Since I am not working right now, it is exceptionally difficult to get up at 5am to post a blog. So, unless I hear from my regular readers that still have to work, I am planning to switch my blog from a post time of 6/6:30 to 9/9:30. Although, I am willing to get up to blog if some friends who are working need a blog on the train ride in. So, let me know.

These are weird times. I currently have seven people living in my house. Not just seven living here, because in a normal situation, they would be going to work and hanging out with friends. They are HERE, as in everpresent. And they are a little too old and disinterested in arts and crafts projects…at least the projects that I, a certified non-artsy person, can come up with. Truthfully, Tessa and Taryn are very busy with school. In fact, this is the first time I have ever seen BOTH of them struggling with school because they are not used to an online curriculum and were thrust into it for the remainder of this college semester. I have taken an online class here and there in my life, and I found them difficult. I can’t imagine taking Tessa’s Chem or Bio class or Taryn’s 300 level classes in the online format. It just didn’t work that well for me. I know this is hard to believe, but I am not shy in class, and I would not have any problem asking questions. And I like in-person presentations for a multitude of reasons. So for my girls, this is a struggle.

Then, I have Tayden and Zach. Zach is Tayden’s friend who occasionally lives with us…it’s complicated as life often is, but he doesn’t have parents, so we share custody with another family. These two boys are on spring break this week, but we had a practice week of online classes, and both of them are struggling with it too. And kudos to the teachers, who were also forced into this arrangement. At least the college professors already have an online curriculum, and a template they could follow. 

I also have Trent, who started his first real-life sales job in the midst of this chaos, where there aren’t many sales to be made. He works from home…my home to be specific. I was planning on him establishing a pattern of work in a quiet, empty house, not trying to work around ever-present chaos. 

Of course, there’s me. I can’t do my job remotely, so I check email and check-in with my school principal everyday. They will eventually have to let me into the building to play catch-up

And finally, there’s Travis. He is in the oddest spot of all. All elective surgeries are cancelled, so that is a fair percentage of his time that is freed up. Elective in the Midwest is not really elective. It’s just not emergent or non-essential on an immediate basis. We aren’t talking about face-lift, but hysterectomies or other surgeries that can afford to wait a couple months. Then, there is his empty office. They didn’t cancel non-essential office visits, but most people cancelled on their own. And Covid hasn’t required the attention of ob/gyn’s yet. At least not here. New York may have adopted an “all hands on deck” mantra, but the Covid caseload by us isn’t that large yet. The ER docs, General Practitioners, Internists, and nurses and medical staff in those parts of the hospital have it well in hand for now. He hasn’t been this slow since he was just out of residency. He and his old med school friends have started a group text. They are used to being busy, really busy. They have no idea what to do with themselves. So, they are reconnecting and planning a get-together with the families this summer. Travis is department chair, so he is spending a fair amount of time on phone meetings, planning for the deluge, hoping it’s not going to happen.

Around these parts, the medical professionals have a tiny glimmer of hope. We aren’t excessively populated like the cities, so maybe, maybe this social distancing will work at keeping the numbers down. So Travis is in the freakishly calm before the storm. And if you do make an office appointment, you call the office when you arrive at location and wait in your car for a call back. Then they direct you immediately into a freshly sanitized room to wait for the doctor. You exit directly without stopping at the desk. He also made up a little ditty in his down time that I will share with you. Please sing along to the tune of My Sharona by The Knack. I’m pretty sure that song has seen a significant uptick in plays recently:

My Corona

My Corona

Oh my little viral one, viral one

When you gonna give me some slime Corona

Ooh, you make my fever run, one hundred one

Coughing out my lung because

My Corona

Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty kind

Always cough it up, for a bunch of the viral slime

My, my, my, ay, ay 

Woah!

M-m-m-my Corona

My Corona

Come a little closer (cough), will ya (cough)

Close enough to look at my sly Corona

Keep me in quarantine, misery

Running down my lungs or my thymus Corona

Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty kind

Always cough it up, for a bunch of the viral slime

My, My, my, ay, ay

Whoa!

M-m-m-my Corona

M-m-m-my Corona

Na-na-na-na-na-na

My Corona

When you gonna get to me, get to me

Is it just a matter of time, Corona

Is it from a b-b-bat, r-r-rat?

Or is it genome shift in my time Corona

Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty kind

Always cough it up, for a bunch of the viral slime

My, my, my, ay, ay 

Woah!

M-m-m-my Corona

My Corona

So, while the doctors wait, they try to make light of their own potential danger of exposure. Stay safe everyone. I have enjoyed nightly walks with my pack, and regular game and movie nights. I don’t recall ever having this much together time. I keep telling them that this is a part of their lives that will be in the history books. And we temper that alternating fear and boredom with education and comfort food. Today we will put together the trampoline we got at Christmas and sits in the garage in boxes, so I can kick them out of the house for quick exercise or we will all be a bit rounder. Thanks to all my medical family and friends who are working in the trenches, or waiting to work in the trenches. We are all thinking of you and thankful for you!