people started talking about it, and although some places had begun quarantine/shelter-in-place procedures and/or social distancing, it wasn’t really a thing here yet. We were still able to dine in at Old Chicago on my birthday and really thought nothing of it. However, by Jack’s birthday, just three days later, it was becoming more of a big deal. People were practicing “social distancing” even here, and businesses were beginning to close down. Restaurants hadn’t yet, but within a few days of that they would be closing all restaurants for dine-in. They had already closed the libraries and the park bathrooms, which was inconvenient since we had his birthday party at the nearest park.

              Actually, we originally planned to have his birthday in the clubhouse down the street, but we derped and forgot to pick up the key, and they weren’t in the office the day of his birthday. So we had a last minute venue change to the closest park, and after making the announcement, I read they had closed all park bathrooms. Fortunately, as it turned out, that park’s bathroom hadn’t been closed yet, but I suspect it was the next day.

              Still, life carried on. We had an appointment on the 17^th with my cousin to have our pictures taken professionally. We continued on with that. Got some great pictures, though the wind was pretty strong and a lot of the ones with Ronan’s best smile have my hair flying everywhere. Go figure. But he said he could retouch any we want to order, and on that subject, I forgot I was going to go over them with Steven today to see which ones, how many, and what sizes we wanted. Sorry for the mini-tangent.

              Anyway, they had already closed all restaurants to dine-in business, and were down to just drive through, take out, or delivery. We grabbed some snacks and drinks at Sonic because it’s already drive-up only, so there was really no difference. The kids shared an order of tater tots, I had some mozzarella sticks, and Steven had the totchos. We were beginning to feel like life was changing, but not really too much yet.

              Each day, it seemed like the virus was being talked about more and more. It’s everywhere, and I don’t mean as in everyone has it, I mean everyone is talking about it. Still, I’m not afraid of the virus itself. Honestly all it is is just a super-powered cold that can cause pneumonia if not treated quickly enough. While that’s no fun, sure, it’s really no worse than the seasonal flu or the H1N1 flu from like 11-12 years ago. Yet do we react so drastically to those things? No. So why this?

              We could speculate all day about why, but no one really has the answer. All I know is it’s not the virus that worries me. It’s the idiotic sheeple who buy into the paranoia and fear. Panic buying and hoarding, looting, rioting; society as we know it is beginning to fall apart. All the stores are constantly out of toilet paper, which seems odd because this is a respiratory disease, not a stomach bug. Just goes to show how dumb people can be. For weeks, toilet paper was the only thing being bought up, but finally people started realizing they couldn’t eat it and started hoarding all the dry goods like beans and pasta, as well as eggs, milk, sugar, flour, potatoes, etc. Grocery shopping is more of a nightmare now than ever.

              Events are being cancelled, recreational facilities are closed, it’s Megan’s worst nightmare. Steven and I, of course, being the introverts we are, wouldn’t notice much difference from our daily lives. But we never hear the end of Megan’s whining about the swimming pool being closed or this activity or that activity or the park playgrounds or whatever. And I get it. She’s a kid, but she’s not getting to live the life of one right now. It really isn’t fair to her or any children for that matter. But such is life, I guess.

              On the bright side, gas has never been cheaper (well, not since I can recall, anyway). Golden Gate was charging just $1.73 a gallon yesterday, and it seems like it goes down a little bit every day or two. Not that it does much good, there’s nowhere to go, especially since the shelter-in-place order that took effect on poor Mom’s birthday. (So much for taking her to lunch for her birthday, although we did get take out from Chili’s, but it’s not the same).

              Life is definitely changing, some good, some bad. I still have a job, at least; though they’ve been treating me increasingly poorly. I suspect it’s because they know they can get away with it, as the economy is wrecked and finding a new job is next to impossible. Stock market is low, though, and I’ve invested a little bit from our tax return so hopefully that will help us get back on top when everything returns to normal. I’m considering taking classes for web coding/design and hopefully can find a job in that field. That’s something that has more work-from-home opportunities, so maybe, just maybe I can find something in the midst of all this madness. I haven’t decided for sure yet, though.

              There’s talk of a stimulus package coming, I guess it’s already been voted through. But it’s money coming from the government so you can guarantee they’re going to take their sweet time. Since our landlord forgave everyone’s April rent and we paid ahead the rest of our bills by a month when we got our tax return, I considered just quitting once we got the package. But that only helps us for a month and I have a feeling this nonsense is going to last longer than that, and then what? If I still have no job, we’d be royally screwed. Maternity leave wiped out our savings, so we wouldn’t have that to rely on. I kind of wish they’d just fire me so I could file unemployment while the rate of that pay has gone up. But I’m sure they won’t because it doesn’t benefit them and just costs them more money. I guess in the meantime I just suck it up and hope the toxic chemicals they want me to work with don’t kill me.

              Well, I guess that pretty much brings us to today. I guess I should count myself as lucky to be living through a historic event, but I’m not sure it’s one I want to be a part of. Not anymore than anyone wanted to be a part of the Black Plague, I guess. But at least it’s history and when it’s all over I can say I lived it and have stories to tell my grandkids. Who hopefully will be more appreciative of history than Megan is.