Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

I can finally breathe! I'm so jealous of all of you getting to deep clean your homes... our governor announced on Friday that schools were closing, which gave me 5 days to get all of my grades in (end of the marking period), learn how to use new technology, and lesson plan for three weeks so I could turn them in to my boss.

The good news is that as of 3 PM today, I AM DONE WITH MY LESSONS. So tomorrow, my beautiful students will turn on their computer cameras and learn from me remotely... and when we are done, I'll be able to clean and read and watch TV and cook and do all of the things I've been neglecting for the last five days. I'm really so excited.

Emily wrote: "I can finally breathe! I'm so jealous of all of you getting to deep clean your homes... our governor announced on Friday that schools were closing, which gave me 5 days to get all of my grades in (..."

Emily, do they need to watch it at a particular time? Our district is doing work at your own pace kind of thing, but has to be due by the end of the day.

I've been spending a lot of time working on our scheduling process. Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time having to wait for other people to get back to me before I could do most of what I needed to do. But, I made some videos with Screencastify that I was able to send to all my students. to teach them how to schedule their classes for next year. Only one of them involved my cat meowing in the middle of it!

We have to be available for video conferencing from 9 - 1:30 every day, so a shortened schedule, but they are still meeting with their classes in the regular order.

Also, my cat has interrupted every video I've made with Screencastify (which I'm using for lecture videos so that our video conferencing can be more discussion based). They will just have to learn to enjoy my pets interrupting everything 😂

Our counselor has been using Google Meet to do course planning with students and parents... she kept the appointments that were already scheduled, but they get to do it from home instead of coming into school... the parents probably like it better than an actual meeting!

Our papers reported good news today. Seems that two centres for the victims of the virus in Wuhan have been closed, as they are no longer needed.

And in my neck of the woods (Northern California), they are surmising that students may not go back to school until fall. OMG

So I had some random coughing/sneezing over the weekend. came and went. Didn't think anything of it since they are emphasizing fever/cough/chest pain. However after 2 days of feeling like I have the flu ( which maybe I do??) I finally called my doctor. So I am off to get a Covid swab up the nose at some point- hopefully soon. I am officially on quarantine. Why this is so upsetting to me I don't know because I avoid going out on a daily basis. I miss my girls already. I hope it's not 2 + weeks before I can see them. Apparently I am high risk because I take injections for my arthritis and spent the weekend with my friend who just flew in from California. I am achy, my head is pounding, I'm coughing, I have chills and I have a fever that is slowly getting worse.

The process for testing and qualifying for testing here in the US is CRAZY. I had to call my doctors office- get screened over the phone by a nurse, wait for her to consult with the Dr and call me back, call the covid screening line, pass that, call the covid registration line, pass that..... now I have to wait for my telephone "appointment" tomorrow at 11:15, THEN they will tell me where and when to go for the test and then it takes 4 days to come back. Ugh.

Nap time.

Will post some baby goats in pj's over in the daily escape when I wake up.

Oh Tracy! Take care. I hope you feel better soon. That sounds like a pain just to get a swab. Hope it's negative. (fingers crossed)

Tracy, that’s so scary. I hope it comes back negative.

Tracy, hope you get the test, and feel better soon.

Yikes Tracy! I hope you get quick and speedy negative results. The wait time for processing a test is 7-10 days here, which makes it so pointless to even get the test.

Emily wrote: "Yikes Tracy! I hope you get quick and speedy negative results. The wait time for processing a test is 7-10 days here, which makes it so pointless to even get the test."

Should have been an NBA player if you wanted quicker test results!

Today I sent a check-in form to all my students to see how virtual school is going for them and see what support is needed. Only 30 some of the 303 of them returned it, but a few indicated that they don't have breakfast and lunch daily :( We have food available through our school, but no one seems to recognize the fact that there's a high correlation b/w students who need food and students whose parents are working or don't have reliable transportation. I wish I could do more but there's nothing I personally can do except pass their names on to higher ups.

Steve wrote: "Emily wrote: "Yikes Tracy! I hope you get quick and speedy negative results. The wait time for processing a test is 7-10 days here, which makes it so pointless to even get the test."

Should have b..." Our district is asking teachers who want to, to come in and deliver to those kids. Quite of few did. Some are still teaching remotely and some working on curriculum in small groups online. guess its working.

Wow sounds like you guys are all going through a hard time. In case you need to see some hope from the other side of things... we just got notice that school will restart here in Hainan (China) on April 7, but only for grades 9 and 12, which have entrance exams for high school and university. Then the other grades will be staggered to return. Kindergarten (my oldest is in junior-k) will go back last. Things are getting back to normal here, slowly. 28 days now with no new cases in Hainan and Hainan is quarantining everyone who comes here to prevent imported cases. Stay safe everyone!

That's amazing, Erica! Great news!

Erica wrote: "Wow sounds like you guys are all going through a hard time. In case you need to see some hope from the other side of things... we just got notice that school will restart here in Hainan (China) on ..."

Good news Erica!!

Erica wrote: "Wow sounds like you guys are all going through a hard time. In case you need to see some hope from the other side of things... we just got notice that school will restart here in Hainan (China) on ..."

Thanks for the update, Erica. My city's still in its first few days of community quarantine. It might be a month or more before we start getting back to normal. This is in the Philippines.

So great to be connected to an international community at a time like this. Thanks, everyone, for sharing!

I can't really process our world right now.

I had an over the phone appointment with a COVID Dr. this afternoon. There are NO TESTS available. I am assumed positive and advice was to quarantine until 3 days after symptoms ( except cough which could last for a month +) are gone. My fevers are still low grade, i am achy, mild headache, congestion, coughing a little more today and a little more short of breath.I am holding off on taking my injections for now. I am to go to the ER if it gets bad, but call ahead. My Drs. office is calling daily to check in on me. I can't relax, can't nap even though my body wants me too. I am inundated with texts and phone calls from friends and family ( which I appreciate) . The poor Dr. I spoke to seemed overwhelmed and was actually laughing, I think out of a feeling of helplessness. There is no good advice. NO ONE knows what to do.

I spoke with the girls today over facetime, and walked them through their first day of official online learning. They are using google classroom. Today was really just a day to get them online and make sure they knew where to find their assignments. I am praying I can bring them home with me on Tuesday. I miss them so much already.

I just went online to order my usual groceries ( which is how I always do it because of my arthritis) but there are no available delivery days so hopefully after I rest a little more I can push to do some inventory and plan some menus with what I have, since I can't go out. I took out some ground beef yesterday morning thinking I would have my girls here but no.... I have to brown it before it goes bad., and I don't have the energy or even care to do it right now , but I am realizing that this world isn't the same today and a pound of ground-freaking-beef isn't something I can afford to waste.

The library has holds available for me to pick up and I can't. I guess that really doesn't matter.

I'm feeling a little shook. I would feel better if my kiddos were home with me and we could pretend everything is OK. I don't like to go out really, I'm a solid introvert, but I also hate being told I can't go out. There's a huge difference. I'm not even supposed to exit my front door but who will take my dog out?? So I've gotten a little fresh air twice so far today with 2 more trips to go.

This has been posted today
https://www.dailywire.com/news/french...

Sounds good

Tracy, thank you for keeping us updated. I’m glad you are in contact with your doctor and I wish there was something we could do. I’m glad that your girls are able to FaceTime with you.

Tracy, I hope you get well soon!

Tracy, I’m so sorry to hear this. It’s so disheartening that this is the amount of support we’re providing to our citizens right now.

I’ve gotten away with cooking ground beef in the crockpot. It just ends up a little greasier but you could definitely strain it. In my laziest moments, I’ve put it on over night. My dog eats meat and I often forget until the last minute right before bed.

Where I live people are offering help to those who can't go out. Maybe there is in your community as well? Or a nice neighbour you can call? I hope you feel better soon and will be able to see your daughters soon.
I believe you're spot on - noone knows what to do, since it's a new virus. Are you girls with your parents? Sending you love and strength.

If I was close by, I would run errands for you! I wish there was more I could do.

Yes, if you have a neighborhood organization, church or any other group locally, please reach out if you need errands done. I am sure there are people who would help you.

I drove 6 hours to be with my adult daughter who recently finished chemo for ovarian cancer. Today was the follow up and we found out a day or two before that I couldn’t come into the doctors office or even the building. But the doctor called me on speakerphone so I could hear the info. It was mostly good but there are a couple spots on the scan that could just be from the surgery she had or could be a concern. They will do an additional test and there are some options if more treatment is needed. However they said it is usual at this point to wait at least 30 days and that won’t cause a problem. I was afraid that if she needed immediate surgery or intensive treatments, I would have to basically move in with her. Possibly interstate travel will be restricted. But for now we can have what passes for a normal life for a while. She is high risk for the virus due to chemo but had already been working from home and staying away from groups.

As a reader, I can’t help wondering how authors will use this era, there are lots of options for mysteries, romances or dramas in the time of isolation.

I waited up until 1 am to place my order for groceries. First available spot was April 3rd!!!!!. In the meantime, I have a friend here who can bring me any necessities, and we will make do with what we have in the house, which should be enough to stretch. My mom and brothers also could drive and drop, it would just be a little bit of haul for them. Mom has a neighbor who just bought her a bunch of paper goods ( including toilet paper) and clorox wipes, so she wanted to drive some here but something is wrong with her car at the moment so I told her not to try and make the trip.

Am still feeling just like a bad cold, my nose is sore from the tissues. But my cough has gone down a little deeper into my chest, so keeping an eye on that.

I watched a few movies last night and read a very little bit because reading is a little hard to concentrate on again. I saw The Invisible Woman- which freaked me out, but I thought it was really a really good picture of gaslighting. And then I watched the Hunger Games ( I don't know why???????? Preparing for the future maybe? No, really it was because my 9 year old keeps asking when she will be old enough to watch it, and I needed a refresher. After I logged into my Prime Movies account though it seems like maybe shes been watching it already? Maybe that's why she is having nightmares?)

Man I cannot settle on a book. I have picked up four now and, tho they are good, can't finish them. Nothing holds my attention through this WHATEVER we are going thru. I've given up on the books for ATY prompts and looked thru my shelves at home. Downloaded a few from Kindle, but nothing is fun about reading. Any suggestions for a book to hold our brains together?

Ann, I feel the same way... I've basically abandoned all my goals this month and I'm just reading whatever I feel like reading. Hopefully I can pick back up on ATY when life slows down.

I am rereading books at the moment... I think that it's soothing to already know the ending lol. So maybe pick up a book you read and loved a few years ago and reread them?

I finally finished a book I started a month ago! I had to push myself through it. It’s been hard for me to focus on reading. I keep checking the news even though I know I shouldn’t! I checked out some short reads using the New York Public Library’s SimplyE app. You don’t need a NY library card to check out some items. Maybe they are public domain?
Hang in there everyone! Hopefully, life will be back to normal soon.

Emily wrote: "Ann, I feel the same way... I've basically abandoned all my goals this month and I'm just reading whatever I feel like reading. Hopefully I can pick back up on ATY when life slows down.

I am rerea..." Reread the Anne of Green Gables series would be fun Thanks

Ah, Tracy so sad to read that you're going through this ~hugs~

Our state's number jumped quite a bit today and our governor is putting more restrictions in place starting tonight, (salons, spas etc having to shut down). We have one of the highest confirmed numbers in the country now, surprised she's dragging her feet on just doing a shut down like CA/NY etc. Expect that to come though within the next few days.

We decided this morning to get some chicks and start raising chickens, in case this thing drags on for months, (like 'they're' now starting to talk about). We've never done chickens before but my in-laws have, so my father-in-law gave us a crash course and we got 10 chicks this afternoon, they're now on my 3-season porch LOL :) I'm starting to feel like I live in a petting zoo, (9 pets plus house-sitting a friends rabbit/babies and now chicks!).

Hubby and I are having a hard time focusing and feel kind of lethargic. We have so many house projects that we could work on but we've spent hours re-watching The Office over the past couple days, sigh.... :) I did finish a book yesterday and I'm planning on starting The Hunting Party tonight. My reading pace has been much slower since this all blew up, but I'm also hoarding my library books a bit, since they're the only books I have.

I could start buying Amazon books for my Kindle but we really don't want to spend extra money right now, since we've spent so much already getting ready for this sucky situation, (chick's and set-up ran over $200 today, ouch!). We don't know how much longer we'll have a paycheck coming in, so my slower reading pace is probably a good thing right now!

ZeeJane, where are you at? Our local mayor just announced the shut down of salons and spas yesterday, and our state's numbers jumped by 200 today alone. It's such a scary time.

I realized today that I've gone from talking to 60-70 people a day (students and coworkers and friends and whatnot) to maybe 3. It's a jarring transition, even for this introvert.

Salons have been closed here in Ohio for a few days now. I go every 3 weeks for my nails and have gotten to know my technician fairly well. I’ve been thinking about her since I know she has 3 small kids. It’s just awful.

I haven’t read anything yet this month because my anxiety about the situation just makes it difficult to concentrate on anything. At this point though there’s really nothing else that can happen that will shock me. I’m expecting Ohio to go into lockdown eventually - we have a pretty low amount of cases and only 1 death, but our governor Dewine is really on top of things (not to get political on here, but as much as I don’t like his politics, I have to admit he’s doing a FANTASTIC job with handling the pandemic here and it shows in our numbers). Point is: I’m mentally prepared now for anything and I can finally concentrate on something that’s not Twitter.

So I’m gonna finally try reading again tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I'm at almost three weeks of being stuck at home (two from being sick myself and now one for the lockdown) and I am starting to go crazy - not surprising, given that I live with my ex-husband. 😕 I'm grateful for being sick earlier, as it meant I wasn't on public transport for two weeks, but man ... I haven't had a moment just to myself and I'm really struggling. He's a very large presence, and can be pretty overbearing, and I'm not coping well at all. All of my enthusiasm for doing stuff that I had when I finally got over being sick has dissolved, although the Spider and I did (finally, after months of saying we would) make homemade donuts! Plus I'm reading more again, which is nice.

Emily wrote: "ZeeJane, where are you at? Our local mayor just announced the shut down of salons and spas yesterday, and our state's numbers jumped by 200 today alone. It's such a scary time.

I realized today th..."

I'm in MI :)

Sabrina-I feel similarly about our govenor. I didn't vote for her, lol, but I think she's doing a really good job in being proactive. If there was an election today, I'd vote for her no question :)

And yes! After a whirlwind week of prepping, helping my grandma, going to the store several times for her/us, figuring out what's going on in our county/how my kids online school is changing, doing a massive kitchen organization/inventory, (literally took every single thing out of my cupboards/fridge and freezer and moved everything around!), etc. etc, I'm mentally over all of this and just want to hibernate now, lol.

Today we're going to watch our church online and then I'm going to dehydrate apples. And I WILL start that book I was going to start yesterday, lol.

Jody-ouch, that sounds like a tough situation! I'm glad you're feeling better though!

Jody, that sounds, I don't know, absolutely horrible.

I feel like we unintentionally picked the worst time ever to buy/sell a house! Here in New Jersey, the governor banned all non-essential travel yesterday. We have noooo clue what that means for the real estate world!

Our agent is supposed to come Tuesday to take photos of our house and put it onto market by Wednesday morning. But are people going to be able to travel to see our house?

We're supposed to have an inspection on the house we're buying on Thursday. But is a home inspection considered essential enough that it can happen?

So much uncertainty right now! I hear that there are a lot of issues with closing houses because the usual town/county/state offices you need to work through are closed.

Jody wrote: "I'm at almost three weeks of being stuck at home (two from being sick myself and now one for the lockdown) and I am starting to go crazy - not surprising, given that I live with my ex-husband. 😕 I'..."

Ugh, Jody! But yes, it probably is a silver lining that you were sick for 2 weeks so you weren't really exposed. How did the donuts turn out??? That is something I've always been interested in cooking but never will, because I live by myself and don't want to eat all of them. LOL

I'm in north Texas and people here are starting to take things seriously. Until Thursday/Friday, things were closed in Dallas and a few suburbs, but if you wanted to go out you could just drive 10-20 min to a different suburb and do what they wanted. So people did. Churches closed in most of the area cities a week ago, and that woke up quite a few people, but maybe now with everything closed people will finally stay home.

Jody wrote: "I'm at almost three weeks of being stuck at home (two from being sick myself and now one for the lockdown) and I am starting to go crazy - not surprising, given that I live with my ex-husband. 😕 I'..."

Jody - so sorry I hope it gets better for you soon. My mother in law used to make the best homemade donuts. We've replicated them once or twice but it is definitely a process.

Like everyone else - it's been a crazy week. My daughter is bored with no school so she repainted her room like in 12 hours - moved everything out and did two coats. She's like - well I did that too fast - what do I do now? Her teachers aren't really giving her any work like my son's teachers.

I still have to go to work and I work for a linen company and I'd say 75% of our business comes from restaurants, massage parlors and hotels. The other 25% is probably hospitals and retirement homes. Yep so we aren't doing well. Some of the laundry plants are going down to one day a week. I'm in the corporate office and they did some layoffs but they said that is all they expect to do. But with this crazy world right now - they don't know what they don't know I feel like. So we will see. I feel bad for all of the plant workers that are down to one day a week. I can't imagine. I have to applaud the President of the company though. He said they've been in business for 85 years and they plan to be in business for 85 more. And they have planned and have a reserve for it. They are taking the opportunity to do maintenance on the laundry equipment so when they are back up and running that they will run even better. I'm inspired by his positive attitude and proactive maintenance approach.

On a side note - I can definitely use some toilet paper......

I hope everyone is doing ok. Anxiety and stress are definitely up for everyone. Take care and stay safe!

Tracy wrote: "I waited up until 1 am to place my order for groceries. First available spot was April 3rd!!!!!. In the meantime, I have a friend here who can bring me any necessities, and we will make do with wha..."

Hope you get better soon!

Steve wrote: "I feel like we unintentionally picked the worst time ever to buy/sell a house! Here in New Jersey, the governor banned all non-essential travel yesterday. We have noooo clue what that means for the..."

I hope things still proceed for you! I was wondering about the real estate business the other day as I drove by our neighbors house that's on the market. Have no idea if they're still doing showings and such.

Man I am mad at my mayor. The city is on lockdown, no problem. I have been home for three weeks now and occasionally we go for a drive to get out. Never leave the car, just look around. We went thru town today to look at what's closed and then drove by the beach and did some bird watching. The mayor gets on the noon news all upset because there are still cars on the city streets. She wants to see zero cars out. What! I didn't think I did anything wrong. Does that seem wrong to you?

Ann, that is crazy! How does she expect people to get to the grocery store? Sorry, I'm assuming you're in the US where things aren't usually in walking distance, and even if they were, I would say it's better to drive and be out in the open as little as possible.

Thanks everyone - yeah, my situation is pretty shit, to be totally honest, but it is what it is. It's usually a lot more bearable when I'm out most of the time working! And the donuts turned out pretty well - we will definitely make them again. I'm going to try my hand at bread tomorrow. I might have to start weaving my own toilet paper soon too. 🥺

Yea Ohio just got the stay at home order. Doesn’t really change much for my fam except my dad will work from home now. Otherwise I can still go on solo walks or runs around the neighborhood, thank god I need it for my sanity.

I’ve been irrationally angry like all day though that I can’t see my best friend, while my sisters boyfriend is staying with us, and my parents have each other. Like I don’t have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, but outside of my immediate family she’s the most important person in the world to me but since we’re not having sex or are romantic it’s somehow not important enough of a relationship for us to see each other.

Like rationally I know it’s just about not cross-contaminating between households but I’m still pissed lol.

Oooh, homemade donuts are an idea...

I've got a sourdough starter...started...so any day now it should be ready to get turned into bread. I've done regular bread before, and I've been itching to try sourdough.

Our coffee machine broke, in the saddest of first world problems, so while we wait for Amazon to save us from this dilemma, my husband has been taking the dog on daily car rides to the McDonalds drivethru. Porter lives in hope that one day the "large coffee, no room" will be accompanied by "and a small order of fries".

Jackie wrote: "Oooh, homemade donuts are an idea...

I've got a sourdough starter...started...so any day now it should be ready to get turned into bread. I've done regular bread before, and I've been itching to t..."

A broke coffee machine is the worst!

I used to be an avid bread maker (using a bread machine), I bought ingredients to start using it again, when I was stocking up on essentials, but we're using up the store-bought bread items first. I'll start making bread next week :)

Well, we've gone into lock-down, (started at midnight). An hour after the governor's announcement my husbands boss laid off the entire company. They're a small, local place, (80 employees including the two owners), and they do construction/commercial HVAC. They can't continue like normal, even from home, because the job sites that they're working on now are now closed.

A few guys did get permission to work modified hours from home, because their job sites are considered 'essential' and are still moving forward. Fortunately my husband is in that category, since he's been working on a state police facility. A few other guys have been working on a prison and that one is still going as well. With less hours, (was told to cap at 30 a week), my husband figures he has 2-3 weeks of work to do. Our lock-down is supposed to last 3 weeks so we'll see how this turns out.

We can apply for unemployment but have heard it's a long process and we'd get less than what he would make with the 30 hours. Our states unemployment website was completely crashed yesterday as well :/

As an over-65 year old, I am trying not to go out too much but there was nothing available for delivery or pickup at my local stores, so I went during “senior hours “ of 6-8 am. I needed some fresh stuff but also added to my stash of cans, etc. In my area, numbers are just starting to go up so I think it will be worse next week.

I have concerns for my brother in NYC who lives alone and has several health conditions, and my daughter in St Louis who just finished chemo. But financially we are all lucky. My husband and I and my brother are retired ( I am avoiding looking at our 401k), my daughter works from home and my son in Minneapolis works for Apple, which is currently paying its employees to stay home worldwide.

My husband and I love to play Scrabble and we are very evenly matched. We started a competition we call The Corona Cup and so far I am ahead,

As an over-65 year old, I am trying not to go out too much but there was nothing available for delivery or pickup at my local stores, so I went during “senior hours “ of 6-8 am. I needed some fresh stuff but also added to my stash of cans, etc. In my area, numbers are just starting to go up so I think it will be worse next week.

I have concerns for my brother in NYC who lives alone and has several health conditions, and my daughter in St Louis who just finished chemo. But financially we are all lucky. My husband and I and my brother are retired ( I am avoiding looking at our 401k), my daughter works from home and my son in Minneapolis works for Apple, which is currently paying its employees to stay home worldwide.

My husband and I love to play Scrabble and we are very evenly matched. We started a competition we call The Corona Cup and so far I am ahead,



My husband and I are playing Scrabble too, Robin! Unfortunately, I'm behind... But it's fun to play the game again.

I wish my husband would play Scrabble. Or my daughter. I guess when they get bored enough they will.