Shelter in Place – Week 12

Day 80

All was calm in the morning.  The protesters never made it as far as our street and we heard that the protests were largely peaceful.  The stores on The Alameda are all boarded up in anticipation of more protests.

In the afternoon we drove to T’s house to celebrate her daughter K’s birthday.  T had planned for us to do a drive-by first, followed by Kona Shaved Ice on the front lawn.  The boys enjoyed the drive by, standing up through the sunroof and yelling out birthday greetings to K.  T had tried to enable social distancing as much as possible, but it’s hard for kids to adhere to it when they haven’t seen each other for three months.  Jed had brought along his beloved PoKemon cards and before I knew it, he and K were involved in a game.  I would have loved to have let them play together longer – all the kids are so hungry for company.  It was great to see T and our Sit and Play group again in person. While we’ve seen each other regularly via Zoom, nothing beats face-to-face contact, even if we were wearing masks.

Day 81

Woke up feeling tired from the previous day’s activities and went shopping as we were out of milk.  I thought I could leave Jed at home with George as he had a virtual Scavenger Hunt scheduled with his class.  We thought it would be a fun activity that he would enjoy.  As I was finishing shopping, I received a call from George asking what the password to the WebEx meeting was.  It turned out that Jed had been kicked out of the meeting for being a poor loser and having a meltdown.  He had calmed down and wanted to go back in for story time.  It’s always stressful trying to get the kids back into a meeting and I had to explain over the phone that Jed’s meeting was a link to an ongoing meeting and that there was no password.  Eventually we got him back in.  George said goodbye but for me it was the last straw.  All the effort I had put into getting him over the line with his school assignments, now seemed in vain.  I thought we had been doing so well together and it had all gone to shit the moment I was out of the house.  What else really matters if your child can’t participate in activities without being a poor loser and melting down?  I felt utterly defeated and exhausted and started crying.  Once I started crying, I couldn’t stop.  I cried all the way home in the car and kept crying, on and off, for the rest of the day.  When Jed’s teacher wrote to explain what had happened and said how hearing him scream hurt her heart and made her feel helpless because she couldn’t calm him down, I cried even more.  Distance Learning without the physical presence and support of the Autism Resource Program has been such a lonely experience.

 

Day 82

A couple of friends took their kids to participate in protests today.  I would have taken Ethan, but he is neck deep finishing up assignments and battling what looks to be another cold.  Jed and I went to our allergy shot appointment without him.  If there are peaceful protests in San Jose next week, I might take him.  I’d take Jed, but he doesn’t cope well with crowds and loud noises and might be tempted to scream too loudly if people start chanting.  Both boys are well aware of the race inequalities confronting this nation and feel strongly about racism.  Ethan is baffled by why it occurs and Jed has declared that if he ever sees someone being beaten or abused up by others, he will confront the attackers (and based on what I have seen of him at school or at play, I have no doubt that he will).

 

Ethan has surprised us by being accepted into the school’s WEB program.  WEB stands for Where Everybody Belongs and is a leadership and mentoring program where 8^th graders welcome, support and lead incoming 6^th Grade students.  He had to fill out an application about how he had provided leadership and support during his time at Middle School and he must have written something that resonated with the selection committee.  His determination and drive never fail to amaze us.  I’m hoping that school won’t be in Distance Learning for long in the Fall so that he has the opportunity to do this in-person, rather than via Zoom.

 

Day 83

Last Day of School.  With Ethan plugging away at his last English assignment, Jed and I logged on for his class awards.  Jed’s teacher did a nice job of talking about each of his classmates, what their strengths were and what work they had completed during the school year.  When it was Jed’s turn, she said that his classmates said he was encouraging, responsible and a good person for sharing ideas with.  Jed’s teacher said she had had fun having him in her classroom and looked forward to seeing him next year (she gets to have him for a second year and at least she now has his measure).

We waited for Ethan to be finished with his English before heading off for our frozen yoghurt treat.  As we got into the car Ethan announced that he had discovered a science assignment that he needed to finish by the end of the day.  I took a deep breath and drove the boys to get yoghurt anyway.  We headed to our regular downtown Yoghurtland, but that store was boarded up and covered with graphic art depicting George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.  As we were driving to our next location the boys and I had another conversation about why shops were boarded up, why protests were occurring and what racial injustice was.  We found another Yoghurtland in a quieter neighborhood and were even able to sit outside at the tables (being patrolled by a security guard with spray bottle cleaner).  After months of being at home, it felt like a novelty to be able to sit in the sun and enjoy our yoghurt treat. Once home, Ethan completed his science assignment in an hour, and I let out a big sigh of relief.  Distance Learning is done for the year.

Day 84

First day of Summer Vacation.  Took Jed for a bike ride.  He wanted to explore the Coyote Creek trail further north than we had been before, so we parked at Kelley Park and tried to find the path going north.  The only path I could find on my phone was a graveled path leading to a bridge made out of railway sleepers with no rails along one side.  On the other side of the bridge the track wound off into what looked like a wasteland of trees and grass.  There were no signs anywhere to indicate that it was the official Coyote Creek Trail.  I told Jed that his Dad would never forgive me if we crossed the bridge and fell off it or through it, so we headed back to the car, drove down to Cottonwood Lake and did our usual bike ride.  When I told George where we went, he said we’d ended up at The Jungle, the notorious Homeless encampment.  I’m glad we didn’t cross that bridge.

 

Day 85

Peaceful protests are continuing around the country and the world.  A huge group of cyclists unexpectedly passed by our house this afternoon in what we assumed was a peaceful protest.  People don’t want to forget and have life continue on as before.  They want institutions and the powers that be to admit that there is systemic inequality.  The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell has issued a statement saying that the NFL was wrong, that they should have listened to NFL players protesting racial injustice and that injustice and inequality need to be addressed.  NFL players are coming out to speak up against racial injustice and NFL coaches are agreeing with them.  It’s been four years since Colin Kaepernick took a knee at NFL games to protest Black deaths and now what he stood up for is being acknowledged (even if he isn’t).

Statues commemorating slave owners have been torn down in the UK.  The southern states of America are questioning whether statues of Confederate war heroes should remain.  There is a global movement demanding change and a feeling that this movement may be different from all the ones before.  May the momentum continue, and may it bring about the change and reforms that are so desperately needed in this country.

 

Day 86

Headed up the Peninsula for a hike in the Los Trancos Open Space Preserve.  It was a fine, breezy day and cooler than at our house.  We had to walk briskly to keep warm.  The trails passed through green temperate foliage, with lichen covered trees and lush ferns before coming out on open grassland, turned golden by the sun and wind.  Along our hike, we came across the Monte Bello Vista carpark, which we’ll use as a starting point if we return to hike.  We set off on what we thought was a quick loop but had to turn back after a mile and a half, otherwise we would have been walking for hours to return to our car.  As it was, it took us over two hours to walk five miles and we were all pretty tired by the end of it.  We were amazed that Jed didn’t complain more, but perhaps he’s gained some stamina from all the bike rides and hikes he’s been on.  George was impressed by the number of wildflowers still in bloom; if we’d come a month ago, the preserve would have been a swathe of color in orange, pink, yellow and white.  It was nice to get out for a drive and a walk and we weren’t alone; there were many fit cyclists on the roads and trails, many hikers and a fair number of noisy motorcyclists out for a cruise.

As businesses and services begin to open up and people slowly emerge from their homes, it is time to say farewell and thank you for following me on this journey.  Summer is here and lockdown is lifting for the time being.  I am hoping to post stories periodically but won’t be keeping a daily journal.  Usually I have the boys’ entire Summer vacation planned out at the start of June, with camps and other activities, but this year there is just a blank stretch of uncertainty.  Uncertainty for the direction the protests and BLM movement will take, uncertainty for COVID-19 and whether opening up will bring a second wave of infections.  Uncertainty about how the economy will recover from three months of shutdown.  Uncertainty about the Election at the end of the year.  Uncertainty for my family’s future; whether George will find a job, whether Distance Learning will continue and whether our family has a viable future in this country.  It’s all a “wait and see” right now.  So good luck for this Summer, especially if you have children who have been in Distance Learning for three months and now have another ten weeks of “vacation” ahead of them…If this is a vacation, then it’s not one I’ll be choosing to do ever again.

Shelter-in-Place – Week 8

Day 51

Now that the evenings are longer and George is no longer chained to his computer for 10-12 hours per day, we’ve started to take walks around the neighborhood as a family.  I now realize why some families have found this time at home to be more relaxing.  For the first six weeks of Shelter-in-Place George was working around the clock to keep the company moving forward and his job.  Now that that pressure (and motivation) has gone, he is finishing work earlier and is around more to check in with the kids, play cricket with them and take evening walks with us.

Walking around the streets has been interesting.  We’ve lived in our house for over 10 years now and still haven’t walked along streets that are only a few blocks away from us.  To get to these streets, we have to walk underneath the highway that separates San Jose from Santa Clara.  I have driven down some of these streets, but never found the time to walk along them.  They appear to be built in the postwar years and many are duplexes (a bit of a surprise to us).  Some streets have charm, while others have simple tidy bare lawns leading up to plain wooden structures.  Every street is filled with parked cars.  It makes me appreciate our wide and treelined street, with its diversity of architecture, even more.

Day 52

Was feeling down so I started writing another story about memories I have from childhood.  I remembered the camp our school had us attend in Year 9 up in our Snowy Mountains for 10 days in Spring.  The camp seemed like a good idea to the adults at the time, but it resulted in students suffering from hypothermia from being soaked by rain and snow and several people nearly drowning while attempting to cross a fairly deep, fast-flowing river with packs on our backs.  Our year was the first group to attempt the camp and the year after us, they moved the camp back a month, to later in Springtime so the weather would be warmer.  Last year our class reminisced about the camp on Facebook and wondered if, in 2019, such a camp would be allowed or even legal to undertake with Year 9 students.  Writing about it brought back memories of a seemingly more carefree times, where the only things we had to worry about were the threat of nuclear war and AIDS.  Or maybe the times seemed more carefree because I was 14 and my parents shouldered the burden of money and bills.  I wonder how our children will remember Coronavirus and Lockdown and what stories they will have to tell?

Day 53

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo (May 5), a Mexican celebration that usually involves large congregations of people in downtown and East San Jose.  Even with shelter in place, lots of people gathered in their cars or in groups, without masks.  Thanks to these celebrations, Santa Clara County found it necessary to tell us that all gatherings (even in cars) have been banned since the Shelter in Place started.  This includes drive-by celebrations for birthdays and all the upcoming graduations in May.  Frustrating.  Now we may not be able to celebrate T’s daughter’s birthday on June 1, with a drive-by. Frustrating.

Day 54

I had to take the boys for our monthly allergy shot and this month I made sure we were all wearing masks (homemade by me with fabric and the last remaining elastic I found in the house).  Ethan’s mask fit well and he was comfortable in it, but Jed’s mask was a little too tight and the elastic kept slipping off his little ears (he has funny, squishy little ears).  He kept the mask on but when he was about to have his injection, he looked up at me and said, “I can scream just as loud with the mask on.” “Please don’t,” I replied.  I made sure the boys sat away from people while we were waiting for our mandatory 30 minutes and Jed wore his mask so that it slipped below his nose.  Well, at least I tried.

Day 55

Allergies are knocking our family around at the moment, with everyone waking up with goopy eyes, sinus headaches and runny noses.  Ethan woke up with a cold and retreated to the couch to rest.  Now that all activities have been suspended and school is online, there is actually time for him to be sick without the worry that he would miss out on too much.  I took Jed out for our Thursday bike ride, but after we reached the Cottonwood Lake, only two miles from our starting point, he asked to go home.  Then I felt as though I was fighting off a cold.  We limped through the rest of the day’s work.  It was 86F (30C) today.  Too hot for outdoor play until 7pm, by which time I was holed up inside on a 2 ½ hour PTSA budget meeting call.  PTSA meetings take long enough when everyone is seated around a table.  Via Zoom they take even longer.

 

Day 56

Jed woke us up at 5.20am howling because his eyes were sore, and his nose was stuffy.  We dosed him up on allergy medicine and pain medicine and sent him back to bed.  He was still complaining of itchy eyes a few hours later and not wanting a case of pink eye on my hands over the weekend, I phoned his pediatrician.  I wasn’t even sure if she was still practicing, under the current circumstances, but her assistant answered and said that yes, they were taking patients, but one at a time, so the office would be empty.

 

I had Jed wear a mask that fit him to the Doctor’s surgery that afternoon and she saw us at once.  She’s a Russian lady in her sixties who never seems to take a day off and appears to be immune to just about every disease, virus and bacterial infection out there including Coronavirus.  She told me that there were seven different strains of Coronavirus and that she was immune to all of them, having been exposed to them over the course of her life.  She said that she had been helping out so as to learn more and had been tested.  The test had come back negative (not that she trusted it) but she was sure she wouldn’t be a risk to us.  She checked Jed out and found that the allergies had caused infection in his sinus cavities.  She told me that the allergies were forecast to last through May and cheerfully showed me another chart with a huge spike in the pollen count during May.  I thought she would prescribe eye drops but she prescribed antibiotics to clear up the infection he’d got, so I’m really glad I took him in.

 

I took Jed with me to the Pharmacy to get his prescription and he amused himself by looking at all the products on the shelves.  He was quite happy wearing the mask, although he kept pulling it down his face to wear it like a beard, which rather defeated the purpose of it.  Having not been in a store for nearly two months, he enjoyed looking at everything and didn’t need to be reminded not to touch anything as he is acutely aware of germs.  The appointment and errands took up most of the afternoon and made the day feel almost normal, like something we used to do before Lockdown.

Day 57

The weather was cooler today and absolutely perfect at 27C (80F).  I don’t know how long Californians will abide by Gavin Newsom’s Shelter in Place order now that we are headed for Summer.  When I ran past the Rose Garden this afternoon, I saw parked cars lining both sides of the street.  The Rose Garden itself was filled with people trying to socially distance themselves on picnic rugs and between the roses.  Yesterday I passed a group of College-aged people doing Frat-house type activities in front of a multi-family home (if the ping pong table and red cups were any indication).  None of them were wearing masks and none of them were socially distancing.  I hope that Shelter-in-Place can be lifted by June 1 because there are many people out there who are going stir crazy and are done with social distancing.

Day 58

Mother’s Day.  I wasn’t sure what to expect this year.  Usually I get a bunch of flowers and we go to dinner at a restaurant, but this year I asked George not to buy flowers, due to our current financial situation.  He did, however, organize the boys so that Ethan surprised me with breakfast in bed – scrambled eggs, bacon and English muffins with marmalade.  He told me he wanted to make me an English breakfast.  Jed made me a card on a piece of notebook paper which said “Happy Mother’s Day. Hope you enjoy the bacon and eggs.”  I was very touched by their gestures.

After breakfast we set off for a hike.  The boys chose Santa Theresa County Park again and this time we took the Mine trail that went in the opposite direction of the Ridge trail that we took a month ago.  We passed family groups and many mountain bikers going up and down the steep and rocky trails.  We missed the turnoff to the Mine trail and ended up on the Fortini Trail that took us around the back of the Park and to a cluster of houses that were at the very end of the Almaden Valley.  George even pointed out the house (mansion) of one of Ethan’s former classmates where they’d gone for a birthday party years ago.  A month ago, the grass was green when we walked in this park; now the grasses had turned golden and the wildflowers were almost out of bloom.  The blue sky was scattered with high clouds and the green oaks stood out on the golden hillsides.  At the end of the trail we saw a flock of bush turkeys grazing and one of them rewarded us by displaying his plumage.  We all enjoyed getting out and George said he would join us on this week’s hike. Chandon and steak for dinner finished off a very nice day.

Shelter in Place – Week 5

Day 30

It’s Spring Break this week, except that there is nowhere to go and nothing to do except get out for exercise.  We took our bikes and explored the trail that we walked on last Thursday.  The creek trail was really pretty and gently undulating, and Ethan and I could have covered many miles of it together.  The problem was that Jed seemed to tire easily and found it hard to get up even the shallow hills that we encountered.  We stopped for a snack to fortify him and I told him that we could stop once we hit two miles on my watch.  It’s frustrating because he bounces around the house with seemingly unstoppable energy but on a hike or bike ride, he constantly complains about how tired he is.  We still managed to ride about six miles (I didn’t start recording the distance until we’d already gone a mile).  The boys were pretty relaxed on the journey home.  The afternoon dragged, though so I need to have some other activities in place.

Day 31

Drove to Santa Theresa County Park in South San Jose.  We’d never been there and didn’t know if we’d even find parking, even though the website said there was parking available.  Wound up a hill, found parking and set off on what I thought would be a short hike.  I didn’t add up all the 0.7 plus 0.4 plus 0.2 lengths of the trail and I didn’t realize it would be as steep as it was.  Two hours, 2.5 miles and the equivalent of 61 flights of stairs later we finished.  Jed only started complaining at the end, which was admirable, given the terrain.  The view from the top of the hill was spectacular, everything is a lush green and the sky was a deep blue.  I have never known a more beautiful Spring here.  Maybe it is because this is the first Spring that I have slowed down enough to notice.  Maybe the improved air quality is making a difference as well.

There weren’t too many people around when we set off, but along the way we came across two snakes.  The first was small and looked like a thin branch across the pathway.  The boys stopped us in our tracks with yells.  After observing the snake for a few moments I suggested we stop for a snack and wait for it to move off, which it obligingly did.  A short while later we met some hikers who told us there was a rattlesnake on the path.  It was in the grass as we edged around it and was bigger than the last snake.  It was a dark grey color with brown markings, so I don’t know if it was a rattler and I wasn’t going to stop to find out.  When we passed a large group of large people, who took up most of the path, Jed yelled “Rattlesnake ahead!” to which Ethan groaned in embarrassment.  Both boys were quiet on the way home and we all slept really well that night.

Day 32

Jed asked what we were doing today, and I told him I had to go shopping for groceries and the ingredients for Chicken Tetrazzini – a dish that Ethan wanted to try.  He seemed happy to play with his Lego and spent most of the day playing with it, having discovered more “treasures”.  Both boys are getting more independent and they did their own thing while I caught up on housework.  Strange as it sounds, it was actually a bit of a break because no one was talking in my ear or competing for my attention.  In the afternoon Ethan and I made the chicken tetrazzini dish.  It turns out that it is very like chicken pot pie, only with linguine instead of a pastry lid.  There was no linguine to be found in the supermarket, so I used spaghetti instead.  Half-way through Ethan received a call from a friend who he’s been trying to connect with for a while, so I finished the dish.  He talked for nearly an hour which is great for someone who finds back-and-forth conversation challenging at times.  He was so happy after the call that I think he needs to reach out to friends on a regular basis during this lockdown – it’s been hard for him not seeing friends and classmates at school.

 

Day 33

Jed requested another bike ride, so we headed back to Coyote Creek and took the trail north.  Last week it took us an hour to walk 2 miles; today we covered the same distance in 15 minutes.  We continued on and rode another two miles, past a lake, through more green, shady paths, past closed parks and portable toilets, put up for the homeless.  Unlike the trail going south, we did see a few homeless dwellings – the first I’ve seen for a while, as the County has been trying to get them off the streets and into hotels and shelters.  The ride started out cool and grey, which made the trees and grass seem that much greener and fresher.  Eventually the sun did come out, so we had to peel off our hoodies.  Jed is starting to build up stamina and complained a lot less than he did on previous rides, but halfway through the ride, he was riding more slowly and by the end, his bike was wobbling all over the path as his little legs tried to keep up the momentum.  He nearly ran into one indignant cyclist, so it was a relief to be back in the carpark.

 

You would have thought that the 7.5 miles we rode would have been enough exercise for the boys, but no, Jed was keen for me to join them playing “Airborne” on the trampoline.  “Airborne” involves the three of us bouncing up and down on the trampoline, then sit-jumping together.  If we manage to sit down at the same time, the momentum propels one of us (usually Jed as he’s the smallest) 2-3 feet into the air.  If Ethan or I achieve it, it’s like we’re floating on air for a moment.  If Jed achieves it, it’s like a cork flying out of a bottle and he laughs hysterically.  At first, I was concerned that we would fall on each other and break bones, but we have learned to stay apart and jump-sit together.  It’s quite a workout and registers more minutes of exercise in a 10-minute jump, than in 40 a minute bike ride.

 

Day 34

Last day of Spring Break.  As the boys pointed out to me, we would have been at Disneyland today.  As much as I would have loved to get out of the Bay Area and down to LA to the beach and see the friends we were supposed to meet up with, I wasn’t that upset.  I’m not a big fan of long lines and crowds, I’m not that desperate to have my photo taken with Mickey or Minnie Mouse (although I do like Donald Duck) and I’ve ridden enough rollercoasters to last me a lifetime.

This time we headed for Almaden Quicksilver County Park, nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.  I’d never heard of it and didn’t know that there used to be mining activity in the foothills.  The County Park is at the end of a street of historic buildings and a museum that we will have to come back and look at some other time.  This time, we headed straight up the Mine Head trail, which was as steep as the Santa Theresa trail, only more densely wooded.  These hills were all tree covered, but higher up we could see San Jose spread out in the distance.  Once again, the air was clear and clean, the sky a beautiful blue and the clouds, light and puffy.  Why had we never done this before?  We were always too busy travelling somewhere, or frequenting places like Chuck E Cheese.

As it would have taken too long to do the entire Mine Head trail loop, I told the boys that we would turn around after two miles.  I hadn’t taken a map at the start of the trail, partly because I wasn’t sure whether the maps were safe to touch or not.  I really should have taken one.  I’m more likely to perish by losing my way than by contracting Coronavirus.  The trail on the way down, looked completely different to what it looked like on the way up and even with the signposts we couldn’t be sure we were taking the right branch.  We went around and around for a while before I figured out, we were on the right trail.  Then the boys recognized the same dog poop that they had seen on the trail going up.  For Jed, the highlight of the trail was watching some dog do its business and then asking me all about it.  He loved seeing all the dogs on the trail, greeting them and talking loudly to their owners while Ethan cringed.

Day 35

Headed back to my old neighborhood to pick up some vitamins, only to find the store was closed.  Shopped at my old Safeway, the one I shopped at almost every day when Ethan was a baby.  It is better appointed than the Safeway where I usually shop, but the shoppers had little idea (or regard for) the concept of social distancing so I spent my time dodging people.  There was a good supply of rice and canned tomatoes, but the dairy section had been picked clean and the fruit and vegetable section was bare in places.  It’s interesting to see the difference in food preferences between people in different neighborhoods.

 

Day 36

There’s been discussion on the news about when America and our State will reopen.  The decision is largely being left up to the Governors in each State and our State may try to reopen in three Phases.  To reach Phase One our State has to record a decline in new cases for 14 days straight and at present, that is not happening.  We are flattening out at around 30,000 new cases per day, and today recorded a spike in the number of deaths.  I don’t think we will be out of lockdown any time soon and when we do emerge, we won’t be going anywhere without facemasks or heading to large gatherings of people.

 

There are groups of people in several States who are protesting against Shelter in Place orders and demanding that the economy be reopened, and their Governors sacked or sued.  They are protesting together on the streets and ignoring social distancing.  The exhausted health workers in the hospital are begging them to stay at home.  My heart goes out to those workers.  The meme that a friend posted comes to mind “They say you can’t fix stupid.  Turns out you can’t quarantine it either.”

Shelter in Place – Week 4

Day 23

Spent the morning wrestling with technology (and failing).  Either my computer wasn’t letting me into Zoom meetings, or the software had been recently upgraded to include more security checks.  After getting Jed onto his classroom Zoom meeting, I couldn’t get him into his individual meeting with his teacher.  I felt as though I was in one of those nightmares where the harder you try, the slower you move.  My head felt like cotton wool and my fingers felt like molasses.  Eventually I sought help from a higher power (George) who was able to download the software onto the computer Jed has been using and join the meeting.

 

Spent the afternoon baking cookies and sausage rolls.  It was partly because we’d run out of both and partly to keep the boys occupied as it was still raining, and I didn’t have the energy to go for a walk in the rain.  They smelt great and tasted even better.

 

Day 24

Maybe I overdid it yesterday (I’m a terrible patient).  Woke up exhausted and had to go back to bed halfway through the morning when the kids were studying.  I don’t know how much study was done after I went to bed as George was on calls and all I heard was the click of Lego upstairs, but after a sleep I felt slightly more alive.  Later on, I managed a walk with the boys to our Rose Garden.  They wanted to play tag but that was still beyond me, so we played Hide and Seek.  They have become good hiders and the 10 minutes I spent looking for them was 10 minutes of peace and quiet.  The rose bushes have grown, making it easier for them to hide and the garden was beautiful – it’s surreal how beautiful everything looks when there is so much sickness and death around.

Day 25

The local newspaper ran an article looking at why California is trailing New York State in both COVID-19 cases and deaths when our state was an epicenter of the virus in early March.  A likely answer is that we locked our county down by March 17 and the state down by March 19.  New York was a critical five days behind us, which allowed cases to multiply at an exponential rate.  Hearing this news made our lockdown seem more bearable, knowing that it has made (and hopefully continues to make) such a difference.  Although we have new cases and deaths, the number is below what was forecast, and the hospitals are not overwhelmed.  The state appears to be in such good shape that Governor Newsom was able to send 500 ventilators to New York.  The boys and I are watching the curve flatten into one of the better scenarios.  In our neighborhood at least, people are taking lockdown seriously so that the ambient is one of a group of school children, put on detention, doing their best to comply so that they can be released in the shortest time possible.

Day 26

Homeschooling really wasn’t working for us today (Jed would or could not settle into work) so after an hour, I packed them into the car and drove to a new trail.  It was flat and Ethan would have preferred to have ridden his bike, but it occupied us for nearly two hours as we walked along Coyote Creek, underneath a bright green canopy of California Oaks, Willows and many other trees that had been planted to restore the creek to its native state.  We passed other hikers and cyclists, many wearing masks.  I was reluctant to make the boys wear masks, partly because they have sensory issues and thought Jed would have a meltdown.  Now I’m wondering if wearing a mask might stop him from talking so much.  At the end of our hike we saw a flock of wild turkeys.  I’ve never seen them in San Jose before.  We started to follow them so we could take a picture, but they were keen to socially distance themselves as much as possible.

In the afternoon I started to bake Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday.  I thought that the boys might want to help since they often help bake cookies and muffins.  But both boys took off into the garden to play their version of French Cricket, so I baked while they hit balls into the neighbors’ backyards, on the roof and across the street.  Normally I would be outside making sure they didn’t get run over, but there is so little traffic, they have more freedom to play.  While other people’s children learn to code or to teach themselves piano during this shutdown, my boys are devolving into tree climbing, stick brandishing savages who sound like something out of Lord of the Flies.  School is definitely a civilizing influence on them.

 

Day 27

Had to wrestle with technology once more to set up WebEx and Zoom on Ethan’s computer.  In addition to school meetings and schoolwork, the boys have Speech Therapy once a week that’s now online.  At least he’s got people to talk to now.  I spent the morning shepherding Jed through his reading and then Math Test and managing his anxiety when he didn’t immediately know the answer.  I don’t know how anyone can homeschool and work at the same time – homeschooling has become a full-time job.  I read another blog today to the effect that parents of children with special needs have an even greater job in these strange times, so maybe that is why I find myself completely occupied during the day between online learning and maintaining the house.

 

Day 28

Beautiful sunny day, perfect for our neighborhood “walkaround” on our street, where two houses at a time walked up and down our street, talking to neighbors in their front yards.  Our neighbor who organized the walk kept everyone to schedule with a bullhorn and military voice, so the street sounded like a fun run, even though it was empty.  Everyone agreed it was a great experience and that we needed to have a BBQ on someone’s lawn or front driveway when Shelter in Place is over.

At 5pm my Mom’s group met to wish our friend B a happy birthday, via Zoom.  We’ve been meeting via Zoom every Tuesday since the Shelter in Place order started, to catch up, vent and help each other stay sane.  We sang Happy Birthday to B and held up signs.  Then we caught up some more on what we were doing.  We’ve known each other for over 12 years, since our kids were babies.  When we used to meet at the park, we would spend our time together talking about our kids and our work.  Now conversation centers around what we can find in the supermarkets, whether anyone has found toilet paper yet and if anyone has any elastic for sewing masks.  Reminiscent of conversations during World War Two, perhaps?

 

Day 29

The Easter Bunny was good to us this year.  We received two care packages of eggs from George’s family in Australia that contained our favorite Cadbury eggs, bunny treats and a roll of toilet paper.  I had gone a bit crazy buying eggs as well, so we have a table full of chocolate.  We may not need to buy any more chocolate until Halloween.

Date Night on the slopes

It’s been over a year since I last wrote so I wanted to restart with a little story from our recent annual ski trip to Lake Tahoe.  We’ve been doing this trip during every “Ski Week” since 2013 when Ethan was six.  In that time, we’ve encountered the extremes of no snow to “more snow than the region had seen in 40 years”. 

Let’s Play “Run, Hide, Defend”!

Last weekend I took Jed to a party at his friend Ellie’s house.  Every year Ellie’s mom hosts a huge pumpkin carving, cupcake decorating party for Halloween.  This is our third year attending.  I never know many people but I take Jed along because it’s one of the few chances that he gets to have a play date with Ellie since her family doesn’t live close by. 

Sojourn in San Diego

I wasn’t ready to go on another trip after a month of travelling around Australia in July, but the October Fall Break arrived and we had a timeshare booked San Diego for five nights.  We had planned to drive to Legoland on Sunday, but drove to LA on Saturday

Minus seven degrees Down Under

It’s the start of August and we’re back from a month’s vacation Down Under.  It’s been two months since I last posted but I’ve realized that end of year school activities followed by almost eight weeks of being with two energetic boys don’t mix well with trying to write.

While it might seem crazy to spend an entire month of summer vacation overseas in winter

The Fall of the House

Our plans have finally been approved for our kitchen to be renovated. The kitchen is stripped down to a skeletal form that gives our living area a spacious open plan feel, or else the feeling of living in a converted warehouse, the kind that George and I considered living in in our late 20s.

Holiday Book Drive

Ethan and Jed attend a lower income, inner city school that has the Autism Resource Program that they are part of. This school is 80% Hispanic, 10% Vietnamese and has about 10 Caucasian kids, two of which are mine.