Thursday, November 12, 2020

...and now, back to Coronavirus

I’m delighted to say that no civil war has broken out since the official announcement of Joe Biden’s election on Saturday. Other than Trump throwing around lawsuits like wet noodles and behaving menacingly behind the scenes, everything else appears to be moving along nicely. This is pretty much what I expected - a whole lot of hot air for the next two months. 

Coronavirus, however, has come back with a vengeance. Again, much like the red mirage of election night, it was expected, and yet I still hoped California would be spared. We aren’t. I’m selfishly concerned about our Thanksgiving plans - what if we can’t leave our houses? What if I have to cancel our RV reservation and am out $1000 with no recourse? Kauai is having a new case here and there and is considering re-instating their 14 day quarantine, so our January trip is in jeopardy also. I’m going to wait with bated breath to see what our governor decides before we leave next Saturday. Ugh.

In other news, a vaccine is looking very promising. However...will it be widely used enough by this spring so that I can have an event in September? It’s soooo tight. I’m afraid this year is going to be a real nail biter with regards to when and if I can function. Sigh. 

It’s been rough dragging the kids through their schoolwork all week. Bobby’s chrome book camera is terrible, so the photos of his homework are so blurry the teacher can’t read them. I had been taking pictures on my phone and emailing them to her...but she says she really needs them in the system and not emailed, so I’m going up to the school to exchange chrome books tomorrow...however I have no way of knowing if the next chrome book will just magically have a better camera and I won’t know until I’ve surrendered the old chrome book that’s all set up with all his sign-ins and passwords...ugh. I may just pass on the whole thing and use Theo’s school iPad instead. 

Every day I must say “stop screwing around”, “do your work” and “just get through this so you can have fun” about 5,000 times. It’s like herding kittens. They are hopelessly addicted to these inane gamer videos and take any excuse to sneak off and watch them unless I stay on them every second. I’m starting to really resent the amount of teaching and schoolwork I’m responsible for. I know it can’t be any other way - the kids can’t be expected to spend one minute more on zoom than they already are - but god I’m so sick of it all. Our day starts at 8 AM and doesn’t end until 3 or 4 - and it’s constant. I am interrupted every five minutes having to cook lunch or clean or find a working pen or a blank sheet of paper or constantly make sure they aren’t distracting each other...and then one is off school and has to do all his “asynchronous” work, which of course requires my complete involvement; then the other is off school and has to do his work, which usually involves my complete involvement, too, and then they both have to be timed to do their nightly reading, which also involves a lot of whining and complaining and my having to search their disaster of a room to find a book they haven’t read yet and don’t object to. By the time all of this is over and I’ve cleaned up the house that looks like a hurricane hit it, gathered up all their school supplies and put their devices on charge for the next day, the sun is already setting, and I retreat to my room to watch some tv and nap. By five o’clock I’m completely wiped out. It’s exhausting and emotionally draining. And yet we still have probably at least six more months of this. I can’t. 

Did I mention the pain I’ve had in my shoulder since March has now spread to my back, neck and arm, and I am in pretty much constant pain and can barely use my arm at all? Good times. 




1 comment:

  1. Hi! Just a quick thought and sorry if you have already tried this several times, but have you cleaned the camera of that Chrome book? Just wipe it with a wet cloth if you haven't already...

    ReplyDelete