Day in the life - Week 6
Forty-two days of shelter-in-place. Saying it in days is a pretty big impressive number. We just heard today that the shelter-in-place orders will be extended until the end of May (from May 3), with some small revisions that will be revealed later this week.
I keep thinking we've reached some sort of routine, a new normal, but then something crops up and throws it all to the wind.
This week ThingTwo had a complete collapse. The reasons for her being so upset were unrelated to the virus (and I've vowed to keep that between us) but it became clear that my hands-off approach to how she spent her days wasn't working. Thing Two has an uncanny ability to analyse her own emotions while she is having them - quite unlike anyone else in the family. So after all my lame attempts to calm her down she suggested we play cards for a while and then explained that she thought it might be good if she planned out each day the evening before and that she would like to do more things together. We got out this lovely planner that she'd chosen for herself a while ago and planned out the next day hour by hour.
So far this is working really well and ThingTwo seems much happier. My favourite new thing that we do together is an online ballet class taught by my sister, a dance teacher in the UK who has switched her business over to online classes. Luckily she does some evening classes UK time so with the time difference we can catch them with ThingTwo finishes school around noon.
This week's culinary genius from the kids included cinnamon buns using a lone packet of yeast I found at the back of the cupboard.
I had a medical appointment this week so had a legitimate reason to stray beyond our neighbourhood. Nothing particularly dramatic happened - but it felt dramatic to be out in the world. Where possible, appointments have been changed to 'video visits' so the instead of having a hard time finding a parking space at the medical center, my car was the only one in the lot. Masked and gowned staff were at the entrance to screen for COVID-19 symptoms. I find the screening procedures a bit strange - rather too reliant on the honor system to be fully robust. To get into the building you have to have an appointment (but nobody checked that I was who I said I was) plus pass the questionnaire - any recent cough, fever, or travel outside the US (that last question seems particularly silly!) The staff I saw this time were in less PPE than a month ago - just masks and gloves whereas a month ago it had been masks, visors, gowns, and gloves. But the difference now is everyone is wearing a mask - reception, security guards, and patients.
To get into the final room there was a temperature and pulse-ox check, but that always used to happen anyway since the center treats immune-compromised patients. When I went a month ago, they were trying out those sci-fi looking thermometers that get waved at the forehead, but it didn't work on me. This time they had reverted back to the mouth thermometers, which meant taking the mask off... I found I was mentally keeping tally of all the vulnerabilities that a virus could exploit.
Inside the center was as empty as the parking lot, with a strange hushed feeling throughout the building. The nurses, usually chatty, seemed subdued. I noticed they were all wearing identical scrubs - usually they each have their own 'flair'. My appointment finished at 3.30pm, which, in the old days would have been a nightmare traffic-wise. Rush hour starts around 3pm and it would normally have taken anywhere from 40 mins to an hour for me to drive the eight miles home. Instead it took just 15 minutes on a speedy freeway. Apparently the Bay Area has seen the biggest drop in car traffic compared to any other US urban area.
I saw my friend Mrs M&M again this week to pick up some groceries and we had a masked chat on her lawn. Turns out her husband has encountered a problem with working in his car. This week he climbed in to his 'office' to find his car completely dead. Even though he has an electric vehicle and he has it plugged in all the time, all the electronics seem to rely on a regular 12V car battery, not the rechargeable battery. Temperatures have risen this week and he'd been running the AC. So they had to give their electric vehicle a jump from their other car - a regular gas guzzler. It was a bad time for his work habits to get disrupted - he works as a programmer at a biomedical company and one of their instruments is being adapted for use in SARS-CoV-2 testing.
ThingOne became preoccupied this week with the idea of getting a pet. He did tons of research and put together a presentation entitled 'Why we should get a frog".
He made quite a convincing case and had a lot of gosh-darn-cute frog pictures. The granting agency of Mum and Dad is currently reviewing his application.
We watched Hitchcock's Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. It makes for a great lockdown movie since the Jimmy Stewart character is stuck inside his New York apartment with a broken leg and becomes obsessed with watching the goings-on of his neighbours. ThingTwo declared it is her fourth favourite film. I'm almost too embarrassed to report on her top three since they are so gory, but they are Speed, Murder on the Orient Express (both Ustinov and Branagh versions), and Point Break.
We did our interviews after dinner and listening to the recording I'm amazed by all the bird song in the background. ThingTwo has become our regular interviewer.
ThingTwo: Today it is 6.43 and it is Friday April 24, 2020. We live in California. It is a sunny day. It is nice outside and we are doing supper [she laughs a lot] - oh my god, ThingOne just burped a lot. Dad is just writing down his questions so I'll get started. [ThingOne can be heard explaining something in the background] Yeah, so, you probably can't hear that but Kombucha is why he is burping. It is called Ginger Fire and it is made with ginger and hot peppers. Ok, are people ready?
Mum. What is your favourite age so far?
Me: 13.
ThingOne: Why?
ThingTwo: There is no why. Next question. What is your dream car?
Me: A white Subaru outback.
T2: What is your favourite food?
Me: That is so hard. Um. Rice.
T2: Does Trump being president have any good qualities?
Me: No.
T2: Obama.
ThingOne: No - you need to phrase it like a question. And it isn't related to the previous question at all.
T2: Obama???
Me: Absolutely.
T2: What is the name of your band?
Me: Either the Soup Dragons or Soup Kitchen.
T2: If you believed in reincarnation what do you think you would come back as?
Me: Dolphin!
T2: What is your favourite space rocket company? [All laugh - Mr Husband had been trying to engage us in conversation about a certain rocket company all evening but we weren't having it.]
Me: Estes. [Makes toy rockets]
T2: What is the best musical instrument?
Me: Ummm. The wah pedal.
T2: Ok my turn. My favourite age is three. Because I liked being young. [Lots of protest along the lines of 'You said there was no why!] What is my dream car? I don't want a car, I want a horse. That was the only reason I put in this question - so I could say that. My favourite food is pasta. Trump - no. Obama - I like him. My band is called the Sasquatches. I would come back as a mini pony. My favourite space rocket company is NASA. Is that a company? The best musical instrument is... I think... is there an instrument called the Bungalow? [All laugh. T2: I really like that word. ThingOne: No that's a house] Ok, well, then the iPad. Mr H: That's a very modern answer, I like it.
T2: Ok, ThingOne. What is your favourite age so far?
T1: Now, 13, because I get to vibe.
T2: What is your dream car?
T1: I don't know. Probably like a Tesla because they are electric and nice.
T2: What is your favourite food?
T1: Um, I don't know.
T2: Does Trump being Prez have any good qualities?
T1: No not really, it has been kind of bad.
T2: Obama????
T1: Good.
T2: What is the name of our band?
T1: Ummm. The bees? ThingOne and the Bees.
T2: ThingOne and the Sasquatches and one of the album covers would be of a bungalow. [Her voice takes on a dreamy quality when she says the word].
T2: What would you come back as reincarnated?
T1: A birdie.
T2: What is your favourite space rocket company?
T1: Not SpaceX. [All laugh] Um. Russia. Because they just use pencils.
T2: What is the best musical instrument?
T1: Synths. Because you can make whole songs out of them. And they're always funky. If samples count as an instrument then them too.
T2: Right. Now Dad. What is your favourite age so far?
Mr H: 27 was exciting. [Starts to explain why but is shouted down by kids]
T2: What is your dream car?
Mr H: Not really a car person. I really like the car I have right now, but also the white Subaru we had in Vancouver was great. Just the perfect car for us. But the Tesla is really fun to drive.
T2: What is your favourite food?
Mr H: Toast.
T2: Does Trump being prez have any good qualities?
Mr H: Um. No.
T2: Obama???
Mr H: Same. Travis Scott. Fortnight. Neh Neh. [Apparently these are memes - I'm not sure I'm even spelling them correctly.]
T2: What is the name of your band?
Mr H: Doghead. [ThingTwo finds this hilarious: I thought you liked dogs?] That was the name of my band in college.
T2: If you were reincarnated what would you be?
Mr H: Bonobo.
Me: You can't say that!
T2: Oh no - bonobos!
Mr H: What? They are cool - they are little tiny chimps.
T2: [Laughing a lot]
Me: [To T2] Do you know why they are famous?
T2: [Laughing so much she can barely get the words out] Because they have sex all the time!
Mr H: [Trying to sound innocent] Seems like a good life!
T2: You can be any kind of monkey.
Mr H: Apes, they are apes.
T2: Ok. What is your favourite space rocket company?
Mr H: I think SpaceX is an interesting company. [All laugh - he really had been talking a lot this evening about SpaceX]
T2: What is the best musical instrument?
Mr H: The guitar.
T2: Ok. Thank you. That's it. Why are we doing this? [recording stops so I don't remember what justification I gave!]
I keep thinking we've reached some sort of routine, a new normal, but then something crops up and throws it all to the wind.
So far this is working really well and ThingTwo seems much happier. My favourite new thing that we do together is an online ballet class taught by my sister, a dance teacher in the UK who has switched her business over to online classes. Luckily she does some evening classes UK time so with the time difference we can catch them with ThingTwo finishes school around noon.
This week's culinary genius from the kids included cinnamon buns using a lone packet of yeast I found at the back of the cupboard.
I had a medical appointment this week so had a legitimate reason to stray beyond our neighbourhood. Nothing particularly dramatic happened - but it felt dramatic to be out in the world. Where possible, appointments have been changed to 'video visits' so the instead of having a hard time finding a parking space at the medical center, my car was the only one in the lot. Masked and gowned staff were at the entrance to screen for COVID-19 symptoms. I find the screening procedures a bit strange - rather too reliant on the honor system to be fully robust. To get into the building you have to have an appointment (but nobody checked that I was who I said I was) plus pass the questionnaire - any recent cough, fever, or travel outside the US (that last question seems particularly silly!) The staff I saw this time were in less PPE than a month ago - just masks and gloves whereas a month ago it had been masks, visors, gowns, and gloves. But the difference now is everyone is wearing a mask - reception, security guards, and patients.
To get into the final room there was a temperature and pulse-ox check, but that always used to happen anyway since the center treats immune-compromised patients. When I went a month ago, they were trying out those sci-fi looking thermometers that get waved at the forehead, but it didn't work on me. This time they had reverted back to the mouth thermometers, which meant taking the mask off... I found I was mentally keeping tally of all the vulnerabilities that a virus could exploit.
Inside the center was as empty as the parking lot, with a strange hushed feeling throughout the building. The nurses, usually chatty, seemed subdued. I noticed they were all wearing identical scrubs - usually they each have their own 'flair'. My appointment finished at 3.30pm, which, in the old days would have been a nightmare traffic-wise. Rush hour starts around 3pm and it would normally have taken anywhere from 40 mins to an hour for me to drive the eight miles home. Instead it took just 15 minutes on a speedy freeway. Apparently the Bay Area has seen the biggest drop in car traffic compared to any other US urban area.
I saw my friend Mrs M&M again this week to pick up some groceries and we had a masked chat on her lawn. Turns out her husband has encountered a problem with working in his car. This week he climbed in to his 'office' to find his car completely dead. Even though he has an electric vehicle and he has it plugged in all the time, all the electronics seem to rely on a regular 12V car battery, not the rechargeable battery. Temperatures have risen this week and he'd been running the AC. So they had to give their electric vehicle a jump from their other car - a regular gas guzzler. It was a bad time for his work habits to get disrupted - he works as a programmer at a biomedical company and one of their instruments is being adapted for use in SARS-CoV-2 testing.
ThingOne became preoccupied this week with the idea of getting a pet. He did tons of research and put together a presentation entitled 'Why we should get a frog".
 |
| The opening slide for ThingOne's frog pitch. |
We watched Hitchcock's Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. It makes for a great lockdown movie since the Jimmy Stewart character is stuck inside his New York apartment with a broken leg and becomes obsessed with watching the goings-on of his neighbours. ThingTwo declared it is her fourth favourite film. I'm almost too embarrassed to report on her top three since they are so gory, but they are Speed, Murder on the Orient Express (both Ustinov and Branagh versions), and Point Break.
We did our interviews after dinner and listening to the recording I'm amazed by all the bird song in the background. ThingTwo has become our regular interviewer.
ThingTwo: Today it is 6.43 and it is Friday April 24, 2020. We live in California. It is a sunny day. It is nice outside and we are doing supper [she laughs a lot] - oh my god, ThingOne just burped a lot. Dad is just writing down his questions so I'll get started. [ThingOne can be heard explaining something in the background] Yeah, so, you probably can't hear that but Kombucha is why he is burping. It is called Ginger Fire and it is made with ginger and hot peppers. Ok, are people ready?
Mum. What is your favourite age so far?
Me: 13.
ThingOne: Why?
ThingTwo: There is no why. Next question. What is your dream car?
Me: A white Subaru outback.
T2: What is your favourite food?
Me: That is so hard. Um. Rice.
T2: Does Trump being president have any good qualities?
Me: No.
T2: Obama.
ThingOne: No - you need to phrase it like a question. And it isn't related to the previous question at all.
T2: Obama???
Me: Absolutely.
T2: What is the name of your band?
Me: Either the Soup Dragons or Soup Kitchen.
T2: If you believed in reincarnation what do you think you would come back as?
Me: Dolphin!
T2: What is your favourite space rocket company? [All laugh - Mr Husband had been trying to engage us in conversation about a certain rocket company all evening but we weren't having it.]
Me: Estes. [Makes toy rockets]
T2: What is the best musical instrument?
Me: Ummm. The wah pedal.
T2: Ok my turn. My favourite age is three. Because I liked being young. [Lots of protest along the lines of 'You said there was no why!] What is my dream car? I don't want a car, I want a horse. That was the only reason I put in this question - so I could say that. My favourite food is pasta. Trump - no. Obama - I like him. My band is called the Sasquatches. I would come back as a mini pony. My favourite space rocket company is NASA. Is that a company? The best musical instrument is... I think... is there an instrument called the Bungalow? [All laugh. T2: I really like that word. ThingOne: No that's a house] Ok, well, then the iPad. Mr H: That's a very modern answer, I like it.
T2: Ok, ThingOne. What is your favourite age so far?
T1: Now, 13, because I get to vibe.
T2: What is your dream car?
T1: I don't know. Probably like a Tesla because they are electric and nice.
T2: What is your favourite food?
T1: Um, I don't know.
T2: Does Trump being Prez have any good qualities?
T1: No not really, it has been kind of bad.
T2: Obama????
T1: Good.
T2: What is the name of our band?
T1: Ummm. The bees? ThingOne and the Bees.
T2: ThingOne and the Sasquatches and one of the album covers would be of a bungalow. [Her voice takes on a dreamy quality when she says the word].
T2: What would you come back as reincarnated?
T1: A birdie.
T2: What is your favourite space rocket company?
T1: Not SpaceX. [All laugh] Um. Russia. Because they just use pencils.
T2: What is the best musical instrument?
T1: Synths. Because you can make whole songs out of them. And they're always funky. If samples count as an instrument then them too.
T2: Right. Now Dad. What is your favourite age so far?
Mr H: 27 was exciting. [Starts to explain why but is shouted down by kids]
T2: What is your dream car?
Mr H: Not really a car person. I really like the car I have right now, but also the white Subaru we had in Vancouver was great. Just the perfect car for us. But the Tesla is really fun to drive.
T2: What is your favourite food?
Mr H: Toast.
T2: Does Trump being prez have any good qualities?
Mr H: Um. No.
T2: Obama???
Mr H: Same. Travis Scott. Fortnight. Neh Neh. [Apparently these are memes - I'm not sure I'm even spelling them correctly.]
T2: What is the name of your band?
Mr H: Doghead. [ThingTwo finds this hilarious: I thought you liked dogs?] That was the name of my band in college.
T2: If you were reincarnated what would you be?
Mr H: Bonobo.
Me: You can't say that!
T2: Oh no - bonobos!
Mr H: What? They are cool - they are little tiny chimps.
T2: [Laughing a lot]
Me: [To T2] Do you know why they are famous?
T2: [Laughing so much she can barely get the words out] Because they have sex all the time!
Mr H: [Trying to sound innocent] Seems like a good life!
T2: You can be any kind of monkey.
Mr H: Apes, they are apes.
T2: Ok. What is your favourite space rocket company?
Mr H: I think SpaceX is an interesting company. [All laugh - he really had been talking a lot this evening about SpaceX]
T2: What is the best musical instrument?
Mr H: The guitar.
T2: Ok. Thank you. That's it. Why are we doing this? [recording stops so I don't remember what justification I gave!]
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