Pandemic, Week 80 (Seeking and Striving)

This week President Biden addressed the U.N. General Assembly where he focused on climate change and COVID-19. The House passed a bill to avoid a government shutdown next week and raise the debt ceiling, but Senate republicans have threatened to filibuster the bill while democrats are tying it to disaster relief in the hopes of forcing republicans from states hit by recent hurricanes to vote for the package. Roughly 15,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Haiti, were cleared out of an encampment in Del Rio, TX by the Department of Homeland Security, and while some are being allowed to press their claims for asylum in the US, most were being returned to Haiti – which is still dealing with the assassination of its President and a recent hurricane and earthquake – and Mexico. Disney is suing former Marvel Comics artists over rights over various superheroes, including Iron Man and Thor. Actor Matthew McConaughey is considering a run for Texas Governor.

The world reached 232.2 million total COVID cases and 4.8 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 43.7 million and 706,000 respectively. 213 million Americans (64 percent) have received at least one vaccine dose and 183 million (55 percent) are fully vaccinated – including Nora! Pfizer announced it had demonstrated a strong immune response for children age 5-11, suggesting that a vaccine might be available to children beginning in October. DC announced a vaccine mandate for any adult that works in a school or childcare facility. Florida announced a new state Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, who doesn't support vaccine mandates. The FDA approved booster shots for older Americans as well as those with underlying health conditions or with certain at-risk jobs.

We continued to enjoy our visit with Audra and took in the Van Gogh immersion exhibit, which involved a gallery, immersion room, coloring and virtual reality. We all really enjoyed the exhibit and most of the bike ride, until Nora was distracted by a mural on the Metropolitan Branch Trail, and crashed (there was blood, some bad scrapes and tears, but no stitches were required and they even managed to bike the rest of the way home). Once Audra headed back to Michigan, the rest of the week was devoted to getting Nora fully inoculated, two separate (with varying degrees of success) back-to-school nights, one major climate analysis, a happy hour with an old friend, and a few Ducky food fails (where our temporary houseguest managed to abscond with some tacos, pizza and a ginger-lemon biscuit – emphasis on "temporary").

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

Pandemic, Week 79 (Company!)

This week the Justice for J6 Rally was held at the Capitol to support the insurgents that tried to destroy the place back in January – it was not well attended by anyone besides police and media. California Governor Gavin Newson won his recall election. The US military admitted that it had mistakenly killed 10 civilians in Kabul when they targeted the wrong vehicle in a drone strike intended for IS-K militants. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea. Olympic gymnasts, including Simone Biles, testified before a Senate Committee on the FBI's mishandling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse case. Comedian Norm McDonald died.

The world reached 229.0 million COVID cases and 4.7 million deaths of which the US accounted for 42.9 million cases and 692,000 deaths.  211 million Americans (64 percent) have received at least one does of the vaccine and 181 million (55 percent) are fully vaccinated. Public Health Ministers in Trinidad & Tobago and in the United States debunked rapper Nicki Minaj's claims that her Trinidadian cousin's friend's testicles became swollen following a  COVID shot, resulting in his impotency. The art installation, In America: Remember, which features a single while flag for each COVID death in the US, is now on display at the National Mall.

We started the week with Owen and my own version of Breakfast at Wimbledon. That afternoon involved a bread-baking session for Mom-Mom and Nora, followed by a butter-making session for Grandpa Don and Nora, followed by some pasta-making by Allen and me (Nora was pretty tired by then), followed by all of us (even Owen, who acknowledge he did nothing) enjoying a lovely meal together. Later, Nora and I attempted our very own cat-yoga session with Ducky to mixed results, Allen briefed staff from the White House and the Senate on the state of various climate studies, Owen made second chair in the orchestra at Duke, Nora restarted DCYOP rehearsals (inside!), and Allen visited the COVID inspired art installation on the mall.

But the big event was Audra flying out from Michigan for a visit to attend the Van Gogh Art Immersion exhibit. We originally got the tickets well before the J6 rally was plan, or they announced the H Street Festival was on the same weekend, or that due to the Delta variant, DC would have "red" ratings for its reopening metrics in daily case rate, hospital utilization and positive cases interviewed, as well as the indicator for community spread, but we played the hand we were dealt. After picking Audra up from the airport on Friday night, we enjoyed a lovely outdoor dining experience at Pursuit. The next morning we made our way around various road closures to drop Nora off at DCYOP before exploring Takoma Park. After rehearsal, we headed back to DC to check out the H Street Festival (my first time attending in 10 years) and get a late lunch, followed by nap time, spring rolls, dinner, a Zoom call with the other former residents of J1, and then called it an early night.

So we'd be fresh for the exhibit the next day.

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

Pandemic, Week 78 (Some Semblance of Normal)

This week President Biden issued broad vaccine mandates requiring all firms with 100 or more employees to require COVID immunization or weekly testing of workers, requiring most health-care facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid to vaccinate employees and mandating all federal employees and federal contractors be fully vaccinated. Biden also requested the resignation under threat of firing of Trump appointees to military academy boards, including Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer, who are threatening to sue in response. The Justice Department is suing Texas over its new abortion restrictions, arguing they are unconstitutional; meanwhile the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that it is unconstitutional to criminalize abortion. Richmond, VA removed the statute of Robert E. Lee from Monument Ave. The fraud trial of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes began.

This week the world reached 225.1 million COVID cases and 4.6 million deaths, of which the US accounted for 41.8 million of these cases and 678,000 deaths. 209 million Americans (63 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 178 million (54 percent ) are fully vaccinated.

For us, things were relatively quiet this week. On Sunday we had dinner at Katherine's to celebrate Nora's birthday (we opted not to spend the night fearing a relapse if we overdid things). Labor Day we met up with the Telfair-Chas to watch Shang-Chi – currently ranked as Nora's favorite Marvel movie and solidly in Owen's top three. The kids started back to school on Tuesday and managed to attend each day (though not without some help to ensure they didn't oversleep). Grandpa Fawcett left for a visit to Iowa with Aunt Katherine and was replaced by Ducky. Elaine hosted a bunch of the 7th grade Stuart-Hobson moms for a happy hour. Allen and Elaine got their flu shots while the kids finished their birthday thank-you notes.

And while that may all seem pretty boring, after last week we'll take it.

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

Pandemic, Week 77 (The Agony and the Ectasy)

This week, the Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy (including in cases of rape and incest) went into effect after the Supreme Court refused to block the law due to procedural concerns. The law is not enforced by government officials, but rather deputizes citizens to sue for $10,000 plus legal fees anyone they believe is engaging in or abetting an abortion. The decision effectively overturns Roe vs Wade and ends women's reproductive and privacy rights. Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi with 150 mph winds resulting in one million people without power. The storm caused record flooding in the northeast as well,  killing dozens. The US officially ended the war in Afghanistan, pulling all troops after 20 years of occupation, while instituting drone strikes on the Islamic State, which killed 10 civilians – including children – in Kabul. The Chinese government has limited children's ability to play video games to one hour per day on Fridays, weekends and public holidays. California is closing all national forests for two weeks due to wildfires. Actor Ed Asner (of Mary Tyler Moore Show fame) and weatherman (and centennial enthusiast) Willard Scott, have died.

The world reached 221.1 million COVID cases and 4.6 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 40.8 million cases and 666,000 deaths. 207 million (62 percent) of Americans – including Nora! – have received at least one vaccine dose and 176 million (53 percent) are fully vaccinated. The FDA continues to warn against taking ivermectin, a drug used for deworming livestock, to combat COVID. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas all have less than 10 percent of their ICU bed capacity left. The Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation against five states that have banned masked mandates, while Florida withheld funds from two counties that refused to adhere to Florida's mandate ban.

It was a weird week for us. On Monday, we dutifully sent both kids off for their first real day of in-person education in 77 weeks. Nora came home ecstatic; Owen came home looking rough and crashed right after dinner (which he barely ate). When we checked on him later that night, he had a temperature of 102 degrees. Allen quickly went on a pharmacy run to try and get a rapid at-home COVID test, but had no luck. Fortunately, we had a friend with a stockpile who delivered four tests to us that night while I furiously tried to figure out whom to contact at Duke to let them know we had a potential exposure and Owen slept.

The next morning, Nora bounded down the stairs ready to start their second day of school when we broke the news that Owen had a positive rapid test that morning and so Nora couldn't go to school. We then had to contact Stuart-Hobson as well as all of the kids' friends they'd come into contact with the past few days (which Owen having just had a birthday party, was more than you'd think). Allen and Nora both took rapid tests and both got negative results (I was hoarding our last test in case we needed it). Allen took both kids for PCR tests and then returned home so that Owen could crash again (though now his fever was down to a less concerning 100 degrees) while Nora broke out the sewing machine and started crafting. In the meantime, I had a back-and-forth with the kids pediatrician to figure out if Nora could still get their COVID shot the following day for their birthday (the answer was no).

So we were a little bummed the morning of Nora's birthday. Owen, who we could only interact with while masked, asked if we could Facetime him while Nora opened their presents; Nora just slept in. But early that morning, I got an email from our health provider with the kids' PCR results – they were both negative.  Nora woke up pretty quickly when they heard that.

This revelation resulted in a number of calls to the kids' schools, DCPS, and our pediatrician (after we opened presents). It's a little hard to unring the COVID bell though, and since Owen had both symptoms and a positive rapid test, the default was to have Owen quarantine for 10 days and Nora for 14. That didn't go over well, so we talked some more to DCPS who contacted DC Health who eventually conceded that if we could get a doctor to confirm that Owen never had COVID, both kids could return to school.

So then we reached out to our pediatrician who agreed that given the negative PCR tests she could see Nora for their annual physical and get Nora their first COVID shot. In addition, she would evaluate Owen to see if he could return to school. After examining Owen and weighing the fact that he was now fever free, was fully vaccinated, had been masking in public, hadn't been exposed to anyone with COVID but had interacted with a friend who'd tested negative but had a bad cold, and had a negative PCR tests, she determined that Owen never had COVID and that both kids were cleared to return to school (and gave them both flu shots). We returned home, emailed all the documentation to the appropriate parties, sang happy birthday to Nora, ate banana ice cream cake, and watched Marvel's What If while chatting with Grandma & Grandpa Z and Dave & Kara over the phone.

We thought the earliest we could get the kids back in school was Friday, but after a call with our DCPS contact tracer on Thursday morning, we discovered the kids had been cleared by DC Health and the schools had been notified. Owen was fever free but still had a cough so we decided to keep him home one more day, but we woke Nora up, quickly packed a lunch and escorted them to Stuart so they could formally start their second day of seventh grade (only 20 minutes late for class). They had an amazing day and were relieved to be back.

On Friday, we dropped Owen off again. School got out a little early due to the holiday, so instead of waiting for us to pick him up, Owen actually took the bus home with friends and arrived excited about his day. A little later, Mom Mom arrived for a planned night at the Nationals which we decided we could go ahead with since the COVID scare was all a bad dream. It was a beautiful night and even though we left before the Nats tied it up (but also before they lost in extra innings), it was a lovely bending to a crazy first week of school.

By Saturday everything was back to normal. Nora got to attend their friend Anais's 12th birthday swim party (with Nora getting their own cake); Owen got to go to climbing. And after a lovely dinner outside, we call gathered round for a fire and some popcorn via one of Owen's birthday presents (thanks Aunt Katherine).

Just a note, while I was initially frustrated about figuring out who to contact at the schools and how the process of a potential exposure worked, everyone I spoke to at the kids schools and DCPS were incredibly helpful and understanding. Everyone is really trying their best to protect people's health while ensuring kids can safely go to school. And while it was a lot of additional stress and bureaucratic hoops, in the end the kids only missed two and three days respectively, and both got a clean bill of health. Which is probably the best we could have hoped for in 2021.

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

Dodecagon!

We were anxious about eleven. It was the start of middle school in the middle of a Pandemic and a continuation of remote learning, only now most of Nora's friends were at different schools. There were bad thoughts and trouble sleeping and a lot of worrying.

But eleven ended up being amazing. Having received a new phone for their birthday, Nora and their friends from fifth grade organized numerous group chats, teams meetings and socially distant meet-ups.  Nora joined the drama club (and was cast as Little Red Riding Hood and Puss-N-Boots in Virtually Ever After), was promoted to seventh grade math, received a general award for "Excellence," and occasionally got to attend school in person. They published their first book. They met their friends at Eastern Market for lunch and picked up dinner at Whole Foods. They made butter. 

Nora gathered in tents to perform Dvorak, tricked us all into cat-sitting (but not cat-adopting!), rode their first roller-coaster, went a whole week without devices at sleep-away camp, and bested the entire family in pursuit of the Pelican Cup.

But mostly, Nora figured out who they are this year, and in the spring shared with the family that they're non-binary (they'd told their friends, who were incredibly supportive, earlier). It's been a bit of a learning curve for us as we navigate proper pronouns and try to come up with catchy alternatives to gendered nouns (our most radical suggestion is "nile" for "niece"), but Nora has has been an incredible resource and guide along the way.

So yeah, eleven was pretty amazing. We watched our baby become an incredibly mature and self-aware person – while still not being eligible to be vaccinated (an oversight which should be at least partially corrected today...).  Happy birthday, little one, we love you so much and are so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. Here's hoping twelve is even better.

1. You never want to be the person throwing cold water on something, unless it's your father.
2. It's not easy, being a tween...
3. "What the heck?"
4. Why be negative when you can be Positive Pineapple Paul?
5. Fake your way through, strum along, and everything's ok.
6. Sometimes a hike isn't a hike so much as a death march.
7. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.
8. Mrs. White is not amused.
9. Well isn't that just ducky.
10. And in the immortal words of Michael Cunningham, I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. I was something else altogether. There are so many different ways to be beautiful.