Pandemic, Week 54 (Spring Awakenings)

 

This week, a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, CO killed 10 people. The gunman purchased a Rugar AR-556 pistol six days before the shooting, just four days after a judge ordered Boulder's assault weapons ban lifted.  Later in the week, two more people were killed and eight injured after a shooting in Virginia Beach. Former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was confirmed as the Secretary of Labor. President Biden held his first press conference. The outer fencing surrounding the Capitol was removed (though there's still fencing on the grounds). The House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on DC Statehood, with anti-statehood members arguing that DC should not be a state because it lacks car dealerships (it actually has some), mines, an airport and a landfill. Meanwhile, Georgia enacted new voting restrictions which include giving the state's legislature more control over county election boards, adding voter ID requirements for absentee ballots and criminalizing handing out water and food to citizens waiting in line for hours to vote. A container ship has been lodged in the Suez Canal since Tuesday, blocking one of the world's biggest trade channels and costing an estimated $14 million in revenue per day. Comedian Jensen Karp and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are locked in a PR battle over whether a box of cereal contained shrimp tails or crystallized cinnamon-sugar.

The world reached 127.4 million COVID cases and 2.8 million deaths this week; the U.S. accounted for 30.9 million cases and 562,000 deaths. 91.7 million or 28 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine (including Aunt Katherine – who had to explore Maryland's panhandle in order to get it) with 50.1 million or 15 percent of the country being fully vaccinated. Having already reached his goal of 100 million doses in his first 100 days in office 59 days in, President Biden has raised the goal to 200 million vaccinations by the 100 day deadline. Allen and I are scheduled to receive our first doses next week.

For us, this week signaled the start of Spring, complete with cherry blossoms, some lovely meals outside, socially-distant playdates for Nora and her friends, and the purchase of National's tickets for Allen and Owen, who if everything goes as planned, will actually attend a baseball game in-person next month.

Hopefully.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 53 (A New Hope)

This week, a man walked into three spas in Atlanta and killed eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent. Atlanta police claimed that the killings were not a hate crime but rather because the shooter was a sex addict having a "bad day." Given there have been 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents in the U.S. this past year, the actual motivations of the killer are less clear. Meanwhile in DC, an armed gunman was arrested outside of Vice-President Kamala Harris's residence. Following Joe Manchin's statement that he was open to reforms of the filibuster, President Biden echoed his support, triggering Senator Mitch McConnell to vow a scorched earth policy if any reforms are adopted. Rep. Jimmy Gomez introduced a resolution to expel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for advocating violence against other House members, the Speaker and the government in general. The Biden administration is facing criticism for its response to a surge in migrants at the Southern border and a record-number of unaccompanied minors being held for more than 72 hours in government detention facilities. The NCAA tournament began this week, but the games were largely overshadowed by complaints of the disparities between female and male athletes' amenities.

The world reached 123.4 million COVID cases and 2.7 million deaths this week. The U.S. accounted for 30.5 million cases and 555,000 deaths. There have been 118 million doses given in the U.S. and 41.9 million persons (12.8 percent of the populations) have been fully vaccinated, including Grandpa and Grandma Z. Clinical trials of Moderna for kids 6-months to 12 years have begun. The CDC announced that schools can now space students 3 feet rather than 6 feet apart (DCPS has not yet responded to the announcement).

But for us the big event was that Owen started in-person school this week. Well, sort of. He has 3.5 hours of cello instruction (sectionals, orchestra and technique) at Duke on Monday afternoons, which means at noon we have to take his temperature, drive him to Georgetown, wait until he is admitted to school, drive home and then pick him up three and a half hours later. It means he misses one of his English classes and we have to take leave from work, but it felt totally worth it for Owen to actually get to interact with his fellow musicians in person.

Otherwise, it was pandemic as usual for us. We hiked with First Day School at the Friends' Wilderness Center in Harpers Ferry, WV; toasted St. Patrick; had a zoom recital for Owen; and hosted the Telfair-Chas for a (chilly) socially distant dinner. But while most of the week had a familiar rhythm to it, there was still an undercurrent that just maybe, a change is gonna come.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 52 (525,600 minutes = 546,600 deaths)

This week President Biden signed the COVID stimulus bill into law, which includes $1,400 payments to individuals, extension of jobless benefits, and a child tax credit estimated to reduce child poverty by half. Household have already begun receiving payments through direct deposit (things move a lot faster when you don't insist on branding government disbursements). A majority of New York state's legislator and its two Senators have called for Governor Andrew Cuomo to step down in light of multiple sexual harassment claims. The city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to George Floyd's family to settle their wrongful death claim. Oprah Winfrey's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which discussed treatment of the couple and their child by the British Royal family, including questions regarding their son's skin color, was broadcast this week. The Queen responded that the issues raised were concerning, but would be addressed by the family privately.

The Pandemic turned one year old this week, which the President commemorated by addressing the nation. The total number of cases this week reached 120.0 million with 2.7 million deaths worldwide. The U.S. accounted for 30.0 million cases and 547,000 deaths. More than 101.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. to 19.9 percent of the total population. 10.3 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. Yo-Yo Ma received his second dose and then promptly performed for others waiting at the vaccination cite. 

This week we mostly focused on having the work completed for the deck (with a few more punch list items for this week) and actually getting to use it (and gather with family) as the temperatures hit 70 degrees (and then went down to 50 – good thing I got a Solo Stove for Christmas). We also got in some walks, a bike ride and even a protest (#Don'tFenceDC). But we also marked the anniversary of quarantine by remembering the last things we did before it hit. For Nora it was the DC Honor Chorus concert; for Owen it was his final interview for high school and his friend Adam's 14th birthday dinner. We couldn't really do much about Nora's memory, but Owen got to have a socially distant meet-up for Adam's 15th birthday, and on Monday he finally gets to set foot in his high school (for three hours of cello instruction in the middle of the day), which makes us hope things might get back to normal soon.

Just not soon enough...

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 51 ( Same Old, Same Old)

The Senate passed its $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, after a nine-hour delay in order to negotiate a compromise with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), to reduce unemployment benefits' size and duration. No republicans voted for the bill. The relief bill did not include a $15 minimum wage, after eight Democrats voted to exclude it from the package, including Senator Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), who punctuated her vote with a thumbs down signal, having previously advocated for a $15 minimum wage back in 2014. President Biden announced that having reached an agreement with Merck to help Johnson & Johnson produce its one shot vaccine, the U.S. is now on track to have vaccine supply for every adult in the America by the end of May. Meanwhile, Texas and Mississippi announced they were ending statewide mask mandates and fully reopening, generating criticism from health experts. The Senate held hearings on the January 6th attack on the Capitol; the rumored March 4th attack on the Capitol to re-install the previous president didn't occur. Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy was found guilty of bribing a magistrate. Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced they would cease publishing six of the author's early works, due to their negative depiction of Asian- and African-Americans. This sparked cries of "cancel culture" culminating in Minority leader Kevin McCarthy posting a video of himself reading, Green Eggs and Ham, which is not one of the books the Seuss estate decided to stop publishing. 

The world reached 117.1 million COVID cases and 2.6 million deaths this week. The U.S. accounted for 29.7 million of these cases and 537,000 deaths. The U.S. is now administering 2 million shots a day with 16.7 percent of the population having received at least one dose and 8.6 percent having been fully vaccinated. Mom Mom got her first vaccine dose this week. So did Dolly Parton, who helped fund development of the Moderna vaccine and posted a PSA to encourage others to get theirs, including a parody of her song, Jolene, 

Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,
I'm begging of you please don't hesitate
Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,
'cause once you're dead then that's a bit too late 

For us it was mostly a normal week. Grandpa Fawcett flew for the first time in over a year as he headed off to Texas to visit Jacqui. Work on the backyard recommenced with the hope that they'll soon finish our decks and we'll be able to enjoy the great outdoors as the weather warms up. The Capitol is still surrounded by barbed wire and the National Guard. DCPS held its spring conferences this week, during which we discussed the possibility of Owen returning to school one afternoon a week for in-person cello instruction. We're still mulling it over.

But mostly, we just reminisced about what the world was like a year ago before it all changed, and whether it would be changing back anytime soon.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)