kid 1: My dad is unemployed now.
kid 2: My mom lost her job too.
Mrs. U: It's really hard, I know, my husband just got laid off too.
kid 3: My mom works at the hospital overnight and it's scary.
kid 4: My update is no good, I can't say it.
kid 4's mom: We lost a family member to COVID-19 last night.
And on and on and on.
I am devastated for all these children, all these families who are living through this terror and grief and uncertainty. How will their lives change because of this? They will see their family members lose jobs, get sick, and in some cases die — how will that shape the adults these children will become? And what kills me is that this is so unnecessary. If we had a responsible, responsive, transparent federal government, this crisis would be nowhere near how it is today. Look at our friends in Canada. Look at our counterparts in South Korea. It doesn't have to be this way. These children (along with every other American) do not have to suffer like this.
On the home front, some excitement: Our next-door neighbor decided to burn down his old chicken coop, which is right on the property line. His method was notable: he used a FLAMETHROWER. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, I don't know ... maybe he could set our pasture on fire while he was at it? That's exactly what happened. It was just a small section, and he brought over fresh eggs from his chickens by way of apology, but still it was deeply weird. And also very odiferous, considering that the wind was blowing the wrong way and we had our windows open for the first nice day of the season. We may never get the stench removed.
Also, my sisters decided to play a prank on me and got me pretty good. Here's what happened: The Amazon delivery person came this morning with a package containing a bag of Hershey kisses and a box of novelty paperclips in the shape of various animals. That's weird, I thought. I didn't order this. But Easter is around the corner, so I figured someone was sending a package for the boys. I asked my mom, Bethany, and Erin, but none of them sent it. I had mentally eliminated Avalon because she just gave the boys those big care packages last week. Then Radu started his fire brigade and I forgot about it for a while ... until I got a text from an unknown (though local) number with a picture of the package on my porch (this is how Amazon confirms delivery to the sender) and a message reading "I hope you enjoyed your gift before it melted." I texted back to politely say I didn't recognize the number and ask who it was, but got no response. Great. So this just went from WEIRD to CREEPY. I texted a screen cap of the exchange to my mom and sisters, and Bethany started telling me she thinks I have a stalker. She maybe overplayed her hand, because then I got the bright idea to Google the number, and buried in one of the results I found the name of one of Avalon's friends as a possible connection to that number. I found this information just as I got a facetime call from Avalon, so I answered, "I know it was you, asshole!" and she laughed and laughed for about a million years because she and Bethany had concocted the whole thing. But I'M the one with a bowl full of kisses and a drawer full of fun paperclips, so who's laughing now, AVALON?
So on we go, to the weekend, whatever that means.
Nationwide cases: 278,173. Deaths: 7,208.
No comments:
Post a Comment