13 24 538 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/3ab560c43f652ccce56aecd6e023b9b4.pdf 7b0e600f4bc90adf15e46a6939fb5711 PDF Text Text Day 172 by windoworks Today it seems my brain is very tired, so I have asked Craig to type my blog for me. Yesterday I watched a lot of episodes of Deep Space Nine, and I will probably watch a lot more today. The doctor we saw on Friday afternoon recommended I have the left lens of my glasses removed. We did that but it was too confusing for me to wear them successfully. So in the afternoon we went to CVS and followed the doctor’s second recommendation, which was to get 2.0 magnification reading glasses. Although I can use them, this morning I am too tired to do so. �This meme really spoke to me yesterday. Although Grand Rapids Public Schools are all online for the first nine weeks, other schools in our area returned last week and some more will return tomorrow. Governor Whitmer has requested that all persons aged two years and over must wear a mask when leaving home. When I was in elementary school I would trade my mother’s lovingly made lunches for another student’s much less exciting lunch. I have no real idea of why I did this. I still remember this trade and honestly it never occurred to me that children might trade masks; but why wouldn’t they? Trading is such an integral part of childhood, and small children don’t really understand that the mask traps their germs inside which is the point of wearing masks anyway. Here’s a piece from Crooked Media on the last night of the RNC: What might make the night even more controversial is if people get COVID-19 from it. Trump crammed over 1000 untested loyalists into a tight seating space on the South Lawn, where mask wearing appeared to be actively discouraged. Four �participants in the Charlotte, NC, portion of the convention (two attendees and two participants) have already tested positive, and it’s statistically unlikely that nobody in attendance at the White House Thursday had coronavirus. The recklessness has already caused political problems for Republicans in attendance, including vulnerable incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who admitted he “fell short of his own standard.” The White House’s response to the blowback? “Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually.” That’s right: “It is what it is” as federal policy. In the USA the total number of coronavirus cases is just shy of 6 million. Deaths: 183K. Michigan: confirmed cases 101,478, with 6467 deaths. The Kent County dashboard is down at the moment. In Sydney they have had 14 new cases overnight, the most they have had at this time. These new cases seem to be associated with gyms. Yesterday in Melbourne they had only 99 new cases. At the onset of this new outbreak in Melbourne they were averaging well over 700 new cases a day, so this shows how well their very restrictive lockdown has been working. It is a really big ask of people to confine them to their homes and only allow them out one at a time in a very restricted way, but when over 90% of the populations adheres to these restrictions it makes a significant difference to the contagion rate. And now its Oliver time. �Everyone loves a swing, even older people like me. Today’s flashback: Castelnaudry is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in south France. It is in the former province of the Lauragais and famous for cassoulet of which it claims to be the world capital, and of which it is a major producer. Wikipedia. �����One day a week was market day in Castlenaudry. I think it was Friday but I’m not sure. Castelnaudry’s market is a big one with many booths we hadn’t seen before. After the market we always found a cafe for lunch and over several visits Craig tried a number of different versions of cassoulet. Cassoulet involves white beans, duck and sausage. A heavy, satisfying dish. I never tried it - beans and I are not a good mix. Castlenaudry is also famous for a pate de foie gras festival. This is goose liver pate and they force feed the geese to make their livers grow to an enormous size. Its a barbaric practice and unfortunately pate de foie gras is delicious. You have to think of other things as you eat it. From the top: roasting chestnuts; gift baskets; one side of the market; dried fruits (delicious); and what’s a market day without music? Tomorrow then. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-30_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-172 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-30 Title A name given to the resource Day 172 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/a5dd0dba832bcf5c653d5becf5718ebf.pdf 5fbfa78210774a2032822d9f96fda9ef PDF Text Text Day 171 by windoworks Apart from feeling a bit woozy wearing my new CVS reading glasses, it allows me to see what I’m doing and write my own blogpost. I know it is later today than usual, but that’s because I have been lying around ‘recovering’. Everyone tells you it will make an astonishing difference to your life when you have cataract surgery, and beforehand you say Mmmhmm. It makes an earth shattering difference - and I’ve only had my left eye done. I can’t imagine what will happen with both eyes done. But what they don’t tell you is: no heavy lifting, no bending down at all, and a strict routine of eye drops, eye drops, eye drops. The drops still sting when they go in and my eye is often unbearably itchy, but overall, its not too bad. So, the RNC is over and so apparently, is the pandemic. Evidently all speakers talked about the pandemic in the past tense. And from the photos, it appears Ivanka dressed for a ball rather then a convention. This afternoon we drove past a house with a large sign outside, counting down the days to the election. I think it said 65. And to sum the RNC up: NewYork Times: America right now has: deadly pandemic, massive unemployment and recession, schools unable to open, protests over racial injustice, a killer hurricane bearing down on the South… And I am �watching Mike Pence talk about how bad things would be in Joe Biden’s America,” The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser wrote. Here’s a question I had actually been thinking about: The Atlantic One question, answered: Can I let people pet my dog during the pandemic? James Hamblin offers some advice for dog owners in his latest “Paging Dr. Hamblin” column (the dog he’s talking about here, Rooster, is mine): If dogs were major players in the vector business, either via their respiratory secretions or fur, hopefully by now we would have traced clusters to them. We haven’t. Contaminated surfaces are proving to be less important than we initially assumed, and among them, soft surfaces such as fur are usually less likely than hard ones to harbor the virus. All that said, this virus is still finding ways to surprise us, and it’s not inconceivable that animals exposed to it could show some subtle or long-term effects that haven’t yet revealed themselves. … Petting dogs does not seem to be a major public-health concern, but that doesn’t mean concerned individuals are being unreasonable. You’re under no obligation to indulge the dog-loving hordes, and neither is Rooster. So I’m not going to let anyone pet Murphy from now on. Today two of the college students on our block went to school. One is a second year student and the other a first year. Neither family knows how long they will be on campus, but they’re giving it a try. Many colleges across the States have opened and then closed again. In other news, Hurricane Laura was a forerunner of things to come. It seems as though climate change is forcing us all to consider what we need to do to help mitigate conditions. Here’s a piece from the New York Times: Hurricane Laura shares something in common with both Hurricane Florence, a 2018 storm that killed 52 Americans, and Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana 15 years ago this week. All three changed from more typical hurricanes into severe ones in just a day or two. That kind of rapid intensification — to use the scientific term for it — used to be rare. In recent years, it has become more common. And that change is a useful summary of the how climate change is, and is not, affecting hurricanes. The warming of the planet doesn’t seem to have increased the frequency of hurricanes. But it has increased their severity, scientists say. Storms draw their energy from the ocean, and warmer water provides more energy. Warmer air, in turn, can carry more water, increasing rainfall and flooding. Since the 1990s, the frequency of extreme hurricanes — either Category 4 or 5 — has roughly doubled in the Atlantic Ocean. No single storm is solely a result of climate change, of course. Yet climate change is �leading to more storms like Laura. The scariest part of the trend is that it isn’t over. Climate change acts slowly. The destruction sweeping across Louisiana and Texas this morning will probably be even more common in the future than it is today. I meant to put this in my post a few days ago. Murphy is always very cautious about water left out for dogs, and this is the only water bowl she will drink from, if she walks past it with Craig. ��This water station has it all: fresh water, snacks, a ball to play with and poop bags. And an update to the shootings at Kenosha a couple of days ago: New York Times: Murder charges: Wisconsin authorities arrested Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white Illinois resident, and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of two protesters on Tuesday. Rittenhouse had often posted on social media in support of the police and considered himself a militia member, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Now, Oliver: �So much fun in the park! �Flashback: Belesta. Situated in the valley of the Hers-Vif, Bélesta is known for its fir tree forest, which was a former royal forest whose wood was used to construct the mast of ships. Wikipedia ����The Hers-Vif river runs right through the village of Belesta. It was a lovely walk through the village and along the banks of the river. The last photo intrigued Craig - the tree had almost overgrown the lorry sign. My eyes need a rest, so that’s it for today. Be safe, wear your mask, wash your hands and get tested if you feel ill. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-29_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-171 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-29 Title A name given to the resource Day 171 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cc0b8ac76fb904bdc161b462ad5dc386.pdf 0b9c390ae13db13fbddcde9318ad1898 PDF Text Text Day 170 by windoworks ��This a late post today, because I am at home after my left eye cataract surgery. You can see how I look in this truly attractive photo, taken by Craig. This blog post is being kindly typed by Craig, so please bear with us as Craig learns not only to use my iPad, but also the intricacies of Word Press. Last night was the last night of all of the RNC. I believe that Trump rewrote history, promising a vaccine this year, and telling his followers that his administration had done a wonderful job of dealing with the pandemic. I could say a great deal about Trump, Pence, the Trump family members, and their various minions, but today is a tiring day and I will leave political discussions until my eye is more recovered. I would like to remind you, however, that there are 66 days until the election. I have discussed this many times and you know I am voting blue all the way. �Apparently 6 feet apart is not enough. Read this: Washington Post: Six feet apart: It's been the golden rule since day one of the pandemic, but is it good advice? The nearly universal warning to stay six feet away from other people traces back to antiquated 19thcentury research, our health desk wrote, and a new study argues that significantly more distance may be needed indoors: “If the novel coronavirus can float in the air as a vapor, earlier assumptions of its range are inadequate. Airborne transmission is still not conclusively proven, but a growing number of experts see persuasive evidence in super-spreading events that have transmitted the virus to people scores of feet away from the infection source.” I know that many of us are finding this an incredibly difficult period in our lives, me included. I found this post on facebook yesterday about managing high anxiety and depression during the pandemic. I am offering the last paragraph of the writer’s piece: Elemental.medium.com I might have intellectually accepted back in March that the next two years (or more?) are going to be nothing like normal, and not even predictable in how they won’t be normal. But cognitively recognizing and accepting that fact and emotionally incorporating that reality into everyday life aren’t the same. Our new normal is always feeling a little off balance, like trying to stand in a dinghy on rough seas, and not knowing when the storm will pass. But humans can get better at anything with practice, so at least I now have some ideas for working on my sea legs. �And of course Oliver at Daycare, apparently having a wonderful time with cut up blue paper. ��Flashback: With the impending arrival of our children, Craig and I went back to explore Roquefixade. We did a series of reconnaissance day trips to check out the best day excursions for the children. �����From the top: The path from the village to the ruined castle, which passed goats with bells; me halfway up; view of the valley; Craig; and me as far as we climbed on this day. So that’s it for today. As Craig types this, my eye is still feeling a little swollen due to the numbing solution, and I am beginning to notice a difference in color tone between my left eye and my right eye. Everything seems brighter through my left eye, so apparently I have been living in a visually dim world for a while now. Craig and I will try to post again tomorrow, and if you see Craig, say well done! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-28_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-170 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-28 Title A name given to the resource Day 170 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8ba98687ebb11c86a681aea4569759b0.pdf aa7a76e650e46bc4c659304ff3931904 PDF Text Text Day 169 by windoworks Tomorrow I might not write a blog post. My cataract surgery is at 8:30am. I am fasting from midnight tonight and no clear liquid after 5:30am tomorrow morning. Craig has promised to eat his breakfast in the kitchen downstairs. This morning’s post is brought to you by the differences in platforms between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. ���I posted these because I have heard people say that neither side has any platforms. The last 3 nights of of the RNC have apparently been circus shows. I don’t really know as I cannot bring myself to watch, and its even hard to read reports about it. There are so many other events happening which almost overshadow the election - almost. In New Zealand, on March 15, 2019, the Mosque Terrorist shot and killed 51 people and wounding many others who were peacefully worshipping in a Christchurch mosque. He live streamed himself doing it. Yesterday, after being escorted to the court for sentencing by large numbers of military, he was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail - literally until the day he dies. In handing down the sentence, the judge said: Your crimes are so wicked that even if you are detained until you die, it would not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation.” On the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Laura has made landfall: Washington Post: Hurricane Laura slammed southern Louisiana early Thursday as a Category 4 storm, one of the most powerful to strike the Gulf Coast in decades. The storm made landfall at 1 a.m. near Cameron, La., about 35 miles east of the Texas border. Images from downtown Lake Charles, La., showed flying debris and buildings with their windows blown out, as local officials warned residents to remain indoors. The storm, which leaped from a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday to a high-end Category 4 on Wednesday night, packed 150 mph peak winds when it crossed the coast. The storm weakened and was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane Thursday morning as it headed northward, but it still had sustained winds of more than 100 mph. Meanwhile in Kenosha. Wisconsin: New York Times: Criticizing any protest of police misconduct is fraught for progressives today. That’s especially true when the conduct is as brutal as it appears to have been in Kenosha. But the reality is that nights like the last two — when an American city has been on fire — seem to be precisely what Trump wants to campaign on. And there is another option available to people outraged by what happened in Kenosha. After all, nonviolent protest — as the overwhelming majority of recent protests have been — has a long record of political effectiveness. In other Kenosha developments: • Jacob Blake — the man shot by police — is partially paralyzed from a bullet that severed his spinal cord, his family said Tuesday. His mother, Julia Jackson, said she opposed the destruction of the recent protests: “It doesn’t reflect my son or my family.” • Protesters threw water bottles, rocks and fireworks at the police last night, and the police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. In a confrontation near a gas station — the details of which are not yet �clear — three people were shot, two of them fatally, police said. Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in the state that may be the single most likely to determine the election. Both Joe Biden and Trump will struggle to win the Electoral College without Wisconsin. An authors footnote: it turns out that the 2 people shot were victims of two 17 year old white boys with guns. I’ll just leave that there. Here’s the reports from Louis DeJoy’s House hearing: Washington Post: But House Democrats obtained an internal Postal Service memo written to DeJoy earlier this month that warned his suspension of overtime and extra mail trips would cause such delays. (DeJoy has since stopped removal of mailboxes and sorting machines — though he won’t put back the hundreds taken away since he started in June). But overall, DeJoy gave Democrats an opening to make their central case, which is that his actions are politically motivated. “In the Postal Service’s 240 years of delivering the mail, how can one person screw this up so fast?" a visibly frustrated Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) asked, adding “What the heck are you doing?” Here’s Representative Carolyn Maloney (House Oversight Committee Chair) in her opening statement: Perhaps Mr. DeJoy thought his sweeping changes would not cause any delays. In my opinion, that would be incompetence at best. Or perhaps this was intentional. Maybe Mr. DeJoy was warned that his changes would cause delays, but he disregarded those warnings. That would be extremely reckless in the middle of a global pandemic with less than three months before an important election. Or perhaps there is a far simpler explanation. Perhaps Mr. De Joy is just doing exactly what President Trump said he wanted out on national television, using the blocking of funds to justify sweeping changes to hobble mail in voting. All of these options are bad. Just a reminder for parents and teachers: �The CDC has told Americans if they are asymptomatic they don’t need to be tested. US cases stay steady at about 43,000 new cases a day and about 1,300 new deaths a day. US islands are now showing hotspots: New York Times: U.S. islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific — which largely avoided early coronavirus outbreaks — are emerging as new hot spots. Hawaii now ranks among the states where new cases are growing fastest, and the U.S. Virgin Islands is halting tourism for a month. And to contrast that: Washington Post: The daily news briefings in New Zealand are like a window on a parallel universe compared with the sparse, incoherent and often contradictory briefings offered by Trump. Ardern and �other high-level officials calmly walk listeners through new information they have received in the previous 24 hours, and respond to tough media questions with respect. As more information comes in, officials are increasingly confident that the growing number of new cases is all part of the same “cluster” — they can all be traced back to the initial case discovered on Aug. 11. Their confidence from their contact tracing system was backed up by genome sequencing of the virus undertaken for each new case; all matched the initial case. Aaaaand Oliver: �Ohh, thats what happens when you shake it with the lid off. �Flashback: Puigcerda is the capital of the Catalan comarca of Cerdanya, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, northern Spain, near the Segre River and on the border with France (it abuts directly onto the French town of Bourg-Madame). It does abut. You literally can’t tell where one town ends and the other begins (except for the signs). �����Again, another charming town with a lovely town square and great shops. But this was Spain, and they take the siesta hour very seriously. It extends from midday (12 noon) to 3 or 4pm. So I mostly window shopped before eating a scrumptious Catalonian lunch. I’ll leave you with this: � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-27_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-169 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-27 Title A name given to the resource Day 169 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/68720dc241bdea87d798ffdc6610f8c4.pdf 459cb6b3ba8ad36d68e0baa82efe9a7c PDF Text Text Day168 by windoworks Some mornings its hard to know where to start. There are 6 days left until GVSU begins teaching. After 3 weeks of the faculty representatives meeting and discussing safe teaching practices, they put forward a proposal that the whole school switch to online classes. There was no response until yesterday when the executive said that individuals may teach online with their unit heads permission. After much thought and discussion with me, Craig has opted to teach online to begin with. While I feel happy with this decision, I understand how sad he feels about not meeting his students face to face. Universities across the US have opened and then closed again. Locally some universities have opened and it will be interesting to see how long they remain open. The numbers in Michigan are lower than other states, but still higher than the governor would like. We have been back in Level 3 for a long time now and yesterday Gov Whitmer said she would not be bullied into reopening businesses such as bars and gyms. There is a gym near us that moves all their equipment out on to the parking lot daily, and people can exercise safely. I am starting to see people walking and bike riding while masked. Yesterday we watched 2 women rowing on Reeds Lake and both were masked. On the other hand, East Grand Rapids Schools reopened with students all wearing masks - but as soon as schools out for the day - off came the masks. Scientists are now working on ‘superspreaders’. NPR: A person with a high viral load walks into a bar. That, according to researchers who study the novel coronavirus, is a recipe for a superspreading event — where one person or gathering leads to an unusually high number of new infections. And that kind of occurrence is increasingly considered a hallmark of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. "There are some really good estimates out there that suggest that between 10% and 20% of cases are responsible for about 80% of transmission events," said Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead for the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Program. This novel coronavirus, known as SARS-COV-2, is more of a party crasher. It appears to spread efficiently from people who don't yet know they're sick. Research shows that 40% of coronavirus transmission is taking place before a patient shows symptoms. And people may actually be most contagious the day or two before they start feeling sick Viral load actually increases a couple of days before symptoms show up. That's why so many superspreading events during this pandemic are taking place in bars, nightclubs, restaurants and factories. The virus is spreading from one person's respiratory tract to another's — even though the person who's spreading it may feel totally fine. �This was the first superspreader event scientists noticed. Washington Post: None of the biotech executives at the meeting noticed the uninvited guest. They had flown to Boston from across the globe for the annual leadership meeting of the drug company Biogen, and they were busy catching up with colleagues and hobnobbing with upper management. For two days they shook hands, kissed cheeks, passed each other the salad tongs at the hotel buffet, never realizing that one among their number carried the coronavirus in their lungs. By the meeting’s end on Feb. 27, the infection had infiltrated many more people who took the virus home with them to the Boston suburbs, Indiana and North Carolina, to Slovakia, Australia and Singapore. Now, a sweeping study of nearly 800 coronavirus genomes, has found that viruses carrying the conference’s characteristic mutation infected hundreds of people in the Boston area, as well as victims from Alaska to Senegal to Luxembourg. Meanwhile, last night was the second night of the Republican National Convention. Washington Post: After warning that Democrats are against guns, gasoline and God – in that order – the president accused his opponents of spying on him in 2016 and preparing to perpetrate massive voter fraud �to win this November. “They’re trying to steal the election,” the president said, offering no evidence. “Now we’re in courts all over the country, and hopefully we have judges that are going to give it a fair call. Because if they give it a fair call, we're going to win this election. The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election.” No, I didn’t watch it but Here’s a FaceBook post which says the truth: They say we want to disband police departments (and that we hate the police): we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and unnecessary police brutality and for those who abuse their power to be held accountable. They say we want to release all prisoners: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to weed out racism and ensure the punishments match the crimes and to deprivatize prisons. They say we want open borders: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want asylum seekers to be given their chance to seek asylum. We want to help people who are coming from unimaginable terror and poverty help to give them the chances we have. We want to ensure children aren’t separated from their parents and that nobody is kept in cages. But we do want proper vetting. They say we want to take away your guns: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want logical gun control to help prevent mass shootings. They say we want to wage a war on Christianity and Christian values: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all religions to be able to practice and worship freely. They say we want to get everything for free: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to work hard and make sure that healthcare and education are affordable for all. They say we want a war against traditional marriage: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want people of all sexual orientations to be able to love freely, no matter who you love. They say we want to destroy or rewrite history: we don’t, that’s a lie. We want to recognize the ugly parts of our past and do everything we can to say “that’s not okay, let’s not honor those aggressors, let’s not let those things happen again”. They say we want to take away your constitutional rights: we don’t, that’s a lie. We choose to believe science and wear masks and try to prevent the spread of this disease. �They say we hate America: we don’t, that’s a lie. We just recognize our faults and want us to do better, be better. It seems as though good news stories are few and far between. But last night my youngest son sent me a link to the Phillip Island Nature Parks live penguin TV. They are live streaming the nightly fairy penguin parade so you can watch it at home. Here’s the link, (I hope): https://www.penguins.org.au Many years ago we went to Phillip Island and watched the penguins come in from the sea and waddle back to their nests. It was an amazing experience. I remember one or two penguins came out of the water first and then panicked and went back and waited offshore for more of their buddies to show up. You can’t actually see it in person due to Covid. But you can watch it online. Remember, there is a time difference between where you live and Australia, unless you do live in Australia. Oliver time. ��So proud of himself for climbing up on his chair. Flashback: one day we decided to visit further into Spain. First we crossed the French Pyrenees. �����We stopped on the way up at Ax les Thermes. Ax (from Latin Aquae – water; French Thermes – hot springs), situated at an elevation of 700 metres (2,300 ft), is well known for its sulphurous hot springs (25 to 78 °C or 77 to 172 °F). The waters, which were used by the Romans, were historically claimed to treat rheumatism, skin diseases, and other maladies. The springs were developed in the medieval period on the orders of Saint Louis to treat soldiers returning from the Crusades afflicted with leprosy. From the 19th century, a spa tourism industry developed. Wikipedia The top photo is of public hot pool (no I didn’t try it). The spa is still big business, winter and summer. Next 3 photos: Col de Puymorens which is the mountain pass in the French Pyrenees. then two towers which used to guard the mountain pass and lastly a stream by the roadside. Tomorrow, Puigcerda in Spain. Traveling to various towns around us we often drove along the freeway and passed by Carcassone. It always enchanted me, rising up like a fairy tale castle in the middle of the surrounding fields. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-26_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-168 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-26 Title A name given to the resource Day 168 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/380c29263a318c500f0064f0507724f5.pdf 71a20f66c0a06b9f8c1ba823f1072ade PDF Text Text Day 167 by windoworks This is the actual meaning of the word ‘liberal’. Last night the GOP Convention began. I did not watch it but reports seem to suggest that there was no plan offered, instead the time was spent badmouthing Biden and Harris and promising chaos and destruction if Biden wins the presidency. In my entire life, I never for one minute imagined I would end up living in a country where the leader would try to turn his leadership �into a dictatorship by any means at all. Its as if we have all fallen asleep and are suffering one of those awful nightmares that you can’t seem to wake up from. Here’s an opinion piece from John Pavlovitz: The lesser of two evils. The truth is, the lesser of two evils didn’t win in 2016, the singular evil did. His body of work, as they say, is what it is. Debating that at this point is ridiculous. The only people still defending him are brainwashed Evangelicals, looney conspiracy theorists, and abject racists. The raking light of history is recording all of it, whether these people like it or not. The human rights violations and the assaults on our Constitution and the attacks on our institutions and the rampant criminality cannot be denied or explained away or buried in fake Fox News headlines. Joe Biden is not the lesser of two evils, because he is not evil by any measure. He is a profoundly decent man: a man of faith, a man of compassion; a man who is willing to listen to different viewpoints, capable of evolving, and able to admit his mistakes. He is a man who loves deeply, mourns greatly, and gives fully. He is a man with actual meaningful, healthy relationships with other human beings. He is a humble man who sees others as more important than himself. In other words, he is everything his opponent is not. He is one of us. He is human. We need more human these days. �Here’s the Republican convention in a nutshell. Now you don’t need to watch any of the remaining 3 nights. From Crooked Media: Will the Republican convention be defined by pathetic displays of loyalty to President Trump? By selfpromotion opportunities for members of Trump’s family? By lies and conspiracies about everything from voting by mail to coronavirus, all piped into millions of American households? The answer, my friends, is all three! • It’s hard to know in advance what the most leader-worshipy aspect of the convention will be, but the GOP offered a half-embarrassing, half-terrifying preview this weekend when it announced that it would forego drafting an official party platform beyond “the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump �and his Administration.” Under normal circumstances, the two parties’ presidential nominees have a lot of influence over the party platforms that must nevertheless be negotiated among party members. In Donald Trump’s GOP, the party exists to support whatever it is Donald Trump says he wants at any given moment, including such inspiring policies as “Return to normal in 2021,” which absolutely makes you think of something you’d get by voting for…Donald Trump. There’s been a disturbing development which answers one question I had: can you get Covid -19 more than once? Scientists have discovered the answer might be yes: Washington Post: After recovering from covid-19 in mid-April, a 33-year-old man in Hong Kong was reinfected by a different strain of the coronavirus months later, a study says. Researchers say it's “the world’s first documentation” of a patient who recovered subsequently being reinfected, and the case has implications for vaccine development. But some immunologists said this case was not a surprise and one called it “no cause for alarm.” And: Atlantic: Ed Yong, who wrote a primer on just how complicated immunology is, put this new development into context. Here’s how he’s thinking about it: In this immunology explainer, I noted that some anecdotal accounts of COVID-19 reinfections exist, but to confirm them, you’d need to sequence the genes of the virus from both infections and show they were subtly different. A Hong Kong team has apparently done that. If true, this would be the first confirmed case of reinfection. As I wrote, it’s not surprising or worrying if reinfections can happen. Well I’m alarmed. After having it once, you can get it again? How does that affect a vaccine? How do we know how strong the second infection might be? And more importantly (which no one seems to answer) how many strains of the virus are there? To take our minds off this worry, I offer this tidbit from Jim Talen, Kent County Commisoner: In Finland, the number of people experiencing homeless has fallen sharply. An article in Scoop.me suggests that the reason is that the country applies the "Housing First" concept. Those affected by homelessness receive a small apartment and counseling - without any preconditions. As a result, 4 out of 5 people make their way back into a stable life. And the costs of providing Housing First services are less than the overall community costs of homelessness. Oliver! ��Great Aunt Bernie found a slide at her work. It was from a tv story long forgotten and so she brought it home. He loves it! We watched him ‘slide’ down it safely several times. Flashback: we visited this tiny village by accident. It had an ancient church built into the rock behind and it had a graveyard extending behind the church. Wikipedia: Vals is known for the church "Eglise Rupestre de Vals" which is built into the giant rocks that make up its foundation. Picturesque in itself, it has a view of the valley spread out before it. ������The graveyard, the church outside, the medieval painted ceiling, inside the tiny church and the sign which shows Vals is a stop on the Piedmont Hiking Trails. This morning a man is coming to repair the pilot light on our living room gas fireplace. Craig has finished the gardens, back and front, he has cleaned out the basement and the garage, and he has cleared the common space behind our garage and behind our back garden. Once upon a time, that common space was an alley that the children would play up and down in. Now it is a forgotten space which grows enormous nettles and Boxelder bushes. Craig is allergic to Boxelders, so he wore his industrial mask, goggles and gloves. Having run out of heavy jobs, he is now going through old slide boxes, keeping some for transference to digital copies and discarding the rest. After this, he will begin sorting the books (largely his books) throughout our house. I have taken up baking gluten free breads, rolls, cakes, slices etc. In a show of backbone, I refuse to bake some new sweet treat until the current one is finished. I have begun roasting tomatoes for freezing in bags for later use, as we simply can’t keep up with the huge number of tomato varieties our plants are producing. Our cabbages and cauliflowers look to be forming tiny florets but the broccoli is lagging behind. We have eaten an enormous amount of mozzarella, basil, tomato and avocado salads, as the 6 basil plants are prolific too. �This is my 5th day inside the house. The pollen count has been high and my phone keeps alerting me to just how high it is. I am in isolation now until Friday morning when I have my first cataract surgery scheduled for 9:30am. They told me I will be relaxed but awake as the doctor will be talking to me. I hope I’m really relaxed! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-25_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-167 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-25 Title A name given to the resource Day 167 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4947635eafe1e36c9260d94f89558989.pdf 6cc06de5e4c9b06143cc84af1167f4c0 PDF Text Text Day 166 by windoworks This morning I read a story in the Washington Post which described what happened to a family of 5 parents, 2 teenage boys and 1 girl. Both healthy fit teenage boys ended up in intensive care, and then both boys were given this treatment in an effort to save their lives. �Doctor: We used ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machines for both boys, and that’s the highest form of life support we can offer. Ninety-five percent of our ECMO patients would be dead without it. The machine essentially replaces your heart and your lungs by pumping blood out of your body, oxygenating it, and then sending it back. It’s last-resort. We’re pushing the boundaries of physiology and bringing a patient to places they would never have gone on their own. You’re suspending someone in the state right before death and keeping them in that place for days or weeks so their lungs have a chance to recover. They were both in a coma state for about a month. Both boys then recovered but face months of physical and speech therapy. The psychological scars are deep. The scary part for me is that this was another family who followed all the rules - stayed home, wore masks, socially distanced and washed hands. The father got it first and then the mother. Both parents had mild symptoms and the daughter never got it. There seems no rhyme or reason as to who gets it and who doesn’t; whose symptoms ate mild and whose are acute and then life threatening. So, holiday season shopping. Washington Post: The global pandemic and economic crisis have reshaped nearly every aspect of American life, and the holiday season will be no different. Retailers are reimagining a shopping experience that has long hinged on Black Friday doorbuster deals and shelves of impulse buys. This year, analysts say, they are rethinking what they want to sell — and how. The stakes are higher than ever: More than a dozen major retailers have already filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic and many others are at risk of running out of cash if sales don’t pick up soon. And persuading cash-strapped Americans — including nearly 30 million who are collecting unemployment benefits — to splurge on clothes, toys and electronics will be tougher than usual. Here are five ways holiday shopping will be different this year. 1. Closed on Thanksgiving After years of kicking off Black Friday sales before the turkey went into the oven, a number of the nation’s largest retailers now plan to stay shut on Thanksgiving Day. Walmart led the charge when it announced last month that all 4,750 U.S. stores would close on the holiday, for the first time in more than 30 years. Target, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Kohl’s quickly followed, citing safety concerns and consumers’ growing reliance on online shopping. 2. Holiday sales will begin much earlier Retailers will roll out deals sooner — before Halloween. Target kicks off holiday sales in October, upping the ante for retailers in the race to rack up sales during the all-important fourth quarter. The three-month period can easily account for 30 to 40 percent of a company’s annual sales. �3. Outdoor markets and parking lot pop-ups Retailers have spent millions building up their websites with virtual try-on capabilities and other features during the pandemic. But analysts say it also will be important for them to find ways to safely accommodate consumers who want to browse and buy in person. 4. Fewer experiences, more traditional gifts After years of splurging on experiences like travel and entertainment, analysts say they expect gift givers to return to basics. 5. Larger, more expensive toys Overall toy sales have fallen about 20 percent at MGA Entertainment, the giant behind popular brands like L.O.L. Surprise! and Bratz dolls. But there’s one notable exception: Its Little Tikes line, where sales of ride-on toys, trampolines and $1,600 play scapes have nearly tripled in recent weeks, according to chief executive Isaac Larian. In a Washington Post piece about the contentious USPS, 5 myths are cited. You can read that for yourself but I have included the closing paragraph. 20 years ago, when the USPS and FedEx were negotiating a collaboration, then-Postmaster General William Henderson told the Wall Street Journal that “FedEx really has some infrastructure that we need, and we have some infrastructure that they need.” FedEx works in concert with the post office, which is FedEx’s largest customer. If all Americans were reliant on private carriers, some could be deprived of vital delivery services that those carriers deem insufficiently profitable: Unlike Japan or Britain — smaller nations with limited postal privatization — the United States spans several time zones and is, in many places, thinly settled. The post office provides “last mile” delivery in many areas likely too remote or too costly for FedEx. I have seen some posts which are saying things like ‘Oh all right, Biden then’. But its not just Biden or Harris you are voting for. �The GOP National Convention begins tonight. It will feature Trump speaking on all 4 nights (of course, because he’s the most important one), and it will be mostly about the complete destruction of America if Joe Biden wins. Oh really? I could have sworn we were almost at that point now under Trump. The line �up seems to feature every Trump family member (except those that have spoken out against him recently) and some other notables. In other news: Washington Post: Mei Xiang, the National Zoo’s female giant panda, delivered a “miracle” cub Friday — becoming at 22 the oldest giant panda to give birth in the United States and giving Washington its first giant panda cub in five years, the zoo said. The cub was born about 6:30 p.m., after Mei Xiang had been in labor for about 3½ hours. It could be heard squawking on the zoo’s panda cam, as its mother licked and cradled it. The pregnancy had been “a miracle” because at her age Mei Xiang had a less than 1 percent chance of having another cub, the zoo said. “This is like that Hail Mary football pass,” chief veterinarian Don Neiffer said last week. While the pandemic continues to surge and ebb, the fires rage in California, a bitter election campaign being waged on both sides, schools reopen and abruptly close again, there is also this: Washington Post: The northern Gulf Coast is bracing for a rare one-two hurricane punch as one tropical storm and one hurricane — Laura and Marco, respectively — set their sights between Louisiana and East Texas. After Marco sweeps inland, Laura will follow late Wednesday or early Thursday. Parts of Louisiana could be affected by hurricanes twice in three days for which there is no recorded precedent. Compared with predictions on Saturday night, the track forecast for Laura has shifted west, increasing the threat for western Louisiana and eastern Texas, and decreasing the threat for New Orleans. Houston �should pay particular attention to Laura. While Marco is expected to come ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, there is an increasing risk that Laura could rapidly intensify into a more dangerous storm, rated Category 2 or higher. Authors note: As I posted this, this morning, Marco has weakened to a tropical storm, while Laura continues to intensify. In other, other news, Auckland, New Zealand will come out of lockdown at level 3 on Sunday August 30 and will join the rest of New Zealand at level 2 - with some restrictions on gathering size etc. Masks on public transport across New Zealand will be made mandatory. Oliver time. ��Walking with Great Aunt Bernie. Flashback: we celebrated Thanksgiving by ourselves in our house in La Bastide. I decided to roast a chicken but disturbingly, chickens come whole with feet and head attached if you buy them from the butcher. Also, when you buy pumpkin to roast, they cut you off a slice of your choosing at the market booth. �����The snow covered mountains in the distance over the farmers fields are the Pyrenees. Also, in the bottom photo this is the first ploughing. The farmer will plough it finer in the second ploughing a week or so later. I learnt more about crop farming in 2 months than ever before. �Craig guessed (correctly) that I was number 4. How about you? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-24_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-166 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-24 Title A name given to the resource Day 166 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4c68ef5b7f7633da4d0283f011093ce8.pdf 09b60a81f036059e22e314b30d49e8da PDF Text Text Day 165 by windoworks Tomorrow morning I have to have another Covid-19 test. This will be my third test. No, its not that I think I have the virus. The first test happened months ago when Craig was feeling ill and the doctor suggested we both get tested. I wrote about that in my blog. We were both negative. My second test was about 3 1/2 weeks ago and it was because I had an appointment to see an ENT specialist. Again it was negative. My third test tomorrow is in preparation for my cataract surgery. I hear there is a new spit test, which I believe is even more accurate. The long stick up your nose is really invasive, especially as they rotate it 4 times, to make sure they get enough matter to test. But here’s a new development: Washington Post: Blaze is one of nine dogs enrolled in a University of Pennsylvania study into whether dogs can detect a distinct smell in people infected with the novel coronavirus. His triumph on that early July day — selecting a can containing urine from a hospitalized coronavirus-positive patient over an array of potentially confusing alternatives — is a key step in a training process that may one day allow dogs to pick out infected individuals, including those who are asymptomatic, in nursing homes, businesses and airports, potentially screening as many as 250 people an hour. Blaze’s success also marks an advance in the evolving field of olfactory disease detection — the concept that many human illnesses, including emerging diseases, are characterized by distinct “odorprints” that can be identified by both dogs and artificial noses, which could be quicker, less invasive and more accurate than current forms of clinical testing. The story continues with Blaze selecting a can of urine from a patient that tested negative. The researchers thought this was a mistake until all the dogs selected the same can. Upon further investigation, it turned out the can of negative urine was from a patient had previously tested positive. So the dogs were identifying some lingering trace of the virus. Louis DeJoy will testify before the House tomorrow, but in the meantime, here’s a story I didn’t know: Washington Post: The Postal Service has over 100 years of experience shipping live animals, starting in 1918 when it began allowing live day-old chicks to be mailed. Newly hatched chicks are uniquely amenable to mailing as they can survive without food or water for 72 hours after hatching, according to a bulletin by the Poultry Welfare Extension, a project of several public universities. Today, millions of pounds of live poultry get mailed each year, according to the Extension, although exact numbers are not available and representatives from the Postal Service did not respond to requests for comment. And poultry is just the beginning. The agency also has highly detailed regulations for the safe shipping of bees, adult birds, scorpions and “other small, harmless, coldblooded animals,” from worms to lizards. Bees, for instance, may not be shipped via air, with the exception of queen bees, who may travel by air �“accompanied by up to eight attendant honeybees.” In addition to chickens, other poultry species that can be shipped when chicks are a day old include “ducks, emus, geese, guinea birds, partridges, pheasants (only during April through August), quail, and turkeys.” Chicks of any species older than 24 hours may not be shipped. Many adult birds, however, can be shipped, provided they weigh between 6 ounces and 25 pounds, which is enormous for a bird — approximately the size of an adult pelican. The Postal Service is mentioned in our constitution, and provides a lot of important services to Americans, as a recent post put it. “It was never created to be a business, but instead a service to unify the nation.” This is a photo taken from the hills somewhere in California, possibly outside Los Angeles. I think thats a smoke haze. Thank you Merrilyn. �New York Times: Why Does California Have So Many Wildfires? There are four key ingredients to the disastrous wildfire seasons in the West, and climate change figures prominently. More than 400,000 acres have been burned in Northern and Central California, with many of the fires set off by nearly 11,000 lightning strikes. High temperatures and strong winds have made the situation even worse. Evacuation orders in Santa Cruz County covered 48,000 people, including the campus of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and those being evacuated must weigh the risks of seeking refuge in evacuation shelters in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. People living far beyond the burn zone are struggling with the smoke, and beloved sites like Big Basin Redwoods State Park have been badly damaged. 1. The (changing) climate: Fire, in some ways, is a very simple thing. As long as stuff is dry enough and there’s a spark, then that stuff will burn. 2. People: Even if the conditions are right for a wildfire, you still need something or someone to ignite it. Sometimes the trigger is nature, like a lightning strike, but more often than not humans are responsible. 3. Fire suppression: It’s counterintuitive, but the United States’ history of suppressing wildfires has actually made present-day wildfires worse. �4. The Santa Ana winds: Each fall, strong gusts known as the Santa Ana winds bring dry air from the Great Basin area of the West into Southern California. In Australia, its all about controlled burns. If you burn off the undergrowth, the fire has a more difficult path from tree to tree. However, controlled burns are always a contentious issue. Meanwhile, its all about the election. We had the Democratic Convention and now the Republican. Did the DNC set the bar too high? Atlantic: COVID-19 is changing us. Next week, Americans will likely get a glimpse of what happens when change is resisted. Just as the Democrats lagged the Republicans into the TV era mid-century, the Republican convention planners of 2020 seem to lag behind their Democratic counterparts. President Donald Trump, until the last possible moment, clung to his hope of an in-person convention with cheering throngs and balloon drops. His shrunken and homogeneous party will have more trouble assembling the motley cast of characters the Democrats did, and his prolonged refusal to accept the reality of a virtual convention has abridged his team’s preparation time. But reality prevailed after all, and the Republicans will now have to match the Democratic accomplishment. COVID-19 will likely be overcome by 2024. But the changes it has wrought to conventions and campaigns are likely to prove enduring because they better fit the way Americans now consume and share information. The Democratic virtual convention was the first of the Facebook era. It will not be the last. Now this was so confusing: you have to show your ID to watch the Democratic Convention? �And in case you decide that you will vote in person on November 3, here’s your essential checklist: ��Oliver stayed overnight with Bernie and Drew, his great aunt and uncle. We FaceTimed about their breakfast time and he seemed to be having a wonderful time. Great Uncle Drew tried to teach him how to climb down stairs safely backwards, with mixed success. Oliver loves to chase Archie, their cat and I have to say, Archie is pretty good with Oliver. A close encounter with various water birds ���And chewing a laundry peg because his teeth are driving him crazy. He has 8 teeth but I think his eye teeth are moving. And look at those eyelashes - aren’t they gorgeous? Flashback: Remember I told you that Mirepoix was just up the road from us? Every Monday we went to the Farmers Market there and then had lunch afterwards. The vendors got to know us quite well and our favorite butcher’s van staff liked to practice their English with us, while politely correcting our French. �����There were always music performers on Market Day. In the second photo he is playing a bone flute (Craig was most impressed). Remember I told you about the wooden carvings dejecting residents? Here are some weathered by time. One day the Plat du Jour in our favorite cafe was basically a meat plate - Craig devoured it. And this is the walking trail out of Mirepoix, again along a disused railway track. I have been inside for 2 days now and this is my third day. The pollen count outside this morning is so high, my weather app sent me an alarm. Each day it is set to expire at 12am, and each day it extends to the next day. The air quality is Fair and the pollens are Ragweed, Nettle and Chenapods. I know I’m allergic to Ragweed, and I feel so crappy I think I might be allergic to the others. Inside in the air conditioning seems to be the only thing that works. From tomorrow onwards, after my covid test, I have to isolate until my surgery on Friday. This is a real test of my inner resolve. I hope I’m up to it. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-165 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 165 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ae62f78b4abdbc20b5b39d564b1b385b.pdf df95492d55fb36d03f5b512121d791bd PDF Text Text Day 164 by windoworks Stats. Worldwide total cases: 23M, deaths: 799K. US: 5.64M (up 49,743 from yesterday), deaths: 175K (up 1,113 from yesterday). The state and county data are not available due to technical problems. There has been no update in figures for 2 days. However, I did read that 2 days ago, the percent positive virus rate for the east side of the state was between 4 - 7%. John Hopkins: The percent positive is exactly what it sounds like: the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive, or: (positive tests)/(total tests) x 100%. The percent positive (sometimes called the “percent positive rate” or “positivity rate”) helps public health officials answer questions such as: What is the current level of SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) transmission in the community? Are we doing enough testing for the amount of people who are getting infected? The threshold is 5% - that is, under 5% is better. However this doesn’t mean the virus is gone. This rate can easily swing back up again if people are not careful. Its that rollercoaster effect. Countries in Europe are struggling again with surges, as is Victoria, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. I hear a lot about herd immunity. Here’s some facts from the Mayo Clinic: Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune. Often, a percentage of the population must be capable of getting a disease in order for it to spread. This is called a threshold proportion. If the proportion of the population that is immune to the disease is greater than this threshold, the spread of the disease will decline. This is known as the herd immunity threshold. And to follow up: From Coronavirus Community Resource Michigan While there is still a lot we don’t know about the virus and its effects, here’s what we do know: COVID-19 antibodies don’t seem to last very long and no one is sure that they offer protection from being reinfected. �Natural herd immunity comes at too high of a cost and may not be possible considering it’s unknown how soon reinfection is possible after recovering from the virus. A vaccine will be necessary to reach herd immunity but it will take more than just a viable vaccine to stop COVID. And while this is one of the all consuming topics in our lives, other things are happening. Washington Post: MOSCOW — Alexei Navalny, Russia’s main opposition figure, was in a coma Thursday after drinking a cup of tea that his spokeswoman suspected was deliberately laced with poison — a method used before in plots linked to Russian agents by Western intelligence and others. Kira Yarmysh said on Twitter that Navalny, 44, started to feel ill during a flight to Moscow from the Siberian city of Tomsk, leading the pilot to make an emergency landing in Omsk, where he was taken to a hospital and was on a ventilator. Navalny’s possible poisoning is the latest in a series of similar fates suffered by high-profile Kremlin critics, stoking speculation of the regime’s involvement. Yarmysh asserted on Twitter: “This is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.” “Whether he personally gave the order or not, the blame is entirely with him,” she added. Meanwhile, Germany and France offered medical treatment for Navalny, whose apparent poisoning brought parallels with other such incidents suspected of having links to the Russian state. (Authors update: Alexei Navalny has been flown to Germany for treatment - well its hard to ignore news stories all around the world). And this is good news: NPR: Michigan has reached a $600 million agreement to compensate Flint residents for the state's role in failing to protect them from lead-tainted water, the state's attorney general says. The deal "puts the needs of Flint's children first," Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said in an announcement Thursday. A summary of the settlement shows that nearly 80% of the money would go to resolve claims filed on behalf of minors and children. And now from Crooked Media (and do I hear your jaw hitting the floor?) �• The Trump administration will put coronavirus-data collection back in the hands of the CDC, after the abrupt shift to a new HHS reporting system caused delays and data inconsistencies, just like public health experts warned it would. Good—now to find outexactly why it happened in the first place. • In the meantime, it’s on to the next: The White House has barred the FDA from regulating coronavirus tests. Approved labs will be able to make and sell tests without having to provide data on their reliability, and just speaking for ourselves here, accuracy is one of our favorite coronavirus-test features. • President Trump casually suggested withholding federal aid for California amid raging wildfires, because California didn’t take his suggestion to rake forest floors. Trump’s own former DHS chief of staff said Trump tried to withhold emergency funding for California because Californians didn’t vote for him. • Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear he’s open to abolishing the filibuster if Joe Biden wins with a Democratic Senate majority. Let’s get it done → �Washington Post: “We’re going to have everything,” the president said. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to hopefully have U.S. attorneys and we’re going to have everybody, and attorney generals. But it’s very hard.” �Trump’s remarks are part of a pattern of comments in which he has suggested he is willing to take actions to impede how people cast their ballots this fall. He has repeatedly sought to undermine confidence in the November vote, making false claims about the integrity of mail-in balloting and raising the specter of widespread electoral fraud. Earlier this month, he floated the idea of withholding election money from states and refusing funding for the U.S. Postal Service so as to curtail the use of voting by mail. The president has limited authority to order law enforcement to patrol polling places. Sheriff’s deputies and police officers are commanded at the local level, and a federal law bars U.S. government officials from sending “armed men” to the vicinity of polling places. But civil rights advocates said they feared Trump’s words could inspire local officials to act on his behalf. And they said even the threat of encountering police officers at the polls could be frightening to some voters, particularly in communities of color where residents are distrustful of the police. “This is just such an old, dirty voter suppression tactic,” said Kristen Clarke, who leads the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “There is no doubt that this is about instilling fear and depressing participation in communities of color.” Is it time to lie down on the floor and moan now? There are 72 days to the election. That means 72 more days of insane tweets, threats and misinformation from Trump, his colleagues and supporters. 72 more days of anxiety for all Americans stuck in a never ending pandemic and failing economy when all Trump cares about is another term as President. He offers nothing in terms of plans or programs and instead has spent over 1 billion dollars on his reelection campaign. I ask myself every morning: how did we end up here? And before you ask, of course we voted for Hillary. The things Trump said in 2016 as he was campaigning gave everyone a clear indication of what sort of president he would be. Time for Oliver, I think. ��Lastours: Lastours is located 12 km (7.5 mi) outside Carcassonne, in the valley of the Orbiel. There are four small castles each built on a large 300 m high rocky ridge. The castles were built to control the access to Montagne Noire and the Cabardes region. These are some of the few original Cathar castles left. In the Middle Ages, the site belonged to the lords of Cabaret, mentioned for the first time in 1067. Their wealth came mainly from the exploitation of iron mines. Probably only three castles were built in the 11th century and their sites evolved over the years following demolition and successive rebuilding. During this period, there were at least 22 lords of Cabaret. Wikipedia. �������From the top: this is as far as I climbed; a quick photo of Craig before he climbed further up while I sat on a rock and gazed at the scenery; access through this tunnel; 4 castles; in the village looking up, and part way up looking down at the village in the ravine. Remember: rise up and vote. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-164 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 164 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/cd6ad92cf2cfd39c1549979ae778dd50.pdf 7c8545c240840ce2b1c27f8911ac3f5a PDF Text Text Day 163 by windoworks Whatever else you can say about this pandemic - its never boring. In this moment, and I hope I’m not hoping too foolishly, a lot of chickens seem to be coming home to roost. In case that old expression is meaningless to you -it means your evil actions catch up with you. Speaking of chickens, here’s this: This is his million dollar yacht that Steve Bannon was arrested on yesterday. Here’s why: Washington Post: Federal prosecutors in New York unsealed criminal charges Thursday against Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, and three other men they alleged defrauded donors to a massive crowdfunding campaign that claimed to be raising money for construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In a news release, prosecutors said Bannon and another organizer, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, lied when they claimed they would not take any compensation as part of the campaign, called “We Build the Wall.” Bannon, prosecutors alleged, received more than $1 million through a nonprofit entity he controlled, sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage while keeping a “substantial portion” for himself. The campaign, publicly supported by several of the president’s allies, raised more than $25 million through hundreds of thousands of donors, the news release states. �And also: Washington Post: NEW YORK — President Trump's latest attempt to shield his tax records from the Manhattan district attorney was rejected Thursday by a federal judge who said Trump's legal team failed to show the subpoena was issued "in bad faith," as they had argued. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero threw out Trump’s lawsuit attempting to block the subpoena, which his lawyers have called “overbroad” in its request for documents and tantamount to “harassment.” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who is seeking eight years of the president’s financial records from his accounting firm, has argued the grand-jury subpoena is legally valid and tied to a legitimate criminal investigation. “The Court finds that the President has not sufficiently pled that the subpoena is overbroad or was issued in bad faith on this basis,” the judge wrote in his ruling, which follows a major Supreme Court opinion last month that determined Trump, as sitting president, was not immune from state court actions or criminal investigation. The district attorney’s office recently suggested it is also looking at potential bank and insurance fraud related to the Trump Organization. I’m not even going to discuss this but I like this poster. Meanwhile it appears Louis DeJoy got his Postmaster General job illegally: NPR: A pair of House Democrats are raising questions about whether a member of the U.S. Postal Service board of governors skirted typical practices to influence the hiring of Louis DeJoy as postmaster general. Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Katie Porter, D-Calif., sent a letter to USPS board member John �Barger raising questions about his role in recommending DeJoy for the position, according to a copy of the letter obtained by NPR. The letter cites reports that DeJoy was not included in a pool of candidates cultivated and vetted by an outside hiring firm contracted to fill the job. "According to individuals familiar with the process, Mr. Louis DeJoy was never recommended by this firm but was rather introduced by you to the selection committee," the letter reads. "It would have been irregular for a member of the USPS Board of Governors, such as yourself, to recommend Mr. DeJoy without the consultation, research, or support of the contracted hiring firm Russell Reynolds Associates." Hands up if you’re really tired of the good ole boy network handing out jobs to all their sleazy friends. In a flash of hope and inspiration, I watched all of Joe Biden’s acceptance speech. I felt as though he spoke directly to me and he told me the unvarnished truth. I’ve always like to know the bottom line. In America I have often upset people by asking what the bottom line was. I have always believed that if you know exactly where you are at any point, then you have something to build on and rise up. Washington Post: WILMINGTON, Del. – A vice-presidential pick historically plays the starring role in leveling attacks on the other party’s nominee. At this unconventional Democratic convention, everybody is doing it. “We are a nation that is grieving — grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy, and, yes, the loss of certainty,” Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said here on Wednesday night as she became the first woman of color to accept the nomination for vice president from a major political party. “The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone. It’s a lot.” �Here’s the latest news from Zar in New Zealand: 11 new cases - 9 from the Auckland cluster, 2 from the border. 170,515 tests performed since the outbreak began on Tuesday last week. Covid variety in the cluster is B111. I had no idea that Covid has different strains, so I looked it up: NZ Herald: the Auckland cluster strain, called B111, seems to act differently to the most widespread strain that was in the country earlier this year. The B111 does seem to be reasonably infectious, in that people show symptoms reasonably soon after exposure to it. That differs a bit to some of the ones dealt with earlier on, where there was often quite a gap there. �When viruses produce symptoms earlier in the infectious period it can help those carrying them to take action to get diagnosed and isolate themselves earlier, which can help slow transmission. I’m not sure how I feel about different strains. I’m having enough trouble dealing with what I thought was one strain. There are 11 days left until Craig returns to hybrid teaching at GVSU. All students will be asked to sign a pledge. Hmmm. In other virus and school related news, there’s this: Washington Post: Are children the coronavirus’s secret weapon? Because they experience few symptoms of covid-19, children were largely ignored and untested during the early weeks of the pandemic. “But they may have been acting as silent spreaders all along,” our health desk wrote. A study in the Journal of Pediatrics found high levels of the virus in children's airways, even when they had mild or no symptoms. Previous studies have reached similar conclusions, and researchers are trying to figure out how worried we should be about the children. "Some people thought that children might be protected,” one of the study's authors told The Washington Post. “This is incorrect. They may be as susceptible as adults — but just not visible.” ��In case you’re feeling overwhelmed: Washington Post: In the midst of a raging pandemic and widespread social unrest, these days it can feel as if reassuring platitudes are inescapable. “Everything will be fine.” “It could be worse.” “Look on the bright side.” But as well intentioned as those who lean on such phrases may be, experts are cautioning against going overboard with the “good vibes only” trend. Too much forced positivity is not just unhelpful, they say — it’s toxic. “While cultivating a positive mind-set is a powerful coping mechanism, toxic positivity stems from the idea that the best or only way to cope with a bad situation is to put a positive spin on it and not dwell on the negative,” said Natalie Dattilo, a clinical health psychologist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It results from our tendency to undervalue negative emotional experiences and overvalue positive ones.” Think of it as having “a few too many scoops of ice cream,” Dattilo said. “It’s really good and it makes us feel better, but you can overdo it,” she said. “Then, it makes us sick. “Or trying to shove ice cream into somebody’s face when they don’t feel like having ice cream,” she continued. “That’s not really going to make them feel better.” “By far the most common [phrase] is ‘It’s fine,’ ‘It will be fine,’ ” said Stephanie Preston, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. “You’re stating that there really isn’t a problem that needs to be addressed, period. You’re kind of shutting out the possibility for further contemplation.” F.I.N.E is an acronym for F***ed up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional. Remember that when you automatically answer ‘Fine’ next time. Now: Oliver. �Inside the playhouse at daycare. Flashback: We did a lot of walking in France. It is such a beautiful area and I especially loved the Voie Verte because the tracks were smooth and often flat. �����A lot of these trails were old disused railway lines, or paths through farmland, alongside streams and rivers, behind people’s houses and in and out of villages. At the bottom here is a lonely donkey we walked by. Yesterday we were talking about transportation here in the States that may fall into disuse because of the pandemic. I think some of these such as suburban train lines could easily be converted into walking tracks like the Highline in New York City. �Remember: RISE! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-163 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 163 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2371385d89c76e871d9e74f47ed6d701.pdf 6d30ee99353fae1aacabb70104ceb3be PDF Text Text Day 162 by windoworks This morning when I woke at my usual time, somewhere around 6am, the sky was still dark. The days are shortening again and although its warm during the day, the early mornings are cool and crisp. Soon the leaves will begin to change and the wheel of the year will keep turning. I began this blog at the tail end of winter, wrote all through spring and into summer. It has become my contribution to the pandemic. It is being saved in the Pandemic Archives at Grand Valley State University and may soon be saved by the Archives at Grand Rapids Public Library. I sometimes imagine 100 years into the future when some student or researcher might read my posts to get some idea of what it was like to live through such difficult and turbulent times. On that note: �Last night on the third night of the Democratic National Convention, several luminaries spoke and Kamala Harris formally accepted the nomination of Vice Presidental candidate. This morning Craig and I watched President Obama’s speech. After years of not commenting on Trump’s amazing lies about him as well as �blaming President Obama for everything including the pandemic, Obama spoke out. Here’s a small part of what he said: Washington Post: In his speech, Obama said that the man he hoped would rise to the task had utterly failed — and didn’t really even try. He never did,” Obama said. “For close to four years now, he’s shown no interest in putting in the work, no interest in finding common ground, no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends, no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. “Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever.” The comments echoed former first lady Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night, when she said Trump “cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us.” Barack Obama also suggested that Trump used law enforcement as political pawns and averted “facts and science and logic” in favor of “just making stuff up.” Obama added: “This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that’s what it takes for them to win.” I find all those words to be both true and extremely upsetting, but that last sentence quoted is the most disturbing of all. I know you are all wondering - did I cry? Yes, I did. It is so hard to hear such a competent, intelligent person speak and know they are not our President anymore. Later today I will watch Hillary Clinton’s speech, but I have already heard one of the takeaways: the distressing number of people who said to her face: oh I didn’t bother to vote. Here’s some tidbits from Crooked Media: 1. Addressing the virtual audience live from his Firewood Room, Bernie Sanders urgently warned that Trump is leading the U.S. “down the path of authoritarianism,” and that the moment demanded “an unprecedented response — a movement like never before.” Sanders once again called on progressives, along with all other Democrats and regretful Trump voters, to unite behind Joe Biden: “The future of our democracy is at stake. The future of our economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake.” Also, a chef’s kiss for this line: “Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Trump golfs.” 2. The GOP-led Senate intelligence committee’s final report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election revealed new, even closer connections between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. A few of the stunning revelations: the committee identified Paul Manafort’s associate Konstantin Kilimnik as a Russian intelligence officer, who may have had direct involvement in the GRU’s email hacking operation. The investigation found that two other individuals who met with Trump’s senior advisors (including Jared Kushner and Don Jr.) had “significant connections to the Russian government, including the Russian �intelligence services.” President Trump did indeed discuss the stolen Democratic emails with Roger Stone, contrary to what Trump told Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the campaign worked with WikiLeaks to time the release of the emails to mitigate fallout from the Access Hollywood tape. Again, this report is the result of a bipartisan investigation, and it’s more damning than Mueller’s own findings: Trump’s campaign coordinated directly with Russian intelligence, and Trump knew about and welcomed the election interference. 3, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy did not take this job expecting to get yelled at. DeJoy released a statement today promising to put some USPS policy changes on hold for now, since all of you insist on being so paranoid: “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.” The statement notably says nothing about reversing the changes that have already contributed to mail delays. Will the mail-sorting machines that have already been removed from facilities be put back? Will postal workers still be instructed to leave mail behind? At least 20 states have joined lawsuits against DeJoy and the USPS, and DeJoy will still testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday. Republicans have also called him to appear before a GOP-led Senate committee on Friday to “tell his side of the story” first. Clever, but you know who else is on that panel? Kamala Harris. My daughter Zoe put me on to Crooked Media. Every evening I get a daily wrap up under the heading ‘What A Day’. I enjoy it immensely. Their writers tell it like it is and call everyone to account. It is affiliated with PodSave America, for those of you who enjoy daily podcasts. ��Two photos of early morning in locked down Auckland, courtesy of my son Zar. Yesterday Auckland had 5 new cases, all linked to the Auckland cluster. They carried out 18,091 tests yesterday and 1,626M have downloaded the government Contact Tracing App - just under 1 third of the total New Zealand population. That’s impressive. And genomic testing of the cool store where the first case came from has ruled out transmission from chilled products. In Melbourne, Victoria they had 240 new cases yesterday and 13 deaths. 240 is a lot better than 700+ but they are not out of the woods yet. Here’s an article about Covid ‘long haulers’. The Atlantic: Caroline Mimbs Nyce: What’s a “long-hauler”? And what do we know about them? Ed Yong: Long-haulers are people who have had COVID-19 symptoms for a long time. Many of them have been sick for four months, five months, six months. And there are probably hundreds of thousands of them. We still don’t know the actual numbers. One of the most common things you’ll hear from long-haulers is that doctors have told them repeatedly that their symptoms are just anxiety or stress or in their heads. And to be clear, these are people who have crushing fatigue. They have all these incredibly intense physical symptoms, and they are being turned away by people who just don’t believe them. Caroline: In today’s piece, you argue that the long-hauler story is a kind of microcosm of the pandemic. �Can you explain what you mean by that? Ed: We need to remember that a lot of the pandemic has less to do with personal problems and mostly with systemic failures. And I think in some ways, the long-hauler story reminds us of that. We often think of recovery from a disease as having to do with an individual—you fight off the virus— but so much of actual recovery depends on the entire ecosystem around us. It depends on whether doctors are willing to treat you, and whether employers give you time to recover. Caroline: This is your second time reporting on long-haulers. Why do you find this story in particular so important? Ed: I think that this is probably the most important pandemic reporting that I do, because this group of people have just been ignored for a very long period of time. When I first started writing about them in June, almost no one was talking about them. And after my piece came out, I got so many emails—like, hundreds of emails—from people saying, “I finally feel seen.” This aspect of the pandemic is not going away. And I think we need to keep on talking about this, because if we don’t, then we really don’t fully understand the COVID-19 story, and we leave so many people in the lurch. In other news: on Friday August 28 I will have the cataract taken off my left eye. Two weeks later on Friday September 11, I will have the cataract removed from my right eye. At this time I am not sure how this will affect my blog writing. Craig has offered to help but he hates typing on my iPad - the keys are too small for him (or something). So we’ll see. It is hard to think about not writing every day as things change so quickly and dramatically each day. I feel as though we are living in a never ending whirlwind, trying desperately to remain standing. So its Oliver time. I think the child on the right has squashed Oliver against the table, but I bet he pushed back a moment later. �In our 4th week living in La Bastide, on another gorgeous cool day we drove to the coast, further down near Spain. Collioure is a town on the Mediterranean coast of southern France. On the sea, the medieval Château Royal de Collioure offers dramatic coastal views. The bell tower of 17th-century Notre-Damedes-Anges Church was once a lighthouse. The Modern Art Museum includes paintings by Henri Matisse. This was such a pretty seaside town. I imagine in summer it is absolutely packed, but in mid November it was quiet and many shops and restaurants were closed. It has a rich history and it was of great interest to Craig as Patrick O’Brian, the novelist, lived there for a large part of his life. His most famous works are the Aubrey-Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The first of these, Master and Commander, was made into a movie starring Russell Crowe. Along the waterfront, there were a few restaurants open and we ate lunch. Collioure is famous for all seafood but everyone had told us we had to try an anchovy dish. �������From the top: an archeological dig in the Chateau; coastal scene with castle; donkeys and city from the Chateau; the harbor; gazing from the Chateau battlements; the harbor entrance and the church, and me eating anchovies two ways. I will never forget that lunch. Fresh anchovies are amazing. I think I let Craig try one. Tomorrow then. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-20_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-162 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-20 Title A name given to the resource Day 162 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/100011625a34eea23bb004cd3cbad271.pdf 96ac0fbcbbcf7fb4fc7f0430469335ed PDF Text Text Day 161 by windoworks New York Times: Part of Death Valley reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday. If verified by climate scientists, it would be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on earth. (That’s 54.4 Celsius) Last night Zoe sent me an article from The Guardian, by Helen Garner a noted writer. The similarities between Helen and myself were startling: she needed hearing aids, I will sometime soon, if not now; she has arthritis, so do I; she had cataract surgery, I’m having cataract surgery on both eyes starting with my left eye next week on Friday. She’s in her seventies, I’m just at the start of my seventies. But it was this paragraph that spoke the loudest to me: And if you want to know how I can quote that sign so accurately, it’s because I got out my phone and took a photo. That’s how a writer pays attention: you spot details you can’t imagine having any possible use for, and you make a note of them. And when time catches up, and a little gap opens in what you’re writing, out they pop from the dark, all fresh and shiny, and you grab them, and polish them, and slot them in. Ahh yes, Helen. And here’s something else Zoe sent me last night: �I can see you all laughing - but nodding your heads at the same time. So, on to more serious things. Last night at the virtual Democratic National Convention, Dr Jill Biden and President Carter spoke. I haven’t watched their speeches but today I want to share a powerful part of Michelle Obama’s speech: �Washington Post: “Right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another,” Obama said. “They’re looking around wondering if we’ve been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value. They see people shouting in grocery stores unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business, just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good and winning is everything.” As a teacher, I have always known that children learn most by example. They copy behaviors whether those behaviors are appropriate or not. They ignore words and carefully watch actions - any parent can tell you that. Remember that time you hurt yourself and in extreme pain said the F word very loudly - and then your 3 year old repeated that word loudly and frequently, especially outside the house? On a different topic, here’s what we’ve always known: if you make enough noise and protest, you can force change. When Nancy Pelosi called the House back from recess to ‘meet’ with the Postmaster General, here’s what happened: Washington Post: Postmaster general announces he is 'suspending' policies that were blamed for causing mail delays ahead of election. Amid intense scrutiny, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that he is expanding a task force on election mail and he expects the Postal Service to deliver "election mail on time �and within our well-established service standards." He said retail hours would not be changed, neither mail-sorting machines nor blue mailboxes would be removed, no mail-processing facilities would be closed, and that overtime would be available as needed. NPR: Bars and coronavirus don’t mix. Public health experts and top health officials say when bars open, infections tend to follow. Owners of bars and nightclubs argue that pandemic restrictions on their industry feel punitive. So this leads me into a thorny topic for me: colleges reopening. Yesterday Notre Dame and Michigan State both went abruptly online, I think for the fall semester. Apart from the fact that this is 2 of the Big Ten, GVSU has been closely watching Michigan State and the University of Michigan to see what they’re �doing. Will it make a difference to GVSU’s hybrid opening plans? We’ll have to wait and see. For myself, I simply cannot see how you can keep 25,000 students as well as faculty and staff safe, no matter what precautions you put in place. And here’s just one reason why: Washington Post: Young people in their 20s, 30s and 40s are driving the growing number of new coronavirus cases, said the World Health Organization's Western Pacific regional director. Takeshi Kasai noted that because many young people are asymptomatic, they are likely spreading the virus to vulnerable people without knowing it. Younger Americans have also driven record outbreaks in several states this summer, prompting health officials to urge the demographic to wear masks and take the disease more seriously. For me, it comes back to the fact that this virus is initially invisible. Think about it: its obvious if you have measles or chicken pox. And because the initial COVID symptoms are exactly the same as either a stomach virus or the common cold or flu, young people carry on as normal. In colleges, although you can enforce social distancing, mask wearing etc., during class time, only students are present at 2am, clustered together in one dorm room, or in off campus accommodation, talking and laughing. IDEA OF THE DAY: HOW TO IMPROVE REMOTE LEARNING Feeling overwhelmed, anxious and abandoned, the vast majority of parents across America have resigned themselves to the idea that school will be remote for some time, a new survey for The New York Times has found. That means some degree of online learning for most children after a disastrous end to the last school year that largely took place remotely. With school from home looking like the default for the foreseeable future, here are three ideas to make it go more smoothly. Emphasize interaction. Educators should lead videoconference sessions that give students face time with teachers and their peers. Lesson plans designed for in-person classes don’t work in this coronavirus world. Keep lessons short. Live instruction should be broken up into smaller chunks spaced throughout the day. Even adults have trouble videoconferencing for long stretches. For the youngest students, it is nearly impossible. Support parents. In the spring, too many of our students and our young students were left to navigate the virtual learning on their own with no support at home. The Times survey found that one in five parents was considering hiring an in-person private teacher or tutor, though that option is largely limited to those with sufficient financial means. Ideally, schools would assign virtual counselors and tutors to ease the burden for the rest. A couple of days ago my mother-in-law (the one who taught herself to be computer literate in her 80s) sent me an article about John Wagner, the man who created Maxine - one of my all time favorite cartoons. �John remembers doodling as a preschooler and says both his grandmother and his mother encouraged his artistic interests. He eventually attended the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and landed at Hallmark as part of a new artists group. But it was the birth of the humorous Shoebox Greetings (a tiny little division of Hallmark) in 1986 that added a new dimension to John's professional life. The Shoebox way of seeing the world unleashed his talents and he created Maxine. Why the name 'Maxine'? 'People at Shoebox started referring to the character as 'John Wagner's old lady,' and I knew that would get me into trouble with my wife,' John says. The Shoebox team had a contest among themselves to name the character and three of the approximately 30 entries suggested 'Maxine'. John says the name is perfect. New York Times: Senate panel affirms Russian interference A bipartisan report released Tuesday by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirmed that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help President Trump and revealed new details about Russian links to the Trump campaign.The nearly 1,000-page report did not conclude that the campaign engaged in a coordinated conspiracy with the Russian government. But it found that a longtime associate of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was a Russian intelligence officer who might have been involved in efforts to steal and disseminate Democratic emails.The report lands as Russia and other countries attempt to influence another U.S. election. “The Russians are fully aware that they can’t play the 2016 playbook in 2020,” said our colleague David Sanger. But from spreading disinformation about the pandemic to inflaming culture-war issues, “new routes to interference are endless.” And these two, just because: ���Earlier this week Craig and I went to the garden store an bought 3 climbers that can cope with part sun. Here they are planted by the trellis at the end of the deck, in the back garden. Its Oliver time, at last. This is from Tuesday’s daycare session. It looks like a union meeting to me. Oliver is on the left with his back to the camera. �Last night while FaceTiming, Oliver showed us that he could say and recognize ‘ball’ and while we watched, he walked 3 steps. So close to walking! A later video showed that he completely understood No! And he complained bitterly to his mother about it. Camon was one of the prettiest little villages not far from La Bastide. We walked the trail through the village as well as in the hills around it. Nicknamed "Little Carcassonne", the fortified village of Camon nestles around an ancient Benedictine abbey and is one of "France's Most Beautiful Villages". Among the gems to explore are the Clock Gate (Porte de l'Horloge), Tall House (Maison Haute) ramparts, abbey-château and 16th-century church and treasure house. Also known as "the village of 100 rosebushes", Camon is in bloom with a multitude of roses every May. This magnificent sight is honoured with an annual rose festival on the third Sunday in May. �����From the top: walking through the village; the former Benedictine monastery across the river; part of the walking trail and us posing on the iron bridge overlooking the edge of the village. Sadly, it was winter and the rose bushes were everywhere - but not in bloom. Each rose bush had a name tag. The rose festival is obviously big business for Camon. So here are my details from my fact file, all polished up and slotted in. Thats all for today. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-19_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-161 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-19 Title A name given to the resource Day 161 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/511daeea6bc3d3b7df0e97bc7d19986f.pdf 4ef8c796ea5c2f7d76533044fa15b1c6 PDF Text Text Day 160 by windoworks I did not stay up to watch the opening of the Democratic Convention last night. Instead this morning, Craig and I watched John Kasich (R), the former Governor of Ohio, speak in support of Joe Biden and then we watched all of former First Lady, Michelle Obama’s speech. We watched both speakers on YouTube, as we don’t have cable TV. It was while Michelle was speaking that I remembered I had shaken hands with Jill Biden. In 2008 my friend Mary Alice had taken me down to the local Democratic Party Headquarters to hear Jill Biden. She spoke passionately about Barack Obama and everyone in the room listened with a smile on their face. Afterwards Mary Alice pushed me forward into the line and then Jill shook my hand. I �can’t remember if I spoke or if she said anything but I will always be grateful to Mary Alice that I had that opportunity. I remember the night Barack Obama won the election. Our youngest son was here from Australia. My neighbors danced in the street after the results were confirmed. The community organizer at Eastown drove to Chicago to stand in Grant Park in Chicago where Barack Obama accepted the Presidency. All day, during voting hours, people stood on street corners with placards saying ‘Honk if you voted for Obama’. The honking went on all day long. The polls closed last on the West Coast and I remember watching California, Oregon and Washington turn blue, moments after the polls closed and then the TV commentators called the election for Barack Obama. We lived 8 years with him in the White House, and for that I am deeply grateful. This morning, once again, I said to Craig - can you imagine what it would be like now if Hillary had won? Last night Trump held an event and he stood on stage alone and declared that New Zealand was having a big surge in the virus. And then he went on to say: we don’t want to have another big surge here. What universe does this man inhabit? But of course this comes from firing all the scientists while not paying any attention to the daily briefings or is there anyone qualified giving him daily briefings now? I forget, and I don’t care because I know that Joe Biden is getting daily briefings so I know that someone with an active brain is now involved. Jacinda Ardern (NZ Prime Minister) was quick to pint out that 9-13 new cases a day doesn’t compare to an average of over 50,000 new cases a day. �And ��Yesterday I was reading a comment from a friend on a post of FaceBook and said ‘in the Before Times’. I thought, how apt. I’m going to use that. In another pandemic task, yesterday I was deleting photos from my iPad and I realized I have a photographic history of the pandemic. You know, Craig and I have been wearing masks since early April - 4 1/2 months! So far I haven’t asphyxiated or developed a rash or had any of those bogus conditions that anti-maskers are proclaiming. Do I want to wear a mask every time I leave the house? No, but will I do it anyway? Yes. Reopening colleges: Washington Post: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the largest schools in the country to bring students to campus for in-person teaching, said Monday it will pivot to all-remote instruction for undergraduates after testing showed a pattern of rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. Officials announced the abrupt change just a week after classes began at the 30,000-student state flagship university. They said 177 cases of the dangerous pathogen had been confirmed among students, out of hundreds tested. Another 349 students were in quarantine, on and off campus, because of possible exposure to the virus. The remote-teaching order for undergraduate classes will take effect Wednesday, and the university will �take steps to allow students to leave campus housing without financial penalty if they wish. Clusters of cases had popped up in three residence halls and a fraternity house at UNC-Chapel Hill in the first week of the fall term, sending students into isolation and quarantine rooms and raising faculty worries about how far the dangerous pathogen will spread in the campus community. One influential administrator, the UNC-Chapel Hill dean of public health, called for a change in approach because she said the in-person method is not working. The public health conditions at UNC-Chapel Hill are being closely watched as colleges and universities around the country move this month toward the first day of class, some with entirely remote instruction and others with a mix of teaching online and in person. Faculty, too, were calling for a review of the situation. “The fact that it is happening this early in the school year, just a week into classes, has everyone quite concerned and quite alarmed, quite frankly,” said Mimi V. Chapman, a professor of social work who is chair of the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty. Clusters are defined as at least five cases in a residence. There are 14 days remaining until hybrid classes resume for Craig at GVSU. I struggle to feel okay with that. Recently I read a post from a NZ family member about how this new round of coronavirus cases emerged in New Zealand. So I checked with the Oracle (my oldest son Zar, who is a journalist in New Zealand). He told me that misinformation and rumors were very destructive and to always take my information from the PM’s daily 1pm briefings (which he always updates me on later in the evening here). Yesterday Zar sent me this link to an article in Stuff which I have edited for length: Covid-19 rumours have been doing the rounds on social media for months, but they appear to have ramped up since cases re-emerged in the community. Brittney Deguara investigates how to spot a fake, and how to stop misinformation spreading. Uncorroborated claims of new Covid-19 cases in the community, imminent nationwide lockdowns and managed isolation and quarantine facility breaches have been circulating since the resurgence of the virus in Auckland. The most recent rumour to circulate was that one of the positive cases had sneaked into a managed isolation and quarantine facility. The Ministry of Health has insisted this is baseless. Last week more claims circulated of new confirmed cases in multiple aged-care facilities, and of an imminent nationwide lockdown. These were also false. Sources varied from a daughter’s boyfriend’s stepmum to friends who work at a district health board. None that Stuff saw were ever verified by officials. While some might see these kinds of posts as harmless, or examples of people just passing on information they heard secondhand, they can prove much more dangerous. �Finding out what’s happening during the pandemic has been a way to ease fears for many, but unverified information is doing the opposite. It has the potential to heighten depression and heavily affect people’s mental health and wellbeing at an already stressful time. Unverified claims can be described as old-fashioned gossip. The difference is that one like, comment or share online can display it to a mass audience. Like the virus itself – it can spread easily without people even realising. While some people might be sharing false posts with the best intentions, others may have more sinister or selfish motivations. The rumour of the Auckland case sneaking into an isolation facility appeared to be orchestrated and deliberately designed to create panic, fear and confusion. While some conspiracy theories are relatively easy to see through when shared on social media – like the claim that drinking bleach will kill the virus – subtle pieces of misinformation may be harder to debunk. Comments like “this is what they aren’t telling you”, “this is the real story” or “no-one else knows about this” are usually included. The content can be emotionally engaging, exciting breaking news, or seemingly honest confessions. If it looks fishy, it probably is fishy. So now its Oliver time. ��These are my toys, right Mum? One of the advantages of living in La Bastide was that we were about 2 to 3 hours drive through the Pyrenees to Spain. One day we drove to Andorra. This is a sovereign landlocked microstate on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees, bordered by France to the north and Spain to the south. Believed to have been created by Charlemagne, Andorra was ruled by the count of Urgell until 988, when it was transferred to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Urgell. The present principality was formed by a charter in 1278. It is known as a principality as it is a diarchy headed by two princes: the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia, Spain, and the President of the French Republic. Andorra is the sixth-smallest nation in Europe, having an area of 468 square kilometres (181 sq mi) and a population of approximately 77,006. The Andorran people are a Romance ethnic group of originally Catalan descent. Andorra is the 16th-smallest country in the world by land and the 11th-smallest by population. Its capital, Andorra la Vella, is the highest capital city in Europe, at an elevation of 1,023 metres (3,356 feet) above sea level. The official language is Catalan, but Spanish, Portuguese, and French are also commonly spoken. Wikipedia �����From the top: climbing high in the Pyrenees; the big thing about Andorra La Vella is the shopping (its duty free) and there were these dress art displays all over downtown; and the second biggest thing is the eating. This was the Andorran version of fish and chips. It was a gorgeous, sunny, cold day. More adventures tomorrow. Remember: 76 days to the election on November 3. Are you ready to help change our world? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-18_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-160 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-18 Title A name given to the resource Day 160 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/72b1dc16a3c4b7f94017de5b74555b9a.pdf 8176208ed92eebb323a06fda8bd07ab8 PDF Text Text Day 159 by windoworks �Some days you just have to laugh. Yesterday my neighbor Amy came over with some homegrown tomatoes. We have heirloom ones and an abundance of delicious cherry tomatoes and we had given Amy �a bag of cherry tomatoes the day before. Craig said: come up and sit at the other end of the porch and she did. For 30 minutes Amy and I talked about all sorts of things. - just like we used to before the pandemic. It was wonderful and it brightened up my whole day. Meanwhile Craig cleared out the basement, scraped peeling plaster off the basement walls, and ferried a whole lot of items up to the edge of our driveway. This time we didn’t even put a ‘free’ sign out. As of this morning there is an old mailbox and a folding table left. Every day at 1pm in New Zealand, the Prime Minister and her colleagues hold a press conference. Zar sends me the daily update. There was a total yesterday of 86 people moved to MIQ, a government quarantine facility. Its split into two separate parts - one for those Covid positive and the other for family of positive cases and some close contacts. 36 of the 86 are positive. And as far as testing goes, since January, 1 in 8 New Zealanders have been tested. They are encouraging masks and today Craig will mail Zoe, Asher, Zar and Alva 6 masks each, all courtesy of our friend Gina, a master quilter who has turned her quilting talents to mask making in recent months. This means that each mask is a thing of beauty. Thank you Gina. Shared from FaceBook, because Trump has begun appealing to white, middle class suburban housewives that their idyllic lifestyle may be in danger from low life, low income residents moving in : • Mr. President: • You have fundamentally misunderstood the character of the Suburban Housewives of 2020. • We are not the pearl-clutching, male dependent, racist, class-divided, paper dolls of your imagination. • We are Nasty Women; We are Angry Feminists; We are Employed; We are Fierce Protectors; • We are Equal Partners; We are Educated; • We are Generation X; We are Millennials; • We are Activists, Allies, and Leaders; • We are the Mothers of Generation Z. • We are BabyBoomers. • We are Breadwinners. • We are Every Race. • We are Self-Made. • We are Single. • We are LGBTQ • We are Not Afraid. • And We Are Done With You. • #suburbanhousewives2020 • #BidenHarris2020 �This morning I read that Nancy Pelosi (Speaker of the House) has called the House back to interrogate (sorry, interview) Louis DeJoy and his Post Office minions about the current attack on the Post Office. Here’s a piece from Crooked Media: After President Trump’s Thursday confession that he’s starved the U.S. Postal Service of funds in order to gum up the processing of mail ballots, the mechanics of his ongoing scheme to steal the election began coming into clearer focus. The USPS general counsel has been warning states, including critical swing states, that their mail voting plans are inconsistent with the service’s new “delivery standards” of ‘not delivering the mail’ and that some voters who request—and even submit—their ballots in a timely fashion might nevertheless be disenfranchised. • These “delivery standards” more literally include reducing post office capacity to deliver mail, in response to an alleged lack of demand, then citing that reduced capacity as an impediment to pandemic levels of mail voting. Postmaster General/Trump election thief Louis DeJoy has implemented a secretive and unexplained policy of removing mail-sorting machines from facilities across the country, but disproportionately from swing states. In more than one state, they’ve also quietly removed actual mailboxes. This policy of destroying the mail to save the mail Trump’s presidency has led to widespread delivery delays, not just of coupons and junk mail but of payments and medicine and other things people need to survive. In Maine, 80,000 letters went undelivered because of a new policy requiring carriers to leave exactly on time, rather than wait 10 minutes for their trucks to be fully loaded. �Now I know that’s upsetting, distressing and making us all very angry. But I feel it is my responsibility to let you know this stuff. For months now I have been hearing in my mind: Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts. I kept asking Craig if he remembered this radio drama. I finally looked it up (what would I do without Google?) and it was Dragnet and it was said by the detective Joe Friday. I listened to this radio show as a young girl and I even remember the dramatic music. So, from me to you - just the facts (ma’am, sir), just the facts. I’ve had this tidbit in my big fat fact file (yes, that is really the name of the file) for so long I’ve lost where it came from: Despite the huge fall off in air travel this year, the Transportation Security Agency says it’s finding three times the number of guns in luggage at airport checkpoints. About 80% of these weapons were loaded I can’t think of a single reason why they would be loaded. And then there’s this: Washington Post: In Europe, cruise ships that incubated some of the world's earliest covid-19 outbreaks are getting ready to set sail again. The MSC Grandiosa is preparing to cruise the Mediterranean on Sunday — the first of several ships that will attempt to revive stalled the region's stalled tourism industries. “But it remains unclear how risky it might be for people to climb back onboard and restart an activity that, at the beginning of the pandemic, helped seed the virus around the world and was connected to several dozen deaths,” our world desk wrote. I don’t think I even need to comment on that one. Craig told me that he either heard or read that some cruise lines are thinking of running cruises that never dock anywhere. “If you look out your cabin window, ladies and gentlemen, you will see Venice on the port side.” Really? Just a luxurious, expensive hotel but on the water. Now here’s a long piece about the virus. From Yale Epidemiologist, Jonathan Smith: An important Covid Message Like any good scientist I have noticed two things that are either not being articulated or not present in the “literature” of social media. Specifically, I want to make two aspects of these measures very clear and unambiguous. First, we are in the beginning of this epidemic’s trajectory. That means even with these distancing measures we will see cases and deaths continue to rise globally, nationally, and in our own communities in the coming weeks. Second, this may lead some people to think that the social distancing measures are not working. They are. This is normal epidemic trajectory. Stay calm. We need everyone to hold the line as the epidemic inevitably gets worse. This is not my opinion; this is the unforgiving math of epidemics for which I and my colleagues have dedicated our lives to understanding. I want to help the community brace for this �impact. Stay strong and with solidarity knowing with absolute certainty that what you are doing is saving lives, even as people are getting sick and dying. While social distancing decreases contact with members of society, it typically increases your contacts with family members /very close friends. This small and obvious fact has surprisingly profound implications on disease transmission dynamics. Study after study demonstrates that even if there is only a little bit of connection between groups (i.e. social dinners, playdates/playgrounds, etc.), the epidemic isn’t much different than if there was no measure in place. Your entire family should function as a single individual unit; if one person puts themselves at risk, everyone in the unit is at risk. Seemingly small social chains get large and complex with alarming geometric speed. If your son visits his girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor is now connected to the infected office worker that your son’s girlfriend’s mother shook hands with. From a transmission dynamics standpoint, this very quickly recreates a highly connected social network that undermines all of the work the community has done so far. This virus is unforgiving to choices outside the rules. It will be easy to be drawn to the idea that what we are doing isn’t working and become paralyzed by fear, or to just 'cheat’ a little bit in the coming weeks.By knowing what to expect, and knowing the importance of maintaining these measures , my hope is to encourage continued community spirit, strategizing, and action to persevere in this time of uncertainty. �And just to make you laugh: ��Now Oliver. Remember that day at daycare that you were feeling kinda blue? ��Each day living in La Bastide, we always went out. Sometimes we just explored new roads and new places to walk. There were walking tracks everywhere and a ruined castle or fort on almost every hilltop. �����From the top: walking back to the car after walking up part of Gorge du Frau; the one and only time I tried climbing the trail up Montsegur; the intact tower of Rennes le Chateau; the Cathar memorial by the meadow where the Montsegur Cathars were burnt to death; and this photo is of the wonderful colors in the cliffs. This is me and all my nasty women friends and relatives �I’ll leave you with this: �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-17_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-159 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-17 Title A name given to the resource Day 159 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/4d82042109455cb34d2810b216f5c7ac.pdf 51a1ceb0fe4ff6fdf39107974e656223 PDF Text Text Day 158 by windoworks This is a ‘give me a minute’ morning while I marshal my thoughts. In 24 more days I will have been writing this post for half a year. Life as I know it has changed completely and have you noticed? People have stopped talking about getting back to normal. Colleges and schools are slowly reopening and often quickly closing again. It amazes me that parents are saying: but what will I do with my children when I go back to work? Who exactly is going back to work outside the house? In my personal experience, I have one son and his wife locked down again in New Zealand; one daughter working from home in Sydney Australia; one son locked down completely in Melbourne Australia and a niece working shortened hours in a sparsely populated office in Cornwall England. Speaking of Elle, in her spare time she is creating custom made wall hangings and now has begun making Christmas decorations. You can mail order these and look up her site on Instagram at completeanduttercraft Here are some photos: ����In other news: There is a lot of discussion about COVID-19, about whether you’ll get it, will you be a bit sick or a lot sick or so sick you take yourself to hospital. One of Matthew McConaughey’s questions for Dr Fauci was: does your blood type make you more susceptible? And Dr Fauci’s answer was that Type A people were a tiny, weeny bit more susceptible than other blood groups. Oh dear. My youngest and I are Type A. I think we have to live in the New Now - that is cautiously. And we have to look after ourselves because if we can’t look after ourselves, how can we look after anyone else? Washington Post: �The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has already set records for being so active, with Hurricane Isaias being the earliest ninth named storm on record. Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting that many more records may fall in the coming months, as the Atlantic hurricane season cranks out at least 10 more named storms. The updated outlook released Thursday calls for a total of 19 to 25 named storms (winds of 39 mph or greater), of which 7 to 11 are expected to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or greater), including three to six that could become major hurricanes (winds of 111 mph or greater). This update covers the entire hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, and therefore includes the nine named storms to date. So that’s cheery. Here are the stats for today: US - 5.37M cases, 55,348 new cases yesterday. 169K deaths, 1,190 new deaths yesterday. Michigan - 102K cases, 1,015 new cases yesterday. 6,586 deaths, 18 new deaths yesterday. Kent County - 7.060 cases, 41 new cases yesterday. 153 deaths, 0 deaths yesterday. This is just to make you laugh - or go Hmmm. How are grocery store workers doing? Lets see; Washington Post: Grocery workers across the country say morale is crushingly low as the pandemic wears on with no end in sight. Overwhelmed employees are quitting mid-shift. Those who remain say they are overworked, taking on extra hours, enforcing mask requirements and dealing with hostile customers. Most retailers have done away with hazard pay even as workers remain vulnerable to infection, or worse. Employees who took sick leave at the beginning of the pandemic say they cannot afford to take unpaid time off now, even if they feel unwell. The nation’s 2.7 million grocery workers make, on average, $13.20 an hour, or about $27,000 a year, �Commerce Department data shows. At least 130 U.S. grocery workers have died, and more than 8,200 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus since late March, according to data from workers’ groups and media reports. Grocery stores are generally not required to inform shoppers about coronavirus cases or report them to local health departments, which can make it difficult to get an accurate count. Workers have tested positive for covid-19, but anyone who decides to self-quarantine is typically directed to take unpaid leave. And workers who try to call in sick often are being coaxed to come in. Managers are making decisions on their own, saying, ‘You have a cough but you’ll be okay.’ Grocery workers have been demeaned, screamed at and even assaulted for reminding shoppers of the new protocols, with some of the most egregious incidents captured on video and shared online. Illinois this week made it a felony to assault workers who are enforcing mask requirements. Well that’s certainly not reassuring and makes me even more cautious about shopping in person. And just in case you’ve been thinking about this too; The Atlantic One question, answered: What happens when the flu and the coronavirus overlap this winter? Joe Pinsker looks at why the pairing could spell trouble: Even though researchers don’t yet know how severe this year’s flu season will be, this overlap is worrying for three main reasons. First, even in the absence of a pandemic, flu season can tax hospitals’ beds and resources, having both the flu and COVID-19 spreading at once could further strain an already strained health-care system. Second, COVID compromises the respiratory system and so does flu, so each of them makes the other one worse. Everyone who’s able should get the flu vaccine this year. And third, because the two diseases have some symptoms in common, telling them apart can be difficult. On his early morning walk yesterday with Murphy, Craig saw this: ��This used to be a vegetable garden for the restaurants a friend of mine owns. He has cleverly decided it would be better as a social zone for his eateries all close by. Recently Craig read that 50% of all restaurants and cafes across America have closed and after the pandemic, 80% will have closed. Most nearby restaurants etc are promoting eating outside or take out food. Eating outside is wonderful in the spring, summer and fall but it will be difficult to maintain in the winter. Michigan gets some amount of snow and freezes each winter, so we’ll see how it goes. It must be time for Oliver. ��Each afternoon, somewhere between 5-6pm, Zoe FaceTimes us and every day Oliver is more grown up than the day before. He tests his limits every day and although Zoe thinks he really doesn’t understand No, I think he thinks she doesn’t mean it. He is almost walking and yesterday as we watched he took a step - and then sat down suddenly. Week 3 in France: we visited Albi. Eleven years before we had stayed overnight in Albi to watch a stage start in the 2005 Tour de France. This time we came for lunch and some sightseeing. ������Wikipedia:The first human settlement in Albi was in the Bronze Age (3000–600 BC). After the Roman conquest of Gaul in 51 BC, the town became Civitas Albigensium, the territory of the Albigeois, Albiga. Archaeological digs have not revealed any traces of Roman buildings, which seems to indicate that Albi was a modest Roman settlement.In 1208, the Pope and the French king joined forces to combat the Cathars, who had developed their own version of ascetic Christian dualism, and so a heresy considered dangerous by the dominant Catholic Church. Repression was severe, and many Cathars were burnt at the stake throughout the region. The area, until then virtually independent, was reduced to such a condition that it was subsequently annexed by the French Crown. From the top: inside the massive cathedral - here is the altar and the images of hell; the town square with the cathedral behind; the cathedral from the side; one of the cathedral’s side entrances and lastly a painting by Toulouse Lautrec. His wealthy family lived nearby Albi and there is a Toulouse Lautrec Art museum off the town square which was a former monastery. This was one of my favorite paintings. Every night after our daily excursions, we came home to this: ��It was Craig’s job to bring the wood up from the garage, tamp the fire down at night, clean out the grate each morning and lay the fire ready for lighting later in the afternoon. Here at home we have a fireplace converted to a closed gas fireplace and I would so like to reconvert it back - but its probably not practical. And the starter is broken and we are trying to find someone to fix it. A gas fire is better than nothing I guess. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-16_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-158 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-16 Title A name given to the resource Day 158 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/8ed6e50ddd9e490713894fcbe3630e59.pdf f697a5fce661891f56c9848390e9e157 PDF Text Text Day 157 by windoworks So to begin, its all about voting, how we vote and the US Postal Service. From my FB friend Sarahjane Smith (Authors note: not my FB friend but posted by one of my FB friends) The Postal Service is older than the country itself. The Continental Congress made Ben Franklin the first postmaster general in 1775, and it remains the most popular agency in the federal government, beloved by Americans for the daily service it provides them, no matter where they live or who they are. This is how Title 39 of the U.S. Code defines its mission: ‘The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities.’ Think how important this is right now, binding us together at a time when we have a president working so hard to tear us apart. It’s no wonder he looks at the Postal Service and sees it as one more thing he wants to destroy. Well, that and the fact that once he’s gone from the WH his next stop is probably prison. Too many of the wrong people voting guarantees that. On CNBC News Thursday, President Donald Trump’s economic adviser Larry Kudlow said that the administration does not want protection of voting rights to pass as part of the coronavirus stimulus package. “So much of the Democratic asks are really liberal left wish lists we don’t want to have,” said Kudlow. “Voting rights, and aid to aliens, and so forth. That’s not our game.” �I was watching a clip from Rachel Maddow’s Friday show, and she ran a story about USPS mailboxes being removed from public places in Montana. Craig said, as we were eating breakfast ‘well it wasn’t on the NPR radio news this morning’ so I looked it up online and as I did so it popped into Craig’s cellphone news service. It wasn’t just Montana - it was 16 states across the west. They were removing “underused” boxes for relocation somewhere else. Mmmmhmmm. So after a public outcry the official spokesperson for the USPS said: sorry we’ll wait until after the election to do this. So here’s what appeared on FB yesterday: �I am so proud to be a Michigander. Go Jocelyn! �The Washington Post: The Postal Service’s warnings of potential disenfranchisement came as the agency undergoes a sweeping organizational and policy overhaul amid dire financial conditions. Cost-cutting moves have already delayed mail delivery by as much as a week in some places, and a new decision to decommission 10 percent of the Postal Service’s sorting machines sparked widespread concern the slowdowns will only worsen. Rank-and-file postal workers say the move is ill-timed and could sharply diminish the speedy processing of flat mail, including letters and ballots. My FB feed has been full of advice regarding early voting and a strong emphasis on hand delivering our ballots. Here’s a comprehensive piece: Democracydocket.com: Voters concerned about the current crisis facing the USPS and what it could mean for their ballot arriving by Election Day have several options: 1. Vote early in person. Early voting allows voters to vote in person without waiting in crowded or long lines. Forty-one states have some form of early voting in place and may start as early as 45 days before Election Day. Many states also have weekend early voting options. Make sure to check with your local election office to see if they extended early voting due to the pandemic. 2. Use a ballot drop box. Many states and counties provide ballot drop boxes as a secure and convenient option for voters to return their sealed and signed mail ballot. Drop boxes skip the mail process entirely, allowing voters to drop off their mail ballots and have them be taken directly to county offices. Boxes are placed in many convenient locations such as outside community centers, near public transit routes or on college campuses. Check with your local election office to see if there are ballot drop boxes in your community. 3. Drop off your ballot at an election office or polling location. Almost all states permit voters to return a delivered ballot in person at their local election office, but not everyone lives close to their election office. That is why many states allow voters to drop off their signed and sealed ballots at any in-person voting location in the county. Check with your local election office to see if you can drop off your ballot at a polling location closer to your home. 4. Organize community ballot collection. Many states allow designated organizations, election officials or family members to collect a voter’s signed and sealed ballot and submit the ballot on behalf of the voter. This option is vital for high-risk voters who are unable to leave their home to cast a ballot. Check who can collect your ballot in your state. While we are nationally and statewide running out of funding for absolutely everything (honestly, anything you care to name) China is going from strength to strength. Everyone has a home, an income of some type, food on the table, clean streets, well run train systems across the whole country, good roads etc. While you have the right to vote there, there’s only one candidate and of course surveillance is �everywhere. You can’t protest and there’s little freedom of the press. The government doesn’t like ethnic minorities and air quality is awful in cities but for the average citizen life is quite good. I remember being in China years ago and our young guide said that just once she would like to have a choice in an election. But what she reminded us all of, was that if the population decided they didn’t like the present executive, the public could just throw them out of office. Wow. Now the next big story of the day is Kamala Harris. Here’s this: �And a little more from Sarahjane Smith (FB) on this: Oh, and BTW, since the racist birther crap 2.0 has already started with Biden’s choice of Harris for his running mate, it's been accepted precedent since 1881 that anyone born a US citizen can be president. It's irrelevant whether a parent was born abroad (Arthur, Hughes, Hoover, Obama) or whether the US citizen was born on foreign soil (George Romney 1968, John McCain 2008, Ted Cruz 2016) �I haven’t mentioned the virus today, but here’s a roundup from New Zealand and Australia. As of last night there were 56 active cases in Auckland. Remember they began this outbreak with 4 cases on Tuesday and by Friday that number had increased to 37. The others are from returning New Zealanders. In Melbourne Australia they are laboring through a strict lockdown. One condition is only one person from a household can be outside the house within a strictly enforced 5 km radius, at a time - both on foot or by car. Only one person from a household;d can shop for groceries at a time. The fines are huge something close to $1650AUS. Well if that doesn’t make you follow the rules..... Oh and masks are mandatory the minute you step outside your front door - running, walking, bike riding, driving. To add to that, I cannot provide the link but I watched Matthew McConaughey ask Dr Fauci 5 important virus questions. Dr Fauci answered comprehensively and explained the scientific terms as he spoke. Its much clearer in my mind now. One of Matthew’s questions was after effects and Dr Fauci said a disturbing number of people who had recovered from the virus were experiencing symptoms. The video is Now This, if you want to watch. To speak to ongoing symptoms, here’s this: The Atlantic: One question, answered: “Long-haulers” can suffer COVID-19 symptoms for weeks, even months. Are they contagious that whole time? Ed Yong, our science staff writer who covered the phenomenon, reports: The real answer is: We don’t know. The experts I’ve talked with have said that it’s unlikely people who experience months of symptoms are contagious for that entire time, and that their problems are more likely to do with some long-lasting misfiring of the immune system than a persistent reservoir of the virus. But the latter is still possible, and exists in other infectious diseases. This is a new virus, and scientists are still trying to understand it. It must be Oliver time! ��One of the next places we visited was Fanjeaux which is located west of Carcassonne. Between 1206 and 1215, Fanjeaux was the home of Saint Dominic, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church's Dominican Order, who preached to the Cathars in the area. There is an impressive monastery there and we just happened to visit on November 11 which is Armistice Day. Armistice Day is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France at 5:45 am, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning—the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. But, according to Thomas R. Gowenlock, an intelligence officer with the U.S. First Division, shelling from both sides continued for the rest of the day, only ending at nightfall. The armistice initially expired after a period of 36 days and had to be extended several times. A formal peace agreement was only reached when the Treaty of Versailles was signed the following year. Wikipedia �����At the top: Armistice Day flags; a monastery carving; Craig walking along a Fanjeaux street; monastery door knocker (I love this); and a wall plaque just because I loved that too. The New Normal: Elayne Clift of Saxtons River, Vt. No make-up, manicures, or matching clothes, Although I do miss the occasional massage. No big-girl shoes, or ironed shirts, or bothersome bras. No potluck pressure, or parties for which I “have prior plans,” No cheek-to-cheek kisses, or unwanted hugs, although One from a loved one would be grand. No worries about my hair, or how I look, Or for that matter, what I cook. No deadlines to meet, I’m happy to say, Except for an occasional library book, Although, I confess, some compensation, �For a class or oration, would be Cause for celebration. When this nasty bug is over and gone, It will occasion dance and song, And I will welcome that of course. But while enjoying its demise, With good cheer and libation, I have to admit, it’s likely that, I will miss the liberations. And finally, my new hair color, achieved at 7:30 in the morning in a deserted hair salon - just me and my hairdresser: �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-157 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 157 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/da033757c9d41705a32ed6005f1ad890.pdf e8e1b09fc37b43715bab085dda399683 PDF Text Text Day 156 by windoworks Yesterday my friend told me that her condominium management mandated new rules for their outside community space: no more then 10 people, all with masks on and social distancing strictly adhered to. There’s an update on what constitutes the proper social distance now: 16 feet apart - so if you imagine 3 men of average height stacked on top of each other - 16 feet is a little less than that. If thats too hard to imagine, that’s 2 1/2 door heights, one on top of the other. Or, 1 foot taller than the shortest giraffe. Now masks. Yesterday (I’m pretty sure it was yesterday) I told you that all masks are not created equal. Bandanas and gaiters aren’t good at keeping the virus contained. Today there is more news: from the Washington Post Popular, seemingly high-tech masks with exhalation vents and valves don’t actually protect people from covid-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned. I’m going to guess the virus escapes out the vent or valve. Spooky. And how about this: �More mask stuff from the Washington Post: A Florida sheriff has barred his deputies from wearing masks at work because, he says, he doesn't trust the science behind them. A Republican congressional candidate in Maryland held a birthday party/buffet/fundraiser for 300 guests, many of them maskless. Like other first responders, lifeguards have been challenged by the pandemic. Some are putting masks on potential drowning victims. Some are getting sick anyway. Now I’m posting this next one which contains a swear word. I would have taken it out but my IT skills are not that good. So skip over the word if it bothers you - it doesn’t bother me. �Remember the frozen food story from yesterday? Well here’s another disturbing development: New Normal Buddy, an adult German shepherd from Staten Island and the first known American pooch to test positive for the coronavirus, has gone to the great doggy farm in the sky. When Buddy’s family first noticed their beloved German shepherd wasn’t feeling great in mid-March, they immediately suspected the coronavirus — because they had it. So far, 13 dogs and 11 cats have tested positive for the virus. Buddy’s death reveals just how little we know about COVID-19 and pets. Now this next item needs careful reading: New Scientist �A vaccine that protects against one of the main common cold viruses has been shown to be safe and effective in a clinical trial and could be available by 2024. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is so contagious that more than 90 per cent of people have experienced their first infection by the age of 2. It usually causes cold symptoms but can lead to severe illness in young children and older people What I want you to notice here is that this clinically proven vaccine COULD be available by 2024. So how long will it be before a clinically proven vaccine for COVID-19 will be available? The blatant smearing and outright lies have begun about Kamala Harris, because this is Plan B to win reelection. Here’s some thoughts: �Just in case you were wondering what’s going on with the USPS - its struggling. Next week the Postmaster General has to testify before the Democratic Congress. He has outlawed overtime and removed sorting machines. Why? You ask. Read this: Washington Post: In extraordinary comments to Fox News, President Trump said he is trying to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from delivering millions of mail-in ballots to voters by holding up $25 billion in emergency funding for the agency. “They need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can �take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said. The cash-strapped mail service is already experiencing days-long delays after Trump’s new postmaster general implemented new policies including a ban on overtime pay. Congressional Democrats have insisted on emergency funding for the agency in their negotiations over a new stimulus bill, which collapsed Thursday as the Senate adjourned for the next three and a half weeks. Many health experts say mail-in voting is the safest way for people to vote in November, but Trump has baselessly attacked efforts to expand it as a plot to steal the election. The president’s likely opponent, Joe Biden, called Trump’s latest comments “an assault on our democracy and economy by a desperate man.” He actually said that out loud on Prime Time TV. Isn’t that treason or something? On a lighter note: yesterday we went back to Muskegon State Park for a picnic lunch and a chence to paddle in the clear cool lake water. ��Oliver at daycare. ‘Can you get this cellophane off? Its stuck to my hand. What? Doesn’t everyone eat glue? Its rather tasty.’ �Some other photos from Week 2 living in France �Roquefixade - a view of the mountains from the village ���Our first visit to Foix where I got my hair cut and dyed while Craig walked up to Foix Castle and then above it to look down at Foix. �One of our first walks along a section of the Voie Verte (Green Way), an old railway track made into long walking tacks through the countryside. �Tomorrow then � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-156 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 156 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/2d5fc031e7983c87ff9e2e6d39c7e9ce.pdf 75df1d56fa5d8b8a760e809c9b0e40b7 PDF Text Text Day 155 by windoworks Now there’s an idea! Well this seems relevant. Its from: Is That Hope? Section in What A Day, a Crooked Media daily newsletter. • Hahaha, no. The Cherokee County School District in Georgia just closed one high school and has over 1,100 students and staff in quarantine, a whopping eight days into the school year. As of Tuesday, the school district had a total of 59 confirmed cases. The district’s superintendent recommended that students wear masks to prevent more schools from closing, but hasn’t issued a mask mandate. Shout out to Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) for making this discretionary. �• But wait, it gets loonier: In Florida, another state with no mask requirement that just shattered its records for coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths, a Marion County sheriff has gone so far as to bar deputies from wearing masks in the office. Sheriff Billy Woods’s policy also prohibits civilians from wearing masks while visiting the building. All in a hard day’s work keepin’ the community safe! In China they have detected the virus on imported frozen foods, chicken and shrimp, from Brazil. Whether it is then transmitted to humans handling the foods is not known. But here in the States there have been outbreaks at frozen food processing plants. At the same time, apparently some lemons, oranges, limes and onions have been contaminated with salmonella and grocery stores have begun pulling these items off the shelf and putting signs on ‘clean’ produce. There are some days when I wonder if it will ever end. We are carefully living here in the US, my oldest and his wife are shut down in Auckland, New Zealand at least until tomorrow, where the 4 cases discovered on Tuesday morphed into a cluster of 17 cases yesterday. My youngest is 6 weeks through a complete lockdown in Melbourne, with another 4 weeks to go (I hope I got that right Asher). And Zoe and Oliver are proceeding with caution in Sydney Australia. I’m almost dispirited. �And here’s what’s happening behind closed doors: If the administration’s initial response to the coronavirus was denial, its failure to control the pandemic since then was driven by dysfunction and resulted in a lost summer, according to the portrait that emerges from interviews with 41 senior administration officials and other people directly involved in or briefed on the response efforts. Many of them spoke only on the condition of anonymity to reveal confidential �discussions or to offer candid assessments without retribution. An internal model by Trump’s Council on Economic Advisers predicts a looming disaster, with the number of infections projected to rise later in August and into September and October in the Midwest and elsewhere, according to people briefed on the data. Nearly seven months after the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States, there still is no national strategy to contain the outbreak — other than the demands, some of them contradictory, that Trump issues on Twitter or at news conferences. “OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!” the president decreed in a tweet Monday. With polls showing Trump’s popularity on the decline and widespread disapproval of his management of the viral outbreak, staffers have concocted a positive feedback loop for the boss. They present him with fawning media commentary and craft charts with statistics that back up the president’s claim that the administration has done a great — even historically excellent — job fighting the virus. A senior administration official involved in the pandemic response said, “Everyone is busy trying to create a Potemkin village for him every day. You’re not supposed to see this behavior in liberal democracies that are founded on principles of rule of law. Everyone bends over backwards to create this Potemkin village for him and for his inner circle.” “Everybody is too scared of their own shadow to speak the truth,” said a senior official involved in the response. Washington Post, I think. And if you’re wondering what the Potemkin village quote means here’s what Wikipedia says: The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built solely to impress Empress Catherine II by her former lover Grigory Potemkin, during her journey to Crimea in 1787. And here they are, ready to take on the chaos and confusion and clear a well thought out path through the mess. They look like the A Team to me. �Stats: US - 5.21M cases with an increase yesterday of 55, 170. 166K deaths, an increase yesterday of 1,486. The national death toll is over 1,000 every single day. Michigan has 98, 825 cases with an increase yesterday of 515. Since the middle of July, Michigan has recorded anywhere between 500 and 1,000+ new cases a day. Kent County has between 6,947 and 7,635 cases and probably 157 deaths. We slide up and down daily between 25 and 80 new cases. Yesterday an acquaintance described the symptoms she was having at a zoom meeting I was attending. She had called her doctor but he refused to authorize a Covid-19 test. For a surreal moment I thought I had imagined what she said, but no, she elaborated further and no one at her practice would authorize a test. She appears to be continuing life as normal, which really bothered me. �Lets imagine that the virus resembles glitter. If you’re sick and you cough and sneeze, a little cloud of glitter comes out your nose and mouth. Some glitter is so light it stays suspended in the air for quite a while. Some glitter is heavier and it falls down and sticks to every surface around or near you. And of course, you put your hand over your mouth and now there’s glitter all over your hands and anything you touch. If you isolate at home, the glitter is your glitter. If you wear a mask, the glitter sticks to the inside of your mask until you discard it or wash it. If you wash your hands regularly, the glitter is scrubbed off and goes down the drain. If you stay at least 6 feet away from others, the glitter stays at least 6 feet away with you. I always like to ‘see’ ideas and thats how I see the virus - as glitter. I’ll leave this discussion with this: Washington Post: Here are some significant developments: • Senior aides to President Trump acknowledged Tuesday that his new executive orders will provide less financial help for the unemployed than previously advertised. • Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said he has serious doubts that Russia’s experimental coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective. Russia has pledged to administer the vaccinate to millions of people, even before it has gone through crucial large-scale testing. • The Big Ten and Pac-12 canceled their 2020 football seasons as Trump continued to push for games to take place, saying that a fall without college football would be “tragic.” • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) acknowledged that many schools in the state will not reopen until at least October, while one Republican lawmaker in Idaho said allowing experts to make decisions about closing or reopening schools was “elitist.” • Lebanon reported a record surge of 300 new infections one week after a deadly blast at Beirut’s port temporarily sidelined attempts to stamp out the virus and left hundreds of thousands homeless. So I can hear you saying: something nice, tell us something nice. ��Here’s an Oliver photo. He is so close to walking! One day we drove to Leucate. Wikipedia: Leucate is on the Mediterranean coast of France. It is part of the eastern Corbières Massif, which are called the Corbières maritimes. It is around 30 km (19 mi) south of Narbonne, and around 30 km (19 mi) north of Perpignan. The Phare du Cap (lighthouse) Leucate offers a view (on a clear day) over the French Mediterranean Sea from the Spanish border to the Camargue. Leucate was pretty much closed for the winter but it was a beautiful day and I do love a beach with the waves. The green is good but the beach is better. �����First 2 photos: me on the main beach; Craig on the cliffs; Craig on the beach - looking south that’s Spain and the Pyrenees in the distance. I did love being on the beach gazing at the Mediterranean Sea - and the coast was at most 2 hours drive away. When we first came to the US, we got a dog, a cocker spaniel poodle cross we called Buster. He was with us for 9 wonderful years and this cartoon is so true, especially with our neighbors on the block. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-155 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 155 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/f0d5f9ad7c0eb7338b58477396d9a345.pdf c4bc071155af373249c44f4fae848256 PDF Text Text Day 154 by windoworks It’s official! Kamala Harris will be Joe Biden’s running mate. I think it a good choice plus I’m really glad the Big Gretch is still looking after our state. Here are some reasons why Kamala is a good choice: The New York Times Joe Biden selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate on Tuesday. She is the first Black woman, and the first person of Indian descent, to be nominated for national office by a major party. �Today we turned to our colleague Alex Burns, who covered the announcement, to explain why Biden decided on Harris. 1. Broad appeal. Harris, long viewed as a rising Democratic star and an embodiment of the party’s diversity, was a relatively safe pick. She falls comfortably within the mainstream, but her embrace of a more left-leaning agenda as a presidential candidate last year meant that “liberals never mobilized against her during the V.P. search,” Alex told us. 2. Governing chops. Harris’s experience and pragmatism sync with Biden’s political style. Her ideological flexibility also matches his recent openness to more left-leaning economic and racialjustice policies amid the pandemic and protests over police violence. 3. Political panache. Harris sharply criticized Biden during a primary debate last year over his opposition to busing as a means of integrating public schools, an attack that left some advisers wary of putting her on the ticket. Picking Harris suggests a recognition that her more energetic style could prove an asset. I think Trump’s reaction was to name her Phony Kamala - and I want to say: is that the best you can think of? There are 82 days to the presidential election. When you receive your mail in ballot, hand deliver it to the appropriate office or put it in your city’s ballot box collection point, and then check online that it was received - or vote in person on the day, of course. Meanwhile in New Zealand where Zar and Alva are preparing to be at home again for COVID-19 Phase 2, the experts are still trying to figure out where the virus came from and an initial suggestion is this: i.stuff.co.nz A cool storage facility in Auckland will be tested for Covid-19, with the possibility that the virus could have travelled into New Zealand on refrigerated freight. Four cases of Covid-19 were discovered in south Auckland on Tuesday evening, ending a 102-day run of no community transmission. One of the people infected worked at Americold, a cool store company in Mount Wellington. Another worked at personal finance company Finance Now on Dominion Rd in Mount Eden Wait, what? It travels by itself on cold things? Okay, keep the bleach spray and cloths handy for everything entering your house - mail, groceries, prescriptions, parcels. You never know where that little blighter might be hiding. Yesterday Craig tried the mask test. He will be wearing the blue surgical masks to teach (I can’t even talk coherently about college reopening) and he had found his cloth masks too hard to be heard through. To �test masks, you out it on, light a match and then try to blow it out. If you can blow it out, throw that mask away, its useless. And speaking of masks, bandanas or neck gaiters are not safe: Washington Post: Not all face masks are created equal, as we have learned over the course of this pandemic. While N95s are the gold standard for and commonly used by health-care workers, most Americans reach for accessible, reusable fabrics to protect others as we run our errands. Now researchers have found that so-called neck gaiters — typically made from a very thin layer of stretchy, polyester-spandex blend — can be worse than wearing no mask at all. “These neck gaiters are extremely common in a lot of places because they’re very convenient to wear,” said Warren S. Warren, a professor of physics, chemistry, radiology and biomedical engineering at Duke. “But the exact reason why they’re so convenient, which is that they don’t restrict air, is the reason why they’re not doing much of a job helping people.” �Oh so true! Back to school. Trump has suggested and Betsy DeVos has endorsed the idea that children are able to go back to school full time and they’ll be safe - or not: New York Times: In the last two weeks of July, nearly 100,000 children in the United States tested positive for the coronavirus, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The speed and the scale of the infections — dozens of countries have not yet recorded 100,000 cases in total — further complicate the already daunting issue of reopening schools. In Georgia, Indiana and other �states, some schools that reopened have already closed down again after new outbreaks emerged. Recent research suggests that children can carry at least as much of the virus in their noses and throats as adults do, even if they have only mild or moderate symptoms. That has prompted fears that students who become ill at school may spread the virus to their older relatives. But it’s not just older people who are at risk — in some rare cases, a child’s health can be severely affected. Nearly 600 young people in the U.S., from infants to 20 year olds, have developed an inflammatory syndrome linked to Covid-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Most of the children required intensive care. “I fear that there has been this sense that kids just won’t get infected or don’t get infected in the same way as adults and that, therefore, they’re almost like a bubbled population,” Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota, told The Times in July. “There will be transmission,” he said. “What we have to do is accept that now and include that in our plans.” ��From Zoe in Sydney where you no longer have to push a button to stop the traffic so you can cross the road. I was going to include a piece about the Big Ten canceling the football season this year, that is the big ten college football teams. But then I saw that other conferences (groups) are considering canceling seasons, so I’ll wait until that story plays out. The New Normal (NPR) Homemade sourdough bread, foraged mushrooms, open meadows, freshly picked flowers, homegrown produce, knitting, baking pies and rustic cottages. Sound like a scene from Little House on the Prairie or a spread in a 1940 Better Homes and Gardens magazine? Actually, it’s cottagecore, the new “it” aesthetic trend brought on by — you guessed it — locked-in syndrome … sorry, the coronavirus pandemic. Social media influencers and pop stars (hey, Taylor Swift!) have adopted cottagecore as a wholesome, back-tobasics response to feeling trapped and overwhelmed — sort of a honey-dipped antidote to “doomscrolling.” Ah yes, I’ll take cottagecore over doomscrolling any day. And now Oliver: ��You can just see the glint in his eye - 2 seconds later the tower was gone! One of our next excursions was to Esperaza. One of the old pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela passes this way, through the mountains and on into Spain. In the early 20th century, Espéraza was known for hat making. The town has a Hat Making Museum. Around 1815, the village experienced a considerable economic growth thanks to Bugarach hatters who settled there. First in 1830 and then in 1878 Espéraza enjoyed a prosperous period due to headwear, encouraged by the arrival of the railway. By 1929, there were 3000 Espéraza workers and 14 factories which allowed the village to become the second largest manufacturer of felt hats in the world (after Monza, Italy). But fashion had a terrible impact on the garment industry: the hat was worn less and less in the mid-20th century and Espéraza plunged into an economic depression. Now all that remains of the 14 Espéraza hat factories is a museum after the last factory burned down in 2002, although some have been converted to housing. Since the late 20th century, Espéraza has become known for dinosaur fossil bones and eggs discovered in the area. These discoveries began at the end of the 19th century and excavations continue today and new species of dinosaurs continue to be found. Dinosauria, the local museum, exhibits these fossils along with life size reconstructions of dinosaurs. Wikipedia ����This was one of the best dinosaur exhibits I have ever seen. It was so unexpected - we found it by accident, just driving through the countryside. Esperaza is a tiny town. In the 3rd photo the Tyrannosaurus Rex was motion sensitive and as I came around the corner, he roared at me. I think I jumped 3 feet in the air. Esperaza has a wonderful Sunday market and although we always intended to go, we just never got there. �Once more, many, many thanks for your readership and thanks also to all those who send me items to share. I don’t always use them and sometimes I save them for a later post but they are always welcome. Tomorrow then. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-154 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 154 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/ccb8dc13f9611ab8c9bfd1d570668f51.pdf 0cdbd16c19bbf9506de54cc406374550 PDF Text Text Day 153. by windoworks New Zealand operates on a reverse coronavirus stage system to Michigan. For 101 days they had no community transmission of Covid-19 cases and life went back to Stage 1, that is, normal. Everything opened up except the borders and New Zealanders could be seen gathering in restaurants, bars and cafes; walking on beaches and in parks, riding bicycles and flying for vacations to other parts of New Zealand. On Tuesday night (remember, they’re 16 hours ahead of us) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern closed the Greater Auckland area (Wellsford to Pukekohe) down to Stage 3 - all offices, restaurants, bars, cafes,schools etc closed. All Aucklanders not in essential services must stay home. All pharmacies and grocery stores to remain open but with restrictions. She closed the rest of NZ back to Stage 2, limiting group gatherings etc. PM Ardern also recommended the use of masks when visiting essential services. Why did this happen? Yesterday they discovered 4 cases of community transmission in Auckland. They are beginning massive testing and tracing tomorrow morning. We have seen this event in European and Asian countries where they have gotten the virus under control. A super quick lockdown, testing and tracing seems to bring it back under control very quickly. But its the rollercoaster effect: while the virus surges everyone behaves themselves but when it eases off, everyone throws caution to the wind. I find myself wondering - will masks become a fashion accessory? Will we color coordinate them with our daily outfit? Yesterday we went to Meijer where Craig noticed that every staff member was wearing a snazzy black mask with Meijer printed on it. A few people persisted in wearing their mask over their mouths only, but I guess its better than no mask at all. And they did have someone cleaning carts and baskets. Good job, Meijer! I felt dispirited yesterday. (Note to family: don’t worry, I’m almost dispirited). So, in anticipation of an outing I had made egg salad the day before and while Craig dropped Murphy at daycare (first time in 4+ months) I made the rest of our picnic lunch. We had intended to drive to Silver Lake, north beside Lake Michigan but the traffic was crazy (insane driving behavior) plus an added traffic jam due to road repairs, so we turned off the freeway and drove to Muskegon State Park. We stopped by the roadside and ate lunch watching the lake and listening to the waves. ��Murphy is being groomed on Thursday, so if the weather is good we might do another drive and picnic. Its an astonishing thing to say but the days are drawing in. Its dark longer in the mornings and the sun sets before 9pm. Its still hot weather and yesterday afternoon was horribly humid ahead of a storm. We were under a severe storm watch and in several states they experienced a Derecho which is a line of intense, widespread and fast moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds. I believe the wind gusts got up to 100+ miles an hour. It went all the way to Chicago and then caused huge waves surging back and forth across southern Lake Michigan. We escaped most of the wind but the rain was a gully washer as my neighbor John said. Speaking of John, he corrected me regarding ghost lights in theaters. John has worked extensively in theater for much of his working life and he says: “The primary purpose of a ghost light is safety. Theaters are extremely dark, and with constantly changing scenery, the stage can be extremely dangerous, from tripping on new scenic elements, or walking into the orchestra pit or just off the stage itself. Ghosts are appeased with empty seats as well as a light to perform by in order they do not curse the theater. Every theater has a ghost and the light is for them not against them”. Thanks John. �Meanwhile ..... Grocery prices in the United States are rising at the fastest pace in decades after the pandemic sickened food plant workers, broke supply chains and otherwise upended the complex network of farms, factories and shipping routes Americans rely on to eat. The sticker shock is hitting people already struggling with unemployment and lost income, forcing families to reckon with a scarcity of basic necessities. Oct. 1 will be a day of reckoning for the airline industry.It's when major carriers will be allowed to lay off employees under the terms of a federal bailout, and many early ticket buyers are worried their flights may not exist. The Post asked industry experts whether it's risky to book a flight for the fall. Expect “an adventure,” one of them warned. (Safety wise, experts caution against non-emergency flights.) In the coronavirus economy, masks are king. Requirements that millions of Americans wear them in public has created a surge of demand, prompting some struggling companies to repurpose their manufacturing lines and get into the mask-making business. Meanwhile, we're all trying to get rid of our junk. Stuck at home and strapped for cash, Americans are widely engaged in a “great decluttering,” our Style desk wrote. “Not since the January 2019 purging tsunami inspired by Marie Kondo’s tidying Netflix series have Americans been so inspired to edit the junk out of their homes.” Are you? Washington Post This what the the two parties were arguing about before Trump took matters (illegally, I think) into his own hands. �And I had to post this: �Any day now Joe Biden will announce his running partner. Please keep this (above) in mind if he doesn’t choose a black woman. He’s basing his choice on a woman who can work closely with him and shares his ideals. Sounds like the best plan to me. And a word of warning: if you think that if Trump is reelected, you will just move to another country - not an option. NO ONE anywhere wants us anytime soon. Thats �because Trump and his minions have mismanaged this dreadful virus so appallingly that everyone in the world wants Americans to stay safely locked in America. They’ll let us out again when the virus has run its course. Last part of the Whitmer interviews: Whitmer and I had been talking for almost two months. We had covered a lot of ground: Her struggle to get medical supplies to her state; her inability to ban firearms from the Capitol; the bursting of a dam; the anger and pain now exploding across her state. As the weeks went by, it became increasingly clear to me that all of these different conversations about all of these different subjects were really one conversation about one subject: Her government — our government — was badly broken. During one of our last conversations, I asked Whitmer how she defined success, given the almost unimaginably daunting choices that lay ahead for her. She had just returned from another trip to Midland, where she learned that only a small fraction of the flood victims were likely to have their claims paid by their insurance companies. It was the sort of question Whitmer usually steered away from, migrating instead to firmer ground: the intransigent Legislature, the White House, the budget. She thought about it for an uncharacteristically long moment as she paced outside the governor’s residence and then offered the only response she could. “That’s a hard question to answer,” she said. “It’s one that we’re grappling with.” New York Times Just this morning Russia announced it was using a vaccine developed before clinical trials were completed. Putin said his daughter had been vaccinated. Before we all cheer, read this: Federal health official are worried Americans won't trust a coronavirus vaccine if and when one is developed, so they've launched a PR effort to assure people they won't release one before it's been tested, reviewed and vetted by an outside committee. The nightmare scenario is a repeat of 1976, when the Ford administration rushed a new swine flu vaccine out to the public, only for people to panic over possible side effects and force the program to shut down. Two days ago we walked again in Oak Hill Graveyard. Here are 2 famous local names, and one not so famous: ���BISSELL from BISSELL vacuum cleaners; Blodgett from donating the land for Blodgett Hospital and oh look! Benjamin. Time for Oliver ��He loves this empty cable reel called Rolly. No, I didn’t name it. About 30 minutes or so drive from us was Carcassone. As you approach it on the freeway, it rises out of the surrounding fields like a fairy castle. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Carcassonne is located in the plain of the Aude between historic trade routes, linking the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea and the Massif Central to the Pyrénées. Its strategic importance was quickly recognized by the Romans, who occupied its hilltop until the demise of the Western Roman Empire. In the fifth century, it was taken over by the Visigoths, who founded the city. Its strategic location led successive rulers to expand its fortifications until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. Its citadel, known as the Cité de Carcassonne, is a medieval fortress dating back to the Gallo-Roman period. Wikipedia �����Carcassone is actually 3 cities: the Citadel fortress, the medieval city below and the modern city further out. There were 2 ways of accessing the Citadel - the first was astonishingly steep and I hated it, and the other was an easy walk in from the adjacent parking lot. We visited Carcassone a number of times. This was our first visit to the Citadel. To leave you today, I offer this: Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars of light, are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment, the long tapers of cattails are bursting and floating away over �the blue shoulders of the ponds, and every pond, no matter what its name is, is nameless now. Every year everything I have ever learned in my lifetime leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side is salvation, whose meaning none of us will ever know. To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go. “In Blackwater Woods” by Mary Oliver, from American Primitive. © Back Bay Books, 1983.American Primitive. © Back Bay Books, 1983. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-153 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 153 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/d094dffa245d27c6ea53092e0160ca09.pdf 5336d7b3b612f4702c8166dc459e2611 PDF Text Text Day 152 by windoworks Last night my son sent an Instagram post from the Sydney Opera House - well not the house itself, but about it. The drawings talked about the closed Opera House that had a light left on in each of the theaters. These lights are called Ghost Lights and they originated as lights to keep the ghosts away, but they are also lights for safety (no falling in the orchestra pit etc). The person in charge of the lights at the Opera House said that this year she left the ghost lights on to say: we will be back. Here are the last 2 drawings from the post: ��This morning I read a very long article from Rolling Stone magazine by Professor Wade Davis at the University of British Columbia. Its a tough read. Here are 2 extracts Today, the base pay of those at the top is commonly 400 times that of their salaried staff, with many earning orders of magnitude more in stock options and perks. The elite one percent of Americans control $30 trillion of assets, while the bottom half have more debt than assets. The three richest Americans have more money than the poorest 160 million of their countrymen. Fully a fifth of American households have zero or negative net worth, a figure that rises to 37 percent for black families. The median wealth of black households is a tenth that of whites. The vast majority of Americans — white, black, and brown — are �two paychecks removed from bankruptcy. Though living in a nation that celebrates itself as the wealthiest in history, most Americans live on a high wire, with no safety net to brace a fall And The American cult of the individual denies not just community but the very idea of society. No one owes anything to anyone. All must be prepared to fight for everything: education, shelter, food, medical care. What every prosperous and successful democracy deems to be fundamental rights — universal health care, equal access to quality public education, a social safety net for the weak, elderly, and infirmed — America dismisses as socialist indulgences, as if so many signs of weakness. If you want to read the whole article, here is the link: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politicalcommentary/covid-19-end-of-american-era-wade-davis-1038206/ I was born and raised in a socialist country. Then I moved to another socialist country for my middle years. Since moving to the United States and becoming a citizen, I have never really understood the deeply ingrained resistance to socialism. All 3 of mu children have long annual leave and accruing long service leave. They are sometimes instructed to use up some of their annual leave as there are rules about accumulating too much. What springs to mind is that all 3 children hold important positions within their professions and yet the world doesn’t end if they take 6 weeks leave - and their job is still there waiting for them when they return. As for the cost of my college degree - this was 30 years ago and it has changed now but then the annual cost of my attending university was deferred under a national scheme called HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) which meant I would pay the cost back at an annual percentage in my annual tax bill. But here’s the kicker - it only started once you began earning wages. In other news: Letitia James, New York's attorney general, announced civil action on Thursday to dissolve the National Rifle Association after an 18-month investigation found more than $64 million in alleged fraud by CEO Wayne LaPierre and others. James claims NRA officials misused charitable funds for personal gain, gave contracts to families and friends, and bought the loyalty of former employees with lucrative contracts. The NRA condemned the allegations, saying the action is a political vendetta intended to limit gun rights and stifle free speech. NPR I hope this succeeds. And here’s something to make you laugh from a friend: �A German nudist had the last laugh after giving chase to a wild boar that had run off with a bag containing his laptop. Pictures posted on social media show the naked man running after a sow and her two piglets to the mirth of fellow bathers at Berlin's Teufelssee, or Devil's Lake. Adele Landauer, an actor and coach who says she took the pictures, wrote that the pigs first helped themselves to somebody's pizza before grabbing the bag. When the owner realised what had happened, he “gave his all” and recovered it, she said. When he came back with his yellow bag in the hand we all clapped and congratulated him for his success,” she added. Landauer said she later showed the man the pictures she had taken and “he laughed loudly and authorised me to publish them”. Wild boars are common in the forests around Berlin and can occasionally be seen venturing through city parks in search of food. Here’s the next excerpt from Gov Whitmer’s ongoing interviews: In mid-March, as Michigan’s caseload continued to grow, Whitmer faced another tough decision: Should she lock down the state? Over the next 48 hours, Michigan’s caseload doubled to more than 1,000, and it became clear that the state had to close. But how much of it? Totten brought the revised order to Whitmer in her office on March 23. He told her that the moment she signed it, she would almost certainly be exercising more power than any governor in the history of Michigan. “There has never been a governor who literally told everyone in the state to stay home,” he �said. “That’s just extraordinary.” Over the next week, Michigan’s Covid-19 numbers exploded. By the end of March, the state was reporting 7,615 confirmed cases and 259 deaths. Both totals were far higher than those in any of its neighboring states. Michigan is the nation’s 10th-most-populous state, but it had the fourth-highest Covid-19 case and fatality counts in the country. The state’s caseload was still rising exponentially. On April 9, Whitmer signed a new executive order. This one imposed some of the most severe restrictions in the country, barring any activity that wasn’t “necessary to sustain or protect life.” It prohibited the use of motorboats, closed golf courses and, in a move almost guaranteed to provoke a backlash, required big-box stores to seal off aisles devoted to lawn care. As of yesterday Michigan had 96,726 cases in total and 6,519 deaths. I remember when we were shocked by almost 5000 deaths. Two days ago we walked along the ridge above the ravine on the Allendale GVSU campus. It is lovely, quiet and shady. ��Then yesterday I found this little guy on the corner of our front porch. �And here is Craig in his happy place: ��The ‘holes’ around the tree are where he has planted wildflower seeds. Now Oliver: ��His first selfie. In the first week one of our first excursions was to Montsegur. In 1243–44, the Cathars (a religious sect considered heretical by the Catholic Church) who had sought refuge at the Montségur fortress were besieged by 10,000 troops, in what is now known as the siege of Montségur. In March 1244, the Cathars finally surrendered and approximately 244 were burned en masse in a bonfire at the foot of the pog when they refused to renounce their faith. Wikipedia ����There is still the ruins of the fortress on the top. I climbed maybe a third of the way up before I went down again and fell down the last steep bit (but only wounded my pride). All around us were cows grazing with their cow bells clonking on the breeze. It was confronting to think of those burned alive in what is a lovely meadow now. Today I’ll leave you with this photo taken by my friend Rich. Its taken from St Ignace looking back at Lower Michigan on the other side of the Mackinac Bridge. �Remember: 89 days until the election. Vote as soon as your ballot turns up in the mail and then hand deliver it back. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-152 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 152 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/82a0c8515c0cbe48c91a2ac6009339de.pdf ff307da79d7cba26ae5e554436f9b750 PDF Text Text Day 151. by windoworks Two days ago we went walking after lunch at Highlands. This was a golf course and had closed down and fallen into disrepair. The Blandford Nature Center and the Land Conservancy of West Michigan collaborated on the purchase of the 121-acre former Highlands Golf Club in Grand Rapids in the winter of 2017 with a vision to transform the property into a natural area for community recreation, nature preservation, and land conservation. Since the last time we visited they have torn down the clubhouse and the other buildings and are in the middle of regenerating the remaining piece of the golf course. We walked along one of the many interconnecting mown paths and admired the wildflowers. ��The only landmark for not getting lost is the water tower in the distance. We couldn’t believe how high the grasses and wildflowers had grown since out last visit. It is a beautiful place to walk - just not in the middle of a hot day! I have never seen so may houses look lived in. By that I mean that at least one person is at home all day now, and gardens are gorgeous, front porches look inviting and used daily and everyone is walking or biking. Last week we went to Target and the thing that struck me was the back wall of the sports section was completely devoid of bicycles. There was only a long row of empty racks. It is surprising what stores are sold out of. The little children on our block have spent the summer with one of the older teenagers on our block as their carer. It makes me smile to see the girl I remember as a little one herself, organizing activities and keeping everyone safe and happy. The shrieks of laughter and the sound of scooters and bikes riding up and down the sidewalk has been the constant hum of the summer. So what else is happening? In virus terms, the stats continue to rise. Yesterday the US saw an increase of 55,692 cases to bring the total cases confirmed to 5.01M. Remember how shocked we were as we neared 4M? We also continue to add over 1000 deaths a day ( yesterday we added 1,109) and now the total deaths �are 162K. Its hard to comprehend these huge numbers, unless you know someone who has tested positive and then it becomes a disturbing reality. I have a friend who’s spouse is ill and tested negative, but is displaying the classic virus symptoms. And here’s a piece of worrying news: tests which are found to be negative are in fact somewhere between 70 and 75% accurate. Oh. A coronavirus model the White House cited heavily in the spring now predicts the U.S. death toll will double to nearly 300,000 by December unless Americans change their ways. The director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said the country was experiencing a “rollercoaster” effect: briefly following safety guidelines when infection rates spike, but abandoning them as soon as they begin to bring the numbers down. Washington Post. Speaking of people abandoning safety guidelines: One of the largest events since the beginning of the pandemic has begun in South Dakota: More than 250,000 people are expected at the iconic Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. That's scaled down from previous years, where about half-a-million people have descended on the city of about 7,000 for an event that has developed a reputation as an anything-goes festival. While the 80-year tradition isn't as raucous as it once was, festivalgoers will be largely free of social distancing restrictions common elsewhere in the country during this year's 10-day festival. Bikers flocking to the small town from around the country won't face quarantining requirements if they are from a coronavirus hot spot. And masks? They're encouraged – not required. So far, few people are heeding that encouragement, according to Associated Press reports from Friday and Saturday. USA Today. �And now we can’t even go to Canada - although I know some of you have been seriously considering it. I was packing for my road trip from Colorado to Alberta, Canada, when the text came in from a gentleman I’d been helping with groceries during the pandemic. “The Canadians are actually doing damage to vehicles with United States plates on them,” he cautioned, giving me my first inkling that it wasn’t just public health officials who were serious about keeping Americans out of Canada, where the death rate from the coronavirus has been roughly half that of its southern neighbor. As a dual citizen I was entitled to cross the border, closed to most Americans because of the pandemic. With an octogenarian father in Calgary who had been largely isolated during the stay-at-home orders, I was willing to submit to Canada’s mandatory two-week quarantine in order to visit. But my friend’s warning proved prescient. Some concerned residents who fear that the virus will be spread to their communities have been taking matters into their own hands, spurring so many reports of intimidation that the premier of British Columbia, John Horgan, reminded angry Canadians to “Be Calm. Be Kind” at a July 27 news conference. Before the pandemic, when Americans could choose most any country in the world to travel, Canada was their second most popular foreign destination, behind only Mexico. Lured by the proximity, advantageous exchange rate and safety of their northern neighbor, in the first six months of last year, U.S. residents made 10.5 million trips to Canada, the highest level in 12 years, according to Statistics Canada, a government agency. But the welcome mat was rolled up on March 31, when the border between the two countries was closed to tourists. That hasn’t kept some Americans from trying, however. Many are routinely turned away at border crossings, while other have chosen to go sightseeing instead of taking the most direct route to Alaska as required of those driving from the Lower 48 — even though violators face possible fines, jail or even being banned from Canada. There were so many interlopers that on July 31, Canada began limiting which crossings along the border with the United States can be used by foreign nationals who are allowed to transit through the country for nondiscretionary purposes. It is also requiring them to register, and making them display a hang tag on their rear view mirror with a mandatory departure date. Now this isn’t cheering: 1. The outbreak may worsen come winter. That’s when the cold will bring many indoors. “We know that the biggest risk of spread for this virus is when meaningful numbers of people gather indoors for any extended period of time,” one expert told Joe Pinsker. �2. Immunology is central to the pandemic’s biggest mysteries. Understanding it is key. “Which is unfortunate because, you see, the immune system is very complicated,” Ed Yong, who also wrote one of our latest cover stories, explains. 3. Even after this is all over, the coronavirus will likely stick around. “We will probably be living with this virus for the rest of our lives,” our Science reporter Sarah Zhang warns. “In fact, virologists have wondered whether the common-cold coronaviruses also got their start as a pandemic, before settling in as routine viruses.” The Atlantic They didn’t use just masks in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, they were sometimes more creative. ��Well you could certainly still wear lipstick here! And I wanted to share this - a friend on a nearby block did this. Do remember I told you when you fly the American flag upside down this signals ‘dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property‘ ? Oliver time. �He loves toy trucks and cars and drives them everywhere - even on Mummy’s knee. �One of our first excursions form La Bastide was to the nearby town of Mirepoix. If we were allowed to walk over the farmers fields we could have walked there in 15 minutes and the road was too narrow and busy to walk along the side. At the heart of Mirepoix is one of the finest surviving arcaded market squares - Les Couverts- in France. The square is bordered by houses dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. The mediaeval Maison des Consuls (council house) has rafter-ends carved with dozens of images of animals and monsters, and caricatures of mediaeval professions and social groups.Wikipedia. Monday was the weekly market day and we would shop for delicious foodstuffs and Craig would put them back in the car and then we would have the Plat du Jour at our favorite cafe for lunch. It was easy to fall into the French rhythm of eating a 2 or 3 course lunch in a leisurely manner with wine and much conversation and then a picnic type dinner at home. We did eat lunch out most days and sometimes we ate a proper dinner as well. All the shops and offices closed between 12pm and 2pm or 3pm on weekdays and this made it easy to eat a longer lunch with time for a nap afterwards. ���At the top: market Monday; a view underneath the arcade and a view from the outside of the arcade looking at the houses above. I’ll leave you with the next part of Gov Whitmer’s interviews: Since then, I have been talking to Whitmer every couple of days; our conversations evolved as she found herself confronting not only a public-health crisis but an economic crisis, the catastrophic collapse of a major dam and a historic reckoning with racial inequality. She was usually in her living room at the governor’s residence in Lansing when we spoke — she set up her office there because it had the best WiFi reception in the house — though when the weather was good she would occasionally step outside and walk around the lawn. Some days, I could hear her Labradoodle, Kevin, playing with a squeaky chew toy in the background. Whitmer is not naturally introspective. Recounting the almost incomprehensibly consequential decisions she was making on a daily basis, she rarely lingered on how she felt or the magnitude of the moment. She was more inclined to review events and discuss strategy, approaching it all with the same practical mindset and vocabulary she brought to more manageable governmental challenges like fixing potholes. The effect wasn’t necessarily stirring — there was no soaring rhetoric about the need to rise to this historic challenge — but it was oddly reassuring; she was channeling panic into process. �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-151 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 151 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/37549b0dce2aa6ce26af08040e546e3f.pdf 9658819279beded66bcf84c91f8131b1 PDF Text Text Day 150 by windoworks I was watching Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth in Australia, talk this morning about the coronavirus and he said: This is the new normal. Perhaps one day when this pandemic is over we might return to the old normal and be able to go to the pub with friends for a beer, but not now. Yesterday my friend Wendy and I were talking about the job of our Women’s City Club committee and organizing online events and we realized we were now operating as a committee on What Is, rather then What Was or What May Be. And that’s it really. As Wendy said - we’ve reached the other side. This is our New Now and its time to kiss the What Was goodbye and concentrate on making the What Is as good as it can be. Now it isn’t as easy as that sounds, but its a start. Dr Nick also referred to an epidemic intelligence committee (wow!) and the Black Dog Institute. I looked this up. Its primarily set up to help bipolar sufferers but it has useful daily charts to fill in and lots of non threatening advice. I’m not bipolar but during this time I do have the occasional Black Dog day. Dr Nick also talked about his experience with the daily constant anxiety which never goes away and I think we can all appreciate that. And just to let you know you’re not alone, here’s this: Michelle Obama said that she's dealing with "some form of low-grade depression" due to the coronavirus lockdown, racial strife in the U.S., and the Trump administration. In the second episode of her new podcast, the former first lady spoke with her friend Michele Norris, the former longtime host of NPR's All Things Considered. Obama described trouble sleeping and periods throughout the lockdown in which she has felt down. "Spiritually, these are not … fulfilling times," she said. "I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression," Obama continued. "Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting." She's not the only one feeling depressed right now. More than 1 in 3 Americans reported symptoms of anxiety or depression in a recent pulse survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. A year ago, that figure was 1 in 10. Obama said that she hasn't been moving around as much during this time, so she's not knock-out tired at the end of the day, and she goes to bed later. "And I'm waking up in the middle of the night, cause I'm worrying about something, or there's a heaviness." NPR �When the president persists in saying the first foolish thing that pops into his head and easily swayed people listen, this is what happens: Americans are being warned against drinking hand sanitiser after four people died and others were left with visual impairments. �A total of 15 people - 13 men and two women - were admitted to hospital after ingesting sanitiser in the southern states of Arizona and New Mexico in May and June, a new report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. All of them, aged 21 to 65, had drunk hand sanitiser containing methanol, an ingredient deemed "not acceptable" by the US regulator Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Four people out of the 15 died, three left hospital with new visual impairments and six had seizures as they were admitted - including three of those who died. The report said four of the patients were still in hospital as of 8 July, so there is no update on whether they have suffered long-term effects. One of the patients was a 44-year-old man who had gone to a doctor because he was experiencing sudden visual impairment. The report said he had drunk "an unknown quantity of alcohol-based hand sanitiser during the few days before seeking medical care". He had high methanol levels in his blood and while in hospital experienced seizures and had to undergo dialysis to clean his blood. The man recovered from "acute methanol poisoning" after six days in hospital but was left with "near-total vision loss". Scientists from the CDC said they started investigating the ingestion of hand sanitiser after a national FDA warning about certain hand sanitisers containing methanol prompted a call from health officials in Arizona and New Mexico. In April, the CDC warned household cleaners "can cause health problems when not used properly", a day after President Donald Trump suggested injecting disinfectant to treat coronavirus. Sky News �And to go with this cartoon: "There isn't any iceberg. There was an iceberg but it's in a totally different ocean. The iceberg is in this ocean but it will melt very soon. There is an iceberg but we didn't hit the iceberg. We hit the iceberg, but the damage will be repaired very shortly. The iceberg is a Chinese iceberg. We are taking on water but every passenger who wants a lifeboat can get a lifeboat, and they are beautiful lifeboats. Look, passengers need to ask nicely for the lifeboats if they want them. We don't have any lifeboats, we're not lifeboat distributors. Passengers should have planned for icebergs and brought their own lifeboats. I really don't think we need that many lifeboats. We have lifeboats and they're supposed to be our lifeboats, not the passengers' lifeboats. The lifeboats were left on shore by the last captain of this ship. Nobody could have foreseen the iceberg." While that is creative fiction, here’s what Trump actually said on tape, regarding the mounting deaths from the virus: “They are dying, that’s true. And it is what it is.”—Trump during an interview with Axios As the election looms nearer, Trump has begun disparaging Biden’s faith. So just in case you wondered - “Like the words of so many other insecure bullies, President Trump’s comments reveal more about him than they do about anyone else,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said in a 300-word statement. “My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as I would myself, while President Trump only seeks to divide us. My faith teaches me to care for the least among us, while President Trump seems to only be �concerned about his gilded friends. My faith teaches me to welcome the stranger, while President Trump tears families apart. My faith teaches me to walk humbly, while President Trump teargassed peaceful protestors so he could walk over to a church for a photo op.” In contrast, Biden talks often and easily about his faith. He grew up in an Irish Catholic family and attended Catholic schools. “Biden almost always has rosary beads in his pocket, and frequently holds them in his hand — including while he monitored the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011. He has written and spoken at length of how faith helped him grieve the loss of his first wife and daughter many years ago, and his son Beau more recently,” Julie Zauzmer and Sarah Pulliam Bailey report. Washington Post And this next item is very important to understand as we go towards the November election: The government of China prefers that President Trump not win reelection in November, seeing the incumbent as “unpredictable,” and Russia is using a range of measures to try to “denigrate” the president’s opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, including selective leaks of information and efforts on social media, a top U.S. intelligence official said in a statement Friday. The statement by William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, was notable for identifying three countries seeking to influence the 2020 election — China, Russia and Iran. But he portrayed Russia as the most active source of interference. Evanina also said that a Ukrainian lawmaker who has been in contact with Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, is part of a Russian disinformation effort. Washington Post Recently I read an excellent article in the Atlantic from a journalist who interviewed Gretchen Whitmer over many weeks. Embarrassingly for me as a researcher, I cannot find his name but this is an NPR piece. I will post it in sections over the next few days. One of the many disorienting features of this disorienting time has been the stark absence of executive leadership. The job of steering the nation through these epic convulsions has instead fallen to the nation’s governors. I first spoke with Whitmer on April 29, seven weeks after Michigan reported its first two cases of Covid-19. At the time, I wanted to understand what it was like to govern through a global pandemic. On that day, nearly 1,000 residents of Michigan tested positive for the virus, and more than 100 were killed by it. A few thousand people had recently gathered at the Michigan State Capitol for the so-called Operation Gridlock, the first mass protest of her stay-at-home order; some stayed in their cars, others crowded into the plaza carrying signs calling for her removal and comparing her to Hitler (“Heil Whitmer”). Whitmer’s executive order locking down the state was set to expire the following week. She intended to renew it for another 21 days over the objections of the Republican-controlled State Legislature, which was preparing to sue her. “They’ve asked to negotiate terms of reopening like we’re in a political crisis,” Whitmer told me. “We’re not in a political crisis, we’re in a public-health crisis. I can’t negotiate people’s lives.” �More tomorrow. But it must surely be Oliver time! ��See the little blonde boy in the green sweater sitting smack bang in the front? When he realized it was story time he crawled at top speed, barging through the other children to get to the front. Thats my grandchild. La Bastide de Bousignac;: this is our little village. It had a small bakery and the mayors office and that’s it! ����From the top: this is the bell tower - a design peculiar to the Ariege. Next, the Catholic Church, which had very limited monthly hours for mass and confession - they shared the priest with a number of other villages. The village graveyard and lastly, the farm at the end of our cul de sac. To finish I offer this: Everything is Going to be All Right How should I not be glad to contemplate the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window and a high tide reflected on the ceiling? There will be dying, there will be dying, but there is no need to go into that. The poems flow from the hand unbidden and the hidden source is the watchful heart. The sun rises in spite of everything and the far cities are beautiful and bright. I lie here in a riot of sunlight �watching the day break and the clouds flying. Everything is going to be all right. Derek Mahon,from Selected Poems Tomorrow then. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-150 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 150 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/43c6e798d86bee46349393b4a6ec9b19.pdf 26fe309ccc47de9890369d952e7b8d84 PDF Text Text Day 149 by windoworks Today I have been writing and posting this blog for 150 days (the first post didn’t have a number). At first I thought (naively) that I might write this for 30 days or so. I have lost photos; had problems posting; used up all my fact file; had the fact file grow to an unmanageable size; had the fact file corrupted; had articles which became out of date literally overnight; researched endlessly; switched from a free site to a paid one with double the capacity; run out of ideas; regularly forgotten to include something I wanted to post that day; agonized over what was enough each day and what would be too much; worried over an imbalance of depressing news and struggled to find anything positive to include; switched to a regular inclusion of Oliver photos and greatly expanded the flashback feature. In the beginning it was almost all my words, then it became mostly others words and lately I’m trying more of a balance between the two. I think I may be posting daily for the foreseeable future. I’m not sure how the content will change except for Oliver and Flashbacks. I welcome comments and I love receiving articles, memes and photos from my readers. I always smile when I see: here’s something you might like for your blogpost Pamela. And here’s what I really want to say: this is your blogpost as much as mine. We are all on this journey together and it is your readership which helps me get through each day. so let us continue our journey together and to start here’s something which made me smile and wince: �Thank you Kym. �U.N. Secretary General António Guterres warned Tuesday that the world is facing a “generational catastrophe” due to ongoing school closures, calling the coronavirus pandemic “the largest disruption of education ever.” Guterres urged countries to suppress the virus sufficiently to allow schools to reopen. Washington Post. And good luck with that! We keep hearing from scientists and doctors and people with brains (sorry that slipped in) that if we just wore masks and stayed 6 feet apart - and washed our hands - we would start to contain the virus. So here’s how New Zealand did it: On Sunday, New Zealand will mark 100 days without community transmission of Covid-19. From the first known case imported into New Zealand on February 26 to the last case of community transmission detected on May 1, elimination took 65 days. New Zealand relied on three types of measures to get rid of the virus: 1. ongoing border controls to stop COVID-19 from entering the country 2. a lockdown and physical distancing to stop community transmission 3. case-based controls using testing, contact tracing and quarantine. There are key lessons from New Zealand’s Covid-19 experience. Elimination of the virus appears to have allowed New Zealand to return to near-normal operation fairly rapidly, minimised economic damage compared with Australia. But the economic impact is likely to keep playing out over the coming months. Henry Cook/Stuff The only problem I can see is that once the borders are reopened, that could lead to the virus reappearing and community transmission occurring again. So to combat that, here’s another piece from Stuff which is a bit depressing for Craig and I and our hope to visit next summer: The New Zealand Government is hiring communications staff for two-year contracts with the coronavirus managed isolation and quarantine team, suggesting it believes borders could be shut for a long while. The job postings for the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s managed isolation team were posted in recent days and describe a two-year fixed term position. The team will handle the running of the Government’s sprawling border hotel regime, which houses all people coming into the country for 14 days. Managed isolation is a cornerstone in the defence against Covid-19 and will remain in place as long as necessary, to protect New Zealanders and those returning home. Henry Cook/Stuff Stuff.co.nz is an online news service and is worth visiting for an entirely different perspective on the world. �When Donald Trump became the president of the United States, Americans could no longer deny the racism in their country, argues Ibram X. Kendi, a contributing writer and a preeminent thinker on anti- �racism. “Just as the 1850s paved the way for the revolution against slavery, Trump’s presidency has paved the way for a revolution against racism,” he writes in our latest cover story, which is worth reading in full. Here are three major takeaways from Ibram’s piece (as explained by him): 1.Trump revealed the country’s prejudices anew. He has held up a mirror to American society, and it has reflected back a grotesque image that many people had until now refused to see: an image not just of the racism still coursing through the country, but also of the reflex to deny that reality. 2.And in doing so, he inadvertently helped power an anti-racist revolution. The America that denied its racism through the Obama years has struggled to deny its racism through the Trump years. … It has become harder, in the Trump years, to blame Black people for racial inequity and injustice. 3.What happens next is up to Americans. Now that Trump has pushed a critical mass of Americans to a point where they can no longer explain away the nation’s sins, the question is what those Americans will do about it. The Atlantic And I wanted to post this next piece so we could all think about it: White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday he and his family have needed continued security as a result of his high-profile statements about the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci didn't reveal any more details about the threats and harassment, but added, "I wouldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that people who object to things that are pure public health principles are so set against it, and don't like what you and I say, namely in the word of science, that they actually threaten you." NPR So here’s how we begin to address all these problems: �Using this (in a timely manner) �Here’s the final COVID-19 etiquette points: �4, What if I'm at a socially distanced outdoor gathering and, after a few hours, people start to bend the rules a little bit? Try using the "we" and "us" language if it's just happening with an individual, says Swann — saying to the person, "Let's make sure we stay in our little sections over here." But if it's happening partywide, alert the host, she says. The person in charge has the authority to enforce the pandemic guidelines. Swann suggests: "I noticed that people are starting to get relaxed with the guidelines. I thought I'd bring that to your attention. If the host does something about it, then great, says Swann. "But if the shift doesn't happen and you're uncomfortable with the environment, then wrap it up. Just say, 'You know what — I'm gonna head on home now. I had a great time. Takeaway 4: Take yourself out of uncomfortable situations — and remember to preserve relationships. 5. A friend invited me to hang out. How do I know whether it's safe to do so? We might not be on the same page with the pandemic protocols. Don't make assumptions about how people are following the guidelines, says Swann. Some people, for example, feel safer staying at home, while others live as if the virus didn't exist. So ask a few questions in advance, she says. For example: "I wear a face covering when I'm around others. How do you feel about wearing face coverings? Is that something you're doing? Is this going to be a social distancing affair?" Listen to what they have to say. "Then take a moment to step back and ask yourself whether it is something you feel comfortable with," says Swann. "If not, say, 'Thank you so much for the invitation, but I won't be able to make it.' " And don't push them to change their plans to fit your level of comfort, she adds. "This is not the time to police our friends and our family members. Instead, we should curtail our own behavior and make decisions on what's best for ourselves." Takeaway 5: Don't assume. 6. BONUS ADVICE: What the heck do I do with my mask at a socially distanced meal? When you're eating, take the mask off completely, says Swann. And, she adds, "don't have it hanging from one ear." You're going to be chomping and chewing and drinking and talking in the duration of that time, so it doesn't make sense to try to wear it at the table, she explains. But don't even think about putting your used mask on the table, says Swann. Aside from the germs, it's a major etiquette no-no. In general, she says, "nothing should go on the table except for food." That includes your cellphone, purse, keys, hat, laptop — and, of course, your mask. Carefully "place it in your bag, purse or in your pocket. Or you can place it on your lap underneath your napkin," she says. "That way it is easily accessible when your server comes over to you." Remember to mask up when your server is around, she notes, to keep them safe too. Takeaway 6: Please don't put your mask on the table. And speaking of masks, here’s this: �Face masks are a simple way to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus through talking, coughing or sneezing, scientists and public-health specialists say. But they need to be worn properly. While some types of masks are more effective than others, public-health officials say any face covering— even a bandanna—is better than nothing. Here’s how different types of masks stack up, and how they are meant to be used. Common masks fall into three categories: cloth masks or coverings like gaiters, intended to prevent an infected person from spreading the virus by catching large droplets; surgical masks, with a more sophisticated design also meant to prevent the wearer from spreading diseases; and N95 masks, which protect the wearer as well, and fit tightly to the face. Cloth • Typically homemade • Style and materials vary widely • Prevents wearer from spreading disease • Work in herd-immunity: the more wear masks, the more effective they are • Wash after use Surgical • Loose fit • Prevents wearer from spreading disease • Dispose after use • Made from a material called polypropylene N95 • Tight fit, must be fit tested • Protects wearer if fitted properly • Limited quantity Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wall Street Journal For some light relief: The latest thing we never thought we would see: people eating airline food, at home, that they bought on purpose. Nope, not a joke. A leading airline food company in Israel is selling in-flight meals to the public �as a low-cost pandemic delivery option after it found itself stocked with the tiny trays of food with no one on a plane to eat them. Which begs the question: “Chicken or beef?” NPR Its Oliver time! ��A sight to make every teachers heart sing: a one year old reading a book. Flashback: so 4 months after the beginning of our epic European adventure, we made it to our last destination: La Bastide de Bousignac, a tiny village literally halfway between Carcassonne and Toulouse. First some photos of our house, in a cul de sac, on the edge of the farmland. ����Our car parked in the driveway. We actually never parked there again, we parked outside the gates instead. My little french kitchen with a stove I adored and wish I could afford here at home. Our living room from the terrace door - note the fireplace which we used every day of our stay. The terrace. Behind me are steps to the ground floor apartment and pool, both closed for the winter. I loved that house. Yesterday Craig and I went to a greenhouse and purchased 3 huge grass plants (among other things). Craig then spent a few hours finishing the landscaping around the new fence and path. It looks fabulous. What do you think? �Be brave. And register to vote right away. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COVID-19 Journals Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Grand Valley State University. University Libraries Description An account of the resource This collection of journals and personal narratives was solicited from the GVSU community by archivists of the University Libraries during the events of the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic. During this unprecedented crisis the university closed suddenly, following federal and state guidelines of social distancing to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus. The university closed its campuses on March 12, 2020, and quickly moved students out of campus housing. Faculty swiftly transitioned to fully-online teaching for the remainder of the Winter 2020 semester, and all campus events, including commencement, were cancelled. The purpose of the COVID-19 Journaling Project was to document the individual and personal experiences of GVSU’s students, staff, faculty, and the wider community during this time of international crisis. Some project participants were university student employees who were compensated for their journaling. Other participants were granted stipends or extra credit for submitting entries to the archives. Still others participated without any compensation or credit. The University Archives remains grateful to all who submitted journals, for helping us to understand the impact of this crisis on our community. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Subject The topic of the resource Epidemics Grand Valley State University College students Personal narratives COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context COVID-19_2020-08-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-149 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Benjamin, Pamela Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2020-08-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 149 Description An account of the resource Daily journal entry of Pamela Benjamin, spouse of GVSU history professor, Craig Benjamin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally self-published on WordPress. Subject The topic of the resource COVID-19 pandemic, 2019-2020 Epidemics Grand Valley State University Grand Rapids (Mich.) Personal narratives Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived University Archives. COVID-19 Journaling Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Grand Valley State University University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">In Copyright</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource application/pdf Language A language of the resource eng