Tuesday, March 17, 2020

New Math

       These blogs are a couple of days behind the times. Friday I found out I was off for 2 weeks and decided to homeschool Travis. I think it was Saturday I wrote the post that went up yesterday about math and all of my new "free" time. Today's post was actually written on Sunday and is the updated news on what is going on. Things change so fast so there is the potential that this will be old news by the time it is posted. We are living in very strange times. 
      Sunday morning I got an email from Special Olympics that Springfield College cannot open their track until at least 4/2/20. But then in the evening I got a call from my superintendent that Governor Baker has ordered that all schools in Massachusetts remain closed until April 6th. As we get closer to that date they will reevaluate the situation. I also got the same call from East Longmeadow's superintendent. Ethan looked up Governor Baker's press release and discovered it is even more inclusive than that. All gatherings of over 25 people are currently prohibited. All restaurants and bars are closed for on-premises consumption of food and drink. People are encouraged to stay home as much as possible and if they do need to go out to practice social distancing. We live in strange times. 
      This morning I was into some more normal activities. I was sculpting fair foods for my live sale. I made a bunch of peanut butter sandwiches, burgers, hot dogs and that one lonely taco. I forgot I meant to make cookies and french fries, so there will be another day of sculpting food in my near future. I have time. 
     I also decided I would do some more baking. I made this really excellent keto blueberry bread. I substituted monk fruit sweetener for the erythritol and it was so good! And it didn't cause that weird mouth tingly feeling you get from erythritol. I am not sure what the next thing I bake will be. But I do seem to have time. 
     So yeah, my original 70 hours of "free time" or extra time, has turned into 105 hours of extra time. So far. Things change very quickly these days. Two weeks ago we knew we needed to be careful and a bit extra cleaner. Now we need to try to stay home as much as possible. We are definitely living in strange times. But hopefully people will take the precautions seriously so we can get past this and back to normal.
     I was chatting with my Dad on Sunday on Facebook and he was asking how we are doing. They are going a bit stir crazy over there. I'm not totally surprised. It's so much harder to stay home when you HAVE to instead of when you want to. I did call Mom and see if they needed anything. It is most likely a bit safer for me to go out than for them to go out. So far they are set
      We are living in weird times and I am baking a lot. I have to consider things like not having Elecktra come over to help me with my live sale on the 28th. Because while she is family, she doesn't live here. It's weird to think I have to keep social distance from my daughter. My mini me. And dammit, that is my birthday weekend too! That makes me sad. But two weeks is a long time. Things might change in a good way. We'll see. For now I will continue to prep for the sale and make baked goods. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Anne!
I certainly agree with you about your statement that these ARE "strange times!"
But I emphasize with your parents too! I myself DON'T care what the world says--50-60 years is NOT OLD or ELDERLY!! My Dad's BABY sister. just turned 85 yrs. this weekend AND their OLDER sister just passed away @ the end of FEB. @ 92 yrs old --so YEAH it's *HARD* being told to "shelter in. place" when you basically have a healthy immune system and you're NOT sick (or have any underlying. causes that you know of!) and seeing the YOUNGER people being allowed to run about as usual--with NO restrictions (at least here in my state, they are!)
I'm *trying* to do MY part asas
And comply - but I AM getting "cabin fever" AND really DON'T. appreciate having my normal routine disrupted. so badly just because some people is yelling "the sky is falling!" and the rest of us appears not to be able to THINK for themselves!!
I know I must sound awful and maybe selfish--and I apologize! I'm NOT trying to down play the seriousness of this situation OR the fact that other human beings ARE sick from this (and DYING!)
I think what's getting to me is the NOT KNOWING!! As you said, these are some weird times that we're living in!

Field of Dolls Studio said...

I understand your frustration, no one likes to be told what to do. There are actually restrictions on everyone in my state at the moment, not just older people. Even older people are not being told (here) to shelter in place, just that statistically the virus has been fatal mostly to older people. Everyone is encouraged to stay home as much as possible, only go out if you have to.
I agree that not knowing exactly what is going on and how long this new craziness will last, is the hardest part. And if this continues, will stores ever have toilet paper? What we have won't last forever, I didn't hoard it.