posts tagged with 'pandemic'
a birthday like old times
Do you remember March 2020, when Elijah's birthday was the last party we had where we were able to invite people into our house? Well, I don't know if the pandemic is really over, but the weather the last two weeks seemed determined to force us into a symbolic statement about where we stand now virus-wise, two years later. The poor boy had his actual birthday a couple weeks ago, and his party was scheduled for the 12th—outdoors, like things have been lately. But the forecast was terrible, so we postponed it a week. Then, after a week of beautiful clear days, the next Saturday was wet too. But Elijah was determined to wait no longer, and with the extra week to think about it all our friends were fine with coming indoors to celebrate with us. And what a party it was!
he still remembers how to do it
Of course, it wasn't all inside. Elijah's biggest hopes and plans were a game of freeze tag at Fawn Lake and a piñata, and neither one of those were really possible to do in our house. The Fawn Lake part was first, and while it felt kind of bad to be leaving our house in downpour by the time we reached the pond—all of seven minutes away—the rain had faded to falling mist. So all the kids were able to have a great time playing tag, and all the grown-ups were able to stand around like grown-ups do, mostly without even needing their umbrellas.
I couldn't ever get them all in one photo
After about an hour Lijah called a halt and we headed home (through another rain squall—good timing!). The birthday boy was so excited about presents that he opened them before lunch. Lunch itself was amazing: all those kids around our table for the first time in two years! Amazingly loud, too. The adults stayed in the other room. Besides the pizza the highlight of the at-home part of the party was smashing the piñata, which we did on the front porch—not because it was particularly wet, but because the thing was so big and heavy I didn't think anything but the ring bolt for the porch swing would be able to hold it up! It survived two rounds of kids whacking it with a plastic bat (though it was looking definitely battered and leaking a fair bit) before Elijah dispatched it with the wooden one.
Zion showning good form
Then we had cake. At that point it was 1:00, the official end of the party (which had begun at 10:30). We weren't kicking anyone out, though, and I was very gratified that everybody who didn't have somewhere else to go stuck around til almost 3:00. Just like that last birthday, back in 2020! I guess we still know how to throw a party.
the theme was "cool kids"
like in the before times
We have this weekly gathering with friends that we call "Bible Study" which has been going on since the late 2000s without much change of personnel (we last talked about the Bible sometime early in the last decade but the name has stuck). Since March 10, 2020 we've mostly been gathering over Zoom, with a few months of delightful outdoor get-together last summer. But now that most folks believe that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, our friends felt ready to invite us over to meet in person indoors again. For dinner, even! It was only a coincidence that the resumption came exactly two years after the start of the pandemic, but it felt pretty meaningful.
Of course, life isn't completely back to normal yet. We all took antigen tests before got together, mainly because there are two young people under vaccination age in the group. And the boys had some questions beforehand about what, exactly, they were going to do with their friends indoors. Of course, it turns out that wasn't a problem at all. They ran around and yelled inside the house, and then we told them they had to go outside so they ran around and yelled outside just like they have for the past two years. But then they got to come back in and we all sat around one table (ok, two tables pushed together) and shared a wonderful meal mostly made by the hosts (we contributed some warm fresh bread). It was a good time. We need to get some more tests in so we can do it again next Tuesday.
longest birthday ever
Elijah's birthday banners are still up. His party Saturday was postponed, which was probably a good call even though it didn't pour as much as the forecast predicted; it was still pretty wet and windy. Waiting yet longer was a tough prospect for him, so to make it up to him Leah took him and Zion to stay in a hotel in Lexington Saturday night. They swam in the pool and jumped on the beds and watched TV yesterday, and then this morning they enjoyed the breakfast buffet before coming to church. Unfortunately Leah came home feeling pretty sick, so I haven't had a chance to hear what she thought of the experience. It was a win for the boys though, that's for sure! And Elijah still has his party this Saturday to look forward to, and those banners have got to be up for another six days.
Yesterday was also an important milestone: it marked two years since the world shut down because of Covid. That seems like something worth marking as mask mandates end—for now?—and we're once again able to sing in Kids Church. But I don't really have anything to say about it: Elijah's birthday is much more interesting.
pandemic calcium
I've written before about strange shortages resulting from the pandemic, and now with the omicron we're into shortage time again. Or supply chain disruption, at least. Over the last week our family's been disrupted out of salad greens and pasta, but what's been the hardest to cope with—and lasted the longest—has been the lack of regular orange juice at Market Basket. We prefer the kind with pulp, and it's been completely absent for at least three weeks now. Initially we were able to sub in the regular pulp-free kind, but before long even that was gone and all that was left was pulp-free with added calcium. So that's what we've been drinking the last two weeks. (I guess the calcium from the orange juice can fill in for what we're missing in not having salad greens? There's certainly no shortage of milk in our house, ever.)
What I wonder most about the whole situation is, why is there so much calcium-added juice available? What strange twists of the supply chains allowed it to be supplied when other, more palatable orange juices couldn't be? Or is it that the people who like calcium in their juice are also the people who are afraid to shop during pandemic peaks, and other regular orange juice drinkers are pickier than we are about substitutions (or less desperate)? I have no idea. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
the return
I was looking through old blog posts the other day trying to find out the last time we went to Mount Misery and I came across one from June of 2020 where I suggested the pandemic might be drawing to a close. Hah! In my defense, it's hard to remember those early days when we washed our hands—and changed our clothes!—whenever we came inside, when streets were empty, and when we tried to only go to the grocery store every two weeks. For sure, compared to that summer 2020 was a return to a semblance of normality—normality with masks—and even when cases were up again in the winter we had mechanisms in place to see other people and generally live our lives. And go to stores, because that's what we do in the USA. We didn't ever forget about Covid, really, but we weren't living in constant fear.
And now we kind of are, again! In the week between Christmas and New Year Bedford saw, I'm pretty sure, more than double the number of new cases than we had in any week previous. In-person Kids Church was cancelled last weekend, and now all of our services are going remote for the next two weeks (the "at least" doesn't need to be said out loud). And everybody knows someone who's gotten it. And yet, when I stopped by the grocery store this afternoon on my way home from a restorative bike ride, the place was packed. Shouldn't people be more afraid?! Or maybe they actually were, because I sure was and I still waited in line to get my giant box of spinach and my potatoes and my soyrizo. But we might not go again for a little while, and certainly not every day. It kind of feels like a real pandemic again! I wonder what will happen next?
what did we do with the old one?
When the younger two boys got vaccinated the thing they were most looking forward to was the annual New Years Eve party at our friends' house. Which of course we missed last year. Then when the omicron surge got going and there was a chance it might not happen, they were prepared to be crushed. Happily, limiting the party to a core group of friends and having everyone take a rapid test beforehand meant that, never mind the pandemic, we were all able to celebrate the New Year the way it's meant to be celebrated!
Or the way some people mean it to be celebrated anyway... the boys were strongly in favor of staying up until midnight, which I didn't think sounded like a good idea at all. I felt sick and woozy just contemplating it! But with a party that got going at 6:00 I figured we'd have plenty of time for fun and then still get to bed at a reasonable hour. I guess I didn't anticipate how much fun it was going to be!
Fun and food. There were only three families there, including the hosts, but we all felt like creating a festive atmosphere required plenty of food and drink. I made coleslaw, rolls, and a pecan pie, and also brought crackers and dip. Then there was chili, cornbread, chips with a green enchilada dip, caramel popcorn, chocolate chip cookies, oreos, and candy. Oh, and a bowl of baby carrots. Luckily there was an appropriate amount of alchohol to counter some of the sugar flooding my blood and keep me from exploding; I'm not sure how the kids survived.
Actually, I'm not 100% sure how they spent most of the party. The hosts kept them off screens until 6:30, so they got to participate in a couple card games, but then they vanished into the other room to play on a couple Switches and watch some of the old Avatar show. There was also an air hockey table in there so I guess they had the option to move a little bit if they wanted. Me, I didn't move much unless it was too and from the buffet. I just sat at the table and played games: Pit, Dungeon Mayhem, Spit, Pokemon cards, Root, and Regicide. I lost most of them but that doesn't matter; I was still having a great time!
I knew it was getting late, but I was still surprised when I finally checked the time and saw it was just past 11. Awareness of the hour sent my body into shutdown mode, and I barely managed to collect the boys and say a polite goodbye before stumbling out the door. All three boys had been advocating that we stay up til midnight, so when we got home at 11:30 they felt that we were so close we might as well wait up that last half hour! Plus they wanted to hear stories. I knew, though, that if I didn't get myself into bed instantly I might die, so I declined. Of course, I told them they could stay up as long as they wanted! Tucked in their beds Harvey and Elijah fell instantly to sleep—as did I—but Zion, our king of willpower, held on til the bitter end. Though, as he reported in the morning, he was a little disappointed to miss the precise turning of the year: he looked at his watch at 11:57, then blinked and it was 12:03.
All that excitement was pretty hard on us! We took a walk in the afternoon on New Years Day and Elijah, who began it full of joy and energy, was in a grumpy sulk before we got back to the car. Back at home he unspeakingly ran himself a bath and soaked for a while, then came downstairs in his bathrobe and promptly fell asleep on the couch for two hours. Yes, it was hard work but worthy work: this New Year was properly celebrated.
everybody knows smores now
I remember a few years ago when I made my first perfect smore. It was before the wonderful fireplace we have now by the deck, before we even had built our first fireplace out in the yard: back when we were burning wood in the Coleman kettle grill. Innocent days indeed! Smores weren't so common in our life back then, so when I finally made a good one I was very excited, and took a picture. That's natural, I think. But now well-made smores are to be expected in our yard, since we make them on average of a couple times a month all year round, and we don't take pictures of all of them.
And it's not just us now! One of the few upsides of this pandemic is that lots more people have realized they need to have a place in their yard to have a fire—nice for entertaining outdoors at any time, and essential in the colder months. So naturally they're all upping their marshmallow-roasting game too. Last night we were circled around a charcoal grill with friends, and all the kids turned out satisfactory smores even in those somewhat difficult conditions (there's always flames with charcoal, apparently). I wouldn't have chosen these months of isolation and fear, but if we're dealing with a pandemic at least we get to enjoy lots of chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers to ease the pain.
is this the pandemic?
We had a busy day yesterday. Indoor in-person Kids Church started up again—for the first time since March 2020!—and the boys and I left the house at 8:00 so I could be sure to be ready for the 9:15 start time. It went wonderfully, and it was so lovely to be there with the kids doing fuze beads again, but it was a little more involved schedule-wise than turning on the computer for a 45-minute like I was used to for the last year and a half. Then straight from church we headed to a mini-golf course for a birthday party—well, the first part of a birthday party, because after a mostly successful 17 holes (one of them was closed) we headed to the birthday boy's house for a couple hours of backyard socializing. By the time we got home at 5:30 I was wiped out!
I guess we've been doing plenty all summer, so it's not a total departure. But being inside again for church, and the fact that the party was with friends who we've seen much less over the past year and a half than we always used to, made the day feel like one from before the pandemic times. Of course, we were wearing masks all the time we were inside, and there weren't many people at either Kids Church or the party. So maybe we're just getting used to this life?
out of abundance of caution
We had to cancel school today because of illness. Our Friday school group is three families: last night one family's kids were feeling sick with sore throat and runny nose so they decided they'd stay home today; then the other family decided that it'd be safer to stay away too; and that turns out to have been a wise plan because in the middle of the night Zion woke up with a little fever and sore throat. Now, in pre-pandemic days none of these symptoms would have stopped us from doing anything—with such a fun day ahead of us we would have needed to be dying to call it off—but the coronavirus is a whole nother thing. Never mind not wanting to get it: that goes without saying. But almost as bad would be having to tell your friends that you had it and exposed them. How embarrassing!
It's probably nothing. Everybody will probably be all better tomorrow. But I don't mind missing a day. In the old days we probably used to all get each other sick all the time! At least today we spared giving one other family a cold, and that seems worthwhile. And just in case, we have Covid tests to take before church on Sunday!
Bedford Day returns!
Bedford Day was cancelled in 2020 thanks to the pandemic. So was Pole Capping, Fourth of July, and Halloween. Then we also missed Pole Capping and Fourth of July in 2021. So let me tell you, there was some excitement for Bedford Day 2021! It happened this past weekend, and it was spectacular.
boom!
I don't know if there were more people out than the last time we celebrated as a town, but enthusiasm certainly felt higher as we arrived at the center of town for the parade Saturday morning. We met the same friends as last time—well, mostly, since in the intervening years all the kids have gotten older so some of them are now marching with karate or soccer. So we waved at them. There was a little less candy-throwing than past years but still plenty, lots of which—again—failed to reach the barricades along the side of the street. We didn't let our kids crawl under, but they still managed to get enough to kick off their sugar rush.
local color in full flower
their instincs kick in
Not that they needed much parade candy, because the fair following the parade was full of sugary treats. Elijah was possessed by the idea of cotton candy so the first thing we did was wait in a long line to get some at $3 a shot (Zion too; Harvey chose a much shorter line for pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream). We felt a little sheepish later when we found another booth with free cotton candy, but that just meant the kids got another hit. We also enjoyed snow cones (free), popcorn ($2), and homemade chocolate chip blondies ($1: much the best deal). Plus we even found time to eat the lunches we brought!
he's been waiting for this for two years
Zion's two best friends were in the karate demonstration this year, so it was extra fun to watch. And there were balloons to play with, and fire trucks to tour, and the library book sale. Elijah got face paint. Then everything started closing down and we went home.
everybody starting to wind down
But unlike past years, that wasn't the end of the festivities! In Bedford we have Fourth of July fireworks only every five years, and we missed our shot in 2020. Never mind, leftover fireworks are much better in September, when the show can start at 7:30! We rejoined our friends—they brought glow sticks!—and the kids ran and played until the sky lit up with the most amazing fireworks display I've seen for at least two years.
now that's a celebration