Recently I started writing down thoughts and events that are happening during the Pandemic. Then I read a story at the NY Times about Why You Should Start a Coronavirus Diary. So, I’m breaking out a little of what I had written into categories and then expanding a bit. I usually write book reviews, or try to have solid content on Theology or Biblical Studies, or even occasionally wade into how I think a Biblical Worldview should influence political thought, but I had never really thought about just writing down in Journal format (with one exception). This is somewhat ironic, as the word blog is a portmanteau of Web and Log (diary).

I’m a putting it all into one word doc and saving maybe for my future grandkids or something, to understand the day to day, from our families view, of what life is like right now. I’m posting it here, in case anyone else finds it interesting or relates. We are also interviewing Sprout in video form, maybe for her grandkids, so she can say in her own words what life is like dealing with the ‘sickness’. I was fixing our neighbors fence about an hour ago and she told me the world is no fun right now. Obviously, I won’t post a video of her here, but I’d recommend if you haven’t heard of that idea yet, to record a few quick thoughts of your kids, or even yourself, you should give it a try.

I shared recently what it was like trying to find rhythm, what Sundays and at home worship looked like, about spending time with my daughter (there is also a follow up if you want to hear her playlist), the inexplicably controversial idea of wearing a mask, and the experience of grocery shopping.

I had planned to do a ‘Misc’ when all of this was over, or winding down, which I had hoped would be mid summer, but things are only getting worse and it seems all the work we did in spring has been wasted with our hasty ‘re-opening’, making all the early economic damage for naught. So, I figured I’d go ahead and list a few short thoughts as they come.

• We finally know someone personally who has Covid. Some time early last week a friend of mine from church, and member of the community group I lead, woke up with the common symptoms and went to get tested. He has not yet heard his results. A few days later, his wife became sick. Interestingly, her results are already back, and she tested positive. He tells me it was much worse than any flu and that his was considered moderate, especially for his age group (late 50’s).
• I went to church on Father’s Day. It was odd, but good. The worship leader was hit with come emotion to actually hear responses during the call to worship. I counted about 40 people in the room (it holds about 450 and we limited it to 75 people, all the chairs in ‘pods’ and everyone was required to wear masks). There was no childcare, so it was mainly people with older kids (teen+). Only one of the elders (because they are old). So, maybe only one person my age, and he was alone, as was the elder in attendance, and we were the only three to come alone. I had expected to see more fathers there.
• We’ve been gone the previous two Sunday’s visiting Mrs. MMT’s family, but I go back again this Sunday to run sound (if not, she would have gone). With cases spiking, I wonder what attendance will look like.
• The trip was nice, everyone quarantined so that we could have a bubble with her parents and sister’s family. It was surreal, and you could almost forget everything was happening. In fact, I did. I had to make a quick run to the gas station the day before we left, and just causally walked in with no masks. Then I saw the check out area had plastic covers and the attendant was wearing a masks. Unfortunately, it made me look like one of those people, the ones that don’t wear masks because of their ‘freedom’. It was also hard to leave, there was a layer of sadness thinking about going back home, having to wear masks. I even hugged everyone, twice in some instances (typically, a head nod from across the room is sufficient physical interaction for me).
• Schools. It is the only thing we are thinking/talking about some days. The risks are extremely low for Sprout to be infected, and still quite low for her to spread it. We are also low risks, but then we could spread to others as well. It is hard to balance with the educational/emotional/psychological impacts of her not attending in person. Or the near impossibility of doing school with her while we work (which neither of us is doing form home anymore). It is also a lonely feeling. Inexplicably, my division (eight people) her office (six) has no one with kids at home, just a few empty-nesters and mostly people who have no children. On top of that, we live in a rich area, so most of the women in our church don’t work (or at least not full-time). So, we are struggling to have anyone to talk to about two working parents during this time.
• I wrote about rhythm early on, but a new one has been forced on us. I work in a public facility and my office is one of the most outward facing, so most of my people in the office three days a week, I’m in four, by only seven to noon, then switch to get the kids. Mrs. MMT’s boss decided that even though there was no policy requiring being in the office every day before the pandemic, now there need to be. It is wild to see just poor leadership, but not unexpected I guess. You learn a lot about who people truly are during a crisis. I’d lay it out, like I did previously, but our scheduled seem to change every week or two, and school is only three weeks away on top of the other uncertainty. Also, it seems unavoidable at this point that we will shut down again, probably in six(ish) weeks, would be my guess.

That’s it for now. I have a few more longer posts still to come, and probably another misc or two. Everyone stay safe out there and wear a mask.