Today is also our third elearning day of the week, which means I try to balance a busy (thank goodness) work day with shepherding my three charges through the education system. Liam generally updates me but handles everything on his own. Henry likes to work ahead, so he was already done with everything for the week before today started, so I just had to double-check his work. And Max ... well, Max likes to put things off and let them snowball until he gets snowed under. We've been working on getting organized and staying on top of things, which takes a little extra time, but I have to think it's worth it to him not to get far behind and have to deal with teacher phone calls and bad grades and unhappy parents.
Henry decided to use this very snowy morning to go out and make a snow person. His snow person was taller than him! Unfortunately, it was also a leaning snow person, and eventually it tipped right over and couldn't be rebuilt. Max made the mistake of asking Henry what he was going to name his snowman. Henry was instantly outraged. “Did you just assign gender to my snow person, Max? What if it doesn’t conform to your narrow binary ideas of gender?” That's my boy.
Today, like most days this week, around 2,000 people died in the United States. The New York Times is reporting that more than 7,000 people have died in nursing homes alone during this pandemic. It's hard to even wrap my head around that many people suddenly dying. And what's the response from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Well, silence on the deaths, of course, but Trump's been busy trying to incite a second civil war all day, tweeting absolute garbage like "LIBERATE MICHIGAN," "LIBERATE MINNESOTA," and the utterly nonsensical "LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!" Hmmm, what do those three states have in common? Oh, that's right: stay-at-home orders put in place by Democratic governors. Funny how he's not yelling at people to liberate Ohio, Indiana, or Maryland (just to pick a trio of states with stay-at-home orders issued by Republican governors).
Speaking of governors, the governors of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kentucky have formed a bipartisan coalition to work together to figure out when and how to safely reopen their states. What's notable to me is that there's a pretty even split here, making this a truly bipartisan group. Good job putting aside politics in favor of doing what's best for people, Midwestern governors! I look forward to hearing your plans. Related: Gov. Holcomb today announced that he is extending the "Hunker Down Hoosiers" order (that's what it's called? ok sure!) until May 1. Gov. Whitmer is likewise expected to extend the stay-at-home order (less catchy name: "Stay Home, Stay Safe") for Michigan.
Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois are still a couple of weeks away from their peaks. And even when we do reach the peak, it's important to keep in mind that it's a looooonnnng way back down the other side of this, and people will continue getting sick and dying in alarming numbers for quite some time. But maybe the most chilling thing is that increasingly we're seeing warnings of a new rounds of this once states open back up.
It's always been likely that there would be a second curve, a second peak ... and then maybe a third curve and a third peak. And on we cycle until eventually we get a vaccine or at least an effective treatment. The trick is, I guess, how we manage to get through all these peaks without getting sick. And there, I guess, the governors make good points: Hunker down. Stay home. Stay safe.
Nationwide cases: 707,950. Deaths: 32,861.
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