@Britmom5 such terrible news, so sorry for your loss.
@Britmom5 Iām so sorry for you and your family
@Britmom5 How devastating for you and your family. My deepest sympathy.
@Britmom5 Terrible news, very sorry for you and family,
I am so sorry @Britmom5, that is heartbreaking.
@Britmom5 - thatās terrible news. Iām so sorry for you and your family.
@Britmom5 , deepest sympathies for your loss.
It is the stories like this, of families unable to be together during critical illnesses and death, that is hitting me the hardest emotionally with all of this (so far).
@Britmom5 - I am so sorry - sending condolences to you and your family.
@Britmom5 , Iām very sorry for your loss. Please take good care of yourself.
@Britmom5 I am so sorry for your loss. Sending Virtual hugs to you and your family.
@RightCoaster You are very smart not to watch too much news. I watch too much news and have the JHU webpage open with numbers running. It is like watching olympics except it shows deaths not medals. I should turn all that off and do what I can do, going for a walk, read books, and doing home projects.
S17 is still on extended spring break, but next week he will have on-line classes.
So next week DH and DSās all will be using zoom, taking classes and working remotely in their rooms.
DH and I are really enjoying having both boys home, having meal together every day three times a day, and watching boys chat and go running together.
The only problem is that we run out food quickly and I have to run to groceries too often. The store cannot keep up with people hoarding although the workers seem to be stocking all the time. The pasta section has been wiped out for days. Even Amazon is out of spaghetti.
S19 started class yesterday and both were live classes. With the time change, he was in class from 10:40-3:00 with just a passing period between the two classes so I actually brought lunch up to his room. (When heās at school, these two classes run from 11:40-4 so he eats an early lunch before the first class.)
It was interesting. He didnāt expect his three hour essay class to meet for the whole time but they did. They were assigned an essay to read before class and that author showed up as a guest to talk with them (in addition to their prof who ran the class.) Not so bad! I wanted to sit outside his door and listen a bit but my D is also upstairs doing her work and, if she caught me listening in, she would have called me out. Lol.
DD had a mid-term yesterday. First there were no questions uploaded. Then she got an update and it was the instructions. Then she got an update and it was a video on sanitizing your phone. Then a message to call Garyā¦whoever that is. Meanwhile the time was counting down. Of course she was given a restart once everything was fixed but it left her a little frazzled. There will be bumps! I donāt think she will have any live classes, so she can work at her convenience.
Her school is doing a Masked Singer competition on Twitter. Last night they posted 4 professors singing in a mask. One of them she could tell was her favorite prof so she enjoyed that.
D19ās classes are live. This mostly involves some adjustment in her schedule as she is west coast and classes are east coast time, but as she says, at least she has it better than her classmates who have returned to Europe and Asia! Her classes are all small (I think 20 or 25 max) so they are still managing to have decent levels of interaction via zoom, though obviously not quite the same as being in class.
@bjscheel Thatās funny about the masked singer. I think schools are trying to keep the kidsā spirits up. Bowdoin has a video of a bunch of professors taking turns (some with their kids) singing āCanāt Get Next To You (Babe)ā and a video of one professor walking through the woods near campus identifying birds to relieve some stress.
D has settled into her Haverford zoom classes and says theyāre ok. Bryn Mawr uses a Microsoft teams platform that is clunky and inefficient, so her Italian course isnāt going as well. That particular teacher isnāt very helpful in general. She chose not to go C/NC (Bryn Mawr left it up to individual teachers), she added more work to the syllabus- including a group presentation, and sheās continuing on with a film that students had been watching in class- though most donāt have access to it at home (it was in both campusesā libraries and used in class before). My D has to have course materials of her own (itās an anxiety thing) so I think she might be the only person who owns the movie - I ordered it from Italy for her over winter break (we already owned a multi region DVD player). If this continues into the fall I am guessing my D would avoid Bryn Mawr classes.
We received our ā refundā amount from both schools and have decided to let it ride, use it for next yearās tuition/room/meal, instead of asking for the cash right now.
My kids are doing OK, they seem to be working hard in their online classes, writing papers, math work etc. They had a few āliveā classes where you have to be present, and then some other classes which can be done any time. They are getting plenty of sleep, getting some exercise, enjoying the comforts of home. I think they miss their friends and son19 definitely misses his team functions. They eat an incredible amount of food so I am charge of grocery shopping as I donāt want anyone in my family to fall ill. So Iā the only one leaving the house.
People are so dumb at the store, no masks, no gloves, just no cares or worries. People with little kids, even babies!! Old people walking around with no clue. Geez!!!
Public schools have been shut down to at least May 4th around here, so it will be about a 6 week break for the kids, at the least.
Haverford still havenāt announced any refund that people will get. All of my Dās classes are synchronous. My grocery bill has exploded with my D home from college and my husband home 24/7. Our local store is very careful- only 50 shoppers at a time, they have workers at the door wiping down every cart before you enter, and another wiping down the self check out stations between every use. They have separate hours for older people and people with injuries. The pharmacy on base has transitioned to 100% drive through only. I wouldnāt have to go into the store at all except they limit households to buying two rolls of toilet paper per day. That means I have to go back more often than if I could just buy a whole pack. Iām mostly getting groceries through pickup service- they shut down deliveries on base so no one can stay home and just get groceries delivered anymore.
@Britmom5, horrible to hear. My sister-in-law (only in her 40s, but has a number of chronic health conditions) is currently in the ICU after testing positive for COVID-19, stable but not doing great.
At the rate at which infections and deaths are increasing, I suspect that by the time this is over we might not all have had someone close to us killed or long-term-injured by this virus, but weāll all at the very least have someone close to us whoās had someone close to them badly affected.?
@Britmom5, so deeply sorry for your loss.
My trip to New York with D19 to clear out her dorm room was uneventful. At the dorm, only the students were allowed inside, so I waited in the car for the couple of hours it took her to pack up. The city was certainly quiet, but I was surprised at how many people I saw out. It was a treat getting out of the city and through Connecticut without the usual traffic, though Iād much rather have had the traffic ā I miss our old normal world.
Had a nice little occurrence today amid all this madness. DW has been planning to quit her job for a while ā she has some other likely possibilities and really couldnāt stand her boss, who works remotely overseas. She held off due to some snafus with getting her final bonus. She was planning to quit on a call with her boss today ā and her boss fired her instead. So now DW gets a yearās severance she hadnāt been planning on, plus the bonus, and doesnāt have to feel guilty about leaving them in the lurch. Itās effective immediately, so just like that, her quarantine experience goes from 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. conference calls to paid vacation. Sometimes things just work out.