I read a post recently and was shocked to learn that this person’s life is unfolding in very different ways than my own. In the spring most of us were under similar stay-at-home orders and no schools were open. Where I live that has largely not changed – life never returned to any form of normal, retail and restaurants have been open only partially (sometimes not at all) and masks have always been required outside the home. My kids haven’t set foot on their school’s campus since mid-March and an email sent out last Friday suggests they will not do so at all this school year.
We haven’t traveled anywhere. My son has attended a summer camp (mostly outside, always masked) and has participated in some on-site martial arts cohorts at our dojo (small consistent groups, always masked). When I was forced to start teaching in my classroom we enrolled him in a 2x/week learning pod that he’s been attending for 5 weeks. My kids spent the night at my parents house twice in the spring but they haven’t been there since the early summer.
Playgrounds in our areas have only been opened since mid-October. They actually closed down for a week earlier this month but the state changed its stay-at-home order and now they are open again. I am SOOOOO thankful that playgrounds are open. We spend 3-4 hours in the afternoon at the playground and it’s the only thing keeping us sane.
We are spending Christmas Eve in my parents’ backyard, where we will all wear masks and the kids will open their presents from them on the patio and we will eat at separate tables (just like we did on Thanksgiving). On Christmas morning we will zoom with both sets of grandparents while the kids open presents.
I guess I just didn’t realize that in some places, holidays are being celebrated like normal, and kids have been back in school for a good portion of the fall. I know that California, and the Bay Area even more so, have been more locked down than a lot of places (whole lot of good it did us, as our numbers are now spiraling out of control), I just didn’t realize that other places were so not locked down. Or maybe I just haven’t glimpsed what that actually looks like.
Anyway, I haven’t written for a while and I just hope everyone is okay. I know the holidays will look really different for everyone this year, and that some people are heading into the holidays in financial crisis or dealing with profound grief. I hope you’re all okay, or as okay as you can hope to be.
Sending love and light during these dark times.
It did do good. Our numbers never stopped spiraling out of control. Think about all the illness and deaths you have now and imagine that as a constant from August. All those months were deaths averted.
IL opened up a bit more in the summer. We could make reservations at our local pool (not every town opened their pool so we were lucky) and my daughter went to school 1/2 days for most of the fall. My kids went to summer camp starting in July and wore masks all the time. Restaurants here opened with decreased capacity, but we never ate inside….only outside. Thankfully once playgrounds opened in early summer they never closed again- my kids have needed that!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with the only 4 people that we allow in our house without a mask and will open Christmas presents outside and in masks tomorrow with my parents and my sister/her husband, no eating. It’s supposed to be a high of 20 degrees so it will not be pleasant in any way.
I am doing okay in spite all of this because I know how lucky and privileged I am during this pandemic. I was already working from home and have just not been allowed to travel. My husband’s company made them come in and then there was an outbreak on his floor….thankfully he was spared and has been working from home ever since. My son’s preschool has stayed open since July and we found a pod for my daughter that allows me peace and quiet to work during the day. We have not had a loss in income and no one close to me has gotten severely ill from COVID.
Sending best wishes for a peaceful and happy Christmas to you and your family xx
8:47 AM today “Seniors and people with pre-existing conditions should not be in public places unmasked and should have groceries and medicines delivered, the report said. People under 40 should assume they are infected if they gather with people outside the immediate household. … By J. Scott Trubey, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution”
Sent today to me by friend who lives there.
My SF child (mid 40’s) released from isolation today after 2 week bout. Not hospitalized. No fever, no loss smell/taste, absolute crushing fatigue sleeping 23 of 24 hours. Voice virtually unrecognizable due to bronchia in lungs being super angry. Spouse and child have been tested negative despite 7 days symptomatic contact before test positive returned. First week was not good. Second weekend was horrible/scary ~ that day 8-12 period relapse event. What is important is they were all Absolutely Team 100% follow ALL protocols … even when going for a run wearing masks.
SF numbers are waaaay better than Contra Costa or most of rest of CA. I am not in SF but am so proud of Mayor Breed and the citizens of SF who cared about protecting others as well as themselves.
My Christmas will be zoom only.
I am so completely grateful that unlike millions of Americans my family is still alive and not homeless/destitute. We have a chance to be together next Christmas … if we all keep safe and are really really damn lucky ~ because simply following 100% the rules is not safe enough.
This has been a very hard year. I know others who…..
I am so lucky. I am totally looking and hoping to hear about your holiday celebrations even in the cold and not as you would like it to be. PLEASE: be careful and please keep writing. You have no idea the difference you make.
The decision to make this a political issue and encourage spreading it in the face of science, etc ….. incandescent rage. It did not have to be this way. Greed and ego.
The mayor is doing a good job but demographics are on SF’s side. They have a very low proportion of essential workers compared to most other counties in the state. It’s much easier to control an out break when people can work from home and live only with immediate family. I know this isn’t everyone in SF but the conditions in LA make it much much more difficult. The LA region has more manufacturing jobs than anywhere in the country outside of Texas. We also have a major port where distancing is very challenging, not to mention an extremely diverse population living in intergenerational households. It’s great SF is taking its seriously but you can’t compare it to the surrounding counties or to parts of Southern California.
In no way intended or thought I had drawn any comparison to S. CA. If you read/saw it that way I am sorry. Will re-examine my word choices. Intention was that SF responded early each time and was slower to relax and it has had a positive impact in reducing deaths along with terrible economic implications for many people and companies, and very tough times for children and education.
May have used wrong word choices in fatigue and total absolute relief that it looks like my child is past the worst immediate part of covid … the part where you look to see if there are any available beds in hospitals and pray the person will not qualify to occupy one….. Because today the standards to be admitted are very high. So many families will not be able to ever, even electronically, have holiday or other contact again. And things could have been different in this nation.
Wishing all joy and health. And please be super careful. Test positive is not good. And it happens even with tremendous care and even where the R rate is ‘better’ than in other locations.
No worries! I just have read articles praising SF for the steps they have taken without acknowledging how much easier it is to stop the spread than most other urban areas in the country. I feel like background inequitable conditions keep on getting lost in the conversation.
I’m glad your child is healing! The situation in hospitals is so frightening.
SF is a relatively small city and even smaller county (the county is the city). I honestly think it shouldn’t be assessed on its own because it’s part of the Bay Area and truly people mingle throughout the Bay Area constantly. And while SF has been shut down more stringently than San Mateo County just south of us, or Alameda county of Sonoma, people from the city can, and have, been doing the stuff they can’t do in SF in those counties, like eating inside and going to movie theaters and other things that never opened (or only opened for a very short time) in SF. There aren’t even a million people in SF. And yes it’s good their numbers have not gone up, but their public school system is abysmal disgrace and they are screwing up a whole lot of other stuff too. And if the streets and playgrounds are any indication this week; a ton of SFers are traveling right now. A lot.
Our state has been partially open since about June. We’ were able to have summer camp and my kindergartner got about 2/3 of a quarter in-person learning. My 4th grader was in-person 8 days before they went back to virtual. We’ll see what happens next semester and I’m pulling for the school district to be more thoughtful in their decision making. It’s a crash course in learning control is an illusion.
I’m in a large county just north of Atlanta. Schools opened a week late with a choice of in-person or virtual and most large businesses (Walmart, chain grocery stores, etc.) require masks. Some things that were closed for awhile in the beginning (playgrounds, churches, etc.) have been open for a long time now. A few holiday celebrations were a bit different. Otherwise, life seems normal “out there” (not for my family but for almost everyone else we know, it seems). It is shocking to me to see how packed restaurants and stores are even now, with cases here surging.