I can't even believe I just titled this post "Week Six." Six weeks of "Stay at Home." Six weeks of remote work. Six weeks of school at home. Six weeks of no shopping and no restaurants. Six weeks of no coffee runs, no visits from friends and still no ice rink. Sigh...
Well, we actually started week 6 in a very fun way - Daniel's 47th Birthday! We celebrated in his favorite way, actually. We stayed home. The birthday fun started REALLY early in the morning - like 5am. Daniel and Emily went out to see Jupiter and Saturn. They even got a couple of pictures. I was totally impressed that you can see Saturn's rings with our telescope. And you can kind of make out stripes on Jupiter, too. The big red spot, unfortunately, was not visible today.
No surprise here, Daniel wanted another Catan game. This time he got Cities and Knights. He was clearly very excited.
Later that afternoon, Nathan stopped by (using appropriate social distancing) for a birthday visit. And he brought a pair of hammocks! The guys were able to spend a good bit of the afternoon "hanging out" together. Perfect quarantine birthday gift.
Daniel's special dinner request for his birthday was hot dogs and tater tots. I told him it sounded like a party for a 5 year old. He was quite pleased with his choice. I think he picked it just so he would have more room for CAKE! Thank goodness bakeries are still open!
In terms of other quarantine activities this week, Zoey continued attempting to assist with remote work. She is not always successful.
Emily continued with homeschool. We had been hoping maybe things would improve to the point that the kids could get back to school in May. So much for hope. They're officially out for the rest of the school year. I guess I can't say I am surprised.
Emily also started doing some off ice jump classes via Zoom with her coach and friends from our figure skating club! She has been enjoying that a lot, I think. She also loves skating all over our neighborhood with Daniel.
Six weeks into this pandemic, most are now wearing masks in public. Oddly enough, it does not seem as weird as I thought it might. The United States is reporting a slower growth in cases this week - 895,000+ total cases and 50,000+ deaths. West Virginia spiked a bit, driven at least in part, by the Governor's order to test every resident and worker in every nursing home in the state. West Virginia now has 1,025 cases and 33 deaths. Nothing is re-opening yet. Hospitals are starting to be allowed to do outpatient elective cases, but even those are not starting until later next week. Everything else remains closed. Hoping that this time next week the news will start to really improve. Fingers crossed.
