Quarantine Diary #63 - 5/18/2020 Flooding, It's changing now

We had three inches of rain here yesterday. This is what the Fox River by Riverwalk condominiums looks like today.

While I was walking along here, an older woman (says me, ahem…) was standing on her sidewalk with her nervous beagle, looking at the over-its-banks river.

I said something friendly and boring, as one will. She replied that this was the most flooded she’s seen it, although she had only lived in this area for three years. I said I’ve been here four years. And then we both chuckled because the world thinks old ladies stay where they are, but pretty often we don’t.

It’s raining again this afternoon. It’s going to rain tomorrow.

In seminary I learned that when the minister baptizes someone, they cup some water from the font, put it on the victim’s head, and now they have a wet hand. This is the proper moment to flick their hand so that the water hits people in the front row – and then pronounce in serious, ministerial tones, “Remember your baptism and be grateful.” This sounds meaningful and most congregants don’t realize one does this because what else is one going to do, wipe their hands on their pants?

Getting wet when one doesn’t actually want to get wet (it was raining this morning and my glasses were a mess) reminds me of that. When in doubt, be grateful.

One can always switch emotions later in the day.

…

Last week two of my kids were informed that for the foreseeable future, their jobs are to be performed from home.

Just like that, the way the world works shifted. My kids still have their jobs but they don’t have an office a half hour commute from where they live. No co-workers to say hi to. No kitchenette with a coffee pot and free granola bars. No elevators and parking lots and wondering why your project partner is doing that and why your boss just closed her door and on and on.

This is how it will be for months and maybe forever.

It is serendipitous that both moved last year to homes with an extra room. Neither have kids so both can work pretty conveniently, although both mention that wearing professional outfits every day isn’t happening.

Also, sometimes the pets are distracting.

Len and I belong to our local Unitarian Universalist Association. Last week we got an email from the national office advising congregations to make plans to meet VIRTUALLY for the coming YEAR. Yeah, that was something to take in. The letter was thoughtful and said what we all know. Churches are enclosed spaces heavily sprinkled with older folks (ahem again) – and talking, hugging, and singing are powerful ways to spread the virus.

Our lives are being powerfully impacted. We are looking at a life and lifestyle we never imagined.

I am trying to wrap my head around this. How can Len and I enjoy and be productive and helpful to our friends, family, neighbors? What does a good retirement look like now?

Traveling is iffy. Can we rent a trailer with a bathroom and a kitchen? I never wanted a Winnebago, not even a little one. Do we have to look at this as an option?

For the society around us: What will jobs look like?

I can’t imagine teachers teaching two half classes of sticky kids who can’t remember to social distance, for the foreseeable future - for the salary and disrespect they currently receive. Impossible. To have children doing virtual school from home half the week, in-class socially distant classes the other half of the week? Impossible.

And what does that “solution” do for parents? One third of American families are headed by single parents. If we are sending kids to school half time, are we saying those families get to live in poverty, or the kids are unsupervised half the week?

School are currently the source of social work services, kids’ daily breakfast and lunch, afterschool daycare, and childhood enrichment activities – as well as education. Where is all that going if kids go to real school halftime and virtual school halftime?

School boards and politicians are, absolutely, talking about half week classes next fall. We need a better and long-term solution that starts with the way life happens now, not the way life worked on a farm in 1946.

Daycare? Good lord, how is anyone going to offer daycare in the next two years?

I am writing and writing here and I have no solutions. But I do have good questions, don’t I?

Here is my best idea for someone who wants to makes their fortune in this pandemic.

Invent small rooms with  “clean room” technology that filters viruses out and fresh air in. Put two “suits” in the wall in the middle of this room. You pay money, you go into this divided room with the person you really need a hug from. You each go into one side of the room, walk into the hug suit which meshes up with the hug suit on the other side, and you hug and hug and hug. I'd pay $10 to hug my people.

We are going to a virtual birthday party this coming weekend for our grandson who is turning one. 

Everything is different.

Except for how much we love each other.