17 Weeks Behind Us

Seventeen.

17 weeks behind us since coronavirus hit Georgia.

It feels like 17 weeks. It feels like forever.

As you know, one fun thing we did last week was our "July 4th" photo shoot with friends Imerie and Mary...

I'm so grateful we were able to get that accomplished this year.

And yesterday, I finally took the 10ft x 6ft inflatable pool out of the box that I bought months ago to put on my back patio. I just hadn't been feeling well enough this summer to do it. Bri and I thought a quiet Sunday would be perfect to give it a try. A big thank you to my hubby getting it all set up for us. We had such a nice and quiet afternoon. We chatted, relaxed, listened to music and kept nice and cool. Here we are...

Other than than, our family hasn't done all that much. Last week, Doug worked and also cleaned out our basement. Bri played a lot of online games with friends and her cousins. I had a couple of appointments I needed to go to, including a cleaning at my dentist. But other than that, it's been super quiet.

The good news is that I think my ear is finally on the mend. It's not perfect, but a week ago, it started to finally unblock after six days of steroids. I still have some humming and a little pressure, but it I feel like things are going in the right direction. I have to admit - that month of feeling like I had a finger lodged in my ear canal 24/7 during a pandemic was very, very tough for me. I felt like crap mentally and physically. And on top of all that, the county I live announced parents had exactly one week to decide what school choice we wanted for our children - online verses face to face. And we were told to make that important decision with no solid information at all so they could keep the August 3 start date. So this has been a really great time (insert sarcasm).

Ok, this is the part of the post that I always warn you about. When I start to express my feelings about things going on in the world. Proceed with caution...

To be honest, I usually write these posts with a bit of frustration. Today, I am writing completely exhausted. My brain is tired. I'm tired of trying to explain why it's important to social distance and wear a mask. I'm tired of explaining why people should not be living life "like everything is normal." There is nothing - NOTHING - normal about what is going on in the world right now.

4,484 new cases in one day in Georgia on July 10...

K@mp is now having to reactivate the Atlanta Convention Center as a hospital because the cases are going up so quickly due people refusing to social distance and wear masks (and numbers did not go up because of the protests)...

Georgia to reactivate makeshift hospital at Atlanta convention center

After seeing this steady increase in numbers and knowing that coronavirus is definitely in my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods that feed into Bri's school district, she will be attending the virtual online academy for the first semester of her freshman year (possible the whole year). We have the ability to do it, so we are. We haven't worked this hard being so careful to blow it by sending her to an overcrowded public high school that has no real plan for social distancing and will not require mask use.  It is a sad and scary choice, but it's the safe one for now.

And someone posted this on one of the school FB pages too. It's regarding notifying parents of coronavirus...

I'm not 100% sure if this is true. But if there is any ounce of truth to it, I'm not putting my kid in that situation. As stressful as virtual learning may be, Bri going to school each day not knowing if she is being exposed would be 1000 times more stressful for all of us. And if the school is forced to shut down due to an outbreak, my kid won't have to have her life blown up again.

My county couldn't even make the correct call back in December 2017 about sending kids to school during yet another snowstorm after we had already gone through Snowmaggedon in 2014. I made an executive decision not send Bri to school that day, but a lot of other parents did because the county didn't close. Once again, school closed early due to crazy snowfall, parents ran to school in a panic and buses got stuck getting kids home. So, I'm definitely making my own decision about sending my kid to school during a worldwide pandemic.

Bri has a couple of friends who have made the same decision we have, so that is comforting. We might be able to figure out some study dates and time for them to hang out.

I was watching the news the other day and there was a report about how other countries have slowly and safely started sending kids back to school. And I thought - how?

Then I saw this...

The reason that the U.S. is number 1 in cases and deaths of coronavirus is because of attitude. Attitude that this is "just the flu." Attitudes against wearing masks. Attitudes of our leaders. Plain and simple.

US Deaths...

137+K dead in America from coronavirus - since January. It's only July. And I had a friend from high school just post on FB that her mom passed from Covid on Saturday. Alone in the hospital - no family allowed to surround her. Heartbreaking. Just let that sink in.

And this number doesn't include all the people who survived covid and are now dealing with the long term, horrible effects of having the virus.

I saw this meme and it really hit home for me...

It expresses how I am feeling to a tee.

I want my life to go back to normal. I am desperate for it. But I know I can't right now. I will keep on keeping on, even if it is draining the heck out of me.

So, that is it. That's what is going on right now.

I'm nervous about getting too excited about my ear feeling better, so I am being cautiously optimistic. If I can just feel better physically, then I know I can push through mentally.

We have three weeks left before school starts back up. I need to try to make the most of it for Bri. I'm upset I got sick for a month (after all my tonsil stuff), but I have to try to shake that off. Now I've got to come up with some things to do with her before she starts high school (virtually).

I'll be back next week. Hopefully I'll have some interesting stuff to talk about. Thanks for reading.