Subj : Re: Isolation Diary To : Barry Martin From : Nancy Backus Date : Mon Jun 01 2020 19:49:50 -=> Quoting Barry Martin to Nancy Backus on 18-May-2020 08:36 <=- BM>> Bleah for the middle of May! We had a 29ø freeze yesterday morning BM>> but the sun was shining, hazy blue skies -- looked rather inviting! BM>> Some time early this morning heard a 'tink-tink-scratchy tink' on the BM>> window -- sounded like it was hailing a little! (This morning's BM>> weather did verify.) Currently overcast skies and 44ø. NB>> We're in for rain for the next couple days... possibly heavy... but at NB>> least the temps are in the 60s again... although it looks like NB>> tomorrow may stay steady with tonight's lows in the mid 50s.... I plan NB>> to stay in tomorrow.... ;) BM> Drizzling and 53ø, though three days ago wasn't nearly as warm as 80ø! BM> You might be getting part of the same system we have been having -- BM> which is five or six inches of rain the past few days. Doesn't help BM> getting anything done in the yard; oh well, the time will come. I don't think we got nearly as much rain, then or even since... I only saw heavy rain one day... We did get those awfully hot days beginning of last week... yesterday was barely 60ø with the low into the 40s, the house ended up cooling more than I wanted it to....! By the end of the week we'll be in the 70s, one day's supposed to be 83ø, I forget which, but then back to the 70s, which is pleasant and properly seasonable... :) NB>>>>> So I'm now 10 days behind... and who knows when I'll catch up.... NB>>>>> but I'm still plodding along... BM>>>> Well someone has to be at the end of the line! NB>>>> I suppose... ;) I'm more like only a week behind now... but life NB>>>> is uncertain.... BM>>> You probably won't catch up until I take a few days off! NB>>> And that wouldn't help longterm, since as soon as you came back you'd NB>>> dump a pile of messages on me... BM>> Maybe I'd do the Five Per Day Rule! NB>> That could at least tend to spread things out some... :) And I see I'm NB>> still a week behind... oh, welll.... ;) BM> I'm probably not helping in the catching up as when you send a reply BM> then I automatically reply. Do try to snip portions which are out-of- BM> date and have been answered in an interim message. That's just par for the course, I reply, you reply... ;) I've had a number of days in a row where I've either not been able to get to any messages, or only managed 2 or 3.... so now, as I mentioned in a previous message, I'm 2 weeks behind... I'm trying, when possible, to combime those 2 or 3 in a packet into a set of 5, to make some headway, but we shall see... ;) BM>>> ...Anything urgent I'd flag in the Subject. NB>>> Not that there's much urgent here... ;) I'm somewhat getting up NB>>> to date, though... BM>> The only thing I could think of as urgent would be a last-minute BM>> flight. Other examples I'm thinking of aren't urgent but either planned BM>> ("I'll be gone next week") or occurring without warning so wouldn't BM>> have time to send a message. NB>> Actually, I do read the messages as they come in... it's just the NB>> replying to that takes so long... ;) Unless I'm actually away, and NB>> then they get read when I return, of course... ;) BM> So you're caught up yet behind! Sorta... ;) At this point, by the time I'm answering these older messages, I don't really recall all the interim answers... but I am still reading them all when they first come in... so, for instance, I saw that a set of Apr 18th messages came in from Daryl in last night's packet... guess his setup workings let a few more old unsent messages go out.... this time to ILink chat... ;) BM> NB>>>> while you were gone for so long... :) When I took my son out of NB>>>> school for a couple of weeks to travel with me (a week of helping my NB>>>> sister with a newborn in MD, and then another week of driving south NB>>>> to visit my greataunts in NC, and the return), we brought schoolwork NB>>>> along with us, as part of the agreement... :) BM>>> I don't know anybody who had done that 'vacation travel schooling' but BM>>> makes sense: teachers have a lesson plan and the parent or whomever is BM>>> in charge needs to be given the texts and any special supplies and BM>>> hopefully figure it out. Geography and history: more or less follow BM>>> the text. Calculus -- uhhhh! NB>>> This was when he was only a first-grader, at least... ;) BM>> First grade we can probably still handle! NB>> Yeah... didn't really have to teach him anything, either, just make NB>> sure he did the paperwork to turn in when we got home, as I recall.... BM> Back in the Olde Days when I was in elementary school I remember doing BM> my school work in my room but I don't recall being helped nor asking BM> for help, yet I know I had to have been helped because I know Dad BM> 'untrained' me from the New Math and we went back to the 'Old Math' -- BM> maybe that's a repressed memory! Probably sufficiently traumatic... BM> As for helping Autumn next year BM> in first grade, at this point more a play by ear. Her mother will BM> probably do to the bulk of homewhork assistance. her father is smart BM> but not overly patient with the academics; he'd be good for the BM> mechanicals: shoebox diorama type stuff. We'll be on-call as needed; BM> here is usually play time, though every so often the play is School. She probably wouldn't be needing much help until she gets farther along anyway.... and I suspect turning school into play would be more her style as well.. :) NB>>> just seemed more important that he be with mom rather than having NB>>> to juggle his after-school care until Richard got home from NB>>> work... Two years later, when my sister had her next baby, and NB>>> the kid was in 3rd grade, he stayed home and went to school... :) BM>> Yes, age nine a child can usually take care of themselves for a while. BM>> A parent might want a close-by trusted neighbour as available but not BM>> necessarily watching. NB>> He was more like eight... but, yes, could somewhat take care of NB>> himself... And our next-door neighbor did keep an eye out for him... NB>> he had his own key to the house, but she had one as well, just in NB>> case... BM> So obviously a trusted neighbour if has a key. Indeed... by that time we were already watching out for each other's houses, and each had a key to the other's house... when we first moved in, she'd come over and said that the neighborhood had a motto, Since we're neighbors, let's be friends... and that quickly became the case... :) BM> I know a lot of times BM> I walked home from school -- didn't have a key, just walked in to the BM> house though the basement. (OMG! The house was _unlocked_??!!) BM> Eventually the basement was finished and a wall erected between the BM> garage and basement -- two doors, but still didn't need a key. Yes, BM> they were locked. ...A certain section of the door trim was hollowed BM> and a push-button switch was hidden: push the trim in the right place BM> and would activate an electric door latch. That was convenient... :) And less than readily obvious... :) BM>> Right. Read where some sites (not just schools) might have problems BM>> because the water has sat in the pipes and a concentration of BM>> chemicals may have leeched, minimal air circulation so possibility of BM>> mold, etc. NB>> I suppose that could happen, but I'd expect that there would have been NB>> someone checking on things in the meantime... one or two stopping by NB>> the facility wouldn't be in violation of the shutdown, and could NB>> safely do a little maintenance if needed.... BM> True: relatively easy to maintain the social distancing in an BM> otherwise unoccupied building. Even if closed there is probably some BM> activity: check to make sure someone hasn't broken in, make sure the BM> water pipes are intact, etc. Teachers would probably be able to get to BM> their classrooms to pick up rosters and texts -- "hey, what's this BM> discolouration?" and have it checked out. ..Or the cleaning staff: BM> not needed nearly as frequently because no body to make a mess but BM> they'd have to clean away cobwebs, etc. But some presence in the building... :) BM>> And just had a yucky thought: lunches and snacks left in the break BM>> room refrigerators! And desks: could have left a muffin in the BM>> drawer for the next day. NB>> Maybe.... again, though, I'd've expected that someone would have NB>> gone through the building checking for such... it's not like the NB>> building had to be abandoned because of being flooded out, or NB>> severely damaged by a tornado, or something.... just had to close NB>> down normal operations... The cleaning crew that normally cleans our NB>> church weekly has continued to do so throughout this crisis... doing NB>> mostly deep-cleaning and sanitizing instead of the usual cleaning NB>> (unnecessary since there's almost no use of the building at the NB>> moment).... ;) BM> Yes, I was just thinking of at the store we'd periodically have a BM> clear-out of the refrigerator (and its freezer) because Mystery Items BM> would be left to evolve. Since this was just a closedown and not a castastrophe, one would hope that someone would have thought to check that sort of thing out at the beginning.... get rid of any Mystery Items or not reclaimed things when people left for the unexpected vacation.... NB>> Technology marches on, leaving obsolescence in its wake... NB>> (I quote a tagline, I think....) BM> Or would make a good one! I'll look for it... ;) [Edited to add: found it, and see that the spelling needs correcting... I'll take care of that later... ] BM> As for technology marching on, yes; generally for good. Trash truck BM> just picked up a can -- probably recyclable by the sound as it was BM> poured in to the truck. Old days couple of guys emptying the can into BM> the back of the truck; now just the driver who pushes a button to BM> activate the robotic arm. (And there's probably a lot of technology BM> in that arm to make sure it self-aligns, doesn't extend too far or not BM> far enough.) The two trashmen on the back are no longer present (well, BM> on that truck) and so have had to find other employment. They probably are driving the extra refuse/recycle trucks... ;) BM>> OTOH I have not been wearing a mask though bringing one with me, more BM>> so if one is required to enter the store, etc., and they don't have one BM>> to give out I'm not inconvenienced by being turned away. NB>> We bring our masks with us now... and put them on if required... more NB>> for others' sensibilities than from feeling any real need of them.... BM> Same. I don't know what Hy-Vee would do if someone obviously sick was BM> to shop -- I'd presume ask them to leave but that has a few scenarios. BM> I'd try to avoid the sick person: six feet - more like six aisles! BM> (OK, not that much but writes good!) At least keeping your distance, as, no doubt, you would have been doing all along... :) BM> LIS in earlier messages did pick up a small box of Ginger Tea and had BM> some yesterday -- was good! Probably another one later today as not BM> going to get outside -- stopped raining but overcast and damp out BM> there. And the tea can be so comforting... ;) ttyl neb .... Time and technology march on, leaving obsolence in their wake..SEEN-BY: 1/1 452 .