246 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/c1822e27fda11a105afc21c5a3e5a09d.pdf 2589e33c85cf6ea9c25a7989eafd1bc2 PDF Text Text Day 114 by windoworks As my friend said to me today: Pamela, you are living the virus. Yesterday in Michigan, where we have endured months of behaving ourselves and following the Governor’s instructions, the number of virus cases rose by 543 in one day as opposed to under 100 a day in the middle of June. In Kent County there were 107 new cases yesterday. The day before there were 30+ new cases. So here I am, living the virus. I watched Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York State talk this morning. He is famous for his one liners. This morning he said ‘reality always wins’. He was referring to Chump’s refusal to face any sort of fact about the virus. Governor Cuomo also said some weeks ago ‘the other choice is death’. Hawaii has mandated quarantine for tourists and if you don’t comply, you face a $5000 fine or a 12 month jail sentence. New York State says any visitor who doesn’t quarantine will be fined up to $10,000. MiamiDade County in Florida had instituted a curfew beginning tonight. Beaches are closed in a number of coastal states. �And here we are again: In Arizona, where the virus appears to be spreading out of control, hospitals rushed to expand capacity and adopted practices similar to those employed at the height of the outbreak in New York City and Italy, including doubling up hospital beds in rooms, pausing elective surgeries and bringing in health-care workers from other states. �Perhaps most chillingly, at the urging of doctors and advisers, state officials this week activated “crisis standards of care” protocols, which determine for hospitals which patients get ventilators and care as the system becomes overwhelmed under the crush of patients. “I think it’s pretty obvious that we are not going in the right direction,” Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious-disease expert, said during a YouTube live stream. Although people are asking to be tested, once again there seem to be shortages of test kits and the accompanying paraphernalia. At the same time, laboratories are running out of test reagents as well as being simply overwhelmed by the rush. From Sydney, Australia: in Balmain where Zoe and Oliver live, their local grocery store, Woolworths, was closed for deep cleaning and restaffing after one store worker tested positive. Disturbingly, he tested positive several weeks after recovering from his initial bout of Covid-19. Accordingly (with many others) Zoe lined up to be tested again. She and Oliver had planned to visit his great grandmother in Canberra this weekend, and she needed to know if she was infected. Zoe reported there was a long line of cars and when the nurse asked her why she was being tested she replied: I live in Balmain. And the nurse replied: Ah, Woolworths. The nurse then scraped both sides of Zoe’s throat ad well as both nostrils - a change from the previous test when the nurse had scraped one side of Zoe’s throat and one nostril. Fortunately the test came back negative and Zoe and Oliver can safely visit my mother-in-law. But here’s something cheery: In El Cajon, Calif., a procession of cars carrying 600 soon-to-be U.S. citizens from 68 countries passed through a series of stations behind a local community center earlier this week, where they were asked a series of final questions: "Any coronavirus symptoms? Have you been arrested since your interview? No tickets, nothing like that?" After that, they were asked to surrender their green card and given a small American flag. Driving a little farther forward, an immigration officer wearing a face cover administered the oath of allegiance, 6 feet from the car's window. And in a matter of minutes, years of uncertainty were over — hundreds of people became U.S. citizens over the course of the day. Yay! I remember our ceremony from 10 years ago and what a thrill that was. At the end of the drivethrough ceremony (above), the immigration officer then said to each new citizen: congratulations! Welcome to America. On the reverse side, here is something scary: �Russian voters passed a referendum allowing President Vladimir Putin to remain in office until 2036. Vladimir Putin is 67 years old, by 2036 he will be 83 years old, if he is still alive. The referendum contained 200 amendments. 200! Just remember, Chump adores Putin. And just to cheer us all up, from John Lennon: Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope some day you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world. Under the heading: Let sleeping dogs lie - ��French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson greeted each other with waves and thumbs up this week. Even the elbow bump with which Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders opened their mid-March debate is a thing of the past. Forget handshakes or hugs. And gestures aren’t the only rituals learned over a lifetime that have been adapted in mere months since the novel coronavirus began changing the world. A quick shout out to my niece Elle Benjamin in Cornwall, England. As she has returned to her office job part time, she has taken up crafting in her spare time and is concentrating on weaving wall hangings. She is also a wonderful potter. This month she is making Christmas decorations for a booth she hopes to have at a nearby Christmas Market in December. You can see her stuff at: completeanduttercraft on Instagram. I have purchased 3 items from her already. She has a PayPal account that is easy to deal with. Check out her site. By the way, she made 33 cloud rainbow window hangings. They are all over the world as well as locally and she donated half the profits to the National Health Service. Oliver. If the video was too big yesterday, I apologize and I will just post photos until I figure video posting out better. Here he is at daycare surrounded by his team. You’ve gotta laugh. ��Flashback: on our way into Edinburgh we visited Rosslyn Chapel. The building was begun in 1456 and of course at that time it was a Catholic Church. In 1861 it became a Scottish Episcopal Church. The really interesting thing about this chapel is the speculative theories about a connection with the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail and Freemasonry. It was prominently featured in Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code (2003) and the film adaption in 2006. Sadly medieval historians say these accounts have no basis in fact. However, the church has gained an impressive amount of tourists visiting, who all come to see the crypt featured in the film. ����From the top: me outside the church looking at the extensive carvings; Asher outside; the church is famous for its carvings, both inside and out but the ones outside have suffered greatly from weather and pollution; lastly a photo from the crypt - I’m not sure of it’s significance. Broadway will remain shuttered until at least January. But if you subscribe to Disney+,from tonight you can watch the complete stage performance of Hamilton featuring the original cast. Simon says; put your mask on. � 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_2020-07-03_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-114 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 2020-07-03 Title A name given to the resource Day 114 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/61c260db255c0140afb2a9e3ef82faf3.pdf 743ff35e4e90da60e67583511df9829f PDF Text Text Day 115 by windoworks Yesterday, in one day, the number of new cases in the US was 57,209. 57,209. Dr Fauci warned that we could see 100,000 new cases a day and I think we’re well on our way. And consider this: these are only the tested cases. In many areas, they run out of test kits while the line of cars stretch for miles. In Kent County yesterday we had 90 new cases, 17 less than the day before. Almost everyone wears a mask - more people on the streets than before, but most stores have 100% mask cover. From my friend Gina: We’re all exhausted. We’re all stuck at home. We’re all wondering how to proceed. And we’re all cross. �Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” ― Theodore Roosevelt. Today is the 4th of July. This is a federal holiday in the United States celebrating the Declaration of Independence of the United States, on July 4, 1776. The Continental Congress declared that the thirteen American colonies were no longer subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of Britain, King George III, and were now united, free, and independent states. The Congress had voted to declare independence two days earlier, on July 2, but it was not declared until July 4. Usually we get up early and walk 6 blocks to watch the Hollyhock Parade. This parade has been running annually for 85 years. There’s marching bands, floats, politicians running for re-election (or election), vintage cars and lots and lots of thrown candy. Everyone cheers and waves American flags and catches up with friends. One year I marched with Joe Jones and his team as he was running for reelection to his City Commission seat. It was one of the most memorable moments. At the end of the parade all participants meet in Hollyhock Lane for music and refreshments. I believe the parade is happening this morning but Craig and I are not going. All other parades and fireworks have been canceled this year along with pretty much everything else. And if the virus and its consequences weren’t enough, now we’re in a heatwave. For the next 13 days (that’s as far as my weather app goes) we have temperatures ranging between 91F -96F (32.7C-35.5C). This is the first morning Craig has not turned off the window a/c units and opened all the windows and doors. We are eating a diet of salads, salads and more salads. Every evening at 9:30pm, before we go to bed, we sit outside in the waning light and watch the fireflies. They rise up, little erratic blinking lights that twinkle. After a while one or both of us begin to yawn and then its time for bed. Some nights most of our neighbors are siting on their porches, just talking but last night we were the only ones. And here’s this: As a new academic year approaches, colleges and universities across the country say they are taking every precaution to safely bring their campuses back to life. But with coronavirus cases surging, especially among young people, college faculty members are demanding the right to teach remotely this fall — no questions asked. Thousands of professors, increasingly rattled by reopening plans that they say place tuition revenue above their well-being, have signed petitions calling for more flexibility to teach remotely. They argue they should not be forced to disclose medical information or make a case for keeping themselves and their families safe in the middle of a pandemic that has killed more than 125,000 Americans .A common thread is the belief that everyone deserves the right to teach remotely regardless of their health or age. With so little known �about the virus, faculty members worry about the risks to everyone, especially the nearby college dependent towns. To raise your spirits: Here is a photo from Craig’s walk this morning. ��Yesterday Zoe and Oliver drove 177 miles to Canberra to stay with her aunt and uncle and visit GG (Oliver’s great grandmother). These photos just in: ���Everyone worried that Oliver and Kym’s dog Allie wouldn’t get on, but so far so good. Flashback: Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh Castle is a historic fortress which dominates the skyline of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, from its position on the Castle Rock. Archaeologists have established human occupation of the rock since at least the Iron Age (2nd century CE), although the nature of the early settlement is unclear. There has been a royal castle on the rock since at least the reign of David I in the 12th century, and the site continued at times to be a royal residence until 1633. From the 15th century, the castle's residential role declined, and by the 17th century it was principally used as military barracks with a large garrison. Its importance as a part of Scotland's national heritage was recognised increasingly from the early 19th century onwards, and various restoration programmes have been carried out over the past century and a half. As one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, Edinburgh Castle was involved in many historical conflicts from the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 14th century to the Jacobite rising of 1745. Research undertaken in 2014 identified 26 sieges in its 1100-year-old history, giving it a claim to having been "the most besieged place in Great Britain and one of the most attacked in the world". So I have to be honest and say: Wikipedia, but they say it all so much better than me. I loved Edinburgh. To this day I cannot explain why, it just spoke to me as did all of Scotland. Edinburgh Castle felt steeped in history and we explored it all. ����From the top: Asher and I walking up to the castle’s main entrance. Two years later, Craig and I sat in a temporary stand watching the massed pipe bands come out through that entrance, past the barrels of fire, on the opening night of the Edinburgh Tattoo. (But thats another story for another day). Then 3 photos from the gun turret area. It was a gorgeous fall day. More Edinburgh tomorrow. Remember: 122 days to Election Day 2020. Are you all ready to vote? Register now if you haven’t already. � 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_2020-07-04_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-115 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 2020-07-04 Title A name given to the resource Day 115 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/496c7851d35db4bec16bed54dc7b848b.pdf ef622169aa5cbbaf69dd0f5a1c61471b PDF Text Text Day 116 – the day after July 4th by windoworks Last night Craig and I sat on our front porch for 30 minutes as the fireworks exploded constantly, all around us. The noise was incredible. Some made a whistling sound and then burst into huge exploding balls of color. And some made such a bang as they shot up that I could feel the porch floor vibrate under my bare feet - and then they exploded as a small round ball. All noise and no color. The last fireworks exploded at 3:30am. Until that time the noise was loud, constant and endless. There was barely a second between explosions. I’m sure everyone loved the display - but 3:30 in the morning? As I told you yesterday, we didn’t go to the Hollyhock Parade but our neighbors 3 doors down joined the parade in their beautifully restored truck - and everyone wore face masks! Here they are ready to go. ��My next door neighbors cycled over to watch but said it was nothing like the normal parade. Maybe next year. From Joe Biden: Our country was founded on an idea. “We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal.“ We never lived up to it. Jefferson himself didn’t. He held slaves. Women were excluded. Two suggestions = perhaps it would be a more honest document if it said; That all rich white men are created equal. And it should say: That all people are created equal. And here’s something else for your consideration: Notice anything different? Yes, that’s right, its upside down. Why? The United States Code, the list of federal statutes, says the stars and stripes should only be flown upside down to signal “dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.” It is also commonly acknowledged that the American flag is flown upside down as a form of political protest. �And I think we actually have both reasons at this time. Now to make you laugh. Our Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, affectionately known as Big Gretch posted a photo of herself wearing this: �To interpret for all overseas readers; Dear America, sorry about Betsy De Vos (possibly the worst Secretary of Education, a billionaire from the Amway family, AND from Grand Rapids). Sincerely, Michigan. A constant embarrassment to us in Grand Rapids - but thats another whole blog thread. Dr Fauci was interviewed about how he manages his life in the pandemic. There were other scientists interviewed but I am presenting his answers only, as we all know who he is. There were many questions so I will post them over several days. First 3 questions: 1.When and where do you wear a mask? Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: It dominates everything I do. The only time I don’t wear one is when I am alone, when I am home with my wife, or when I am speaking in public — provided there is 6 feet between me and the people to whom I am speaking, as was the case when I answered questions at the recent Congressional hearings. 2. Besides family, do you allow anyone else inside your home, such as cleaners or service people for repairs? The only person who comes into the house besides (my wife) Christine and me is the woman who cleans the house once every two weeks. She wears a mask and gloves at all times while in the house. �3. Do you shop in grocery stores, or order online? Do you wash the items off or disinfect the outside of packages once you get home? I do physically go to the grocery store, but I wear a mask and keep my distance. I usually go at odd times. I spend half the day alone in my office, and I’m part-time at the White House. In the late afternoon or evening, when I’m finished with the White House, I go shopping for groceries, or to drugstores. I don’t disinfect the bags. In general, I will take the materials out of the bags, then wash my hands with soap and water, and then use Purell, and let everything sit for a day. I am not advocating his response as the only way to live at this time but it is interesting to read the responses of the leading scientist in this pandemic. More tomorrow. Step-kick your way to the couch for the Disney+ edition of the musical Hamilton. To say that much has changed in the country since the hit first opened in 2015 would be an understatement. “Hamilton’s brassy celebration of the founding of America’s governmental institutions plays in a different light in 2020,” our film critic David Sims writes. “But the show is not irrelevant … It now also functions as a reminder that the country’s history and future is still being written and rewritten.” We haven’t watched it yet, but I excited to have the opportunity, as I never did get to see the show live. My son alerted me to an interesting program that originated in Japan with Akira Miyawaki, a botanist. Now you have to look this up online for yourself, but it seems to involve using places like abandoned parking lots or even your garden to plant indigenous trees and shrubs to completely cover the existing space. Tiny forests create a small functional ecosystem that restores soil, protects water and air quality and acts as a biodiversity hotspot that can have a measurable effect on the local and even the regional environment. Now as much as I love this idea, I don’t think Craig will want to covert our back yard to a tiny forest. But if you have the space and the passion - think about it. Meanwhile in Melbourne Australia where Asher lives the virus is on the rise: Victoria has set a new record for its seven-day running average of daily new coronavirus infections, after tallying its second-largest one-day rise in coronavirus cases. State health authorities confirmed 108 new infections on Saturday, the highest number in a single day since March 28, when the state’s new case count peaked at 111. The major escalation in Victoria's coronavirus crisis comes as a major imposition on about 3,000 residents of public housing towers in Melbourne's north. They have been shut in their apartments with no notice, with the lockdown enforced by 500 police officers each shift — roughly one officer for every six residents. Testing of the entire building will be one of the factors determining if any of the nine affected housing blocks will stay locked down for longer than five days. �In light of these restrictions, I think it makes our restrictions look super easy. Asher says they may have a super spreader. The concern for Australians and New Zealanders is that having done such a good job of acting quickly, testing, tracing and quarantining, that they may be unable to open their borders for the foreseeable future. It’s hard to imagine tourists being willing to be tested and quarantined for 14 days upon entering either country. Time for some Oliver. He had a wonderful time with his great aunt and uncle, his cousins and his great grandmother. He also met Alfie, an Oliver sized dog. There was much licking of ears happening. ���In the second photo he can’t understand why his mother has a hamburger while he has nothing. Flashback: Edinburgh. �����From the top: Robert Burns Memorial. He was known as Rabbie Burns and is regarded as the national poet of Scotland. He only lived for 37 years and among his most notable works is the poem Auld Lang Syne. In this photo you can see me standing awkwardly by a piper. Next: Asher and I on the bridge overlooking the park; James VI of Scotlands Royal Seal (he later became James I of England and Ireland after Elizabeth I’s death); the view of Edinburgh and the castle from Carlton Hill; unfinished Acropolis on Carlton Hill, early morning. Remember: make sure you’re registered to vote, wear a mask when you leave your house, wash your hands and stand one average cow length apart from people you don’t live with. Easy peasy. � 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_2020-07-05_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-116 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 2020-07-05 Title A name given to the resource Day 116 - the day after July 4th 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/1687310616bf454e78c2523cd6fdfad2.pdf a98eef9a2ef86a3f261db396b2059138 PDF Text Text Day 117 by windoworks In 4 more days I will have been writing this Pandemic Diary for one third of the year. Sobering thought. Now before I begin today’s post, I have to correct an item in yesterday’s post. The monument I was standing awkwardly in front of in Edinburgh was not the Robert Burns Monument but the Walter Scott Monument. He was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright, and historian. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include the Lady of the Lake (narrative poem) and novels Rob Roy and Ivanhoe. (Many thanks for the catch, Jan). As ever, where to begin? Perhaps this from my friend Heathe: Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all white, heterosexual, educated, firstborn, Christian men who own property and have a record of military service are created equal, that they..." Founding Fathers: "Wait, hold up." Thomas Jefferson: "Yes?" Founding Fathers: "Something about that last sentence... It's a little wordy. What if you just said 'men' and left out all the adjectives?" Thomas Jefferson: "You know, the thought crossed my mind. But then I got to thinking, what if future generations misinterpreted our intentions? What if there was confusion about how we felt about women, minorities, atheists, poor people, those that do not have access to a quality education, homosexuals, other faiths, homeless people, etc... I decided to leave all the adjectives in so there would be no way future generations could misunderstand our interpretation of 'equality'." Founding Fathers: "Tom.... you don't think future Americans would be that stupid do you? As you yourself said, it is 'self-evident' that all white, heterosexual, educated, first-born, Christian men who own property and have a record of military service are created equal. I think it's safe to say future generations will understand exactly what we mean if you just shortened that to 'men' and left it at that." Thomas Jefferson: "Hhhmmm... Well, alright. I'll edit it. I sure hope wars don't get fought over this..." �Meanwhile in Victoria Australia, last night the New South Wales state government closed the borders between themselves and Victoria. Of course this is personal to Craig and I as our youngest son, Asher, lives and works in Melbourne. On the other hand, this is how you stop community spread across state lines. Then this from New Zealand: In an effort to further prevent the spread of COVID-19, Air New Zealand is making a clear separation between its domestic and international crews. While there was already a split for long-haul flights out of Oceania, the latest change further divides crews, taking into consideration trans-Tasman trips. I wonder if United and other airlines here that fly internationally have considered this? And speaking of travel, yesterday I read that major cruise lines have begun scrapping some ships - that is, breaking them down for parts. Most cruise companies have delayed any future sailings to either September, October or November. Next 3 questions for Dr Fauci: 4. Would you dine inside a restaurant? Outside? Do you get takeout. We don’t do anything inside. I don’t eat in restaurants. We do get takeout. 5. Do you take any precautions with your mail or packages? I used to, but now I just bring the mail in, wash my hands, then let it lie around for a day or two before I open it. 6. Do you go to friends' homes for dinner, or have friends to your house, or see them in other ways? On the rare occasion when we have people over, we have them out on the deck, six feet apart, and we never have more than two people, and they are people who themselves are locked in. We wear masks, unless we �are eating. We don’t share anything. There are no common bowls. Each person has his or her own receptacle. Some people even bring their own glasses. We always do takeout and I tell the takeout people that I want the food in four separate plastic containers, so no one has to touch anyone else’s food. Everyone’s food is self-contained. Also, we always stay outside. We don’t do anything inside. If it’s too hot, or rainy, we cancel it. 3 more questions tomorrow. In case you were wondering The Republican Party under Donald Trump has become a party wandering aimlessly in the street talking to itself and responding to itself, and all the rest of us have become the pedestrians trying to avoid that guy. John Kasich: They coddled this guy the whole time and now it’s like some rats are jumping off of the sinking ship. It’s just a little late, It’s left this nation with a crescendo of hate not only between politicians but between citizens. … It started with Charlottesville and people remained silent then, and we find ourselves in this position now. I’m glad to see some of these Republicans moving the other way but it reminds me of Vichy France where they said, ‘Well, I never had anything to do with that,’” a reference to the French government that continued during Nazi occupation in the 1940s. Something to divert us: This is Pony Gate, Lincoln, Mass. It started out with a few “horses” grazing in a field and people keep dropping them off. Under the cover of night, they are often re-arranged. No one takes credit for it which makes it funnier! �One for the teachers and then this: ��Sometimes we think that something like this has never happened before but here is this from the Spanish flu epidemic. The 1918-1920 flu pandemic came in three major waves. After the first wave in the US, the virus subsided, and Americans were restless to have businesses reopened and for social life to resume. There was a growing movement to stop wearing masks, which had become ubiquitous - so much so that The AntiMask League of 1919 was formed. These were protests from those who thought the public health ordinance violated their liberty. The virus came back with a vengeance in the fall and was much deadlier than the first wave, eventually killing more than 675,000 Americans and killing around 100 million of the 500 million it infected worldwide before it was over. This was before mass vaccination, before the electron microscope; this is the tragedy of herd immunity and stubborn ignorance. ��Notice that the woman on the right has a sign which says: wear a mask or go to jail. Hmmm. It must be time for an Oliver moment. ��So young and yet so bossy - not now Alfie! Still in Edinburgh. ���Today we visited the National Museum of Scotland. It is full of artifacts and has an excellent cafe where we met a friend of Asher’s with her family for lunch. From the top: on our way to the museum we came across the cafe where apparently, J.K Rowling sat and wrote much of the Harry Potter books entirely by hand. over cake and coffee. It has now become a major tourist attraction. I have never read the books (although I’ve tried) but I have seen all the films. Next: the atrium in the Museum. Asher and I are sitting on a bench waiting for his friend. And lastly, Dolly the cloned sheep. Dolly was a female domestic sheep born in 1996 and was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, using nuclear transfer. After Dolly, many other mammals were cloned including pigs, deer, horses and bulls. The main result from cloning is the development of stem cell research. Now they use Crispr for gene editing. I once stood on the spot where you can ask the researchers questions behind the glass window in the lab in the Chicago Museum of Natural History, and asked: Are they cloning humans anywhere in the world? After a silence in which the 3 of them looked at each other, one finally said: well, we aren’t. Tomorrow we begin our journey further north. �“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up”. Anne Lamott Carry on. � 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_2020-07-06_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-117 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 2020-07-06 Title A name given to the resource Day 117 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/78133311032005b606d6960b0d9870dd.pdf 2b2ef0c8ed76b5a557e326026ac6efc6 PDF Text Text Day 118 by windoworks Last night two significant things happened. First, we watched the second half of “Hamilton“. I was never enthusiastic about paying a small fortune to see it onstage, especially as it is sometimes hard for me to distinguish the lyrics in a live show. We watched it over 2 nights and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. It allowed us to see the men behind the birth of the country as real, flawed, people who all put their pants on, one leg at a time, just like us. The second thing was that as we were about to turn out the light and go to sleep, a firefly flew around our bedroom and out through the door. How did it get inside the house? This morning there is no sign of it. So, in Victoria, Australia, they have returned the state to Level 3: outdoor exercise and recreation is limited to you and members of your household or you plus one other person if you do not live with them. Hair and nail salons, cultural and entertainment venues, community facilities are closed. Cafes and restaurants are returned to take out and delivery only. There are only 4 reasons to leave home: food shopping; medical care; exercise and study and work (if you can’t do it from home). This level will stay in place until August 19. This applies to our youngest son Asher. He’s right back inside again, keeping safe. Yesterday the US had 57,186 new cases. Meanwhile, in the alternative Republican universe: The Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said it was “too early to tell” whether the Republican National Convention could be held safely in Jacksonville, Fla., next month. “We’ll have to see how this unfolds in Florida and elsewhere around the country,” he told CNN. ‘We’re right back where we were at the peak of the epidemic during the New York outbreak,’ former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on ‘Face the Nation’ on CBS. ‘The difference now is that we really had one epicenter of spread when New York was going through its hardship, now we really have four major epicenters of spread: Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida, and Arizona. And Florida looks to be in the worst shape.’ New coronavirus cases in that state on Sunday exceeded 10,000 in a day for the third time in the past week, after the state posted a record of 11,458 the previous day. The new infections pushed the state’s total caseload past 200,000, a mark passed by just two other states, New York and California. Oh really? How did this happen? This is a line to be tested in Dallas, Texas. This is just part of one line for one testing station. �My friend Mary Alice (Authors note: MA and I share a birthday. She is the only other non family member I’ve met who’s shares a birthday with me) sent me this artist’s name; Pamela Sztybel, who publishes a drawing most days on FaceBook. Here is an offering from a week ago. This one’s for all of my Australian fam. �And this should scare you: After 28 straight days of rising infection averages, with no solution in sight, President Trump's political strategists are betting that Americans will simply get used to an uncontrolled pandemic before he stands for reelection in November, our politics desk reported Monday. They’re of the belief that people will get over it or if we stop highlighting it, the base will move on and the public will learn to accept 50,000 to 100,000 new cases a day,” said a former administration official in touch with the campaign. I have no words. When you fill in your absentee voting form, or stand in line on November 3, remember these words: the public will learn to accept 50,000 to 100,000 new cases a day. We’ll simply get used to an uncontrolled pandemic. I had to pause for a moment there. I think I may have slipped into an alternative universe and I can’t seem to find my way back. Next 3 answers from Dr Fauci: �Are you getting your hair cut? I usually get it cut every five weeks, but I didn’t go for a long while. By the 11th week, it was looking really bad. So I asked the woman who cuts my hair if I could come in really early in the morning, at 7 a.m., and we arranged to do that. No one else was there. She wore a mask and I wore a mask. Are you willing to fly? What about bus, train, subway? I’m 79 years old. I am not getting on a plane. I have been on flights where I’ve been seated near people who were sneezing and coughing, and then three days later, I’ve got it. So, no chance. No Metro, no public transportation. I’m in a high risk group, and I don’t want to play around. Would you visit your kids/grandkids? My middle daughter, who teaches school in New Orleans, drove up here after they closed the schools. She could teach online from here, so she thought: Why not come home and see her parents? When she got here she went straight through the back entrance into the basement. She stayed in our basement, which has a room with a bed, a shower, electricity, and she did not come upstairs for 14 days. My wife brought food down to her on paper dishes. She lives in a very high risk city, and she wouldn’t let us near her. I wanted to hug her when she arrived, but she said: “No way, dad.” She came upstairs after 14 days, and then stayed with us for several months. I too had my haircut early in the morning, wearing a mask, with no one else there. I’m not getting into any other form of transportation except our car and I would visit my children in a heartbeat and do the mandatory quarantine but the Australian and New Zealand borders are closed, as well as the NSW/Victoria border - and anyway, our American passports expire in less than 6 months and it will take months to get them renewed. This: �And this: �A picture is worth a thousand words. Oh by the way, Harvard University will be teaching all classes online this fall. Oliver! Because he makes me smile. ���Flashback: on to Loch Lomond. 'Lake of the Elms' is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of Central Scotland and the Highlands. The Loch forms part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which was established in 2002. This was the start of our journey into the Scottish Highlands which I just loved. �����These are all photographs of Loch Lomond. In the bottom photo I am standing in the parking lot next to a cafe/restaurant where I ate the best Caesar salad of my life. The falls are the Falls of Fallach, and the second to last photo is of Loos Bay. I decided to time myself this morning - so far I’ve been writing and researching for 90 minutes. It will be another 15 minutes to finish, edit and publish. I research on and off all day long. It’s almost like a real job! I really appreciate hearing from you and anything you can share with me for addition to the blog. Sometimes I wait for the appropriate moment to share something you’ve sent me (Gladysin). This morning my friend Mary Alice posted on FaceBook an a capella song with the words from a Mayan greeting. You are another me. I am another you. Isn’t this the best place to begin? � 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_2020-07-07_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-118 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 2020-07-07 Title A name given to the resource Day 118 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/710267d5b6b4022dcfa2523aca877bd1.pdf 058fd4ec08b70df5a5437af2af129e3e PDF Text Text Day 119 by windoworks This morning Craig said: do you know what day it is? When I answered Wednesday July 8, he said: good job Pamela! It’s true that each day looks pretty much like the day before and I assume that today looks almost exactly like tomorrow. The big questions of the day are ones like: will it rain today? Did I order enough bread? What can we eat for dinner? Will there be fireflies again tonight? Earth shattering, I know. 119 days means 119 breakfasts, lunches and dinners. In 119 days we’ve had one take out lunch and one take out dinner. I’ve baked bread, rolls, muffins, cakes, pies and bars. We’ve harvested one crop of lettuce and the second one is on its way. We’ve done many home improvements - and when I say we, I mean I made the suggestion and Craig carried it out. I think we have explored every inch of Grand Rapids and most of Kent County by car, and we’ve found a lot of parks to walk in. And that’s our lives, one day after another. People keep asking and asking: when will it be over? When will my life be normal again? Here’s one answer (and I suspect, a fairly accurate one): Taken together, the studies bolster a view increasingly voiced by experts: there may never be a “return to normal.” Rather, the ill effects of the pandemic will resonate long after an effective coronavirus treatment is discovered. And just when you thought that hand washing, distancing and masks were enough, there’s this: Scientists are urging the WHO to take the possibility of airborne spread of the virus more seriously. “In a forthcoming paper titled ‘It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of Covid-19,’ 239 signatories attempt to raise awareness about what they say is growing evidence that the virus can spread indoors through aerosols that linger in the air and can be infectious even in smaller quantities than previously thought. Until recently, most public health guidelines have focused on social distancing measures, regular hand-washing and precautions to avoid droplets. But the signatories to the paper say the potential of the virus to spread via airborne transmission has not been fully appreciated even by public health institutions such as the WHO. … Last night I watched a video of Chris Cuomo on CNN interview Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. Two days ago she tested positive for Covid-19 with NO symptoms. Her husband tested positive and 2 of her 4 children have been tested and the other 2 will be tested. She told Chris that she did everything correctly and carefully and she has no idea how she contracted the virus. So maybe this lingering aerosols is a real thing. �Chump’s niece is releasing a ‘tell all’ book about her uncle and so far she hasn’t told us anything we didn’t know. She blames his persona on his father, but honestly, I have no interest or time to waste pitying him. Every day he sinks to unbelievable depths. For a long time I thought he would hit the bottom but apparently he epitomizes ‘a bottomless pit.’ Craig says historians will judge him harshly but I don’t care. I want him to be judged harshly right now. And Gladysin - here’s the right moment for this: Oh yes. And I found this somewhere and I just have to include it today: Trump should’ve started his speech with: Four whores and 7 lawyers ago. �We are banned from Europe, probably Australia, definitely New Zealand (no international flights allowed in for the next 2 weeks), possibly Canada and now, some parts of Mexico: The residents of the Mexican beach town of Puerto Peñasco used their cars to block all southbound traffic from Arizona as the town’s mayor asked American tourists not to visit Mexico. 3 more Dr Fauci questions: What would you tell your kids or grandkids who wanted to join a protest march or go to a political rally? My daughters feel very strongly about social injustice, but would not likely want to do that. They are very careful with their health. They stay away from crowds. Would you go work out at a gym? Swim in a pool? Run? Walk? I wouldn’t go to a gym. I need to be so careful. I don’t want to take a chance. I have a pool at home, so I swim in that. I do power-walking with Chris. I was running until about a year ago, but every time I went running, my back would tighten up the next morning. So now I walk the same distance. It just takes longer. We go every day with few exceptions, 3.5 miles per day during the week, four miles over the weekend. Prior to covid-19, I did it at lunch alone in the parks near NIH. Now, I do it in the evening with Chris around the neighborhood. On the weekends, Chris and I do it together on the C&O canal. Are you making routine trips to the doctor or dentist? No, not yet, although I might check in within the next few weeks with my physician to get some soothing meds for my throat since I have a hoarse voice from so many briefings and interviews. He will probably take a look and say: “Just stop talking so much.” As if this virus isn’t life changing enough, here’s a warning from the United Nations. Lets be prepared next time, okay? • A new United Nations report warns that more diseases that pass from animals to humans, such as COVID-19, are likely to emerge as habitats are ravaged by wildlife exploitation, unsustainable farming practices and climate change. • These pathogens, known as zoonotic diseases, also include Ebola, MERS, HIV/AIDS and West Nile virus. They have increasingly emerged due to stresses humans have placed on animal habitats, according to the U.N. Environment Program report • We have intensified agriculture, expanded infrastructure and extracted resources at the expense of our wild spaces," UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said. "The science is clear that if we keep exploiting wildlife and destroying our ecosystems, then we can expect to see a steady stream of these diseases jumping from animals to humans in the years ahead." On that cheery note, I offer these: �The wildflowers at the Grand Ravine Park. We drove to look at the river but it was just too hot to walk. �The lushness of the community garden - you’re looking at one third of it. And I think it is a Two Oliver Photo day: �His new favorite book which we watched him read last night. As he turns the pages he says: oh! ��He has turned into a speed crawler and he goes into Mummy’s bedroom and plays with the bottles on the table beside her bed. She always knows when he’s in there because the pill bottle rattles. Is that a guilty look? Flashback: the next day we arrived In Fort William. This town is located in the Highlands on the shores of Loch Linnhe. Fort William is a major tourist centre, with Glen Coe just to the south and Ben Nevis to the east. It is a centre for hillwalking and climbing due to its proximity to Ben Nevis and many other mountains. It is also known recently for its connection to Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander novels. Fort William features heavily in the early books. ���Our first real glimpse of the Highlands and then Loch Linnhe. More Fort William adventures tomorrow. I’ll leave you with these 2 thoughts: �And, �� 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_2020-07-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-119 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 2020-07-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 119 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/f0b2ceb037bc1c05659f5540b461b917.pdf b9be2c6500ebb02c1792c0a590ad81e5 PDF Text Text Day 12 by windoworks Well, here we are again then. This is what we woke up to this morning at 6am. It snowed all night long, I mean it SNOWED all night long. What’s next I ask myself? And I’m not even going to entertain an answer. Yesterday CB went walking with Murphy Brown early in the morning. They went through the woods on the campus of Aquinas College and followed the new stations of the cross put up for people who can no longer attend Mass. ��Each box has a station of the cross in it. Then he walked past Blodgett Hospital where the drive through Coronavirus testing was just opening up for the day. Late last night, after we had FaceTimed ZL in New Zealand and ZB with OB in Australia, ZL texted us to say that the Prime Minister Adhern had moved New Zealand to Level 3 followed by Level 4 with 48 hours. Level 4 mandates all citizens must lockdown in their homes. All non-essential businesses and nonessential facilities must close and the police will enforce restrictions. We here in Michigan are at Level 3 with a possible switch to Level 4 coming with total lockdown. In Australia Victoria and New South Wales are locking down but Prime Minister Morrison seems unable to take this as seriously as he should. Over the weekend they had to get the police to close Bondi Beach in Sydney as it was packed with sunbathers and swimmers. Which just shows that if the leader of your country doesn’t take this seriously - why should the general population? ZB ran out to the toy shop over the road yesterday (before it closed down) and bought OB a big plastic bell which he loves. She was going to get a tambourine which daycare had told her he loves but the video clip she sent featured the bell and his happy face. When we FaceTimed yesterday CB was practicing his flute �and OB was entranced. AB is sheltering in place with a delivery of 12 assorted bottles of wine. Perhaps he’s going to drink all his worries away. Just kidding AB. Yesterday we drove out to the countryside to deliver a thumb drive to my colleague (long story, and yes we left it in her mailbox) and then we went for a walk in a little park we found on our way home. I just realized that I didn’t take any photos! And finally, today’s flashback. Bear with me while I troll through years of photos. ��This is October 2016 and we had been living in Brandon, a small village in Suffolk England for 4 weeks and AB joined us after this in Cambridge. We then went on a 3 week trip up through Scotland all the way up to the Orkney Islands. It rained the whole 3 days we were there but it was an amazing place. On our second day there we drove across causeways to South Ronaldsay to visit a Neolithic chambered tomb called The Tomb of the Eagles. The rain was so heavy and the wind was so strong, we had to link arms as we walked the mile out along the cliff edge to the tomb. Luckily the wind was blowing off the sea and across the land or I think we would have been blown off the cliffs. When we reached the tomb, there was only one way in. You either crawled on your hands and knees (as CB did) or you lay flat on your back and pulled yourself hand over hand into the tomb. It’s surprisingly hard to make yourself do this, but I hadn’t struggled all that way not to look inside. Once inside it was amazingly quiet, dim and warm and after a quick look around we had to force ourselves to go back out again into the wild weather. The photo is of AB pulling himself out again, and really, you just had to laugh. Once again a wonderful memory but I don’t have to do that again! Thank you to every one who posts funny things on FaceBook, thanks to Yo Yo Ma who posts wonderful videos of himself playing moving cello pieces - and thanks to all of you who join me on this daily post. As always till tomorrow. Stay well and stay safe - and if you’re really sick, seek help. � 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_2020-03-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-12 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 2020-03-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 12 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/064b34a3f4d4ac09130568821d5d4968.pdf 425ba7408a88eb03df07e11d0d845f3f PDF Text Text Day 120 – or the beginning of week 17. by windoworks One of the best signs I’ve seen so far. This morning is tough. It’s so hot outside, our water heater is on the fritz so no hot water, and in really disturbing news, Grand Rapids has been designated a ‘high risk’ area. We have 5,014 cases - a rise of 71 new cases since yesterday. Michigan has 67,237 cases - a rise of 610 cases since yesterday. The US added 62,751 new cases yesterday . That’s a terrifying number for one day. Other countries have taken it seriously, and we have not,” said Ashish Jha, director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard University. “Other [countries] have had a very aggressive shutdown. We have not. Other countries have taken an aggressive approach to testing and tracing and isolation. We have not. Some countries have universal masking laws, and we don’t.” Just to remind you: the fish rots from the head. �"We're very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools," Trump said during a roundtable discussion Tuesday afternoon at the White House. "Get open in the fall. We want your schools open," Trump said. The president spoke alongside first lady Melania Trump, administration officials and teachers as part of planned programming from the White House to push for the reopening of schools. This was a meeting in a closed space, with recycled air conditioning. People are sitting next to each other or standing around the walls. I counted 3 masks in the photograph. Chump has ordered schools to open and that’s all he’s offered, an order. So this is the real story of where we are: Anthony S. Fauci’s statement Tuesday that the United States is “still knee deep in the first wave” of the coronavirus pandemic is certainly true in a metaphorical sense. The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases meant that the country has not yet effectively tamped down the initial round of infections, months after the virus emerged. Where the metaphor really shines, though, is in a more literal sense. We analyzed county-level data through Monday to determine when each county hit its recorded high in the seven-day average of new �coronavirus cases. More than a fifth of the country’s population now lives in a county where the high was reached on Monday. If it’s a tide threatening the body politic, it’s at our knees. Again, that’s the other significant part of what Fauci said. Not only are we knee-deep, we’re knee-deep in the virus’s first emergence. We never left the water. I was talking to my oldest child the other day. He is an editorjournalist for an online news service in New Zealand. In his job he sees many disturbing things. I hadn’t realized that those people sorting out what news we should see on tv, or streaming, on our TVs, or computers, or phones is vetted before we see it. That is, someone has to watch the raw footage (and sometimes that means the carnage) and decide what is appropriate to show the viewing public. Consider this: when it warns you that some scenes may be disturbing to viewers, think about what they left out and what toll that takes on editors. And yet, my son remains a kind, gentle man who always tries to cheer me up and show me the lighter side of life. This morning I offer this gem from him: Japan has banned screaming at its reopened amusement parks as a measure to stop the potential spread of Covid. They released a video of two stony-faced executives going on a roller coaster ride and remaining stoically silent. And I found another video of a Dutch rollercoaster with a teddy bear in every seat as it raced around the course but I couldn’t share it with you - I’m sure you can find it online. 3 more Dr Fauci questions: �What about mammograms? Would you get a routine mammogram/advise your wife/daughter to get one? If routine, I’d probably tell her to wait. Are you working in your office? What precautions do you take? I don’t wear a mask when I’m alone in my office, but I slap one on if I walk out into the hall and could pass someone, like my assistant, who also wears one. Will you ever shake hands again? Hug/kiss someone? I think it’s going to be a while. The infection rate will have to be extremely low or nonexistent, or we have to have a vaccine. Right now, I don’t even think about doing it. Last 3 questions tomorrow. This is one way to social distance in a park. And here is a sign at one of our local restaurants. ��I would like to say that everyone in our city is wearing a mask but not only are some people not doing so, they are maskless and belligerent. It seems some people go into stores seeking a mask confrontation. Like our idiot ‘leader’, its all about me, me, me. To change pace, Craig has finished painting the back of the house. In the last day or so I have noticed people driving down our street and stopping in front of our house and our neighbors house. I guess the Big Blue next to the Big Red is striking. Oh look! Murphy made it into the photo! Today Craig is exhausted. It was dreadful painting in the heat yesterday. It was dreadful just being in the heat. Oliver! �Look at those red cheeks. That 6th tooth is slow in breaking through. �Fort William. The main reason for staying here two nights was so Craig and Asher could climb Ben Nevis. This is the highest mountain in the United Kingdom and the summit is 4,413 ft above sea level. They drove to the Rangers Center where they had to sign the book. The woman staffing the counter cheerfully informed them that at least 2 people had fallen off the mountain in the last 2 weeks. She told them to be careful at the top as the track runs between sheer drops on either side. Look for the markers, she said. I didn’t know any of this until afterwards. �����As you can see, the first hour or so of the climb was in cold but clear weather. When they neared the summit, a thick cloud cover rolled in and they had to proceed carefully between the track markers to safely reach the top. It didn’t look like easy climbing to me on all those stones. Tomorrow I’ll show you what I did while they were on Ben Nevis. Practicing Safe Six? And remember: masking for a friend. � 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_2020-07-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-120 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 2020-07-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 120 - or the beginning of week 17 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/bafca08ba0603be797de8bc8328c4277.pdf 11855213708aaf5dea751901a0da0d00 PDF Text Text Day 121 by windoworks Welcome to the state of high anxiety. Yesterday I had a video call with my doctor and she told me that so many of her patients were experiencing high anxiety and some are experiencing depression. Some of her patients have never experienced anxiety or depression before and they are finding it extremely difficult to deal with. She checked that I was seeing a counselor and was very happy when I said yes. My counselor and I had been discussing changing from weekly to every other week, but my doctor said no. Keep it weekly, even if you just check in each week. So I am sharing this with you because the days of ‘how are you?’ ‘Fine’ are far behind us. Polite, meaningless exchanges are like normal life, a thing of the past. If you ask me how I am, I will tell you and I am always interested to hear how you are really doing. The phrase ‘high anxiety’ triggered a memory and after quick research I found this: High Anxiety PG 1977 ‧ Comedy/Mystery ‧ 1h 35m Just after becoming the director of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke (Mel Brooks) is greeted by a series of mysterious events. When his colleagues -- including the militaristic and mustachioed Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman) -- become leery of his questions, they accuse him of murder. Thorndyke's own mental health comes into question as he struggles to clear his name in the midst of a crippling bout of a condition known as "high anxiety." It is available on Starz and I think Craig and I are going to watch it tonight. I love a good Mel Brooks movie. Late yesterday afternoon a huge rainstorm blew in. Craig and Murphy sat on the front porch and enjoyed watching it. This morning its cool enough to turn off the a/c and have all the doors and windows open instead. ��What about schools reopening? �Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for social distancing, and grouping kids into small pods, to limit the spread of a potential infection. That means a drastic reduction in class sizes everywhere. In the absence of funds for more space and more staff, that's driving schools to cut back on in-person class time. The state of California, for example, recommends splitting up students into smaller cohorts that attend two days a week, every other week, or mornings and afternoons, while offering remote instruction the rest of the time. We're hearing versions of this limited-time plan everywhere from New York City — the nation's largest school district — to Omaha, Neb., Seattle and West Bloomfield, Mich. At the same time, districts are surveying parents and teachers to find out if they are willing to go back at all. One national survey by the American Federation of Teachers found about 1 in 4 educators were not willing to come back even with precautions, and a survey of parents found two-thirds were nervous about the prospect. That means many districts are offering remote learning at the same time, which is essentially a whole other job for schools and teachers. �In Victoria, Australia, the State Medical Officer is suggesting the wearing of masks is a good idea. Asher tells me that he has a colleague’s mother who is making them ( ahh, mask makers of the world, unite!) and he will get a couple from her. I would send some to him but the mail from the US is incredibly slow. In other news from New Zealand and Australia, both countries have temporarily halted incoming international flights as quarantine facilities are overloaded. In New Zealand they’re considering using cruise ships as quarantine spaces. Meanwhile more cruise lines are talking about ship scrapping and airlines are warning of bankruptcies while laying off thousands of crew members. Oh and here’s a story that will raise the hairs on the back of your neck: almost 1 in 3 Pakistani pilots have fake pilot licenses that is, someone else took their pilot test for them. Say, what? �And after a whistleblower told the story - Union leaders representing aviation workers, with the backing of Democrats in Congress, have clashed with airlines and the Trump administration over safety at airports and onboard planes. With only limited direction from the federal government, airlines and airports have been adopting their own approaches, leading to a patchwork of a different approaches. While the government has declined to impose new rules on the industry, it last week issued guidelines that recommend limiting the number of passengers on flights and changes to check-in procedures to encourage social distancing As Craig says - not getting on an airplane any time soon. Last 3 Dr Fauci questions: If you had young kids, would you send them back to school in the fall? It really depends on where you live. Have you been tested for the coronavirus? Yes, every time I go to the White House. What is your best guess about when a vaccine will be available? We have multiple candidates, and my hope is that we will have more than one, probably by the end of this year or the beginning of 2021. Notice he said: my hope. Craig heard this morning on the radio that even if there is a vaccine, it would take at least 12 months to disseminate it. With tears in his eyes, the director of the World Health Organization pleaded Thursday for international unity to fight the pandemic, after President Trump announced his intention to quit the organization. “How difficult is it for humans to unite to fight a common enemy that’s killing people indiscriminately?” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked. “Can’t we understand that the divisions or the cracks between us actually are to the advantage of the virus?” And: Coronavirus patients are pouring into hospitals in hot spots such as Florida, Arizona, California and Texas, where hospitals are adding new ICU beds and specialairflow systems as virus hospitalizations set records almost daily. The surge in patients is creating a major shortage in protective equipment, and forcing healthcare workers to reuse the PPE they already have. Nurses say they are using N95 masks for weeks at a time. “A lot people thought once the alarm was sounded back in March, surely the federal government would fix this, but that hasn’t happened,” said Deborah Burger, a California nurse and president of National Nurses United. �And today’s Joe post: �How refreshing As the disease spreads, Americans are recalibrating their expectations about the future. In the late June survey, 74 percent said they now expect disruption of their lives due to the disease to last until the end of this year or longer. That group is split evenly between those who expect things to return closer to normal by year’s end and those who say it will be at least sometime in 2021 before that happens. And actually, I think that expectation may have changed again in the last week, and not for the better. �And �And this �It’s time for Oliver. ��The top one - what about reading to me? And the bottom photo: at last I have you reading to just me. �Flashback: while Craig and Asher were climbing Ben Nevis, I went for a lake cruise on Loch Linnhe. It was freezing waiting at the dock, never mind on the boat - but it was worth it. �����Loch Linnhe is a sea loch. It’s about 30 miles long and it opens into the Firth of Lorne at its southwestern end. We cruised for about 2 hours and the captain told us more information that I could retain. In the top photo its the lake from the shore; then 2 farm photos. They built longer cottages so their animals could be housed in one end of the cottage in the winter. The animals provided some heat for their owners. Along the shores the farms were mainly sheep. Next photo is of a salmon farm. At the very end of the loch there was a seal colony but it was too hard to get a photo. And the last photo is of us returning back to Fort William. Further north tomorrow. 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_2020-07-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-121 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 2020-07-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 121 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/9ac02b0dbc686ad98b85248d295b0502.pdf 77e5035c84d5f3000b7dc204bf058a9c PDF Text Text Day 122 by windoworks This morning the US had 64,630 new coronavirus cases bringing the total to 3.24M cases. My fingers shook as I typed that. In Michigan Governor Whitmer called on Chump to extend the National Guard through to December 31 to help with the virus. Whitmer also signed an executive order requiring mask use in all indoor public spaces (with enforceable fines) and she welcomed a sizable donation of PPE from the Kingdom of Jordan. The Kingdom of Jordan is donating PPE supplies to Michigan? Our governor had to scour the world and ask for essential supplies because there’s nothing coming from the federal government? Should the State of Michigan secede because apparently we’re doing better on our own! Perhaps my blogpost should be renamed Day 1 in the Parallel Universe. The future is unknowable. But the pandemic increasingly looks like one of the defining events of our time. The best-case scenarios are now out of reach, and the United States is suffering through a new virus surge that’s worse than in any other country. One more time for the people in the back: the best case scenarios are now out of reach.There’s a thought that makes you want to get out of bed in the mornings. ��State leaders and laboratories say that they have been confused and feel unprepared by the Trump administration's erratic approach to testing. They report that they don’t know who is in charge, nor do they know which agencies to contact about supply issues. “It is increasingly unlikely the nation will be �prepared with sufficient testing capacity to meet the health and economic needs of the country by late summer or even into the fall,” lawmakers wrote in a report. Email correspondence released through a public records request shows how states that raced to reopen allowed businesses to write their own rules when it happened. The emails also show governors' thinking as they have pledged not to shut back down, even as cases spike in states such as Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Health experts in these states say that concerns from industries overpowered the health advice they were giving to implement more presentation measures. And this: Fifty-seven former government scientists and public health officials have demanded the Trump administration stop politicizing the pandemic. “Sidelining science has already cost lives, imperiled the safety of our loved ones, compromised our ability to safely reopen our businesses, schools, and places of worship, and endangered the health of our democracy itself,” wrote the former officials, who served under presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Trump. Bu this is expecting sense from a man who has no common sense, empathy or moral fiber. This is a cartoon but its not too far from the truth: �Here’s a story. Some years ago Craig and I were on a cruise (Craig was one of the lecturers) and the other lecturers were from the New York Times. During a session, one of the NYT lecturers was talking about Sean Spicer who he knew quite well through press circles. When Sean was asked to become press secretary for chump, he asked this lecturer if he should take the job or not. The lecturer said he was torn: on the one hand he’d have an inside man in the White House and on the other hand, he predicted this move would be the end of Spicer’s career. I think he probably said: think carefully. But to illustrate this, I found this gem 3 days ago: As one anonymous former official told our White House correspondent Peter Nicholas: “You get the Trump stink on you, it’s hard to get it off.” �In the dire warning category: Health experts are increasingly convinced that the only way to stop America's rapidly worsening coronavirus situation is to reimpose stay-at-home orders, effectively abandoning the country's twomonth-long effort to resurrect public life. “Stay-at-home is a blunt instrument,” Farshad Fani Marvasti, director of public health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine at Phoenix, told The Post. “But when you’re leading the world in new cases and things don’t seem to be getting better, you may have to use that blunt instrument.” Or as Harvard surgeon Thomas Tsai vividly put it: “We see the hurricane coming. In some places, it’s already here. The question is whether you’re going to evacuate your citizens from the path.” The White House shows no sign of heeding this advice, and is instead pressuring federal health agencies to fall in line with President Trump's rosy outlook on the pandemic. This morning I have looked for good news to counter the overwhelming bad news - and I couldn’t find any. Sometimes its just beginning a gratitude list. Here’s my first item: I am grateful for my husband Craig who is sharing this pandemic with me every day; who takes me for long drives in the country until the green lowers my anxiety levels; who carries out all the projects I have devised for him; who wraps his arms around me and holds me until I run out of tears; and so much more. I am so fortunate to have this fellow traveler in my life. Just because: �And: �And its a 2 photo Oliver day. ��Creative play day at Daycare - and apparently he had to have his hair shampooed before bed because he had glitter all through it. And where’s his little apron?? ��Just chatting up a girl at daycare. Flashback: I loved Fort William. It reminded me of parts of the South Island of New Zealand. But, we had to move on and on our way north we visited Loch Ness. This is a deep freshwater loch 23 miles long. It is best known for its alleged sightings of the Loch Ness Monster, also known as Nessie. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or more humps protruding from the water. Popular interest and belief in the creature have varied since it was brought to worldwide attention in 1933. Evidence of its existence is anecdotal, with a number of disputed photographs and sonar readings. Scientists state that it has no biological basis and sightings are hoaxes or wishful thinking. But our main interest at Loch Ness was Urquhart Castle. It’s ruins date from the 13th century to the 16th century. The castle, situated on a headland overlooking Loch Ness, is one of the largest in Scotland in area.It was approached from the west and defended by a ditch and drawbridge. The buildings of the castle were laid out around two main enclosures on the shore. The northern enclosure or Nether Bailey includes most of the more intact structures, including the gatehouse, and the five-story Grant Tower at the north end of the castle. The southern enclosure or Upper Bailey, sited on higher ground, comprises the scant remains of earlier buildings. (Authors note: yes, I used Wikipedia) Now I could research who lived there and what significant events happened - but I’m going to suggest you do that for yourself. ������After Loch Ness we drove north to John O’Groats. That’s tomorrow. In Victoria Australia, where new cases continue to surge daily, my son is on Day 3 of the 6 week total lockdown. The police have been busy. They’ve arrested and fined 20 people at an illegal birthday gathering (moral of story - don’t buy 20 KFC meals at one time) and they’ve arrested a couple who tried twice to drive to their holiday cottage. Now I know this sounds draconian but it gets the job done - and this is what a real shutdown looks like. Remember: you HAVE to wear a mask in public spaces; you SHOULD stand 6 feet OR MORE apart even outside and you MUST keep washing your hands (20 seconds counted properly). We are knee deep in the first wave and we can’t seem to get back to dry land. � 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_2020-07-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-122 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 2020-07-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 122 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/2494a22e58edcf68b75ccf7b529ebd39.pdf f41ce46b8190fe33faf7ff4725024919 PDF Text Text Day 123 by windoworks To start us off this morning, this just in from my daughter Zoe. It seems entirely appropriate. Oh yes. Today I’m hoping for a baking banana bread day, although drinking a good gin for breakfast might make the day more fun. �Lately some of my children are worrying that I am depressing myself daily by writing the blog. Chump and the virus they say. Thats all you talk about. And they’re right, but what other news is happening worldwide? My friend Lynne was watching the news with one eye (while she did something else) and all of a sudden she heard a story about China’s crackdown on Hong Kong. Why isn’t that the breaking news of the day? She asked me. That’s a very important story! The reason is (I think), we are consumed by surviving in an unfamiliar world. I sometimes feel as though Craig and I are standing in the eye of the storm, while the tornado whirls around us, with danger everywhere we look. Yesterday someone actually rang our doorbell and stood expectantly at our front door waiting for us to step out and talk to him. The only people who ring our doorbell are the prescription deliverer from our pharmacy (and he waits back in his car for me to open the door and retrieve the meds from the basket by the door before waving and driving off) and Dan the coffee guy, who leaves the bags of beans in the basket, and lastly the Instacart grocery deliverer who rings the bell to let us know the groceries are by the door. We didn’t talk to the salesman, we said no thank you from deep inside the hallway. In a whimsical moment Craig and I decided we live in the Independent Region of Benjamina. We haven’t worked out the details yet but I can tell you the regional boundaries are the property lines. I held a Zoom committee meeting on Friday morning. The faces I am used to seeing across the private dining room table at a local retirement village, were looking at me from somewhere in their houses. We are getting better at using Zoom. There are less awkward silences and more efficient working. In our hearts we know that we will never be able to meet in that private elegant dining room again because the safety of the residents is paramount and negates any outside income. Any hope of resuming face to face program meetings seems to be dwindling off into the distance. I keep wondering if Big Gretch will find it prudent to bring us back down a level. Yesterday there were 62, 653 new cases across the US. In Kent County we had 110 new cases for a total of 5,299 confirmed cases and the deaths are rising. In Michigan there has been an average of 600+ new cases a day. So just because, here’s a mask story: ��Even if this is fake, Ive seen footage of a man in hospital, on oxygen, saying the exact same thing - and pleading with viewers to take it seriously. And I knew I wasn’t alone: It’s bad enough that we’re spending our waking hours worrying about the pandemic. Now, it turns out, many of us are stressing out when we’re asleep. Harvard dream researcher and psychologist Deirdre Barrett found that many people dreamed about catching the coronavirus, spiking a fever and experiencing shortness of breath. One woman had a post-apocalyptic dream where the North Pole was the only place of refuge from the virus. As she trekked around the tundra, she shot a polar bear during an attack I think we are living in a science fiction movie and I’m not sure what the ending might be. I’d like a happy ending, please. And I know some of us are really crazy all the time but during the pandemic, this: Have you heard the COVID-19 conspiracy theory that says the coronavirus was intentionally planned by powerful people? It goes something like this: the pandemic is part of a strategy created by global elites — like Bill Gates and George Soros — to roll out vaccinations with tracking chips that will later be activated by 5G cellular network technology. Holy mark of the beast stuff, Batman! Apparently, a new Pew �Research Center survey says 71 percent of American adults have heard of the theory, and a third of them think it’s "definitely" or "probably" true. Huh? To finish this thread I’ll leave you with this: �Here’s today’s plug for Joe Biden: �And: • It’s 2022, and the coronavirus has at long last been defeated. After a miserable year-and-a-half, alternating between lockdowns and new outbreaks, life can finally begin returning to normal. • But it will not be the old normal. It will be a new world, with a reshaped economy, much as war and depression reordered life for previous generations. • Thousands of stores and companies that were vulnerable before the virus arrived have disappeared. Dozens of colleges are shutting down, in the first wave of closures in the history of American higher education. People have also changed long-held patterns of behavior: Outdoor socializing is in, business trips are out. • Large swaths of the cruise-ship and theme-park industries might go away. So could many movie theaters �and minor-league baseball teams. The long-predicted demise of the traditional department store would finally come to pass. Thousands of restaurants would be wiped out (even if they would eventually be replaced by different restaurants). • The changes imagined in this article are based on neither an unexpectedly fast or slow resolution, but instead on what many scientists consider the baseline. In this scenario, a vaccine will arrive sometime in 2021. Until then, the world will endure waves of sickness, death and uncertainty. Well that’s a bit bleak and probably pretty near the truth. So, to cheer ourselves up its Oliver time. ��Theoretically this is Zoe’s living room but it seems to be Oliver’s playroom to me. Every time we FaceTime with Zoe and Oliver we sing to him at the end of the call. We have a huge repertoire: The Wheels on the Bus and If You’re Happy. When we FaceTimed with Zoe and Oliver 2 nights ago , while we were singing, Zoe said: he’s touching your faces on the screen. Awww. At the edge of mainland Scotland. John O’Groats. From Wikipedia: The settlement takes its name from Jan de Groot, a Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, which had recently been acquired from Norway by King James IV. Local legend has that the "o' Groats" refers to John's charge of one groat for use of his ferry, but it actually derives from the Dutch de groot, meaning "the large". People from John o' Groats are known as "Groaters". The name John o' Groats has a particular resonance because it is often used as a starting or ending point for cycles, walks and charitable events to and from Land's End (at the extreme south-western tip of the Cornish peninsula in England). The phrase Land's End to John o' Groats is frequently heard both as a literal journey (being the longest possible in Great Britain) and as a metaphor for great or allencompassing distance, similar to the American phrase coast to coast. Also, for many years it was the northern terminal of the A9 trunk road, which now ends at Scrabster. ���I cannot even begin to tell you how cold it was. We left the car and Craig and Asher walked out of earshot to take photos. I returned to our car, freezing cold with icy rain pelting me, to find the car locked and me locked out. I was very cranky by the tine they came back to the car. This was one part of Scotland I didn’t like. On to the Orkneys tomorrow. I found this online: Help us Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only hope. 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_2020-07-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-123 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 2020-07-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 123 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/e6eb5f9e0ec85f2817dea084807215c1.pdf 2e3e9ae0d03c2f110b3bfcdfa20e0ab3 PDF Text Text Day 124 by windoworks Form now onwards we’ll be able to judge what sort of day we’re having by this, the rubber duck scale. ��Last week was definitely a 5 all week long. So Chump has ordered all schools to reopen as normal and has threatened to cut off federal funding to any school that’s non compliant. Meanwhile in Florida: Florida on Sunday reported a record 15,300 new coronavirus cases, the most by any state in a single day and a bleak sign of the United States’ failure to control the pandemic about six months after the first infection surfaced in the country. The staggering number was the result of both increased testing and widespread community transmission that has affected the state’s population centers as well as its rural areas. It shattered previous highs of 11,694 reported by California last week and 11,571 reported by New York on April 15. And just a note here - if Florida was a country, it would rank 4th in the number of Coronavirus cases in the world. But their governor isn’t daunted. He’s ordered all schools to reopen 5 days a week next month. From Arizona :Although she had once retired, Mrs. Byrd loved teaching so much, she couldn't help but return to the classroom, her husband, Jesse Byrd, said. Now she's gone. Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd died after testing positive for the virus with 3 other teachers who taught summer school virtually from the same classroom. Byrd was admitted to a hospital and put on a ventilator for more than a dozen days, her condition slowly deteriorating, before she died. Now, the community is grieving for a teacher her colleagues say was ingrained in the fabric of their school system and a matriarch her family says was the center of their world. The teachers who survived also say Byrd's death is a stark reminder of the risks teachers will face if school reopens too soon. "Everything is safety, safety, safety," said Jena Martinez-Inzunza, a Hayden-Winkelman teacher. "What a contradiction to be threatened by the president. What a contradiction to be bullied: 'Do this, or I'm going to pull funding.' What a contradiction to say our kids lives matter … Why would you push to open schools?" And here’s this: Rice University, in Houston, is building nine big new classrooms this summer, all of them outdoors. Five are open-sided circus tents that the university is buying, and another four are semi-permanent structures that workers are building in an open field near dorms. Students and professors will decorate the spaces with murals and video projections. In the fall, the structures will host classes and student activities, while reducing health risks — since the coronavirus spreads less easily outdoors. Across the country, many indoor activities are going to be problematic for the foreseeable future: school, religious services, work meetings, cultural events, restaurant meals, haircuts and more. Mask-wearing �reduces the risks, but being outdoors can reduce it even more. As Megan McArdle, a Washington Post columnist, has written: “Move everything outdoors — as much as possible and much more than has been done already.” Yes, the weather will sometimes be a problem. But “we’re long past searching for ideal solutions,” McArdle notes. “We’re now hunting for adequate.” In Denmark, schools held spring classes on playgrounds, in public parks and even in the stands of the national soccer stadium. Several towns have held meetings outdoors, including Southwick, Mass., which spaced out folding chairs in a parking lot. At a Baptist church in Westerville, Ohio, the pastor recently climbed into a scissor lift and conducted a drive-in service while he was 25 feet off the ground. And San Diego County has lifted some restrictions on outdoor religious services. Many cities have loosened restrictions on outdoor dining. In New York, restaurants — like Melba’s, in Harlem — have responded creatively, building new outdoors spaces that have temporarily transformed the city. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, a staple of summer at the Jersey Shore, put on a drive-in concert this weekend while thousands of fans listened from their cars. ��So, we’ll see what happens. Craig is busy preparing to teach completely online, just in case. At the moment though, he is outside on the south side of our house, busily painting. The back and the front are completed and now he is painting the first of the 2 sides. So far we’ve removed pesky doors inside; painted the upstairs bathroom and the kitchen; had the kitchen faucet repaired and the hot water heater replaced and up to code; had all the drains scoured clean after the sewage seeped up onto the basement floor; started a �meadow in part of the back garden; doubled the vegetable garden in size and contracted with TJ to build a new cedar fence across the back lawn. We still want to increase the meadow across the back lawn area and install a wider gravel path, and add a railing at the bottom of the front path to the sidewalk. Of course when I say we, I really mean Craig. Yesterday we went to Blodgett Hospital ER for a small problem I was having. We wore our hospital grade masks and sat in a small room with an examination table. I’m pretty sure that the room we were in and all the others along the corridor used to be a large common waiting room. We were seen quickly and efficiently. Everything was done very carefully. Craig was allowed in with me but 6 weeks ago he would have had to leave me at the door. We were home again about 2 hours later. I never felt anything but safe there was hand sanitizer everywhere, everyone used it and everyone wore the same masks as us. (They won’t accept cloth masks). Oh and everyone there was cheerful and kind. I was so impressed. My daughter Zoe is an avid podcast listener and for the next 3 days I will post one of her recommendations. First up ‘Wind of Change’: It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall has just come down. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. A heavy metal band from West Germany, the Scorpions, releases a power ballad, “Wind of Change.” The song becomes the soundtrack to the peaceful revolution sweeping Europe — and one of the biggest rock singles ever. According to some fans, it’s the song that ended the Cold War. Decades later, New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe hears a rumor from a source: the Scorpions didn’t actually write “Wind of Change.” The CIA did. This is Patrick’s journey to find the truth. Among former operatives and leather-clad rockers, from Moscow to Kiev to a GI Joe convention in Ohio, it’s a story about spies doing the unthinkable, about propaganda hidden in pop music, and a maze of government secrets. “Wind of Change.” An offbeat eight part investigation Another podcast recommendation tomorrow. Here’s something from Republican Voters Against Trump which targets committed Republican voters with the message: Its Okay to Change. “Hi, my name is Josh and I live in North Carolina and I voted for Donald Trump — my bad, fam,” he begins, before explaining that this November will mark the first time “ever, ever” that he will vote for a Democrat. “If Joe Biden drops out and the DNC runs a tomato can, I will vote for the tomato can, because I believe the tomato can will do less harm than our current president.” The unsolicited video submission to a group called Republican Voters Against Trump is just one small part of a broader “Never Trump” rebellion that began four years ago as a largely ineffective cadre of appalled Republicans, but which has transformed in recent weeks into a potentially disruptive force in this year’s presidential race. And then there’s this: �Advisers to the Lincoln Project, which they say has about 30 employees and raised $16.8 million this quarter, will soon expand to include ground operations. They are coordinating over 2,500 volunteers in Michigan and plan to next target Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), who they see as vulnerable after his challenger, Jaime Harrison (D), pulled in a staggering $13.9 million since April. There seems to be an organized groundswell across most states to unseat siting Republicans. The Blue Wave which astonished the pundits in 2018 is gearing up again and constantly urging everyone to ignore the polls and get ready to vote!vote!vote! It is the glimmer of light at the end of the longest tunnel in the world and each person who votes and votes Blue helps to get us closer to the end of that tunnel. So remember to do your part. So here’s a gem of an Oliver photo. As Zoe’s says: there are so many captions for this photo that spring to mind. My favorite is: Who farted? ��Flashback: the next morning we drove our car onto the inter island ferry to the Orkneys. It was a cold rainy day. �����From the top: the view as we left the dock; Asher outside; me inside in the warm; my one venture outside and a rainbow. Then we arrived in the Orkneys. I’m going to cheat and use Wikipedia here. The islands have been inhabited for at least 8,500 years, originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes and then by the Picts. Orkney was colonised and later annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse. The Scottish Parliament then absorbed the earldom to the Scottish Crown in 1472, following the failed payment of a dowry for James III's bride Margaret of Denmark. In addition to the Mainland, most of the remaining islands are in two groups, the North and South Isles, all of which have an underlying geological base of Old Red Sandstone. The climate is relatively mild and the soils are extremely fertile, most of the land being farmed. Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy. The significant wind and marine energy resources are of growing importance, and Orkney generates more than its total yearly electricity demand using renewables. The local people are known as Orcadians and have a distinctive dialect of the Scots language and a rich inheritance of folklore. Orkney �contains some of the oldest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in Europe, and the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is an abundance of marine and avian wildlife. We stayed in an odd 2 part hotel in Stromness. ��Dinner in the hotel with a folk band entertaining us and an unusual plaque that Craig found. Tomorrow some of the astonishing Neolithic sites we visited. So, here we are, waiting to see what will happen next. Stay safe, wash your hands all the time, keep 6 feet or more from people not in your bubble and put on the damn mask - that’s an order! � 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_2020-07-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-124 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 2020-07-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 124 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/5d576d511d6f727cf75730bd5a49a578.pdf df7551a96933d5afef41bb05653edb6a PDF Text Text Day 125 by windoworks Today marks the beginning of the 18th week of our new life. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting researching when my cell phone siren went off. It was the official notification from Gov Whitmer of her executive order for mandating masks in all indoor areas and some outdoor venues. There is a $500 fine for noncompliance and business owners can lose their license. Thats apart from the fact that by not wearing a mask you could endanger others and force a business to close for quarantining. On an entirely other note: I have never seen so many posts on FB of free stuff, or as many discarded pieces of furniture outside houses, waiting for someone to take them home. Last week Craig put the last of the window stash I had (the ones in good shape) out on the curb. Some disappeared the first day but the rest sat forlornly there for the next 3 days. Then just when we had decided to put them in the garage while we �wondered where to take them, a car pulled up and a man collected all of them and drove off. As I write this, there is a good looking wooden chair on the curb in front of a neighbor’s house, waiting for its new home. So my conclusion is that while we ave no control over anything outside our houses, we are taking a firm control of inside our houses. Well that’s certainly what is happening at our house. Speaking of reorganizing, today while Murphy has a bath and haircut at the groomers, Craig and I are going to his GVSU office and ‘reorganizing’ it. We’ve got empty crates ready to go. Here are 2 views of our house - with our new Biden sign. You can see our neighbors house with the painting completed. I have noticed an increase in traffic slowing down as they pass our 2 houses. �Joe Biden doesn’t seem like an obvious candidate to be a transformational president.He is not a great public speaker, and he doesn’t have a strong ideology. Over his long career, Biden has mostly tried to stay near the center of the Democratic Party, even when that center has moved. But history suggests that transformational presidents usually don’t look the part before taking office. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s critics called him an aristocrat without a coherent theory of how to end the Depression. Ronald Reagan was dismissed as an intellectual lightweight from Hollywood. And yet Roosevelt and Reagan each ushered in an era of dominance for their preferred policies. They did so because of their political skills — and because each was taking office during a national crisis, when a transformation of the government suddenly seemed reasonable to many Americans. If Biden wins, he may be taking office at a similar moment, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, a deep recession and a reckoning with racism. Which means he may have an opportunity to preside over greater change — on climate policy, racial issues, health care, taxes, education and more — than any recent president. Biden’s advisers say that, over the course of the campaign, he has become increasingly attracted to that notion. Biden has called for police reforms, sharp cuts in carbon emissions, a major infrastructure program, universal preschool for 3and 4-year-olds, a big expansion of Medicare and substantially higher taxes on the rich. And most polls show that a majority of Americans support each of these policies. �More on schools, In Monday’s briefing, WHO experts did not mention specific countries' responses but warned that while much remains unknown about how coronavirus impacts children, some continue to fall ill with the virus. “Our understanding of transmission in children is still limited,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on covid-19. “We know that overall they tend to have more mild disease, but in some situations they can have severe disease and we have seen children that have died.” When community transmission exists and when community transmission is intense, children will be exposed to that virus and children will be part of the transmission cycle. They will be exposed, some will be infected and they may infect others, The problem we have in some countries right now is that it’s very difficult to determine the safety of any environment because there’s just so much transmission going on that all potential environments in which people mix are essentially problematic. �In Atlanta, the schools had been planning a hybrid option, with students in school on certain days and learning from home on others. But amid rising cases, the superintendent announced a plan for all-virtual learning for at least the first nine weeks of school, or until the spread of the coronavirus falls off. “In a perfect scenario, we would have a face-to-face engagement for the first day of school,” Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring told the district’s school board. “We also do not want to turn our ears and eyes away from the truth.” �Which leads to my point: when you’re in a hole, stop digging. �And baseball: The numbers are significant because usually the national baseball teams spend the spring training in Florida. In NFL news, the Washington Redskins have come under fire for their team name and symbol. The team has been the Redskins for 87 years. The Navajo Nation has suggested a change to Code Talkers to honor the Navajo code talkers and other tribal nations who used their language to help to win World War II. And speaking of tribal nations: As Montana warily reopened last month to pandemic-weary tourists, an isolated community held firm with closures and stay-at-home orders. Few outsiders would have paid much attention but for one detail: The Blackfeet Nation borders Glacier National Park, and its decision blocked access to much of the vast wilderness there. The result this month has meant throngs of visitors crowding into a tiny corner of Glacier — a crown jewel of the park system — with long lines of cars at what is now the only entry point.And the bottleneck �won’t disappear anytime soon. Tribal leaders recently announced they would keep the eastern entrances and roads to Glacier, which lie on reservation land, closed at least through August.“Our number one objective is to keep people alive,” said Robert DesRosier, who leads the tribe’s coronavirus response team. Also, this landmark SCOTUS decision: The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that about half of the land in Oklahoma is within a Native American reservation, a decision that will have major consequences for both past and future criminal and civil cases. The court's decision hinged on the question of whether the Creek reservation continued to exist after Oklahoma became a state. The ruling will have significant legal implications for eastern Oklahoma. Much of Tulsa, the state's second-largest city, is located on Muscogee (Creek) land. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation cheered the court's decision. "The Supreme Court today kept the United States' sacred promise to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of a protected reservation," the tribe said in a statement. "Today's decision will allow the Nation to honor our ancestors by maintaining our established sovereignty and territorial boundaries." It brings to mind the Chinese proverb (which some say is a curse) ‘May you live in interesting times’. So what else is happening? Well schools are refusing to open. Betsy DeVos is threatening to take funding from public schools that refuse to open and give it to private schools (and who knows if they will open); Chump is threatening everyone, everywhere for everything; Dr Fauci is being smeared; states are locking back down in a tacit admission that they might have opened way too soon; racism still seems prevalent and a 75 year old woman sat down on the floor in Costco to protest having to wear a mask inside the store. It all comes down to what Big Gretch says; I’m doing my best to keep all Michiganders alive. So what is the purpose of my daily blogpost? It is a record of what I see, read, hear and then feel every day of this pandemic. For those of you who worry - am I depressed? No. Although what I record daily can be very depressing for you the reader, I am not depressed. I alternate between hopeful, angry, tired and often sad but most days the anger is paramount. Having embarked on this odyssey, I am keeping going until somehow it resolves. I am thrilled by how many are joining me on my journey. No new Oliver photos today but here’s one of the cousins I hope I haven’t already posted. �The Orkneys. So the first place we visited was Skara Brae. Skara Brae /ˈskærə ˈbreɪ/ is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. Consisting of eight clustered houses, it was occupied from roughly 3180 BCE to about 2500 BCE and is Europe's most complete Neolithic village. Skara Brae gained UNESCO World Heritage Site status as one of four sites making up "The Heart of Neolithic Orkney". It is older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids, it has been called the "Scottish Pompeii" because of its excellent preservation. Craig was very excited to visit this site. It was a cold, rainy and windy day on the Mainland. It was cold, windy and rainy pretty much the whole time we were in the Orkneys. �����There are very few trees on the Orkneys, and so they built their houses out of stone. They built beds, fire pits, shelves and drains. They had running water through each dwelling. I think they fished and they farmed. There is no obvious reason why the settlement was abandoned and there are many fanciful theories. There are far more dwellings, still uncovered behind the excavated houses. Such an eerie experience. I’ll leave you today with this accurate example of personal perception. �� 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_2020-07-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-125 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 2020-07-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 125 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/972308c70bd1a3cb1e5b3ca263b78bb9.pdf a7c86ef483c914224e187fe1e331d423 PDF Text Text Day 126. by windoworks We have reached an interesting point in time - when I troll through my fat fact file (fff) this morning I discovered that items I filed over the last 2 days are now out of date. Thats how fast it keeps changing. Yesterday I did not do my normal amount of research because we had a busy day. We began work on Craig’s office at GVSU and he brought home 4 crates of trash. It was hard for him - i wish I had had my sister-in-law, Bernie to help. Years ago when we were moving out of a rental to our new purchased home. Bernie assisted my son Asher clean out his room. Her constant remark was: kiss it goodbye. I actually said that to Craig at least once yesterday. We’ll have to go back and begin on the book shelves ( and I thought we had a lot of books at home!), but that’ll be next week while the office is still shut. While we were doing this, Murphy was at the groomers being bathed and trimmed. They pluck the hairs out of her ears because she’s prone to ear infections otherwise, but when she comes home she flaps her ears for days afterwards. On our way home for lunch we stopped at Versluis farm stand. They had signs and masks (if you didn’t have one); hand sanitizer and careful customer spacing. So Craig bought green beans, peaches and blueberries. They are doing their best to run a safe business - well done! �From the City of Grand Rapids. Yesterday I forgot the next podcast suggestion from Zoe: White Lies From NPR In 1965, Rev. James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama return to the city where it happened, expose the lies that kept the murder from being solved and uncover a story about guilt and memory that says as much about America today as it does about the past. And in breaking news: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration Wednesday over an order that would require international students to take classes in person this fall, despite rising coronavirus caseloads that are complicating efforts by colleges and universities to offer inperson learning. The lawsuit represented a swift response to an unexpected order issued this week by the federal government, as universities rush to protect the status of thousands of international students. It also marks a new battle line in the war between President Trump and education leaders over how to safely reopen schools in the midst of his reelection bid. Update: The Trump administration said it is dropping a much-criticized plan to require international college students to leave the United States unless they are enrolled in the fall for at least one in-person class. Washington Post We’ve seen this next development in other places before: Morgues in the South and West are bracing for a surge in covid-19 deaths by arranging for refrigerated vehicles, underscoring local and state officials’ concerns that those regions are headed in the direction of the country’s early epicenter, New York City. Multiple counties in Texas are procuring refrigerated trucks and trailers. The medical examiner’s office in Maricopa County, Ariz., is working to acquire coolers. Washington Post. This is from my neighbor: ��Burger King is just now testing the market with its Cows Menu, which debuted Tuesday at five restaurants, one each in Miami, Austin, Los Angeles, New York and Portland, Ore. The menu features a handful of burgers that will swap out their traditional patty for one made with Reduced Methane Emissions Beef, a product that the chain developed with the help of two groups of scientists. Methane is a greenhouse gas emitted by ruminant animals, such as cows, and scientists say it warms the planet 86 times more than carbon dioxide over a period of 10 to 20 years. “When cows fart and burp and splatter, Well, it ain’t no laughing matter. They’re releasing methane every time they do. And that methane from the rear goes up to the atmosphere, And pollutes our planet, warming me and you.” Washington Post. And here’s a story I really like about the Washington Redskins renaming: Ron Sutherland isn’t much of a football fan, but he has an interest in what Washington’s NFL team chooses as a replacement for its soon-to-be-retired name. The franchise’s decision could affect the future of an endangered species he has spent a decade of his career studying. A chief scientist at the nonprofit Wildlands Network in Durham, N.C., Sutherland is among those in favor of Red Wolves, which has been endorsed by a segment of the team’s fan base. The red wolf is on the brink of going extinct in the wild for a second time, and Sutherland suggested the exposure that would come with an NFL team naming itself after the animal could only help its chance of survival. Washington Post. A quick chart to illustrate the folly of schools reopening ‘as normal’ ��This is AllSides updated media chart which lets you know how each media outlet stands. One other item on Netflix is a documentary series on Hillary Clinton. I watched her being interviewed by Trevor Noah and she looked wonderful. She didn’t say ‘I told you so’, but she could have. The series is called Hillary (I think). Look it up. �By the way, thank you to the readers (friends and family) who responded to my blogpost yesterday with such encouraging words. The last 10 days have been challenging but today feels like a lighter day. Later this morning Craig andI are going to try to visit Trader Joe’s. I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow. Oliver! ��A new development - he likes to lie on the floor and play with his toys. I also have a wonderful video of him walking and pushing a cart with Zoe saying: ‘Mummy’s not ready’, in the background. But apparently he’s getting something similar for his first birthday in 16 days time. I can just see him racing up and down the long corridor in their apartment. The Orkneys: Scapa Flow. ˈskɑːpə, ˈskæpə/; from Old Norse Skalpaflói, meaning 'bay of the long isthmus' is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. Its sheltered waters have played an important role in travel, trade and conflict throughout the centuries. Vikings anchored their longships in Scapa Flow more than a thousand years ago. It was the United Kingdom's chief naval base during the First and Second World Wars, but the facility was closed in 1956. Scapa Flow is one of the great natural harbours and anchorages of the world, with sufficient space to hold a number of navies. The harbour has an area 125.3 sq miles. Since the scuttling of the German fleet after World War I, its wrecks and their marine habitats form an internationally acclaimed diving location. Wikipedia. ����So, it was another wild, wet windy day when we drove to Scapa Flow. In the top photo you can see one of the causeway roads built between the Orkney Islands. Before these interconnecting roads were built, you had to travel between the islands by boat. There are still some smaller islands that not connected at all. In really bad weather conditions, these interconnecting roads are closed. In the photos you can see some of the scuttled ships. Why were they scuttled? Wikipedia: Following the German defeat, 74 ships of the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet were interned in Gutter Sound at Scapa Flow pending a decision on their future in the peace Treaty of Versailles. On 21 June 1919, after seven months of waiting, German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter made the decision to scuttle the fleet. After waiting for the bulk of the British fleet to leave on exercises, he gave the order to scuttle the ships to prevent their falling into British hands. The Royal Navy made desperate efforts to board the ships to prevent the sinkings, but the German crews had spent the idle months preparing for the order, welding bulkhead doors open, laying charges in vulnerable parts of the ships, and quietly dropping important keys and tools overboard so valves could not be shut. �At least seven of the scuttled German ships and a number of sunken British ships can today be visited by divers. So now you know. See you tomorrow. � 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_2020-07-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-126 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 2020-07-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 126 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/129632a316c2d6e0bec3f660e0f47ecf.pdf 700d4b0aa81c65eba74a23e2d96f481f PDF Text Text Day 129 by windoworks Yesterday the number of new cases in the US was 75,821. Apparently we’re tracking well for 100,000 new cases a day. In Michigan, the districts of Ann Arbor and Lansing have decided to teach all school online. Greater Detroit has been declared a high risk area. In Kent County we now have 6,216 cases in total and 146 deaths. I have lost track of how many new cases are being counted each day. We were driving through the parking lot at Meijer Knapps Corner yesterday at 3pm to do a curbside pickup. As we drove closer to the main door we saw everyone wearing a mask except one woman in her 70s but her friend was wearing a mask. As we drove slowly past the door, there she was, on her way out again - no mask, no shopping. Yay! But disturbingly there’s this (Hillsdale College is equidistant between Battle Creek and Ann Arbor but south, close to the Indiana border): Conservative Michigan college plans to hold graduation despite ban on large gatherings A small Christian college in Michigan plans to bring as many as 2,600 people to campus for graduation on Saturday, despite a ban on large gatherings and opposition from local health officials. Hillsdale College, known for its conservative bent and refusal to accept federal funding, draws its student body from all over the country. That means people could be flying in from hot spots such as Florida or Texas without knowing that they are asymptomatic carriers, Hillsdale County Health Officer Rebecca Burns told Crain’s Detroit Business. “The individuals that do come to visit the community will not just be at the commencement ceremony,” Burns said. “They will be staying in hotels and eating in restaurants. So the larger community is put at potential increased risk because of the large number of individuals coming from outside of town.” The college announced plans to go ahead with the ceremony in a news release, saying that the event was an “expressive activity” protected by the First Amendment. Gatherings of more than 100 people are banned in Michigan, but it’s unclear if authorities intend to take action. Washington Post It was a busy day yesterday. Craig finished painting the red on the top half of the south side of the house and this morning he began on the north side. He also planted a lot of wildflower seeds in the back garden, which is Phase 2 of our back yard meadow space. Here’s a photo of Phase 1: �Small beginnings but the flowers change every day. Next 3 questions about returning to school. 4, What happens when a student or teacher tests positive for COVID-19? Will the whole school be quarantined for two weeks and then retested? — Jane, Long Beach, Calif. This differs in every district. Lots of schools are trying to divide kids into what they're calling pods, so that the same small group of, say, 10 or 12 kids will be together all day. That way, if there is a reported infection from one of those kids, then ideally you're only quarantining that group instead of every child in the building. 5. Do these hybrid schedules [that ask students to come to school on alternating days] actually minimize risk, or are they just a consequence of schools lacking space for appropriate distance? — Julie, Seattle Well, if having fewer kids in school buildings makes social distancing practical or possible, and it limits prolonged contact in crowded indoor spaces, then yes, there is absolutely merit to this. And it is driven by the fact that there's not enough space to keep kids distance if you have them all in the school buildings all at one time. �6. What objective criteria can families use to decide whether the amount of community transmission is at a safe enough level to open schools? If the answer is test positivity percentage, how do we define the locality for which that number is relevant? — Jenifer, Phoenix You'd want to look at community levels — and there's a range of metrics that communities can consider, they can look at positivity rates and testing or the number of new cases. One of the big challenges during this pandemic is that there has not been and still is not a unified national approach to communicating risk. But I will say there's a consensus among a lot of infectious disease experts that when there are 25 or more new cases a day per 100,000 people, a county is then in the red zone, and should be considering measures such as stay at home advisories. And that may include closing schools. A note here: Kent County is either 40 or 50+ cases per cases a day per 100,000 people and should be considering closing schools. Last three questions tomorrow. Here’s another alternate schooling idea: For parents who can afford it, a solution for fall: Bring the teachers to them. Fed up with remote education, parents who can pay have a new plan for fall: bring teachers to their homes.This goes beyond tutoring. In some cases, families are teaming up to form “pandemic pods,” where clusters of students receive professional instruction for several hours each day. It’s a 2020 version of the one-room schoolhouse, privately funded.Weeks before the new school year will start, the trend is a stark sign of how the pandemic will continue to drive inequity in the nation’s education system. But the parents planning or considering this say it’s an extreme answer to an extreme situation.Parents are worried about health risks. But they are also worried their children will fall behind. And they fear they will be unable to work, even from home, while supervising children. “We had lots of family discussions about what we wanted to do, and is it worth it to pay extra? And we said yes,” said Katie Franklin, who has a 7-year-old daughter and lives in Herndon, in northern Virginia. She is in talks with a few other families to hire a teacher to share. The estimated cost for her family: at least $500 per month. Washington Post And just in case you thought the stay safe measures were draconian where you live: MOSCOW — In a shamanic ritual last month in the Siberian hamlet of Shuluta, fermented milk was sprinkled on a fire, a sheep was killed and boiled to make a rich broth, and prayers were offered to ancestors. The belief is that the annual rites help ensure prosperity and good health. This year, though, there was special urgency as the novel coronavirus sweeps across Russia, with case numbers still rising sharply. Relatives traveled 280 miles from the city of Ulan-Ude — near Lake Baikal — for the sunrise ceremony June 9, which was performed by one Shuluta family. Two weeks later, the first confirmed cases of coronavirus infection appeared in the village, population 390. �On June 27, the local administration sent tractors to dig two trenches around the village to seal it off after the first confirmed cases of coronavirus infection appeared in the village. Many believed the virus was linked to the rituals and gathering held by one Shuluta clan. Roadblocks to regulate access had been set up in March, but authorities imposed the full-scale blockade after last month’s outbreak in a region where a paucity of medical facilities adds to the anxiety over the arrival of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Washington Post While all this is going on, the climate is still in crisis. This confronting photo from the Arctic: �But to counter that, this year has been a bumper year for birds. I am hard pressed to keep up with the sugar water for the hummingbirds who guzzle it every day (and sometimes come to visit me) and Craig struggles to keep up with the suet bird seed blocks - they simply devour them. Here is a goldfinch - we haven’t seen quite as many of these this year. �And of course, a plug for Joe - and every other Democrat running for office. Make sure you are registered and see if your state offers absentee (mail in) voting. Authors note: for some reason chump believes these are two different things. �Here’s how it could work in your state too ( an article from two weeks ago): Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it? It’s not. It is a description of yesterday’s primaries in Colorado. The state avoided the miserable lines that voters in Georgia and Wisconsin recently endured — lines that are a waste of time and, even worse, a health risk during a pandemic. And unlike in Kentucky and New York, Colorado didn’t take a week or more to count its ballots. It began counting before Election �Day. After polls closed, at 7 p.m., people quickly knew that John Hickenlooper had won the Democratic nomination in a closely watched Senate race. Colorado accomplished all of this thanks to a universal system of voting by mail, which began in 2014. The state sends a ballot to every registered voter weeks before Election Day. Voters can return the ballot by mail, so long as it arrives by Election Day, or can drop it off at any one of dozens of voting centers. People can also vote in person, but fewer than 6 percent of voters do so in a typical election. Washington Post Oliver and his dad. �Next Neolithic site: Maeshowe. We had to catch a little bus and drive onto a farmer’s property to get there. Then we walked through the fields dodging the sheep poop and made it to the mound. Of course it was raining, cold and windy and you had to bend over to get through the tunnel entrance inside. This was �another Neolithic tomb with shelves for bones. Evidently when a shelf filled up, they disposed of the old bones and began putting new bones or bodies (not sure) on the shelf. You couldn’t take photos inside but our guide was very entertaining. He told us that about 1000 years after the tomb had fallen into disuse, there was evidence that Vikings had found the tomb after one of them fell through the roof. We saw Viking graffiti written high on the wall with a Viking axe which said something like: Tortstig was here. The whole time we were inside the tomb, about 30 minutes, an older Italian woman stood outside and refused to come in because she was claustrophobic. I think she spent a miserable 30 minutes outside. ���So, Maeshowe in the distance, trudging through the rain, and you can just see the entrance with someone about to go in. Still more Orkneys tomorrow. 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_2020-07-18_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-129 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 2020-07-18 Title A name given to the resource Day 129 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/f6e8fbc45f03b2760fce44db395ea635.pdf e0d4db50f3efef8e7b3d48298489b1ec PDF Text Text Day 13,965 – oh sorry, that’s the new case count yesterday for Florida. Day 128 by windoworks �On such a morning I thought that was a good way to begin. Now for some of the news: • The governors of Arkansas and Colorado on Thursday issued statewide mask requirements, bringing the number of states with mask mandates to 28 and the District of Columbia. Target, CVS and the grocery chain Publix also announced new policies requiring customers to wear masks, a day after Walmart, Kroger and Kohl’s did. • The United States reported its highest daily coronavirus case count thus far, surpassing 70,000 confirmed infections Thursday. With severe outbreaks across multiple states and regions, medical systems are increasingly showing the strain, with shortages of critically needed personnel, equipment and testing. Washington Post. 70,000 new infections in one day, shortages of PPE, nurses and doctors and what they’re not saying is that in the hardest hit areas they’re making war time evaluations of patients - this one gets a ventilator, this one doesn’t. Some big cities have begun renting freezer trucks for the bodies. And in some states, even if you manage to make it through the line for testing before the kits run out for the day, it takes 14-18 days to get your results back. THE FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD. Here’s a prime example, and for the life of me I cannot think of a single sane reason for these actions. More than half of all U.S. states now have mask mandates, but some Republican governors in particularly hard-hit regions are still digging in their heels. Arizona and Florida, among the states with the most coronavirus deaths in the past seven days, still have no statewide mask requirement. In Florida, coronavirus cases among employees shut down the emergency operations center — a command center of sorts for the pandemic response. And in Georgia, where hospitalizations and daily reported cases reached new highs on Wednesday, Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed an executive order explicitly banning cities from enacting their own mask mandates, which also voided existing mask mandates in more than a dozen cities or counties. Washington Post. Aaatghhhh! Moving on. Should schools reopen and if they do, how? �(Look Zoe! I did it!) So in all honesty, this captures my feelings exactly about Craig teaching hybrid classes in the fall. Here’s more about school: From NPR 1. Are kids really less likely to contract COVID-19 or merely less likely to show symptoms and/or negative effects? I'm a schoolteacher and I think this is really vital to our understanding of going back to school in the fall. — Christine, Northbridge, Mass. Well, kids definitely do get the virus. Overall, they tend not to get as sick as adults. Pediatrician Aaron Carroll of Indiana University said, "There seems to be less transmission from kids to adults than there is adults to adults. Kids don't seem to be superspreaders. We don't have reports of sort of, you know, a kid going somewhere and spreading it to a bunch of other kids or even a bunch of other adults." �We pretty much closed schools in March, right as the virus started to circulate more widely. So we have not been in a situation to find out if kids might actually be superspreaders. There's still quite a bit of uncertainty. 2. It seems reopening is dangerous no matter which way you look at it. If the doctors and infectious disease experts could snap their fingers and implement their ideal plan without any of the normal political loopholes, what would it look like? — Chris, Chandler, Ariz. Many states have mask mandates for schools. Often it's for older kids, middle school and up, but increasingly, given all the new evidence on masking, infectious disease pediatricians say it makes sense to try to mask all students as much as possible. I think the best hope we have for getting our kids back in school is to keep communities spread of the virus low. 3. Are any school districts planning on-site COVID testing? — Julie, Seattle It's going to come down to the honor system. It is not feasible to do a daily temperature check at school or on the bus every day. It's also not the best screening tool, because we know that a lot of kids with the virus don't spike a fever. So asking about symptoms and keeping kids home when they do have symptoms may be the better way. I don’t know about you but these first 3 questions and answers aren’t inspiring any confidence in me. What it is telling me is that parents across the States are worrying. 3 more questions and answers tomorrow. �In other news, • Security officials announced Thursday that hackers linked to Russia’s intelligence services were trying to steal information from researchers working to produce coronavirus vaccines in the United States, Britain and Canada. Washington Post And also, just because he can: The president’s plan to streamline the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law signed with much fanfare by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970, would make it easier to build highways, pipelines, chemical plants and other projects that pose environmental risks. If the final version mirrors a proposal from January, it would force agencies to complete even the most exhaustive environmental reviews within two years and restrict the extent to which they could consider a �project’s full impact on the climate. This is the epitome of environmental racism,” said Angelo Logan, the 53-year-old campaign director for the Los Angeles-based Moving Forward Network, who grew up surrounded by highways, rail yards and industrial plants in nearby Commerce. “The working class, communities of color, will have to suffer the brunt so corporations can make money hand over fist.” Washington Post And here’s social distancing explained: �Craig and Murphy walked through the community garden yesterday. There was just one couple there sitting eating breakfast. ��No, of course he didn’t take their photo. Also yesterday I packed lunch for us and we drove out to the big lake. It had been a rainy, misty morning and I hoped there would be few others there. We found a shady parking spot under a tree in the Kirk Park parking lot and ate our lunch. Then a group of 7+ people arrived with no masks and I decided I didn’t want to walk down to the lake after all. So we drove back through Grand Haven on our way home. Neither of us could believe the traffic, the crowds on the beach, the lines for food, the overall lack of masks and distancing. Apparently the virus is over along the lakeshore. As Gov Whitmer said: its up to us. Its not looking good then. Oliver. ��Last evening, while we were FaceTiming, Oliver pulled one of his books off the coffee table and opened it. Immediately we all heard my voice. The book is one that you record yourself reading it. The look on his face was funny. I’m not sure that he connected the little woman on Mummy’s phone with the voice reading to him. A very memorable moment. This is the only way we can see our daughter and our grandchild - (or any of our family members) and this may be the case until sometime next year. A very daunting thought for all of us, but we are so grateful for these every day moments. Flashback: we packed a lot in a day in the Orkneys. We visited the Stenness Standing Stones. The Standing Stones of Stenness is a Neolithic monument five miles northeast of Stromness on the mainland of Orkney, Scotland. This may be the oldest henge site in the British Isles. The monuments at the heart of Neolithic Orkney and Skara Brae proclaim the triumphs of the human spirit in early ages and isolated places. They were approximately contemporary with the mastabas of the archaic period of Egypt (first and second dynasties), the brick temples of Sumeria, and the first cities of the Harappa culture in India, and a century or two earlier than the Golden Age of China. Unusually fine for their early date, and with a remarkably rich survival of evidence, these sites stand as a visible symbol of the achievements of early peoples away from the traditional centres of civilisation…Stenness is a unique and early expression of the ritual customs of the people who buried their dead in tombs like Maes Howe and lived in settlements like Skara Brae. Wikipedia. ������If you look up the history of this site, you will see there were more standing stones on this site. I loved the shape of them. The Orkneys are the most amazing islands, full of astonishing artifacts and history. Craig was in his element. Still more Orkney tomorrow. A lot of people are saying I don’t like the new normal, I want the old normal back. I believe that normals old or new, are over. This is the new now. We can do 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_2020-07-17_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-128 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 2020-07-17 Title A name given to the resource Day 13,965 - oh sorry, that's the new case count yesterday for Florida. Day 128 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/78a4e88f18e7df4b5dd07d7660218543.pdf 17f1a2d143fe74db551dd56b064d712a PDF Text Text Day 130 by windoworks Yes, I know, I know, its a later post than usual. Because this morning we had an adventure. We left home about 7:15am and drove out to Lake Michigan. We thought we might swim before the crowds got there. It was very overcast with the promise of storms and we got almost to Kirk Park before it poured. As we pulled into the parking lot with only 2 staff cars in sight, the rain stopped. We walked through the trees to the beachfront. But wait! What beach front? The beach was completely gone. Over the past year or so, the beach has gradually disappeared as the lake level rose, but this morning was spectacular. The dunes are all closed off as they are hugely unstable and far along the lakeshore, home owners have had to resort to building big boulder walls to stop their houses sliding into the lake. ����As you can see - nowhere to sit, never mind stand. As we left Kirk Park, it began to pour with rain again, this time with thunder and lightning. It rained heavily all the way home. When we turned into our street off Lake Drive, our friends at the bottom of the street had a huge tree down on top of one of their cars, which was parked in the driveway. It looked as though it had pulled some sort of power line down with it. The neighbors were standing forlornly looking at the mess. So far, so good at our house. In other places in the world: The world’s most famous savanna boasts two epic migrations. One has traversed it for millennia: Millions of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles follow billowing rain clouds in search of new grazing grounds. The other horde descends upon the first in open-air safari jeeps, zoomlens cameras at the ready, coolers tucked between the seats filled with snacks and prosecco. Coronavirus travel restrictions mean the humans have suddenly vanished, and along with them a billiondollar tourism industry that employs millions and underpins a symbiotic human-wildlife ecosystem — the private conservancy — that is essential to wildlife conservation in many African countries. Conservancies constitute more than 11 percent of Kenya’s land, more than national parks. The model is simple: Community shareholders, mostly cattle herders, receive tourism revenue from wildlife safaris as compensation for lost grazing land, and salaried jobs proliferate at new hotels and for rangers. Wildlife becomes more valuable alive than dead, disincentivizing poaching. Now, with tourism revenue nearly zeroed out, most workers at Kenya’s 167 community-owned conservancies are furloughed, and payouts to nearly 1 million shareholders have been reduced or suspended entirely. Communities are considering a return to grazing, jeopardizing decades of wildlife conservation efforts across the continent’s vast grasslands. Washington Post Meanwhile for those of us keeping track: �From Washington Post “What we do have is we have perhaps the lowest, but among the lowest, but perhaps the lowest, mortality rate — death rate — anywhere in the world,” President Trump said July 9, 2020, the day he surpassed 20,000 false or misleading claims since taking the oath of office. It was the 13th time the president spread this particular falsehood, and it is entry No. 20,036 in our evermetastasizing database of Trump’s deceitful claims. Nearly 40 Americans had died of the novel coronavirus per 100,000 people, the second worst rate in the world, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. But the snowball quickly became an avalanche, the false statements a routine. In the last 14 months, Trump averaged 23 claims a day for The Fact Checker’s database. No setting or subject is spared by Trump. In Rose Garden remarks, at coronavirus briefings, in tweetstorms at odd hours, in press gaggles near a whirring chopper, the Trumpian stream of misinformation engulfs every topic nowadays, from his impeachment in Congress to his Democratic opponent in the presidential race, from the worldwide pandemic that crashed the economy to the protests across the country calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality. As of July 9, the tally in our database stands at 20,055 claims in 1,267 days. �I’ve heard a new word being used in conjunction with chump: smash mouth. It meansaggressive and confrontational. Yep, I think that about sums it up. Have you noticed that you never see a photo of him smiling or happy? Mostly, he just looks angry. And old, because no matter who you are, the job of being POTUS ages you fast. In virus news: In California, doctors are shipping patients as many as 600 miles away because they can’t be cared for locally. In Florida, nurses are pouring in from out of state to reinforce exhausted medical workers. And in Texas, mayors are demanding the right to shut down their cities to avoid overwhelming hospitals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped updating hospitalization data on its public website this week, after the Trump administration abruptly ordered hospitals to bypass the nation’s premier public health agency when they file federal reports. The administration said the changes are necessary to streamline the national reporting system, but the nation’s governors have joined a chorus of protests over the move. On the other hand, the globally minded German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was written off as a lame duck earlier in the crisis, has seen her country’s infection rates plummet. Washington Post. From Biden’s campaign: ��Two more tomorrow. Last 3 questions about schools opening 7. How do districts with a 100% virtual learning plan to meet the needs of special education students required by federal law? — Robert, Decatur, Ga. This is honestly one of the most important questions that school leaders, teachers, and parents are facing. And there is not an easy answer. I think anyone you talk to in a school setting will say this spring was devastating for all students, but especially for children with disabilities. There are just certain services that are very difficult to provide online. And that assumes that you and your family have access to broadband [Internet], and lots of kids �don't. There is a real concern now among school leaders that they're going to get hammered with lawsuits by parents who are rightfully arguing that their kids did not get the kind of educational services that schools are required, by law, to provide. There is just no easy solution here. This helps explain why many districts that are provisionally reopening are prioritizing, first and foremost, that children with disabilities can return first. 8. Is the government going to give more funding to reduce class size and provide more teachers? — Lynn, Phoenix This is the question on the minds and mouths of every school leader and teacher I have spoken with. Congress did pass the CARES Act a while ago. That included about $13.5 billion for K-12 schools. But just about anybody who works in and around or on behalf of schools will tell you they need at least 10 times as much not only to cover the costs of COVID-19, but also because this is happening at the same time that we're experiencing a pretty crushing recession. States are absolutely slashing their education budgets. It's also important to know that despite President Trump's very real push to reopen schools, there has been very little talk from his administration on actually helping schools pay for any of this. 9.What are you looking for this fall, as the school year begins? — Sarah McCammon, NPR I am going to be looking at the mental health toll this has taken. I have heard from a lot of educators and a lot of kids, and I've seen it myself — this has been incredibly difficult on kids. It has obliterated many of their support systems, and it's distanced them from many of the very important grown-ups in their lives. And obviously the other kids in their lives! That is going to take a toll. That is a trauma, and I don't even think we've begun to reckon with that. My hope is that everyone heeds the warnings and messages coming from public health experts and infectious disease experts that we all have to do the right thing if we plan to send our kids back to school. NPR. Not really reassured by these answers. �And to make you laugh: �I don’t write much myself now. The numbers continue to climb and states are struggling to cope. Craig and I continue to be very careful and try to be mentally prepared for anything. It is an exhausting way to live and we are not alone - I think people everywhere across the world are exhausted by this. As my friend Wendy said: even the Hundred Year War ended! Oliver. ���In the top photo he is sitting on a chair that Craig’s grandfather made for him when he was little. In the bottom photo, Oliver is sitting surrounded by early birthday presents. Oh and now he has 6 or 7 teeth. Its hard to get his mouth open to count. Continuing our action packed 2 days on the Orkneys. ������From the top: Kirkwall Cathedral. Kirkwall is the main town on the Orkneys. Inside the cathedral; Asher and I walking across a causeway to see a Viking village; two photos of the village ruins and then a photo of Yesnabey. This was a very spooky cliff top area. It had a notice which said that a number of people had thrown themselves off this cliff. Something about it drwas the people to it and encourages suicide. We didn’t stay long - it felt too creepy. Still more Orkneys tomorrow. �Hear, hear. � 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_2020-07-19_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-130 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 2020-07-19 Title A name given to the resource Day 130 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/b032d9f75d720380f04ac0888883b43c.pdf 6eac304fd056172ba754c96d41eab9a4 PDF Text Text Day 131 by windoworks Its Monday, the beginning of another week. On Wednesday we will have been staying at home for 19 weeks. This morning I am sitting on my bed with the curtains closed while a hive of painting activity goes on around the house. Craig is continuing to finish the last section of red on the north side of the house, while a college painting team paint the 4 dormer attic windows - because I wouldn’t allow Craig to be up that high on the roof. (Possible photos tomorrow). Soon just the white lower walls on either side of the house will be all thats left to do. TJ has installed half the wooden fence in the back garden and when it is finished, Craig will stain it. As you walk or drive around Grand Rapids, it is obvious that most residents are taking this time to plant flowers, paint houses, grow vegetables and try to make the houses they are mostly confined to, comfortable and beautiful. Gov Whitmer continues to reinforce her order for masks and most people seem to be complying. Michigan continues to have cases - more than anyone would like. Some are due to very foolish behavior on the weekend of July 4. But we are doing better than Florida. That state has not slowed the spread or the death count. Yesterday there were 12,000+ new cases. Thats the 5th consecutive day of over 10,000 new cases a day. Gov Ron De Santis complained that the headlines about the surge was unduly worrying Floridians. Really? They’re unduly worried? In California the new cases have gone up by 45% in recent days, and deaths increased by 20%. Gov Andy Beshear in Kentucky has said the rise in new cases means the state will have to take more action and the residents have to do better. In Texas, they’ve had to rent refrigerated trucks to store the bodies as the death toll rises. In Georgia chaos reigns as Gov Brian Kemp is suing cities and mayors for mandating mask wearing and closing down restaurants etc. We are standing in the middle of a maelstrom. It is very hard not to feel sorry for yourself. I could burst into tears (and I often do) but what does it achieve? A red nose, sore eyes and a thumping headache. I cannot even begin to list the number of safeguards and well thought out policies and regulations that chump and his minions have overturned. For example, if you don’t like the increasing numbers of virus cases that the CDC is recording - well, easy peasy, make a new rule that all state hospital numbers come to the White House (where we can hide them from you, the unsuspecting public). In Florida, the governor didn’t like the fact that the chief medical officer wouldn’t change the numbers to look better, so she was forced to resign. In some states, people are having COVID parties. I’m not sure what the rationale is behind this, but there seems to be the huge misconception that if they get the virus, they’ll get over it quick and then they’ll be immune. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita who both had the virus in March while in Australia, has said that �their immunity to the virus appears to be dwindling over time and they could possibly catch it again. Wait, what? So, we live in Michigan where the big three: Gratechen Whitmer, Dana Nessel and Jocelyn Benson, along with Lieutenant-Governor Garland Gilchrist and Chief Medical Executive Dr Joneigh Khaldun do their very best (among Republican opposition) to keep us safe and operational. �It is now 105 days until the presidential election. In August, Democratic nominee Joe Biden will announce his running mate. All we know is that he has promised it will be a woman. We voted already in the August primary for our state. And not trusting the mail service, we deposited our voting envelopes in the box on Ottawa. �Speaking of Joe, here are the other 2 campaign ideas: ��And here are 2 new billboards. ���Two more billboards tomorrow. Now I know the polls are showing Biden leading and chump falling behind - but these are polls. You can skew statistics any way you want (the one thing I do remember from my two agonizing terms of stats classes at college). And honestly, are they trying to show you that you don’t need to vote because Biden has it in the bag? I have one answer for this: remember 2016. Vote by mail, vote on the day even if you have to wait in line for hours, vote, vote, vote. And not just for Biden but for every Democrat up and down the ballot. Its up to all of us to effect a change for the better. This year, the pandemic will be an accelerant of preexisting trends: There will be a surge of early and mail voting. So, an unambiguous decision by midnight Eastern time Nov. 3 will require (in addition to state requirements that mailed ballots be postmarked, say, no later than Oct. 31) a popular-vote tsunami so large against the president that there will be a continentwide guffaw when he makes charges, as surely he will, akin to those he made in 2016. Then, he said he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million because “millions” of undocumented immigrants voted against him. Making a preemptive strike against civic confidence, Trump has announced that the 2020 election will be the “most corrupt” in U.S. history. The hard truth is that there has been a rising tide of voter suppression in recent U.S. elections. These actions — such as overeager purging of electoral registers and reducing early voting — have the appearance of enforcing abstract principles of electoral integrity but the clear effect (and apparent intent) of disproportionately disenfranchising racial minorities. One example was the decision of Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State (now Governor) Brian Kemp to suspend 53,000 predominantly AfricanAmerican voter registration applications in 2018 because the names did not produce an ‘exact match’ with other records.” This nation built the Empire State Building, groundbreaking to official opening, in 410 days during the Depression, and the Pentagon in 16 months during wartime. Today’s less serious nation is unable to competently combat a pandemic, or even reliably conduct elections. This is what national decline looks like. George F Will Washington Post Again: vote as if you life and your family’s lives depend on it. And now Oliver. �So grown up! �Last Orkney excursion. Firstly the Ring of Brodgar. It is thought to be erected between 2500 - 2000BCE. There were originally 60 stones and only 27 remained standing at the end of the 20the century. It was a bitter, rainy cold day and to be honest, I stayed in the car while Craig and Asher explored it . ���You can look up this site on Wikipedia for a lot of very interesting information. Then, we packed up and caught the ferry back to Scrabster ���Fro the top: leaving Stromness behind; Craig outside in the rainy weather and lastly, the Old Man of Hoy: The Old Man of Hoy is a 449-foot sea stack on Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. Formed from Old Red Sandstone, it is one of the tallest stacks in the United Kingdom. The Old Man is popular with climbers, and was first climbed in 1966. Created by the erosion of a cliff through hydraulic action some time after 1750, the stack is no more than a few hundred years old, but may soon collapse into the sea. Wikipedia I just knew Craig was itching to climb it - but no time (and no way to reach it). Tomorrow we begin our journey south in Scotland. ��Me in my happy place - the green. � 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_2020-07-20_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-131 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 2020-07-20 Title A name given to the resource Day 131 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/4f8874474766e267f6c7828d2ca1dfb9.pdf 9a9c934ca9afbd6a22d507e40d5fbf4d PDF Text Text Day 132 by windoworks A note of explanation: yesterday afternoon I posted on FB that it had been a difficult day. I received an amazing outpouring of care and love from many.many people. One comment said: I don’t know what happened but I hope you feel better. What happened was complete inertia. I felt as though I couldn’t move, I was frozen in place. Sometimes I think we just soldier on, day after day, just doing our best to manage - and then suddenly, it all climbs on top of you and your body and your mind just say: stop. But I read all the comments and I looked at all those emojis of hugging hearts and I thought: you can do this Pamela. Pull up your big girl pants and carry on. Knowing that green helps me to feel better, Craig took me for a drive and on our way home we stopped at the Fulton Heights Community Garden. Its a huge place, some plots are neglected and forgotten and some have been established for years and years. It was peaceful and calming - and we only walked around half of it. ��The other night chump was interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox (and surprisingly, Wallace is a true hard hitting journalist). Here’s a follow up piece. There has been speculation that Donald Trump might not voluntarily leave the White House if he loses the election in November. He confirmed this possibility during his interview on Fox News Sunday. When Chris Wallace asked whether he would accept the results, Trump answered, “Look … I have to see… I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no.” Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was asked about this during an interview with MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski. Pelosi replied: “Whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving.” Here’s the full exchange: Mika Brzezinski: In the interview with Chris Wallace, he did not confirm whether he would leave – whether he would accept the results of the election if he lost. What do you make of that? Nancy Pelosi: .....but the fact is, whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving. Just because he might not want to move out of the White House doesn’t mean we won’t have an inauguration ceremony to inaugurate a duly-elected President of the United States and the – I just – you know, I’m second in line to the Presidency. Just last week I had my regular continuation of government briefing. This might interest �you because I say to them, ‘This is never going to happen. God-willing it never will.’ But there is a process. It has nothing to do with the certain occupant of the White House doesn’t feel like moving and has to be fumigated out of there because the presidency is the presidency. It’s not geography or location. So, so much for him. I wouldn’t spend so much time on it. So Nancy’s on the job! Now this makes it easy to understand: And this is priceless: �And to prove children are watching: �Here’s some of the latest news: Many scientists have come to believe that “superspreaders” — extraordinarily infectious people who may not even know they are sick — are driving the pandemic, spreading “bursts” of the coronavirus to dozens of people in a matter of hours. A single person may have infected nearly 200 others at a college bar in �Michigan in the past month, among other incidents around the world that could have huge implications for how we combat the virus. “If you could stop these events, you could stop the pandemic,” one professor of environmental health told our health desk. The U.S. outbreak continued to worsen over the weekend, as average death rates hit new highs in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina and Texas, and at least 18 states set records for average weekly infections, according to statistics tracked by The Washington Post. America now stands almost alone among wealthy nations for its failure to contain the disease. Infection rates have tapered off or flatlined in Europe, Canada and Japan — where many people have watched in shock as the United States gets sicker and sicker. “The fumbling of the virus was not a fluke,” our health desk wrote in an analysis of the political polarization, weak leadership, fragmented government, decrepit public health infrastructure and persistent social inequalities that led to this fiasco. “If there was a mistake to be made in this pandemic, America has made it.” The Trump administration is also trying to block Congress from passing billions of dollars in funding for testing and contact-tracing programs, which were key to driving down infections rates in other countries. “Some White House officials believe they have already approved billions of dollars in assistance for testing and that some of that money remains unspent,” our political desk reported. In an hour-long interview on Fox News on Sunday, Trump was visibly rattled and occasionally hostile as he struggled to answer questions about the U.S. outbreak. He falsely claimed the spiking infection rate was an illusion, said that most new covid-19 patients would “heal in a day,” and blamed China for letting the virus “escape.” “I will be right eventually,” Trump said at one point. “It’s going to disappear, and I’ll be right . . . You know why? Because I’ve been right probably more than anybody else.” In the absence of advice from federal health officials, many people have decided they are on their own and are crowd-sourcing how to live safely. News & Guts So you can see why yesterday was a difficult day. We’re okay here in Michigan because of our governor and her team, but other states don’t have the same support. Michigan has 82,486 cases in total but by comparison Florida now has 360K cases and California, 400K confirmed cases. You know, I’m nervous living here, I can’t imagine how nervous I would be living in Florida or Georgia. I’d be crowd sourcing how to live safely. But here’s what’s happening at our house - �Painting the dormer window surrounds. That’s a very long ladder the boys are standing on. You can’t see it but one person is sitting on the bottom rung to stop the ladder slipping. Meanwhile, in the back garden, the new fence is half installed and already stained, TJ is installing, Craig is staining. �When this is finished, we can take out the chain link gates, and drive straight in and out of the garage. A slight break in the proceedings today while I kept a doctors appointment for my sinus headaches. Remember I told you that a big piece of tree fell on our neighbors house down the road? Well, 3 silver linings: 1. The car was old and needed replacing. 2. The tree limb missed their house and 3. The tree is on their neighbors property so it was their responsibility to clean it up. It was cleaned up that afternoon and this morning (2 days later) the car left, positioned royally on the top of a truck. Here’s a photo of the damage. �Oliver in his painting smock at daycare. ��Coming to the end of our Scottish adventure. After we left Scrabster, we drove down the east coast. ����A wild fishing village on the coast. �A really hoity toity house and estate - completely closed for the winter but we walked all around it anyway. And then we detoured through the highlands. �����The second photo is of Doris, our car. An atmospheric graveyard; and yes, that is the gate to Balmoral Castle. I’m not sure if the Queen was in residence or not. Of course its not open to the public. And so lastly, dinner in Aberdeen. It was the end of our wonderful adventure with Asher. The next morning we took him to Aberdeen airport where he began his journey home to Australia. I’m always sad when the children leave. Tomorrow we begin our journey south to Wales and Cornwall. �� 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_2020-07-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-132 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 2020-07-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 132 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/3d06ad97127503c0fe685012fb5f5ae0.pdf 9974e5701c6560c743cd84a75356074c PDF Text Text Day 133 by windoworks Its Wednesday July 22 and today marks the 19th week of staying safe at home. 19 weeks since Grand Valley State University closed down and sent all students, staff and faculty home. True to disaster movie form, where no politician or person in authority listens to the scientists in the first half hour of the movie, and then begs them for guidance, advice and facts by the end - yesterday chump said ‘its going to get worse before it gets better ‘ and ‘wear a mask - its patriotic’. Oh, so we must be near the end of the disaster movie, or at least chump is hoping so. I do not have the energy to tell you what a monumental difference it would have made if he had just said these words at the �beginning of March. Too little, too late. I watched a video of a man who tested positive for the virus and spent all of March in hospital. He got better and came home, but the most telling thing he said was ‘When I got home on March 31 - the whole world had changed’. It has indeed. Telling it like it was: TULSA — John Jolley never thought he'd be sleeping in his car awaiting unemployment benefits. But there he was, the owner of a once-successful advertising agency, taking a sweaty nap in a Subaru wagon in a convention center parking lot at 1:45 a.m. on a Wednesday. The pandemic sent his business into a free fall, and now Jolley wanted to be first in line for an unemployment claims event beginning in five hours. He barely dozed, afraid that if he fell into a deep sleep, he would miss the early-morning handout of tickets for appointments with state agents. There would be just 400 tickets handed out for that day’s event. When those ran out, there would be 400 more for appointments the following day. “I just didn’t want to be number 803,” Jolley said. Washington Post. I’ve seen this post before but yesterday Senator Debbie Stabenow (D,MI) posted it and I just had to share ��The third and final podcast recommendation from Zoe: This Land. Patrick Murphy was convicted of murder by the state of Oklahoma in 2000. But defense attorneys soon discovered that his conviction may have been based on a lie. Hosted by Rebecca Nagle, an Oklahoma journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this podcast will provide an in depth look at how a cut and dry murder case opened an investigation into half the land in Oklahoma and the treaty rights of five tribes. Follow along to find out what’s at stake, the Trump administration’s involvement, the larger right wing attack on tribal sovereignty and how one unique case could result in the largest restoration of tribal land in US history. A quick update: SCOTUS ruled that more than half of Oklahoma is considered tribal land. The implications of this ruling are huge, and will take a long time to work out. Joe Biden threatened on Monday to retaliate against Russia by imposing sanctions, freezing assets, deploying cyberweapons and exposing "corruption” if Vladimir Putin interferes again in this year’s U.S. presidential election. “I am putting the Kremlin and other foreign governments on notice,” the former vice president said in a 653-word statement. “A range of other actions could also be taken, depending on the nature of the attack. … I will not hesitate to respond as president to impose substantial and lasting costs.” During a virtual fundraiser that evening, Biden noted that he recently began receiving classified briefings again as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and suggested such meddling is underway. “We saw it in ‘16, we saw it in ‘18, and we’re seeing it now,” Biden told donors. “Russia, China, Iran and other foreign actors are working to interfere in our democracy and undermine our faith in our electoral process. We can't let that happen.” President Trump has never thrown down the gauntlet this way. He has equivocated about whether he accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. He said during his Helsinki summit with Putin in 2018 that he believes the Russian president's denials. Washington Post While this whole piece is heartening, here’s what I think is the interesting thing to note: Biden is receiving classified briefings as the presumptive Democratic nominee. So I assume Hillary received the briefings too - and I suspect chump did also, as the Republican nominee. Quick pop quiz: who do you think actually absorbed them? And, from yesterday’s post: Nancy Pelosi receives briefing on becoming President if something should happen to chump and pence. Also, when the President gives his State of the Union address, there really is a junior congress person who is housed offsite as the ‘designated survivor’ just in case something catastrophe happens. And now for something completely different: �When humpback whales migrated to Glacier Bay in Alaska this year to spend the long summer days feeding, they arrived to something unusual: quieter waters. As the COVID-19 pandemic slows international shipping and keeps cruise ships docked, scientists are finding measurably less noise in the ocean. That could provide momentary relief for whales and other marine mammals that are highly sensitive to noise. Through networks of underwater hydrophones, scientists are hoping to learn how the mammals' communication changes when the drone of ships is turned down, potentially informing new policies to protect them. NPR One last billboard. ��More than 1,100 Americans died of the coronavirus yesterday, the highest daily total since late May. The C.D.C. said the number of cases in the U.S. could be anywhere from two to 13 times higher than the official count. The findings suggest that large numbers of people without symptoms have kept the virus circulating in their communities. Still, virtually no places are near achieving herd immunity, the level of exposure at which the virus would stop spreading Oliver has either 6,7 or possibly 8 teeth - who is willing to put their finger in his mouth? He ‘talks’ incessantly and apparently he snores in his sleep. In 9 days he’ll be one. What a first year of life this turned out to be. He’s not entirely sure about bubbles. ��Yesterday I misspoke. When we left Asher at Aberdeen airport he was flying east to begin a Scandanavian adventure. In any case, we wouldn’t see him again for sometime. So we drove south to Whitby. Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cliff is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey, where Cædmon, the earliest recognised English poet, lived. The fishing port emerged during the Middle Ages, supporting important herring and whaling fleets,and was where Captain Cook learned seamanship. Tourism started in Whitby during the Georgian period and developed with the arrival of the railway in 1839. Its attraction as a tourist destination is enhanced by the proximity of the high ground of the North York Moors national park and the heritage coastline and by association with the horror novel Dracula. Jet and alum were mined locally, and Whitby Jet, which was mined by the Romans and Victorians, became fashionable during the 19th century. Wikipedia �����Whitby from the cliff; Whitby Abbey ruins; and two more of Craig looking down on Whitby as the sun set. On into Wales tomorrow. I’ll leave you with this. Two men from differing political ideologies travelled across America talking to each other and all the people they met along the way. While their party affiliations remained largely intact, they grew closer together in understanding and respect. The result is a book called ‘Union’. Here is an excerpt from the interview: Allsides. What's the main message you would like to give Americans who are feeling scared or disheartened by the division in the U.S. right now? Chris: Two things: First, Jordan and I heard the same desires—the same values—almost everywhere we went. Americans aren’t as far apart as we may seem on TV. Second is all the evidence out there is that this won’t last. What we’ve take place on in the streets this spring—whether they were empty or full of protesters—was a deep expression of hope. We largely banded together to fight a pandemic, condemn police brutality, and otherwise keep trying. We opted in, not out. That expression in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution— “form a more perfect union”—gets thrown around a lot, but we’re living up to it even if we’re not quite yet accomplishing the lofty goals that follow that phrase—justice, domestic tranquility, and so on. Things can change and often do—especially when we actively work on them. Jordan: They're not alone. The overwhelming majority of people we met on the road felt the same way. One message I would want to give is that there are so many great people and organizations working on this issue. Groups like AllSides and Braver Angels and Civil Politics are doing terrific work, and so too are countless individuals in large and small ways. We all have the ability to do something to make this country better, to perfect our union. We all get to participate in this great experiment. Whether getting out on the road or hosting civil dialogues, everyone can do something to heal our divisions, even if that's just making a new friend across the aisle. That's the story of America. � 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_2020-07-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-133 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 2020-07-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 133 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/03d7999a16232b1eb4a05f4047d90fce.pdf 56ca5a8f0b554ced5a2165697698b68c PDF Text Text Day 134 by windoworks My grandmother once gave me a tip: In difficult times, you move forward in small steps. Do what you have to do, but little by little. Don't think about the future, or what may happen tomorrow. Wash the dishes. Remove the dust. Write a letter. Make a soup. You see? You are advancing step by step. Take a step and stop. Rest a little. Praise yourself. Take another step. Then another. You won't notice, but your steps will grow more and more. And the time will come when you can think about the future without crying. Elena Mikhalkova (from my neighbor Lauren). Good morning. Perhaps a word of explanation. I find many items online, in new feeds, and in social posts. I save them to my Fat Fact File or My Photographs and then I revise both these files each day. The situation changes every day, sometimes more than once a day. Some items I thought important become �out of date before I can use them. I expect you, as the reader, to follow up for yourself if something I have published in an abbreviated form, interests you. It’s exactly the same as when I ran my travel company. For example, when leading a bus tour across Europe, we would provide a short visit to as many well known tourist spots as possible. If you wanted to see and do more, you had to return on your own time. I hope that analogy makes sense. To begin: this morning I watched a press conference being given by the Australian Deputy Health Minister. He was in Canberra at the nation’s capital. I watched for the 5 minutes or so while he outlined the sharp increase in positive cases overnight in Victoria, and I kept thinking: what is so different about this? And then it came to me - just the facts, followed by what the federal government is doing to help Australians, followed by careful reminders on how to keep yourself safe and then another reminder about getting tested if you thought you might be sick. There was nothing political, no pleading, no justifying, just one adult talking to a bunch of other adults, saying ‘here’s what the experts think will help. I’ve watched 4 different Australian state and federal COVID press conferences now, and they’re all the same. Just the facts, reminders, advice on testing. Imagine. Remember I talked about parents grouping their children in bubbles and hiring a teacher? Here’s more: The coronavirus is so widespread in the U.S. that many schools are unlikely to reopen anytime soon. Already, some large school districts — in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, suburban Washington and elsewhere — have indicated they will start the school year entirely with remote classes. Yet many parents and children are despondent about enduring online-only learning for the foreseeable future. So it makes sense that the topic of home schooling is suddenly hot. Parents who never before considered home schooling have begun looking into it — especially in combination with a small number of other families, to share the teaching load and let their children interact with others. Some are trying to hire private tutors. One example is a popular new Facebook group called Pandemic Pods and Microschools, created by Lian Chang, a mother in San Francisco. New York Times This backs up parents concerns: The study of nearly 65,000 people found that children younger than 10 transmit to others much less often than adults do, but the risk is not zero. And those between the ages of 10 and 19 can spread the virus at least as well as adults. Experts cautioned that the findings could mean clusters of infection in children of all ages. The director of the Harvard Global Health Institute called the study “one of the best” to date on the issue .New York Times. �The following is from an Emergency Physician in the area I live in: Dr. Rob Davidson, As an ER doctor, I feel compelled to correct a dangerous and upsetting new talking point from Donald Trump. Lately Trump has been boasting that while COVID-19 rates are soaring, deaths are not as high. This is extremely disturbing for a few reasons. First, it may not even be true. Death is a lagging indicator of COVID-19 cases, meaning we won't know how many people are dying as part of this current surge until 3-4 weeks later. Plus, if deaths are down, it's partly because we know how to treat it better now. But here's the real point: COVID-19 is causing an immense amount of real suffering and despair, even when there isn't death. We cannot discount that. Donald Trump hasn’t just failed to rise to the occasion and fight this crisis — he’s actively undermined our nation’s efforts to fight COVID-19 by sidelining science and slandering public health experts. At this point, our only chance to beat this virus is to continue elevating the voices of doctors and public health experts who will sound the alarm on Trump’s failed COVID-19 response and advocate for a sciencebacked approach to ending this crisis. ��Talk about coming back to bite you on the bum! Meanwhile in the alternate universe I would like to be living in, after November: ��Oh! Words! Sentences that are coherent. Reassurance, Capability. I could go on..... (two more tomorrow) PORTLAND, Ore. — In a response to federal tactics used against peaceful protesters in Portland, a group of mothers has formed a group focused on protecting demonstrators. Wearing bicycle helmets and yellow shirts, at least 30 mothers in Portland, Oregon, created a human barricade Saturday evening to protect the hundreds of peaceful protesters from federal officers who have recently deployed to the city, according to Buzzfeed News. “Wall of Moms” organizer Bev Barnum posted a Facebook event asking mothers to join the first protest Saturday evening. �Well done Moms! But why were they there? And now he seems to have decided that sending — or threatening to send — federal troops to Chicago and other cities is his best hope for turning around a struggling re-election campaign. Meeting with reporters in the Oval Office yesterday, Trump said that he planned to deploy federal law enforcement agents to Chicago, after already having done so in Portland, Ore., last week. He suggested he might also do so in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland. He was vague about the reasons, saying all of the cities were run by “radical left” Democrats. But the politics of the move are fairly clear. Trump is trailing Joe Biden in the polls, and the move lets him try to shift the nation’s attention away from the coronavirus crisis. Instead, he can run against two of his favorite bogeymen: “the radical left” and big-city crime. In recent weeks, he has frequently tried to portray Black Lives Matter protesters as out-of-control radicals, even though millions of Americans have participated and the protests have typically been peaceful. He has also made numerous racial appeals to white Americans, such as defending the Confederate battle flag. Threatening to send troops into cities — most of which have large Black populations — unites the two themes and lets him cast himself as a defender of a fading America. “If Biden got in,” Trump said yesterday, “the whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.” In response, Democrats vowed to pursue legislation or lawsuits to stop him. “We won’t let these authoritarian tactics stand,” Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said. “It’s an American crisis.” New York Times So I think we need a lighter moment. Here are some businesses attempts to catch shoppers attention: ����Oh is Chad a thing now? And I might have more of these for tomorrow. Its time for Oliver. The red cheeks are because he’s still teething. Look Merrilyn. He’s reading your Bear Hunt book! ��After overnight in Whitby, we drove over the York Moors to Leeds to meet with our great niece (?) Alice who was studying at the university there. Leeds was incredibly confusing and we got lost twice trying to find the restaurant we were meeting her at. ���After a lovely (gluten free) lunch we dropped Alice back at her rooms and then navigated out of Leeds and on through Snowdonia into Wales. As a boy Craig had hiked, climbed and camped in Snowdonia, and it is a beautiful wild national park. ��When I look at these photos now, I am struck by how red my hair was! It was certainly a statement. Caernarfon tomorrow. I’ll leave you with this thought. �� 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_2020-07-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-134 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 2020-07-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 134 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/af2b455deea2c972be198558e6d5bf5e.pdf b20c5dc3b39debefc66d6e70d4e64877 PDF Text Text Day 135. by windoworks This morning my news feed was dire. Yesterday the US passed a major milestone: 4.11M confirmed cases. As the experts say - this is an inaccurate count, the true numbers could be anywhere from 2x - 13x that number. Before breakfast I watched a Town Hall with Anderson Cooper and Dr Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay gave the clearest analogy of this virus. Remember how it began with 19 cases? He said its like a large cruise ship. When it leaves the dock it moves slowly, but then once in open water, it begins to increase speed and then it takes a great strength to stop it. In the last few weeks our coronavirus cruise ship has begun picking up speed. I was discussing this with Craig this morning. One of the significant factors is that the virus itself mutated at some point. It doesn’t necessarily make you sicker but one small change in its composition has made it so much more contagious. Remember when the symptoms you had to look out for were: fever, cough and shortness of breath? Ah the good old days. Now the symptoms are: fever or chills; cough; shortness of breath; fatigue; muscle or body aches; headache; loss of smell or taste; sore throat; congestion or runny nose; nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea. And, rush to the ER if you are: having trouble breathing; persistent pain or pressure in the chest; new confusion; inability to wake or stay awake, or bluish lips or face. Hands up all of us who have had at least 3 of the first list of symptoms over the past few weeks. Mmmhmmm. One of the biggest problems we’re facing here in the US is the ridiculous lag time for test results. There’s little point in being tested and then waiting 8 days to 3 weeks to get the results. By that time the results are meaningless. Lately I have watched far too many videos from inside hot spot ICUs, where medical staff are trying everything to keep people alive and best scenario: recovering. In one video, the medical staff had labels on their chest: doctor, or nurse, so patients knew who was working with them. I watched a video of a young man in Italy who was very ill and they were able to turn him around. Later, as he was lying in a regular hospital bed in a regular ward, recovering before he was allowed to go home, the middle aged man in the next bed (with an oxygen tube) said; ‘for the rest of your life you will never be scared of anything now, because you have looked at death’. I thought: how true. So while this continues unabated, chump has canceled part of the Republican convention in Jacksonville Florida - which is a moot point because lots of Republicans had decided not to show up anyway. But here’s the thing - they had spent millions on the convention already and now its wasted. Think what a difference that money would have made used wisely somewhere else. Chump is also sending troops into big cities (all with Democratic mayors) to quell non existent violence. Here’s a FB piece from a young man called Jason in Portland, Oregon. I’ve edited it as it was quite long. �My city is a wall of moms and a Navy veteran unflinching while he’s beaten by batons and pepper sprayed at point blank range. My city is Black community leaders and white allies and state leaders that are trying to figure out what comes next. My city is a mystery yoga Athena, daring border troops to rubber bullet her naked body. My city is still showing up to fight fascism, even as the Proud Boys from nearby Washington have arrived with their lovely mullets and AR-15’s in tow. And look, this is not a gun post, but we’ve been patiently waiting to see if those wise fb libertarians will show up soon—you know—those true Jeffersonian’s who have been warning us about just such government overreach for years. I’m sure they’re stuck in traffic. Maybe they got stuck behind a truck full of clever memes. But if you think Portland is some sort of lawless badlands...naw...we’re just waiting for the rest of you. We’re also the testing ground for Trump to see how much he can get away with. And when he does a Fox interview and talks about not accepting the election results, everything starts to become a bit more clear. You see, he looks at how Putin has installed himself permanently (and you know how much he envies that type of power), and he dips a few more toes into the deep end of using military power to remain installed where he is. Because all this civil unrest could very well be the precursor to something much bigger. This is what a righteous populace looks like. So when you look at us and think...man..stuff there is crazy. It’s not. It’s the bellwether of a movement. RISE UP. And to back Jason up: President Trump on Wednesday placed much of the blame for the swell in coronavirus cases on recent demonstrations against racism and police brutality, ignoring in large part his own large-scale rallies and his administration's push to reopen the national economy before the virus had been fully contained. NPR Some memes: ����This morning on the CNN Covid Town Hall, Sanjay Gupta said he looked at photos of Anderson Cooper’s baby son Wyatt, to cheer himself up. In moments of sadness I watch videos of Oliver which always make me smile. ��Look at his hair. What famous baby character does he remind me of? The house is almost finished being painted - just the white on the north and south sides. Look how handsome it is! On to Caernarfon. The history of Caernarfon as an example where the rise and fall of different civilizations can be seen from one hilltop, are discussed in John Michael Greer's book The Long Descent. He writes of Caernarfon: Spread out below us in an unexpected glory of sunlight was the whole recorded history of that little corner of the world. The ground beneath us still rippled with earthworks from the Celtic hill fort that guarded the Menai Strait more than two and a half millennia ago. The Roman fort that replaced it was now the dim brown mark of an old archeological site on low hills off to the left. Edward I’s great gray castle rose up in the middle foreground, and the high contrails of RAF jets on a training exercise out over the Irish Sea showed that the town’s current overlords still maintained the old watch. Houses and shops from more than half a dozen centuries spread eastward as they rose through the waters of time, from the �cramped medieval buildings of the old castle town straight ahead to the gaudy sign and sprawling parking lot of the supermarket back behind us. Wikipedia. �������From the top: walking through the town to the castle; inside the castle walls with the poppy display - Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red was a public art installation created to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. It consisted of 888,246 ceramic red poppies, each intended to represent one British or Colonial serviceman killed in the War. The ceramic artist was Paul Cummins, with conceptual design by the stage designer Tom Piper.The work's title was taken from the first line of a poem by an unknown soldier in World War I. Wikipedia. The poopy display began in the Tower of London in 2014 and then traveled around Britain. The next photo is of the town from the battlements; then me walking around the battlements and lastly two of Caernarfon Castle in the early morning. I’ll leave you with this thought: when you are feeling overwhelmed and you can’t go on - insert one word to make it this: I’m almost overwhelmed. See you tomorrow. � 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_2020-07-24_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-135 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 2020-07-24 Title A name given to the resource Day 135 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/70b2af11a5cbc15643130e4cbeddf410.pdf ac7e11a97d54da10b736cd3632608c57 PDF Text Text Day 136. by windoworks In Melbourne, Victoria where the state is locked down and mask wearing non compliance comes with a $100 fine, masks have become the new thing and have supplanted designer coffee drinks in the must have category. They must be custom made and the fabric should be a recognizable high fashion brand. Here is the youngest in his ‘everyday’ mask. ��A tasteful zucchini green shade (with a color coordinated cap) which led to an online discussion with the oldest child who lives in New Zealand - and I quote: One strange effect of the coronavirus international border closures of late is that the country has lost its source of imported zucchinis - and the cost of the locally produced crop, under pressure from local zucchini aficionados, has shot up to $38/kilo - up to $7 for a decent one. It’s actually become a thing with people abandoning their pricy zucchinis at the checkout. Is this an example of price gouging? So yesterday the US confirmed cases jumped by 74,360 which brings us to the case total of 4.19M. At this point the statistics are so staggering that they almost become meaningless. Florida tops everyone in new cases daily - yesterday they had 12,000+ in one day. In bothNew Zealand and Australia, the cases in March/April were all from overseas contagion, that is, someone entered the country while asymptomatic. In recent weeks, the cases are predominantly community spread in Australia which is confusing to the authorities. Although I have to say, both countries have superb contact tracing programs and testing procedures that give results in a maximum time period of 2 days. Here in the US we are once again running out of essential testing supplies and all laboratory facilities are hugely overwhelmed. Is it just me or have we declined from a highly developed country to a developing one? Craig and I used to discuss the US and its knife edge balance between success and infrastructure failure. Its no longer a theory. From Coronavirus Community Resource Michigan Although it’s too early to know all the long term effects from COVID-19, there is emerging research that shows many serious complications that result from the virus, even if you survive. The White House has been pointing to the death toll, which has remained relatively low due to the lag between infection, hospitalization and death, as evidence that the virus isn’t as serious as public health experts and the media have been making it out to be. But the lingering complications effect all ages and even those that are asymptomatic. Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease specialist at Florida International University says that many young people who report being asymptomatic actually have scar tissue in their lungs. �What are the potential longer term effects? They include reduced lung capacity, neurological disease, blots clots, inflammation, heart damage, kidney damage, and severe psychological issues. “Evidence strongly suggests that patients surviving COVID-19 are at high risk for subsequent development of neurological disease and in particular Alzheimer’s disease,” wrote researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany. And here’s the other idea that keeps circulating: herd immunity NPR The idea of herd immunity has been around for decades. In the past, it has been used to describe an effect seen with vaccination — if vaccination rates for measles are high, for example, a single case cannot spread far into a community. The "herd" of people is protected even when not everyone has received the vaccine. But with the outbreak of the coronavirus, the idea of natural herd immunity took hold in some circles. The theory, broadly speaking, is that should enough people become ill and then immune, the entire population will be protected. Estimates vary widely, but it's generally thought that somewhere between 50% and 80% of a given population would need to have been infected by the coronavirus before such natural herd immunity could be achieved. Well those figures seem way too high and In Sweden, where they practiced herd immunity without naming it, the statistics show that it just led to more deaths than any other Scandanavian country. So when people tout the herd immunity theory, remember: 50 - 80% of the population to achieve it. It is now 100 days and counting to the election. Here’s a meme: �And here’s a new worry that’s circulating. It’s long and I have left it almost intact as w all need to read and absorb this: �President Trump’s relentless efforts to sow doubts about the legitimacy of this year’s election are forcing both parties to reckon with the possibility that he may dispute the result in November if he loses — leading to an unprecedented test of American democracy. With less than four months before the election, Trump’s escalating attacks on the security of mail-in ballots and his refusal again this week to reassure the country that he would abide by the voters’ will have added urgency to long-simmering concerns among scholars and his critics about the lengths he could go to hold on to power. “What the president is doing is willfully and wantonly undermining confidence in the most basic democratic process we have,” said William A. Galston, chair of the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program. “Words almost fail me — it’s so deeply irresponsible. He’s arousing his core supporters for a truly damaging crisis in the days and weeks after the November election.” Most legal experts said it is hard to envision that Trump would actually try to remain in office after a clear defeat by former vice president Joe Biden, considering the uproar that would follow such a challenge to U.S. democratic norms. Trump has previously said he offers up inflammatory ideas to provoke the media and his critics. But his unwillingness to commit to a smooth transition of power has forced academics and political leaders — including, privately, some GOP lawmakers — to contemplate possible scenarios. The resulting turmoil could surpass the contention over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election, confounding the legal system, Congress and the public’s faith in how the country picks its leaders. Such a crisis could also have long-lasting consequences for a nation that has already been rocked this year by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic collapse and a reckoning over racial injustice. Among the possibilities: Trump could claim victory before the vote in key states is fully counted — a process that could take days or even weeks this year because of the expected avalanche of absentee ballots. He could also spend weeks refusing to concede amid a legal war over which votes are valid and should be included in the tally, according to legal and constitutional experts who are tracking Trump’s statements. Or he could simply refuse to leave on Jan. 20 — a possibility Biden has discussed publicly. Anxiety about Trump’s intentions has grown as he seizes on the shift to absentee voting during the coronavirus pandemic as a sign that the election’s outcome will be rigged, claiming without evidence that this year’s race will be “the most corrupt election in the history of our country,” as he put it last month. Top Democrats and Biden supporters are now bracing for what former Ohio governor Ted Strickland said could be “dark days going forward.” “I fear this election could lead to civil unrest in this country because Trump would happily be a cheerleader for that kind of response,” said Strickland, a Democrat. “We are facing circumstances in this country we have probably never faced in our history, because we have a president who has no regard for our constitutional system of government. . . . He is fully capable of putting his own ego and perceived selfinterest above what’s right for the country.” Dan Baer, senior fellow in the Europe program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a �former Democratic Senate candidate in Colorado, compared the thought experiments to insurance. “It is unlikely that our house is going to burn down this year, but we still buy insurance against that,” said Baer, who recently wrote a piece titled “How Trump could refuse to go” for the website UnHerd. “One of the lessons of this presidency is that we should think about the most insidious opportunities, the most egotistical course of action and make sure we’ve thought through what could follow from that,” he said. “If we haven’t done that at this point, shame on us.” Washington Post So, vote. Encourage all friends and neighbors to vote and to vote blue. Vote absentee but make sure to get your vote in early. Stand in line, ignore suppression, just stand fast and vote. Each day from now on I will remind you to vote. Oliver: today a family shot. Zoe, Christian and Oliver with friends. �Flashback: years ago, when Zoe was living in London, Craig and I and Asher flew in for Christmas in London and then a family trip around England and Wales. Until I was looking at yesterday’s photos, I had forgotten that when we visited Caernarfon in the dead of winter, the other 3 went off somewhere exploring and I walked up to the shuttered door of the castle and knocked. The guard answered and said ‘you can’t come in, the castle is shut due to ice’ . I explained I had come from far away and could I just peek inside. So he let me penguin walk across the icy ground to take a photo or two. When I related this to the family they were annoyed and had no good excuse to ‘where were you?’ ���Harlech Castle. UNESCO considers Harlech to be one of "the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe", and it is classed as a World Heritage site. The fortification is built of local stone and concentric in design, featuring a massive gatehouse that probably once provided high-status accommodation for the castle constable and visiting dignitaries. The sea originally came much closer to Harlech than in modern times, and a water-gate and a long flight of steps leads down from the castle to the former shore, which allowed the castle to be resupplied by sea during sieges. Wikipedia Just an authors note here: when I look up each of these destinations to find more information for my blog, each one says (no matter what country) Temporarily closed. I think there was a lovely cafe attached to this castle and we ate lunch there. More Wales tomorrow. Yesterday I made a packed lunch and we drove out to Caledonia Lakeside Park. It was sunny with a light breeze and the park was quiet and green and calming. ��� 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_2020-07-25_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-136 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 2020-07-25 Title A name given to the resource Day 136 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/77be6e08ca8bf8425fc077044a78fe3c.pdf f4155e8bc883d8766637e274c74ddfd1 PDF Text Text Day 137 by windoworks It Sunday and a late start this morning because, once again, we drove out to Kirk Park to try the water. There were a few more people with dogs, this morning. Since the collapse (and the continuing collapse) of the dunes, the beach is now open along the whole length for dogs. There’s still nowhere to sit and the waves are still pounding in, but I managed to go in to waist height and Craig submerged to his neck. So at least I have been in the lake twice this year. Craig is back up the ladder, painting the lower half of the south side of the house, and I am on the front porch, enjoying the slight breeze and shade before the real heat of the day begins. Looking towards Big Blue, our neighbors house. Tomorrow it is 5 weeks until the start of college opening. I think it is about the same for all schools K-12 across America. Everyone seems nervous - parents, teachers, ancillary staff and students. From my high school teacher friend, Angela: �(FYI: a Hunger Games reference). �And speaking of Betsy DeVos and education From Washington Post’s Pinocchio files. Remember how Pinocchio’s nose grew longer every time he told a lie? • DeVos says ‘kids are actually stoppers of the disease’ • Could children actually be “stoppers” of covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus? • Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who is pressing the Trump administration’s case for sending kids back to school in the fall, made the claim during a radio interview: “More and more studies show that kids are actually stoppers of the disease and they don’t get it and transmit it themselves.” • The Education Department sent us four sources in support of DeVos’s claim, emphasizing a German study that found no evidence that schoolchildren play a role in spreading the virus, with a researcher quoted in a news report as saying that “children may even act as a brake on infection.” �• Well, there’s a problem with that. The German study has not been peer-reviewed; it is still in preprint review by the Lancet, meaning it should not be used to guide clinical practice. • It’s easy to find studies and news reports that contradict DeVos’s assertion. In South Korea, a large study using contact tracing found that children ages 10 to 19 can spread the virus at least as much as adults do; children younger than 10 were half as likely to transmit the virus, but there was still a risk. In Israel, at least 1,335 students and 691 staff members contracted the coronavirus after the country reopened its entire school system without restrictions on May 17, believing it had beaten the virus. The spike in infections among the children spread to the general population, according to epidemiological surveys by Israel’s Health Ministry. • We gave Four Pinocchios to DeVos. From Washington Post. This morning I am posting the first 3 of 10 key takeaways from a schools reopening Town Hall Roundtable: 1. Schools cannot be opened safely for in-person instruction if the virus is not contained in the local community. Ideally, local communities are following mitigation strategies including masks, social distancing, hand washing and ventilation protocols. Examples of schools opening safely in Denmark and Finland are drawn from societies in which the virus was under control. 2. The decision to open schools has to be a local decision based on the latest available, local scientific data. The fact is individual communities don’t know where the virus will be in September. Everyone wants all students back in school in traditional brick-and-mortar settings, but that has to happen safely based on local science and data. Some argue that a local daily infection rate of less than 5 percent is an indicator that the community has the virus in check. However even with small numbers the disease could be rising. It would be preferable to see a downward trend of at least a few weeks. (CDC guidance calls for a downward trend for 14 days.) 3. Infection rates for children aged 10 to 19 are similar to infection rates for adults 20 to 49. Although it is often said that children are less likely to contract the coronavirus than adults, the finding breaks down when children are disaggregated by age. Children from 5 to 9 are less likely to be infected, but that is not true of children of 10 or older. 3 more points tomorrow. Nearly 5 months into the pandemic, all hopes of extinguishing COVID-19 are riding on a stillhypothetical vaccine. And so a refrain has caught on: We might have to stay home—until we have a vaccine. Close schools—until we have a vaccine. Wear masks—but only until we have a vaccine. During these months of misery, this mantra has offered a small glimmer of hope. Normal life is on the other side, and we just have to wait—until we have a vaccine. Feeding these hopes are the Trump administration’s exceedingly rosy projections of a vaccine as early as October, as well as the media’s blow-by-blow coverage of vaccine trials. Each week brings news of “early success,” “promising initial results,” and stocks �rising because of “vaccine optimism.” But a COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to meet all of these high expectations. The vaccine probably won’t make the disease disappear. It certainly will not immediately return life to normal. This is the beginning of a very long article on vaccines from The Atlantic. The article explains how vaccines work - an important point is that vaccines such as flu shots are put into the muscle in your arm. But COVID-19 doesn’t reside in muscles, it attacks the respiratory system and so the vaccine manufacturers have to be aware of this. The article ends: For all the uncertainties that remain ahead for a COVID-19 vaccine, several experts were willing to make one prediction. “I think the question that is easy to answer is, ‘Is this virus going to go away?’ And the answer to that is, ‘No,’” says Karron, the vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins. The virus is already too widespread. A vaccine could still mitigate severe cases; it could make COVID-19 easier to live with. The virus is likely here to stay, but eventually, the pandemic will end. So I wonder, will we be wearing masks and social distancing for years? Will any sort of group gatherings became acceptable and will we always think hard before going to well attended public events? Two days ago I went back to Trader Joe’s for the second time. Although the wait was short, the staff were helpful and the aisles were sparsely populated, some people shopped as they always used to. They parked their carts in front of the shelves, and some stood and considered what they wanted. And some people think its okay if their mask just covers their mouth and leaves their nose exposed. While I do enjoy being able to get the products I want, I do find shopping stressful. �A very early morning shot of the Auckland Sky Tower in New Zealand. �And in the strong women everywhere category: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Thursday morning speech, delivered from the House floor and directed to a fellow member of Congress, but really to us all. “You can be a powerful man and accost women,” said the New York Democrat. “You can have daughters and accost women, without remorse. You can be married and accost women. You can take photos, and project an image to the world of being a family man, and accost women, without remorse, and with a sense of impunity. It happens every day in this country.” And from Portland Oregon: Here is the Wall of Moms, now joined by the Wall of Vets. Both groups aim to protect peaceful protesters. The federal troops sent there by chump to protect federal property, have stepped outside those bounds and begun acting as unofficial riot police and are arresting protesters for ‘federal’ crimes. Moms and vets all over the US are watching closely and getting ready to mobilize. This is all part of chump’s frantic attempt to regain electability. His refrain is that Joe Biden will destroy America. Actually, chump, I think you already began that. I think 4 more years of your destruction will leave nothing recognizable. ��There are 2 things I love about this photo. Firstly, as Zoe pointed out, he’s got a room full of toys and yet he chooses to chew his socks, and secondly, he’s standing on his toes! Oh Oliver, you do make me laugh! Still in Wales. We drove to Milford Haven for the night. (Welsh: Aberdaugleddau, meaning "mouth of the two Rivers Cleddau") is a town and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is situated on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The natural harbour of the Haven was known as a safe port and was exploited for several historical military operations throughout the second millennium. Campaigns conducted from the Haven included part of the invasion of Ireland in 1171 by Henry II and by Cromwell in 1649. Forces which have disembarked at the point include Jean II de Rieux's 1405 reinforcement of the Glyndŵr Rising. In 1485, the future Henry VII landed close to his birthplace in Mill Bay before marching on to England. Wikipedia. We were staying in a bed and breakfast for the night. It was a gorgeous old house and our room had a carpeted bathroom with a bath and no shower. I don’t want to talk about the bath experience, I’ll just say baths are not my thing. However, the breakfast was spectacular. ���From the top: looking at the Waterway; the view from our room; and breakfast - it turned out to be the full Welsh, yum! Tomorrow we leave Wales. �See you tomorrow. � 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_2020-07-26_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-137 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 2020-07-26 Title A name given to the resource Day 137 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