Joys, small and large, during this pandemic

I wrote a post yesterday, but haven't shared it out much because it seemed somewhat grouchy, which is a bit misleading.

Although I've been having grouchy moments during this pandemic, mostly I've been surprisingly  fine. Happy, even!

Not me in this photo, but this is how I feel, mostly!

Much of my feeling of general well-being is buoyed by an underlying pulse of gratefulness: I'm grateful that I have a job that can be done online/from home. Grateful that I haven't gotten sick. Grateful that it's now spring/summer in Iowa so we can be outside. Grateful that our sons are healthy and employed and staying in touch with us.

Because of the pandemic, though, things are different. I've missed out on experiences, and I've missed seeing people in person. There have been canceled trips, canceled plans, and not knowing exactly what the future will bring. Working from Home is interesting, but it also brings challenges. So it's been surprising and uplifting that I've had so many new and pleasing experiences this spring, too.

Here are some of the unexpected joys--small and large--that I've experienced during this pandemic. These are experiences I would not have had if we weren't in the midst of a global pandemic! And they've brought joy to my life.

Online Church: Who knew it could be so satisfying?!

The puss and I attending church before we figured out how to show Facebook Live on our TV.

It lifts the spirits to see the inside of my church, to hear a message, and--of course!--to sing some hymns. I usually attend St. Paul's United Methodist Church Facebook Live service, but sometimes I also check out Capitol Hill United Methodist's Facebook Live service. I wonder whether my childhood church, Middleburg Heights United Church of Christ, has one.

Online exercise and dance: So much variety for moving and exercising! Robbie, Aubrey, and I used to attend BodyFlow classes together at the Y--they combine Tai Chi, Yoga, and Pilates, so a good stretchy workout. Once the Y closed, we started doing BodyFlow video classes, which are pretty cool and effective. (Here's a BodyFlow video if you want to try.) For a different workout, I even dug up my old TurboJam DVD for some fun kickboxing.

It's hard to find in-person dance classes for adults, but there turns out to be a treasure trove of them online.  I've been doing Kathryn Morgan's Classical Barre videos, reviewing my Tap class videos (I took tap at Coe during spring term!), and have really enjoyed Alvin Ailey's Revelations Workshop.  Here, try it! You don't need any dance background.

Here's a benefit of online workouts and dance classes: I've been squeezing them into bits of time (no commuting time necessary) and doing different workouts depending on my mood. I probably do more than I would have if I were just doing classes in person!

NYCBallet: The Digital Spring Season has been a delight to watch! Without the pandemic, I would have seen zero NYCBallet performances this spring, but with these releases, I've seen quite a bit! I did donate, and I hope other people who've watched will, too.

Online concerts: The first one I attended was a Red Cedar Chamber Music Facebook Live Concert. The music was beautiful, and it was so fun to see the usual performers, a husband and wife, joined by their high school and college-aged sons. Like many of you, I listened to Yo Yo Ma's lovely Memorial Day concert--those beautiful Bach cello suites. I also heard about another online Memorial Day concert, which turned out to by my favorite kind of chamber music: a voice recital--featuring baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan! It was a moving and beautiful recital that featured songs written during or about WWI.

Hmm. They're kind of hunky, too.

(In case you think I'm all classical music all the time, Bruce and I watched John Prine (RIP) on Austin City Limits one night, and we might check out some of the other Austin City Limits shows on PBS streaming, too. I didn't even realize they were available!)

Looking at Birds: Would I have done this much birding if there wasn't a pandemic? There would have been other things I needed to do, other places to be, but with indoor entertainment pretty much nixed, we've been outside a lot and have seen some great birds, including a rainbow🌈of birds on one particular walk at Squaw Creek Park: Cardinal /American Redstart. Oriole. Yellow Warbler /Goldfinch. Blue Jay. Indigo Bunting.

Oriole

Yellow Warbler

Indigo bunting. Bird photos by Robbie Nesmith.

Crafting: OK, this is not new to the pandemic. I always have some kind of crafting project going on: knitting, crocheting, or sewing, usually. But during this pandemic, I also tried hand-building with clay (thanks to the Cedar Rapids Ceramic and Glass Center's project kits), and book-making (following along with the Minnesota Center For the Book's videos). 

Fun with clay.

Would I have tried those crafts without being prompted by the pandemic? Probably not.

So those are a few of my unexpected Joys of this pandemic. I'm looking forward to getting back to in-person gatherings, concerts, classes, etc. but I'll always be grateful for these new experiences that the pandemic provoked me to try.

Do you get what you want? Or do you get what you need?

I bought a new tablecloth online last week. I ordered it from Kohl's and went to pick it up there.

Like many stores and restaurants these days, Kohl's has a new protocol for picking up merchandise. You can go in, as usual, to pick up stuff you ordered online. Or you can pull up to a specially-marked parking place and they will bring your item to you.

While I was waiting for them to bring me my item, I looked around the vast parking lot. Considering that it was the Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, there were very few cars, maybe 20 in a parking lot made for hundreds. There were very few people shopping at Kohl's Famous Footwear, Old Navy, and the other stores in that strip.

Heck, I didn't even really need to be there. I didn't need a new tablecloth. Our old one looks tatty, but who's going to comment on it? It's not like we're having lots of company. 

Living in the midst of a pandemic really gets a person to think about what they actually need--versus what you might want. 

As you might guess, retail sales have plummeted during this pandemic. People are still buying food and household essentials (laundry detergent, and that kind of thing I guess?) but not much of anything else. Sales at big box stores (Kohl's? certainly Target) were down 20.8% in April and sales in clothing and accessory stores were down a whopping 77.8%!

Now I haven't seen any naked people running about outside (yet), so apparently, new clothing is not yet a "need" here at this point. It's more of a "want." 

I am beginning to wonder, however, if the kind of economic setup we have here in the U.S. could survive if people just bought only what they needed. It might be better for us, and our planet, if we did that, but probably we'd need a different economic system than late capitalism.

Can I put in a request for an economic system where people would not essentially get a pay cut if they go back to work after getting unemployment compensation during the pandemic?

In the meantime, I had hoped that this blog post would bring some good news regarding the coronavirus in Iowa. Last week, we had a couple of days where there were few deaths so I was starting to feel a bit optimistic. But alas. Cases and deaths have not yet peaked. Saturday, May 23, we had the highest number of deaths in one day, yet: 25.  So we're not quite at our peak yet. Maybe soon!

Here's what it looks like:

Active cases of Covid-19 in Iowa

Yeesh, still going up up up

Again, despite the upward trend of those graphs, Governor Reynolds has continued opening up Iowa (was it ever "closed"? not really). Now pretty much everything is open except for theaters, senior citizen facilities, and indoor playgrounds. 

But if that Kohl's parking lot is any indication, maybe not all Iowans are ready to get what they "want." They're just sticking with what they need.

Cognitive dissonance: Hopeful and discouraging signs

Every evening I look at the coronavirus coverage of the New York Times to keep track of how things are going. For a while there in early April, I stopped reading the coverage because it seemed so bleak: the growth in number of cases and deaths just kept growing.

But recently, some of the graphs have brought hope. Look at the national data for today, May 15: the curve has been flattened, and some of the numbers are headed downward.

Graphs from the nytimes.com

What a relief it must be, especially for those who live in New York City and New Jersey, some of the hardest-hit areas, for the number of cases and deaths to finally be declining. In fact in those eastern states, the declines are more dramatic. New York City went from over 10,000 new cases per day at its peak to fewer than 3000 per day in the last week, and from over 1000 deaths per day for about a week in early April to fewer than 500 per day in the last week.

But here's the thing: most of the national decline is due to declines in cases in the hard-hit eastern seaboard. Elsewhere, numbers of cases and deaths are not yet on the decline. Here, for example, are the graphs for Iowa.

Graphs from nytimes.com

After seeing that national graph, I got quite dismayed when I saw these for Iowa!

The Times had Iowa in the category of states where "new cases are decreasing," which I don't quite get. The graph definitely showed a peak in new cases a week ago, and then a decline, but they're going up again. Sadly, the number of deaths per day continues to rise.

So my feelings are mixed: on the one hand, maybe things are finally easing! Maybe we're getting a handle on this disease, maybe we're doing social-distancing well enough to slow it down. On the other hand, why aren't the Iowa graphs looking more similar to the national ones, i.e. with a line going DOWN?

During all this, and despite the continued upward trajectory of those Iowa graphs, and despite White House guidelines that a state should have 14 days of declining new cases, Governor Reynolds made a proclamation to reopen the entire state. Earlier, she's opened all but 22 counties that had been particularly hard-hit (including our county). This week, the entire state is open for business.

Owners of a gym prepare for socially-distanced workouts. Photo swiped from thegazette.com

There are some restrictions: no gatherings larger than 10 people. Restaurants, stores, and barbershops/salons must operate at 50% of capacity to make sure diners are spaced far enough apart for social distancing, for example. 

OK, fine, but I am not ready to visit a restaurant, that's for sure, at least to sit down for a good amount of time, breathing in who knows what. The document you might have seen on social media by epidemiologist and professor Erin Bromage reminded us that the TIME we spend in contact with infected people matters, so restaurant meals are not a good idea yet. We'll keep doing take-out. And I cannot imagine going out to stores just to browse around for the same reason. Not yet.

And what might it mean in the proclamation that Massage Therapy Establishments have to "make reasonable efforts to maintain social distance and increase hygiene practices" according to Governor Reynolds's proclamation? You can't maintain social distance if you're giving a massage! Two friends who are Licensed Massage Therapists, Zhen E and Karen, have already announced that they're going to wait a bit before opening.

I hope there aren't any negative ramifications of this maybe-too-early reopening. Coe wants to reopen in the fall for our fall semester, and a rebound of cases in Iowa might make that tricky. I am really hoping there won't be a rebound. 

Meanwhile, this is what I'm going to do:

• keep social distancing
• get take-out instead from local restaurants
• only go to retail establishments if I can go in, quickly get what I need, and leave (masked, of course)
• urge people I know to keep social distancing
• make masks for people who don't yet have one (let me know!)
• show my support for leaders who urge a more cautious approach to reopening. 

If the data from the nation as a whole are a good prediction, and if Iowa's peak of cases comes soonish, as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggests, we will be able to open more safely very soon--and I'll be ready!

WFH wardrobe review

The other day, Bruce asked me what I was up to. I was lacing up my shoes.

"Nothing special," I replied. "I just feel more productive when I actually put on shoes." This made me think about what I have been choosing to wear when working from home. 

I decided to do a little review and rating of Work From Home wardrobe choices. I'm thinking back over my Teaching From Home days during the last 4+ weeks of Spring Semester 2020.

Slippers vs. Shoes

Slippers:  fluffy, easy to get on and off, comfortable, no one's going to see your feet on a Zoom meeting.

Shoes:  can wear inside or outside, comfortable and supportive, snugly-tied laces give me energy from the feet up. (FlyLady and Gretchen Rubin agree)

Winner:  Shoes

From GoComics.com

Pants ("no pants" is not an option because our house is a bit chilly)(also, I have leggings but Leggings Are Not Pants): Two rounds

Round 1: Pants I Already Owned Before Covid:

Athletic pants vs. stretchy jeans

Athletic pants (purchased from the 25 cent table at Stuff, Etc.)

comfy, pockets, stretchiness makes them perfect for long periods of sitting, either at a desk, or cross-legged on the couch, people might think I'm athletic

Stretchy Jeans: fairly comfy for jeans, pockets, sturdy enough for working outside, a bit more presentable to the world.

Winner: tie. Sweats if ONLY working from home. Stretchy jeans if I need to run an errand or work in the yard

Round 2: Pants I bought online after Covid started a.,k.a. sweatpants

Uniqlo sweats vs. Hanes sweats

Uniqlo Women's Ultra Stretch Pants (no longer in stock): Uniqlo is hip, pants are warm enough for sitting in chilly basement where my office is set up, pockets, VERY stretchy (4-way stretch) so that they feel like I'm wearing jammies which seems to cause me feel like I need a nap. 

Hanes French Terry Pocket Pants: cottony fleece on the inside also makes these warm enough yet breathable, pockets, stretchy but not too stretchy--they make me feel like I should go for a brisk walk, look decent enough to wear in public.

Winner: Hanes sweats

Sweaters: 

(yes sweaters. We're talking an Iowa Spring here. We had snow during week 2 of WFH (in April), and my basement office is chilly)

Wool cardigan vs. fleece

Wool cardigan (I have several, some purchased online, others are thrift-store rescues): doesn't shed bits of polyester into the ocean every time I wash it, more professional looking, breathable

Fleece (I have several, bought more than 5 years ago): warm, breathable, zips up to cover my neck if it gets extra cold, pockets, can be worn as outdoor jacket

Winner: tie. Fleeces for most days, wool sweaters for days when I teach.

What are your WFH wardrobe choices?

Sights of the Pandemic in Iowa and elsewhere

I didn't expect to see any cars at the mall as I drove over to buy some plants at the HyVee garden center on Collins Road. But as I drove by, I saw that the parking lot looked full.

What? The mall is closed, at least for now.

Then I saw the sign: "Food Pantry Here," the sign said.

As I drove slowly by, I noticed that the cars were not parked there, they were idling in two parallel lines stretching from one end of the mall to the other--from the closed Sears to the closed Younkers.

They were in line to pick up boxes of food from the Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, aka HACAP.

Cars in line to get food from a food bank. Photo swiped from the Little Village story, linked above.

Walking along the lines of people in cars, people in masks and safety vests had clipboards and seemed to be talking to the drivers. National Guard troops were there directing traffic in their camouflaged outfits. More people hefted boxes into trunks near the former Younkers.

The feature-writer in me wanted to pull over to take photos, to interview workers and participants. How many people do you expect? What's in the boxes? How long have you been out of work? How is your family doing?

This week, I've been dismayed by news about the virus's spread in Iowa.

Front pages of our local newspaper this week. 

Cases of Covid have continued to climb here in Iowa. I was hoping this was just because we're testing more, but alas, the death rate also continues to climb. The senior living facility just a few blocks from here had its first (known) cases this week, and of course the meat processing plants in other areas have had many many cases--and deaths.

The governor has decided to open businesses in the counties that have been less-heavily hit by the virus, but as you can see by that map on the photo, more counties are getting covid cases all the time.

At our house, we'll continue to maintain social distancing. We've been getting carry-out food once a week from local restaurants, and we donated our government checks to local non-profits.

A sight on the internet that has really troubled me is one you've probably seen as well: the spreading of misinformation and propaganda through a video with the word "Plandemic" in it. That video shares some conspiracy theories about "hidden agenda behind the COVID-19" pandemic.

The video was removed by YouTube despite all the clicks it could have gotten, for violating "community guidelines." Meaning sharing false information, perhaps?

I know that people are frustrated by the economic toll and inconveniences of the pandemic. I hope that everyone tries to remember the important critical thinking that one must use before spreading information on the internet. 

There have been some more happy sights during this pandemic, though.

In a rare (masked!) shopping trip, I was able to purchase the plants I need for my vegetable garden and patio pots. Most of the people at the outdoor nurseries I visited were wearing masks and giving me space; I was grateful for those who did. I noticed that one had a sign that you could order plants online and pick them up curbside! I wish I'd known!

Here's a story of how local people rescued that pelican with the injured wing that we kept seeing at Cedar Lake. It will be taken to an veterinarian to be treated. Look how huge it is!

And more birds: This week, I saw a hummingbird at our feeder. Later, a pair of goldfinches explored the yard. My oranges are waiting for orioles to arrive.

Come and get it, orioles!