My plan is to stay put..

Yesterday at my favorite garden center it was shockingly busier than Mother's Day...complete with a police detail to manage parking.

Then today at the Orange Big Box Home Store the line was all across the store.

I think I will wait to get a haircut, buy a gun, trick out my rod or visit the water park......

The rush should be pretty crazy..today it was only due to good weather!

I've been encouraged a bit by reading about risk levels... shopping doesn't seem to be that bad, with masks and sanitizer ready. Most places here are sanitizing carts, but I bring in a wipe anyway.

Eating out, or church or anything sitting still inside with others is going to take a whole lotta time for me!

Our provincial government is making an announcement tomorrow about schools in Ontario. I’m very worried that they will reopen for June. If they do, then I’ll likely come out of isolation at that point, because I’ll be so at risk anyway that it won’t matter anymore. If they don’t, then I’ll stay put. My husband’s US office is reopening this week with lots of measures in place, but his Canadian office is still shut. In theory he could cross over since it’s for work but there is no pressure to do so and we aren’t comfortable with it, so he will continue working from home for the foreseeable future.

We are isolating through the summer. However, based on the reopening plan that my university announced yesterday, they plan for me to be back in the classroom in the fall. My classes are too small to be put online and I don't meet any of the criteria to be considered high risk.

Quirt says, and he is correct, that planning to do this now does not mean that it will be feasible come August. However, the degree of resolve required to boldly lay out a plan like this so early suggests to me that things will have to apocalyptic for them to back down.

Sadly, I'm not sure that the country won't be in an apocalyptic situation by them, so who knows?

We are continuing to social distance, but we've decided to go back to doing grocery trips once a week. We had been trying to only go once every two weeks, but that means we've been buying a lot of stuff we normally don't so that in the second week, we eat frozen things more etc. What I realized is, that is a whole lot more expensive!

Other than that, we are being very restricted. Anything that can be canceled gets canceled. I canceled our dental appointments, we're cutting each other's hair. And even though my stylist called and told me that she's back in business, and told me about all the precautions she's taking, I said we are not ready. I still haven't contacted my piano tuner, but I'm thinking I'll do that soon (because a tuned piano is more important to me than a dental cleaning or professional haircut!) If my tuner will follow a good protocol (masks etc.) I may have him come in July.

As for other shopping, we are *not* going to a garden center, Lowes, HD etc. even though we really want to! Apparently those stores down here are packed with customers. Oh and also no dining out and no carry out.

As for work, I am working from home 100%. I'm teaching summer classes online, which already started, and so on.

Our uni has a "town hall" type meeting today, so I'll hear more about their plans, but I think they're expecting us to be ready to teach in the classroom or online, or both at once -- which won't work bc there aren't enough tech-supported classrooms... Magical thinking rules the day!

Thankfully, Illinois is on a slower track than many states, so not much is opening up. No matter what, we won't be changing what we do for the foreseeable future. Well, except to schedule a colonoscopy for me (I'm due) and a hip replacement for Mr wtg sometime in early autumn.

quote:

My classes are too small to be put online

MA, I assume that is something your school has determined? Do they have criteria that say classes with X or more number of students will be taught online?

The funny thing is, smaller classes are much easier to do virtually in real time....

I plan to keep doing what we have been doing until I see how this works out. There's a whole lot of stupid and irresponsible out there. Since we are not financially impacted it's no big deal for us.

We will still be getting most of our food from local farms, staples from Kroger, all delivered except for the meat CSA. We have to go to the farm store to pick that up but there's usually no one there and it's a beautiful country drive.

If we need to go to the garden center we do it on cold, rainy weekday mornings.

We did have a close friend out for dinner the other night, but were outside with the ceiling fan running.

I'm afraid it is the status quo until there is a vaccine or a reliable therapeutic.

We will be driving our daughter's moving truck to North Carolina in June/July which will require an overnight stay in a hotel or two but that is pretty low risk I think.

Yes. Classes over 45 students will go online. They claim that this is only 16% of classes, and maybe it is, but some classes are so big that the number of students affected by that 16% is far more significant than that it sounds. Social media is awash with students and parents upset that most of their or their kids' classes are moving online but they're still expected to pay full tuition.

I have felt all along that it would go this way, because running the smaller and theoretically lower-risk classes helps with PR. For example, it inflates that percentage of classes still taught face-to-face all the way up to 84%.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

quote:

My classes are too small to be put online

MA, I assume that is something your school has determined? Do they have criteria that say classes with X or more number of students will be taught online?

The funny thing is, smaller classes are much easier to do virtually in real time....

Indeed. My two classes were both small last semester. I just got my teaching evaluations back and they were really very good. Small numbers usually generate good ratings, but everyone who commented noted that the "remote" versions of the classes were as good as (and several students said better than) the face-to-face version.

There is a distinction between "remote" and "online." Online often means the class was constructed to be largely professor-less. It's based on videos, multiple choice tests, other graded assignments, and email contact with an instructor. Online classes are completely asynchronous learning with minimal human interaction and few if any peer effects. Learning is largely solitary and success comes from internal motivation.

Remote is more of a hybrid class that retains much of the face-to-face content using Zoom or some other interactive presentation software. Thus it is synchronous, semi-interactive, and potentially much richer with group projects and other ways for peer interactions.

Online is more easily scalable. Remote works perfectly well in small to medium sized classes.

I'm really sloppy with my use of these terms (remote vs. online). As per P*d's distinction, for the last half of spring semester, I taught my language class remotely and my linguistics class online.

Except that I maintain a high presence in my online (asynchronous) classes and make sure there's "dense engagement." I think that's part of the reason why my evals were also good.

I’ve resumed the outdoor boot camp, private tennis lessons, and social doubles. We didn’t take measures to avoid transmission from ball handling, but we did stand 6 feet apart during water breaks.

I go to the grocery store several times a week. Rather than go infrequently and buy a lot, I walk there and Get what I need that day. I go to stores and wear a mask because it is mandatory.

We are having our floors refinished next week, which is a massive undertaking. We’re vacating for a week while they do it. They have said they disinfect and wipe the premises daily, but I think this is unnecessary. If we’re not there, there is no risk to us. When we return, I will wipe the doorknobs myself because why would I rely on their wiping?

Our national leadership has apparently decided that avoiding infections is a bother and we’re all going to get the virus. I guess all I can do is hope I’m lucky.

Speak of the devil, the county executive just sent an email saying we are still under a stay at home order.

Good luck with that. People are completely ignoring it. Traffic is way up, stores are busy, with people lined up to get inside.

Will get an Instacart delivery today.
Have not been in a store in weeks and no plan to go.
Clippered my hair yesterday. Not ready for an Esquire cover shot.

I walk or pedal the bike path most mornings. Speed on the recumbent trike is better than nothing.
My need for speed is not being well met so I am going to try auto racing video games.
Without an occasional dose of adrenalin I don't function well.

Bob was going for hernia surgery in a small surgery center. When he learned that the surgery would be performed in a hospital with Covid exposure he backed away.

We have begun doing weekly trips to the grocery store but only at non-peak times. If the parking lot is too full, and people are basically walking in and out at a constant rate, we leave and come back at a less busy time.

Mrs. Mark has had two actual visits to the doctor, and a COVID-19 test performed yesterday. She is having a colonoscopy this Thursday which is a "we are going to squeeze you in" appointment due to some symptoms she has been experiencing the past few weeks.