86 24 26018 https://digitalcollections.library.gvsu.edu/files/original/13b091e72b4713c8a4497717fb88c4f7.pdf 0ff8f96780ec70b5fcddd52ffb1f6b43 PDF Text Text Day 58 by windoworks Good morning. It is very cold outside today. Last night Craig had to cover the new raised vegetable garden to protect the flourishing micro greens and teeny tiny lettuce shoots because there was a possible frost forecast. In the east and around the Great Lakes the weather will be extremely cold, perhaps even with some snow dumps. While it is a sunny day outside and has been for the last couple of days, there’s always a nippy cold wind blowing. Yesterday, Yesterdog reopened for take out ordering. Yesterdog is a hot dog eatery founded in 1976 in the center of Eastown. Apart from its huge hotdog selection, it is most famous for being the model for the restaurant hang out for the characters in the film “American Pie”. This photo shows the social distance line up at lunchtime. �In another interesting fact about the film, the writer grew up in East Grand Rapids, a separate city that abuts Eastown and the film was based on his experiences of life in Grand Rapids. Did you know that The Polar Express was also based on East Grand Rapids and downtown Grand Rapids? On their morning walk yesterday Murphy and Craig went past Hillcrest Community Gardens which is all plowed and ready for planting. I think you can rent a plot there if you live in the Fulton Heights Neighborhood. And speaking of vegetable gardens, we continue to receive back-ordered seeds from the supplier. I actually have no memory of what seeds I ordered - that was about 7 weeks ago when I was in a flurry of activity, thinking how we could best occupy the coming days. Craig says the seed packets were so full that we have an endless supply of seeds for the next couple of years. Right now, countries around the world are beginning to ease restrictions. In Lithuania, they are betting that outdoor activity is safer, and they are blocking off streets for outdoor restaurant service. California is encouraging curbside pickup instead. In Seattle Washington, they closed a section of streets to cars during the shutdown and are now considering making up to 20% of streets in �some areas permanently pedestrian only to encourage more walking and cycling. Denmark is opening schools to younger children (who may be less contagious), while Germany is opening for older children (who may do better following instructions). In Melbourne Australia they may lift some restrictions next week and allow 2 people to meet with 2 others. At the same time, businesses are organizing themselves to cautiously reopen while carefully observing distancing and sanitizing rules. Offices are considering staff working in teams, on alternate days. Thus, if 1 person in one team becomes ill, you have a second team ready to take over. My brother-in-law in Sydney who works as a lead cameraman at a national tv channel, has been working in team formation for some weeks now. In the UK, Boris Johnson is giving a press conference on Sunday night and he may begin easing restrictions there. After a cavalier beginning to his leadership at the onset of the virus, he has become much more cautious and mindful after his ICU experience. In interviews he said that for 24 hours or so, doctors discussed plans and alternatives for him if his condition continued to worsen. There really is nothing like a brush with death to clarify your thoughts. But, in many ways, these first phases of reopening are big experiments meant to test the unknowns. Its interesting to me that the countries that have managed to act as a whole, even when they have strong independent regions, have done so much better at handling the pandemic. Of course one of the most paramount requirements is a strong, able leader who guides with common sense, understanding and empathy, and most importantly, listens to the experts who actually know what they’re talking about. I have heard the most arrant nonsense spouted daily in the US by the administration, politicians , some governors and some city mayors. People in authority who endanger their constituents lives without a second thought - the very people who voted them into office. (And thats a discussion for another time). In a completely different tack, my niece Elle (you know the one who lives in Cornwall England) is a very talented artistic person, and this stay at home time has given her the opportunity to explore her artistic talents further. Among a range of items, she has been making these wall or window hangings and donating some of the proceeds to the National Health Service. If you’re interested, look her up online at: completeanduttercraft. Contact Elle for more information (cost etc). You can pay as a PayPal guest, and she will ship it to you. �Remember I told you Craig had his study set up with all his musical instruments? Well here he is. ��I think this is his happy place. ��This is Oliver’s crawling track at home. It’s dark because all the doors along the corridor are closed. He usually crawls from the living room to the kitchen and gazes longingly through the childproof gate at the kitchen doorway. He does love to eat and yesterday they were a bit astonished at daycare when Oliver ate an entire muffin at afternoon tea time. Today’s flashback. Still staying in Xi’an, we visited one of many Han Dynasty tombs. This was the tomb of a high official. We walked down underground to the tomb itself. This is where the official was buried, you can see the skeleton outline. �These colorful demons are coming out of the wall beside that official. I am not sure of the significance of this but they are amazing. �These well preserved paintings were on another section of the tomb complex. Tomorrow we’ll visit the only female Emperor’s tomb and the fabulous terracotta warriors, as our stay in Xi’an comes to a close. As they say in Florida: keep one alligator length apart, wash your hands for 20 seconds, or twice through Happy Birthday, and please, think about wearing a mask when you step out your front door. Lets all keep each other safe. � 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_2020-05-08_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-58 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 2020-05-08 Title A name given to the resource Day 58 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/4f577ee324b54ea55dc8717b0003b719.pdf 349d3b2474bd2c587fdd03ba85b9e712 PDF Text Text Day 7,429. Oh all right, day 59. by windoworks The problem is, I’m scared. There are all these people out there across the US who are screaming (and I say that literally) to be allowed to go out and resume their normal life. You know, the life they had before the onset of coronavirus. The birthday drinks, the cookouts at the beach, the driving across the States and staying at hotel chains as you go. Going to the movies to watch the new blockbuster, eating out at a restaurant whenever you felt like it - I could go on and on, but you get the picture. I think about these things, I remember them and I want to be able to do them too but then I think, no. Craig and I tested negative. Now while that was a huge relief at the time, in the weeks since we’ve realized that our negative status makes us vulnerable. As one scientist put it: we’re dry tinder just waiting to be ignited. Now intellectually I know that the economy is failing and there has to be steps taken to restart it slowly. So states are trying to decide how to reopen safely and thats an oxymoron. There really is no way to reopen a city or a town or a state safely until the virus is either gone or under control. And some Mayors and Governors talk about ‘acceptable losses’. Thats a bit like culling the herd and I suspect it is my age group that is in the acceptable loss range. This morning I read that trump said teachers over 60 shouldn’t go back to teaching for a while. Pardon? And while I am reluctantly on the subject of trump and pence, both of them have close aides who tested positive this week. The press secretary to pence tested asymptomatic (no cough, temperature, runny nose, or sore throat but very contagious)- and pence chose to visit the Mayo Clinic, flout their rules completely, and refuse to wear a mask. It’s a bit disheartening to watch these irresponsible antics and then look at other countries in the world where their person in charge has the country’s best interests at heart. Sigh. So here on 300 block Auburn , yesterday was the last day of school for seniors. The families with a senior made this effort. ����In other happy news, while talking to a friend on the phone late yesterday afternoon I saw the first hummingbird of the season at the feeder outside the tv room window. There’s a double bird seed block feeder out there too and the range of birds that call there is just wonderful. I love watching them. Sorry, there’s no photo of the hummingbird this time. Here’s a daylight shot of the arch in the back garden. Yesterday we took my friend Mary Alice’s advice and bought 2 white summer/fall blooming clematis from our local nursery (curbside pickup) and Craig will plant them when the weather warms again. We will turn the lawn area into a meadow, hopefully. So what else am I doing apart from writing this blog? The Enrichment Committee for the Women’s City Club is still active and I am co-chair with my friend Wendy. We will have a Zoom committee meeting next Friday as we negotiate to turn all our researched and booked future programs into virtual presentations so there is something every Thursday for our members to enjoy. I have to say that Wendy and I are organizing this with the help of our committee but the responsibility for the virtual programs being successfully presented goes to our Communications Director, Gloria. We couldn’t do it without her. �This is how far Ive gotten with my first jigsaw puzzle, another daily activity. Stats: Michigan - 46,326 total cases, 4,393 deaths. Kent County - 2,135 total cases, no new deaths. And while we’re talking about Kent County and my home, Grand Rapids, look up a Youtube video - Covid-19: We Will Rise. It is about Grand Rapids and the coronavirus. (Yes, I cried). �This photo was sent to me from my friend Merrilyn. I do love the Statue of Liberty - she gives me hope. An Oliver photo: �Here are Oliver and Zoe sitting in their nearby park and enjoying the warmer weather (even though its fall in Australia). It’s Zoe’s birthday today and tomorrow is her first Mothers Day. Happy, happy, Zoe! And of course, we come to the flashback. Today the HA is sitting right next to me and he will be able to add information to the photos. �One afternoon (still in Xi’an) we drove out to the Famen Temple complex. In this photo, Zoe is standing in front of a Han Dynasty pagoda, dating from the 2nd century CE. Pagodas are a Chinese version of a South Asian Stupa. Stupas and then pagodas are spiritual buildings built to house (originally) sacred pieces or objects of the Buddha - a piece of his robe for example. This pagoda was nearly destroyed in the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, but the monks of the temple surrounded this pagoda and set themselves on fire. This so shocked the young revolutionary guards that they didn’t destroy it. As I write this I remember that we walked around this pagoda and there was a memorial there dedicated to those monks. ��The Chinese government has expanded this Famen temple to an impressive size. Buddhism has seen a resurgence in recent years and the government is happy to support this religion because its non threatening to the party control, unlike other religions such as Christianity. Famen is a huge area - we lined up to board a little people mover to drive from the entrance to the temple in the bottom photo. The tourists were all Chinese and we had to fight to get on the little train. (I thought of my stepmother - elbows out, dear!). The main road goes right through the middle of those 2 giant Buddhas in the top photo. The old pagoda (with Zoe in front) once housed a part of the little finger bone of the Buddha but this relic was moved to the new golden temple above. It is now housed inside a glass case in the middle of a huge marble hall inside the new temple. It seemed a Disneyland version of a Buddhist temple. We shuffled through in a huge long line and Ithink I saw the bone relic. I did see monks in saffron robes inside the temple. Again, it was a staggeringly hot day. I have acquired this (with permission) from my friend Gina who is continuing to sew masks: she still has masks available. For those friends who will wear them, they are free. For those friends who want one but �won’t wear them, they’re $150 each. I love it! FGS, if you have a mask, wear it outside. Help to keep us all safe. 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_2020-05-09_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-59 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 2020-05-09 Title A name given to the resource Day 59 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/e2e16fa4a7e7abfb2f5039206b0239cd.pdf 9fa3564045b76007a97b92ae9947c547 PDF Text Text Day 60 – Mothers Day by windoworks Not the usual Mothers Day. This week has been a difficult one for many friends. Perhaps its the full moon, perhaps because its the 9th week of isolation (or iso as it is now known, or bubble), perhaps because there’s another 18 days of state Stay At Home order left. We’re all talking of being tired, cranky, sad, restless, bored but mostly anxious. I don’t know about you but my anxiety levels go through the roof regularly and it is a daily battle to pull them back down to a manageable level. This Mothers Day is grey day with the promise of a lot of rain. Thats okay because I didn’t have any outings planned anyway. In Australia, Oliver ‘gave’ Zoe a Mothers Chocolate Gift Bag and card. How clever at 9 months of age. (Thanks Bernie and Drew). ��I thought I’d write the stats section sooner, so it can be like swallowing bad tasting medicine followed by a treat to make you feel better. In the US we have 1.3 million confirmed cases and 79, 696 deaths. In Michigan we have 45, 646 confirmed cases and 4,343 deaths. In Kent County we have 2,213 confirmed cases and we are holding at 41 deaths. In Seoul, South Korea, they had to close 2,100 nightclubs and bars due to a new outbreak at one club. Here in the US, the White House seems in disarray. As I mentioned yesterday, 2 aides to trump and pence tested positive and a number of top members of the Task Force, including Robert Redfield (Head of the CDC) and Dr Anthony Fauci have quarantined themselves and are working from home for the next 14 days. Other people working in the White House are nervous about coming to work. They have restricted access to the Oval Office and I believe trump and pence are tested daily. I would like to think that testing is the same one I endured -invasive and very painful. (I am angry, hear me roar). trump continues to publicly discuss ‘acceptable losses’. I assumed that meant those citizens in my age group but perhaps not. Governor Cuomo announced yesterday that 3 of the 73 children in New York, sickened with a mysterious, toxic shock syndrome linked to coronavirus, have died. In my imagination I see doctors and scientists all around the world saying daily: yes, we’ve got it! We understand it! And then: **!!^^##! What is this new development/symptom? Where did that come from? I think they’re running as fast as they can to catch up with the new developments. Yesterday Obama (in a leaked telephone call) described trump’s handling of the pandemic as “an absolute chaotic disaster”. He went on to say that it would have been bad with the best of governments. I long to hear him say: don’t worry, its very bad but we’re Americans, we can and we will survive this. Fortunately for us Michiganders, Governor Whitmer says this every so often. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day with (once again) a cold wind blowing. So I made us a packed lunch and we drove to Holland to visit the lakeshore and eat our lunch in the car. We drove through downtown Holland and on the way saw some of the beautiful tulips planted all around the downtown area for the Annual Holland Tulip Time Festival. It has been an annual event for over 90 years and features daily parades along the Main Street downtown, with groups of clog dancers in traditional Dutch costumes and famous Michiganders marching. One parade at the beginning of the festival features the Governor of Michigan sweeping the street clean with the other marchers, using big straw brooms. The tulips in the parks nearby are spectacular. It takes the organizing committee 11 months to plan the next years event which generates an estimated $48 million in economic impact annually. The organizers asked those people who had committed sponsorship to consider donating it as the organization is facing serious financial difficulty. In other festival news, for the first time ever in over 50 years, the Festival of the Arts in Grand Rapids, held on the first weekend in June has been cancelled and in its place they are organizing a virtual version. �Some of the popular eateries and boutique stores in Holland’s Main Street were offering online shopping with curbside pickup. We didn’t stop but kept driving on towards the lake. We were expecting that the Lakeshore parking lot might be closed after the debacle at Gand Haven which led to that area being closed, but happily it was open and everyone was behaving themselves. I think the strong cold wind blowing was a deterrent. Once again, we were parked cheek by jowl with other cars. On our right the woman seemed to be reading her cell phone and on our left the couple got out their lunch and although we didn’t acknowledge each other, we sat in companionable silence and ate our lunches together and watched the wind whipping the waves up on the lake. Then Craig and I drove all along the lakeshore back to Lake Michigan Drive and then turned inland to home. It was lovely and sad at the same time and it was my Mothers Day outing. One more Oliver photo, just because ��Today’s flashback: I really have forgotten what order these excursions in Xi”an took place and it probably doesn’t matter. Anyway today’s excursion was to Empress Wu Zetian’s tomb. She was the only woman to rule China. Her reign was from 690 - 705 during the Tang Dynasty. She started out as a 13 year old concubine to the Emperor Gaozong. When she was 31 years old she married Gaozong after convincing him to abandon his legitimate wife. 5 years later he had a stroke and she became the real power in China, through her 2 sons who were too young to rule. The emperor died in 683 and she spent the next 7 years working to build up her power until she became Empress in 690. This is the main avenue connecting the two towers at the tomb complex where she and Gaozong are both buried. The layout is meant to be a smaller replica of Chang’an. During her 15 year reign she strengthened the exam system by recruiting men of all ranks to become members of the bureaucracy. She led military campaigns against the Koreans and she fostered a very highly cultured court. She was an excellent musician, composer and poet. She instructed historians to write biographies of famous women from China’s past such as Lady Fu Hao of the Shang Dynasty (almost 2,000 years prior to Wu Zetian). Eventually she was forced to abdicate by her son in 705. ��Top photo: one of the 2 towers at the tomb complex. In this bottom photo, Craig and Zoe climbed up above the avenue. (Of course they did - too hot for me). We were not allowed to go into either tomb as they are sealed to the public. Evidently they have identified 17 other tombs at the site (high officials, royal children etc) but only 5 have been excavated so far. ��These little statues which I loved, are representative of the ideal (chubby) woman during the Tang Dynasty and particularly Wu Zetian. Later ideal women in the following dynasties reverted back to slender possibly helpless women that Empress Wu would have hated. I took a number of other photos of these fat mamas and then came home and created a Fat Mama window which sold to a good home. I’m all typed out. Stay safe and keep others safe too. � 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_2020-05-10_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-60 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 2020-05-10 Title A name given to the resource Day 60 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/7fd5c2a8e2101b4860312352874c6ec3.pdf 753812d2169cac42bbd9fc121c0ac106 PDF Text Text Day 61. by windoworks So here we are coming up on our 10th week in iso (remember I told you about iso yesterday). Winter has faded away and Spring is taking tentative steps forward. My hands may never recover from the intense daily routine of washing them every 5 minutes, in spite of the hand cream stations dotted around the house for us to lather on every time we pass. My hair is a sad story. Ever so slowly, at the crown of my head, the grey hairs creep forward. Craig keeps offering to use the clippers on me, but I’m not that desperate. After years of beautiful, shellacked fingernails and carefully pedicured toenails, try as hard as I can, my nails are rough and catch on everything. With my fingernails, the only solution is to cut them very short and file, file, file. I have almost finished coloring the book the children gave me sometime ago, and luckily I have other partially finished coloring books. My first jigsaw puzzle has reached the difficult sky portion and I have yet to take up my resurrected tapestry. I order groceries every Monday and keep a running list the rest of the week. How long ago now was it that I used to cruise the aisles in the grocery store, wondering if I had enough oats for the next week, or should I buy another container, just in case? Now, if I forget something, it goes on the list and I manage without it till then. I’ve also realized that 1 count means just that and we have had the new experience of making 1 avocado last until the next order - and we eat a LOT of avocados. Items that I cannot find at the grocery store are now delivered to me by Amazon. I always practiced shopping locally but its so much harder to do that in a pandemic, and that makes me feel guilty. Last week the first of our local, independent restaurants closed due to the pandemic. It seems if you can’t adapt your restaurant, cafe, ice cream store or coffee shop to take out, you simply can’t keep going. And its affecting other types of stores. Also last week a clothing/spa store in East Grand Rapids closed. They have a newer, second store in Ada and that one will remain in place. A local restaurant owner friend has begun an online discussion of closing sections of streets down to allow restaurants to place outdoor eating opportunities. A local coffee spot redesigned the previous owners garden space to make a coffee garden. It functions all year round (no mean achievement in Michigan) with heated igloos for patrons to sit in during the winter. In the Netherlands, one restaurant has constructed individual greenhouses for patrons to dine in. Very interesting. In Australia, New Zealand and England, restrictions are being slowly eased. New Zealand in particular, has an astonishingly low number of cases and an even lower number of deaths. In Australia each state is making its own decisions regarding easing. In England I think builders are able to return to work - and perhaps manufacturing? Scotland and Wales are retaining the current ‘stay at home’ message. �In Michigan we are asked to stay at home until May 28 and all government, county and city committees, boards etc are mandated to meet remotely until June 30. Airlines are beginning to struggle to survive and some are shutting down service to smaller cities. Two regional feeder jet services are closing altogether, so many places will have no flight connection to larger cities. Stats: Michigan has a 24 hour increase of 382 new cases and 25 new deaths. Kent County now has 2281 confirmed cases and another day of no new deaths. Governor Whitmer has introduced a 6 stage program of reopening. It’s interesting to me that all those people who demonstrated for more freedoms are getting them but not how they imagined. I was looking at the Covid regulations in place for shopping at a huge garden nursery in Allendale and they are very strict. I read of an ice cream store in another state that opened for curbside pickup and the customers were so aggressive and demanding that the owner closed it down to online ordering only. There is such an anger and frustration and a demand for life as it was, but I believe that life is gone. I think we have to negotiate and accept the new normal. This is what’s left of the old parking ramp for Blodgett Hospital - a hospital we can walk to. I wonder what’s going in there? �And hooray for my next door neighbor Lea - she really is a Superstar Teacher! �Another photo from my friend Merrilyn - a real ‘blast from the past’, here we are tadpoling. I’m the shaggy haired woman in the middle, Asher is crouched on the left and Zoe is in the middle with her hand in the water. Ah memories! And speaking of memories - today’s flashback. This one is a biggie. The Terracotta Warriors. This is the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi (literally First Emperor of Qin or China). These terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huangdi were buried with the emperor to protect him in his afterlife. They have excavated 4 of the pits and uncovered 8,000 figures. The tomb area covers 38 square miles altogether. Uncovering and restoring the life sized figures is a long painstaking job. The pits were covered with roofs which fell in over time and pushed the figures over. As they fell, they broke into pieces and those pieces were mixed together, making restoration very difficult. �This photo shows the pits with the roof collapsed on top of the figures. �This shows the size of one pit. On the right and left you can see the tiny figures of tourists walking around the top. ��In the top photo you can see the details of the uniforms and faces, with horses behind. In the bottom photo, this is the reconstructed concubine chariot with 4 horses. All the sculptures were painted originally, but once uncovered the paint curled off in the air almost instantly. �Here is the reconstruction area where they literally piece the figures back together, bit by bit. This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Qin Shi Huangdi was obsessed with immortality. He constructed his tomb with everything he thought he would need in the afterlife. His actual burial tomb is yet to be opened but we have very good details about it from the ancient historian, Sima Qian. He said: the ceiling was studded with precious stones depicting the night sky on the day the Emperor died. On the floor, the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers flow in mercury into the China Sea. The tomb was lit with whale oil lamps (the longest burning substance known at the time). He was buried with a huge treasure of coins and silver and gold. Finally, to protect the tomb from grave robbers, it was booby trapped with primed crossbows. Chinese archeologists have been very slow and cautious about opening this personal tomb and are leaving it to future archeologists with more advanced tools to open it without damage. I could tell you stories of his paranoia and how in later years he covered his face with a veil to thwart assassination attempts, but that’s a story for another day. Hoping you and yours are safe and well. � 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_2020-05-11_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-61 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 2020-05-11 Title A name given to the resource Day 61 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/609a8740d817b9c729b478e780a6b96c.pdf 822778fd892fc67f4dc89c17db2ca0ec PDF Text Text Day 62 by windoworks Yesterday we drove to Martha’s Vineyard for a curbside pickup (oh all right, it was Vodka and Marsala). Then we went downtown to the Grand Valley’s downtown campus and walked pretty much on our own over the Grand River and back to the car again. ���Weirdly empty. Then we drove over to Chowhound where a very strong young woman, gloved and masked, manhandled the largest bag of dog food into the back of our car. And that was our outing for the day. It’s funny what becomes an outing in this time. Still, its fresh air and a little exercise. In China, Singapore and South Korea they are seeing new virus cases appearing and I think in some states here, where they have opened up prematurely, they are experiencing an upswing. The latest findings are that this virus keeps attacking new parts of the body and the experts are not sure why. It’s odd to think that 9 weeks ago, the only symptoms you had to worry about were fever, cough and fatigue. Scientists have begun to think that there may not be a second wave in the Fall but a series of wavelets from now on. In Europe, France is divided into 3 zones, red, orange and green. Green is the southern area of France with a very low incidence of cases. Interestingly, this is the area we lived in for 2 months in 2016. The north eastern area, including Paris, is the red zone with strict stay at home conditions and between the 2 zones is the orange zone or transition area. �In Germany, a month after easing restrictions, there appears to be a rising infection rate. This speaks to R rates and here’s what this means: The R number is a key factor in gauging the coronavirus pandemic. It refers to the ‘effective reproduction number’ of COVID-19. An R value of 1 is a crucial threshold. This refers to the average number of people one infected person will pass the virus to. Recent estimates of China’s infection rate has placed it at R6.6. And to look at it another way: if a country has an R of 1.5, this means that 100 people could infect 150, who would in turn infect 225, who would infect 338 and so on. how do we stop the R factor from rising? Really only by staying home and practicing safe distancing and strict hygiene routines. Once we start letting those practices slide, the R factor begins to climb again. The ideal R factor is way below 1. The only long term solution is a vaccine and no one knows when that will be available. So thats the science lesson over for today. For questions, please look online. After a number of reassuring emails from various airlines, trying to coax me back into considering flying again, a recent United flight looked like this: �Every seat was full with everyone using the overhead lockers as usual. I think the flight was from New York to San Francisco - about 5 and a half hours in that confined space with no food or drink service. Hmmmm. To cheer us all up, here is an Oliver photo - note the red cheeks. It’s teething time again. ��And now to the days flashback. So we left Xi’an formerly known as Chang’an. Why was the name changed? Chang’an (perpetual city) was the capital of China from 800BCE (Before the Common Era) to 900CE (Common Era). When the Ming came to power in the 15th century they wanted to promote Beijing as the capital so they changed the name of Chang’an to Xi’an which means ‘western city‘. This is a rural scene outside of Xi’an. From Xi’an we flew far to the west to Dunhuang a city on the edge of the Gobi desert. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is situated in an oasis containing Crescent Lake and Mingsha Shan meaning Sining Sand Mountain which refers to the singing sands whipping off the dunes. After we landed we drove out in a coach to see the Yulin Grottoes. �We’re all so tired, we fell asleep on the coach. �Entering the Gobi Desert. What a change in scenery! ��The Yulin Grottoes or Caves. It took us about 2 hours driving to get there. There are 32 caves with murals in the east cliff and 11 caves in the west cliff. These cave murals were painted over a long period from the 2nd to 10th century. Some of these were painted as thanks for surviving the Silk Road journey. This became a popular area for talented artists to display their skill. In order to see some of the fantastic cave murals we saw, you would have to look online as we were strictly forbidden to take photos. Just as it looks, it was stultifyingly hot and dry. It seemed to suck the moisture right out of you and you had to keep constantly drinking water. I think this is also the place where the available toilet facilities smelt so disgusting that Zoe and I elected to pee in the bushes. Craig visited this area in June last year and in the intervening 8 years the site has been considerably improved and the toilets are now at western standards. More desert adventures tomorrow. I’m not going to say it because I’m sure you could recite it verbatim back to me. � 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_2020-05-12_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-62 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 2020-05-12 Title A name given to the resource Day 62 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/372b5b093871537fbb3b08a462dd2dfb.pdf 5eb67f4deb6e1fb48df8c56e21721604 PDF Text Text Day 63 by windoworks This blog writing business has become more complicated. I now search through news and articles online to find interesting things to tell you, as well as updates from friends and family overseas. So here goes: The new big job hunt is for Contact Tracers. Contact tracers identify infected individuals based on test results, obtained by city and state health departments. Then they contact people — initially by phone, in most cases — who have tested positive for the coronavirus. Tracers will ask them to recall the names of everyone with whom they have recently come into contact. Finally, contact tracers will warn those people of their potential exposure, advise them to self-quarantine and provide them with access to resources they might need in order to follow protocol. This is a job that you have to train online to be authorized to do. If you are interested, look it up and sign on. Factories are staring to close down altogether. Unemployment is the US could reach 25% (thats a scary thought). Here in Michigan, two children have the mysterious inflammatory syndrome linked to the coronavirus that 73 children presented with in New York. Our next door neighbor Nicolas, who was denied all the wonderful end of high school celebrations because of the virus, has taken a job as a caregiver for man with disabilities. Every weekday Nicolas drives to his house, changes into scrubs and protective gear and assists him. Way to go Nicolas! The future is safe in 2020 Seniors hands. In the ‘will I ever willingly get on a cruise ship again’ update, there are still dozens of cruise ships stuck, anchored off ports around the world. Some are clustered in groups in the Caribbean, Atlantic Ocean and the South China Sea. Tens of thousands of crew members have been trapped for weeks and unable to get home, some are locked in their small cabins with regimented fresh air breaks 3 times a day. Some are being paid and some are not. All cruise lines have been asked to charter planes to get their crews home but most seem to be dragging their feet. And ignoring this distressing story above, cruise lines have begun advertising new cruises from AUGUST THIS YEAR onwards! But not before all this happens: No self service buffets, no passengers over 70 without a doctors certificate (what now? I have to get a certificate to pay money to cruise?), temperature and medical checks before embarking and during the cruise, enhanced cleaning, fewer passengers, fewer ships, shorter closer to home itineraries and lower fares. Sounds truly enticing to me. (That was sarcasm).And bear in mind, to get to a port to sail from, you have to fly first. Hmmm. �In a “lets think about that” move, California State University, the biggest 4 year University in the States, announced yesterday that it is canceling all face-to-face teaching in the fall and will conduct online teaching only. Craig is enrolled in an online course on best teaching practices for online teaching, as all GVSU faculty has been asked to do, in case online teaching becomes the only way for classes to be held. Yesterday President Mantilla of GVSU held a virtual town hall. We’ll see what the fall brings. Yesterday was a big day for Murphy. With dog wash facilities closed locally and Murphy beginning to smell a little ‘doggy’, we had a very exciting episode after lunch. ��You can see just how much she was enjoying this as I captured one of the moments she tried hard to escape. She smells heaps better now and I think she’s forgiven Craig. Earlier in the day we drove out to near 64th street and walked along another section of the Fred Meijer Trail. In this section, we walked over a fast flowing stream with ducks. You can’t see the ducks but it was a pretty stop - and yes it was still cold before lunchtime. On his early morning walk Craig saw this: ��And because there always has to be an Oliver photo, here’s two: ��But why can’t I chew the rubber edge on the coffee table? Mum? ��It seems to be time to mount the baby videocam on the wall! Today’s flashback: another Dunhuang excursion was to Souyang ruined city in the desert. This Silk Road city was first established in 111BCE by Emperor Wu and then moved to its current site in 295CE. It prospered during the Tang and Western Xia dynasties. At its peak, the population was 50,000 and it thrived for over a Millenium. It was destroyed and abandoned in the 16th century. It was another hot afternoon. It took a long time to drive to Souyang and then it was a long walk in, in unrelenting heat. ��I think I’m in the middle there, trudging along. ��The top photo is of walls (I think) and the bottom photo is of Craig, 8 years later with the tower from the first photo way in the background. This shows you what a vast city this was in its heyday. Like everything else, facilities have been upgraded and there are now carts which drive you into the ruins. I hated the whole experience and Craig was ecstatic to see a site he had lectured on. By the time we got back to our hotel, we ate dinner at 11:30pm. Not my best day. Stats: Kent County cases continue to rise. Yesterday we had 2,416 cases and sadly 45 deaths in total. We have seen an increase of 500 cases over the last week. Yesterday Dr Fauci said we will experience avoidable sufferings, death and further economic damage if states reopen too soon. And here’s a link to an excellent article, worth reading. https://www.erinbromage,com/post/the-risksknow-them-avoid-them Till 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_2020-05-13_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-63 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 2020-05-13 Title A name given to the resource Day 63 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/d227fa171f9dca4ff844995bc8e2a7f9.pdf 70a19ce7226dc89ebed6a84d6dd00e05 PDF Text Text Day 64 by windoworks Here I am, sitting propped up in bed, a pillow under my iPad, my trusty cellphone ready for fact checking beside me and a fresh cup of coffee. To begin from a blogger in New Zealand: “Fear kept us locked inside. Fear also made it hard for us to function: it made us overthink; it put us on the back foot. But perhaps the biggest danger is that it will shrink our lives from now on; that we’ll be more fearful than bold in our choices. Don’t fall into that trap. Aim to live a bigger life, not a smaller one.” I know that right now, fear is making it harder for me to function and the temptation is that it will shrink my life. It’s hard for me to even think about being bold at this moment. On the other hand, this situation is making it easier for me to think about what I do want and what I don’t want in life. Craig and I have established a quiet routine. We have thought of projects and renovations, we are clearing things out and reordering items to be more useful and accessible. The vegetable garden is growing and flowers are appearing. Worryingly, our climbing hydrangea went overnight from bursting with new healthy growth to looking limp and browned. Was it frost or is it a bug? Will it rebound or do we need to pull the whole thing out and start again? If you’re reading this and have any advice, please let me know. And while I’m on the subject, Mary Alice, the clematis are twining their way up the trellis on either side and we have our first flower about to open! So far, so good. Yesterday, Zoe and Oliver met a friend and her son and they went for a walk in the bush (forest) by Taronga Zoo in Sydney. At the end of their walk they sat down to eat some lunch that they had brought with them. Soon a magpie sat nearby on the grass and watched. Then 3 kookaburras joined the magpie and they sat in a circle watching Zoe and her friend eat. The birds began making odd noises and finally one swooped up and took the remainder of the sausage roll out of Zoe’s friends hand. That seemed like a good moment to leave as Zoe’s friend had remarked earlier that this reminded her of the movie ‘The Birds’. Scary. In a hodgepodge of news and tidbits: in New Zealand barbershops opened and customers lined up all night long to get a haircut. I think each customer has to sign in to allow contact tracing. Here in the US a number of big cities are considering closing a percentage of streets to allow outside dining and promote walking and biking. Also in the US, we are on track to produce more electricity from renewable sources than coal. That’s a happy note. From China: there’s some evidence that people can remain asymptomatic for 30-50 days. Eek! �In the how will colleges/ universities teach this fall, category: shut down in a stricken wave this March as the coronavirus pandemic spread across America, colleges and universities are now studying whether and how to move forward, with plans ranging wildly between hope and grim epidemiology. At GVSU there are detailed plans developing for every eventuality. Funding for colleges continues to be a huge problem. If the choice is online classes, will it be cheaper than face to face? In a totally unrelated news item: senior year pranks live on during the coronavirus. One talented group of seniors put their empty high school building on the real estate market. Luckily, no one bought it. In polls taken in April, most Americans thought life would go back to normal in a few months. In recent polls, more Americans think it could take a year or longer. In today’s stats: United States has 1.42 million confirmed cases, and 84, 763 deaths. Michigan has 48, 021 confirmed cases and 4,674 deaths. Kent County has 2,446 cases and 47 deaths. In adjacent Ottawa County (where the GVSU main campus is) there are 444 cases and 21 deaths. Craig has been following these Ottawa numbers and says they are starting to suddenly climb. When I was researching the daily numbers for the US it said that the daily increase from yesterday of confirmed cases was 20,568 and I thought that must be a mistake but its correct, and very sobering. Yesterday, in our search for somewhere to walk and enjoy the warm sunshine where there was the smallest number of other people walking etc., we hit upon the main GVSU campus at Allendale. As we drove in we saw a few people walking or riding bikes. Apparently there are about 200 students in residence from other countries who are unable to get home safely. These 200 students have been a great test run for the administration to try alternate food delivery systems, manage social isolation etc. We walked around one of the forest tracks at the top of the ravine which leads down to the Grand River. It was warm, sunny and exceptionally quiet except for the birds - and not another soul in sight! �I did have my mask tied around my neck but I didn’t need to pull it up. An Oliver update: ��On their bush walk yesterday. This was taken just before Oliver dropped his bundle (began crying loudly). His incoming top teeth are diving him crazy. Today’s flashback: today brings us to the end of our China trip. A silk weaver. They make stunning silk cloth in gorgeous colors - very expensive. �The Spice Stall in the market at Dunhuang. ��Two Uyghur women who greeted us at the restaurant on the night we ate at 11:30pm. I was that slender once. ��An amazing experience. We drove out in the late afternoon to the desert where we were split into groups of 5 and we climbed on to a camel each for a ride in the sand dunes. The top photo shows you just how high the dunes are - there is a line of people climbing up the ridge on the right. The bottom photo shows me, on my camel with my rented orange boots. These elegant boots kept the sand out of my clothing. I was the only one with a scarf/shawl which proved very handy when a small wind blew up. Craig was on another camel string and he took this photo which he named ‘Florence of Arabia”. I was so scared initially that I gripped the camel tightly with my knees and had huge bruises on my legs for days afterwards. In the end, I loved it. There’s something about the way a camel sways slowly along that is very peaceful. ���The Mogao Caves. These caves were constructed some time in the 4th century CE. They contain thousands of Buddha shrines for meditation and pilgrimage. Dunhuang became not only a Silk Road hub but a major religious center. There is an estimated half a million square feet of religious wall murals within the caves. Again, we were not allowed to take photos inside the caves. The bottom photo is of our whole group. After this we all began the long journey home to our various countries. I hope you have enjoyed this armchair trip as much as I have. Let’s see what flashback tomorrow brings. Stay safe - its not over yet. � 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_2020-05-14_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-64 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 2020-05-14 Title A name given to the resource Day 64 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/ae8815470ff49b08648f5a26f0fc29e0.pdf 1a08d8b2b52b974fbc862af82a050d00 PDF Text Text Day 65 by windoworks This morning I was looking at the virus statistics for the US, Michigan and Kent County and this jumped out at me: there are 4,389,915 cases worldwide and the US has 1,448,245 of them, that is, just over one quarter of all cases are here in the US. I might have to lie down now for a bit. In England, my niece Elle is returning to work on Monday. In New Zealand my daughter-in-law, Alva, returns to work on Monday also. Her husband Zar, continues to work from home until he becomes part of a shift able to return to his office. In Sydney Australia, Zoe continues to work part time from home. She would like to work 4 days a week instead of 3, but the daycare center for Oliver doesn’t have enough staff to cope with more children for more days a week. They are currently funded by the government at one third their normal income. In Melbourne Australia, Asher continues to work from home. New Zealand is using logging in at offices and venues to facilitate contact tracing. As each state is different in Australia, I’m not sure what’s happening there. One of our favorite coffee bars in Balmain has decided that although they are allowed to have 10 customers sit inside the cafe, its far more profitable for them to continue serving food and coffee as a take out venue. They are extremely popular whatever the restrictions. Locally, our butcher shop within walking distance is overwhelmed by customers using curbside pickup. At this time when grocery stores are limiting meat purchases per customer because of the meat processing plant closures due to rampant COVID infections, we can buy good quality local meat products. Last night I made beef short ribs. A new recipe for me and delicious! Our local gluten free, soy free, vegan bakery has stopped taking phone orders and asks all customers to use online ordering at their website. They have begun baking some items such as donuts several times a day to cope with the demand. You give them the make and color of your car and the approximate pickup time. You then stand outside the bakery on the sidewalk and they run your order out to you, wearing gloves and a mask. One evening this week, my two neighbors on either side, brought chairs out and sat on the front lawn, more than 6 feet apart and talked. It was a really cold evening and they sat rugged up in layers, drinking beer and just talking. In the past, they have often sat on a front porch, long into the evening, talking. This was the closest they could get now and it was nice to see. This is the New Normal, and I’m okay with that. Yesterday was a miserable rainy day and Craig and I just went for a drive. We drove out to 84th Street and then drove around the Tanger Outlet Mall. ��Eerily quiet. There were a handful of cars and we wondered if some of the stores were ‘dark stores’ an expression my son introduced me to. Dark stores are retail stores that cater exclusively to online shopping. Dark stores may be the future of post pandemic retail. Grocery store chains such as Whole Foods and Kroger have converted some stores to dark stores, as have other chains such as Bed, Bath and Beyond. I continue to be astonished by the never ending variety of objects able to be purchased online, delivered or picked up at the curb. As a friend of mine remarked: I realized that all my life I’ve been waiting for someone to deliver food to me on a weekly basis - I love it! A post on FaceBook has been asking everyone to say yes or no to wearing a mask. 99.9% of responders said YES! I see people wearing them in parking lots before going into a store, but not when walking outside. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I am trying to give up reading ridiculous news such as trump’s mysterious and baseless Obamagate. Even he couldn’t actually define what he meant. Yesterday there was the 3rd protest in Lansing Michigan outside the empty State House. Why these people gathered in the rain, close together, shouting (all that air from your lungs spreads the virus and takes it in as you get ready to shout) and with semi automatic rifles is entirely beyond me. One woman held a sign that said something like: I’d rather have dangerous freedom than safe restriction. In looking online to see if I could see her sign and its exact wordage I saw �instead lots of men, women and children with no masks and singing loudly. One advantage was that they were outside so its harder for the virus to spread in the open air, but singing is another activity that assists the virus in an easy spread. In the end, it comes down to personal decisions as it has in those states that have reopened early in spite of all advice and guidelines. While a small percentage rush eagerly out, the larger percentage have chosen to stay home. Here’s an Oliver photo to cheer us all up. ��Today’s flashback. After much discussion and photograph searching, I have decided to revisit our 2016 sabbatical in Europe and beginning this week we will be looking at our adventures in Berlin. This city was not what I expected. For some reason I assumed it would look like London or Paris, beautiful old streets and buildings with lots of history. It doesn’t look like that because it was almost completely demolished by the end of the Second World War. They continue to rebuild but it is a slow process. ��Our apartment was in a refurbished building on a quiet street opposite the police barracks. Look at the height of this door! ��The living/dining room ��The narrow but cute kitchen. That window looked out onto the inner courtyard. We had a key to get into the building and another key to ur front door but honestly with the police barracks across the road I never felt unsafe. Here I am on our bedroom balcony overlooking the street below. This apartment was our elegant haven for the next 4 weeks. Stay tuned for our adventures. Mask up! � 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_2020-05-15_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-65 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 2020-05-15 Title A name given to the resource Day 65 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/dcfab0551b428fc730f33e129ea34c62.pdf 65acc5d68fe92ba5847822ae37a54bbf PDF Text Text Day 66 by windoworks Two days ago, I was at a Zoom meeting when I looked out the tv room window (where the wifi router is) and I saw a Baltimore Oriole, trying to drink the nectar from the hummingbird feeder. We have a pair of Downy Woodpeckers that eat at our seed blocks and yesterday I think I saw a Rose Breasted Grosbeak. Perhaps the pandemic is bringing them back to our gardens in the same way that wild animals began turning up downtown in deserted cities across the world. And speaking of gardening, thanks for the advice regarding my climbing hydrangea. I will do some trimming of dead leaves and see what that does. The backyard meadow project has gone from idea to measurement of paths. See, this is what happens when you’re stuck at home for weeks on end and your mind begins to rearrange rooms, belongings and then eventually gardens. The idea of Craig digging up a large portion of the grass in the back yard prompted me to suggest that he hire some sort of tool with a motor to help save his back. So yesterday he called Home Depot only to find out that he couldn’t just rent it and pay for it online then pick it up curbside. No, if he wants to rent a tiller (and apparently the one he chose online won’t work and he needs a bigger machine), Craig has to drive down, walk inside to the back of the huge store, present his credit card and drivers license and then walk the machine out to the car himself. Hmmm. As we even get our monthly prescription drugs delivered so that neither of us has to enter a store, this presents a quandary. Part of our concern is that after weeks of slow activity, the stats in Kent County are rising a little faster than before. Today the deaths reached 53 and the confirmed cases are now at 2,705. I have heard people say: well if we get it, I bet it won’t be too bad and then we’ll be immune. That could be true. But here’s a story I heard from a colleague on Zoom this week: In March, she and her husband drove back to Michigan from Florida. They are both over 60 and he has limited lung capacity, so she was very careful all the way home, wiping things down with bleach wipes etc. They stopped overnight in Tennessee, and after she had cleaned the hotel room and settled her husband inside, she called a local restaurant and ordered dinner. She drove to the restaurant, expecting curbside pickup. Instead, she found she had to go inside the busy restaurant and ask for her order at the bar area. There were a lot of people there with no social distancing and no masks. She looked around carefully, while waiting for her order, to make sure she was a good distance away from everyone. As she turned to look at the table of patrons behind her, a woman seated near her coughed so hard, she felt the drops fly across her face. �As soon as she reached the hotel she jumped in the shower and washed everything including her hair. Two days later, after they arrived home, she developed COVID-19. She said it was the worst flu she had ever had. The body aches were horrendous. She spent 9 days in isolation downstairs in their condo. She said the first 4 days were the worst, lying in bed with the blinds down, trying to sleep. After 7 days she began to recover and by 9 days later the virus had gone only to be replaced by bronchitis. It took her over a month to recover. Her lungs took the longest time. So thats why we should all be wearing masks outside and in stores etc. It doesn’t stop you contracting the virus - it helps to stop you giving it to anyone else. If that woman who coughed had been wearing a mask, my colleague might not have gotten sick. Yesterday Governor Whitmer did her Friday press conference and she was standing in front of a large blue screen. To begin, she had an image of the inside of the empty Fox Theater in Detroit put up on the screen. She then told us that the state of Michigan had almost 5,000 deaths now and that the Fox Theater held just over 5,000 people. She said: every one of those empty seats represents a loved one lost to us. Powerful. Then she invited 4 people to pray for us: a Catholic priest from Grand Rapids, a female Rabbi , an Imam from Dearborn and an African American Baptist minister. Each gave a powerful prayer, asking for us all to be loved and sustained and each asking God to protect and sustain Governor Whitmer. In my minds eye, I see her - a slender woman, standing to the side of the stage with her hands clasped together and wearing her mask, listening intently. Some say she is in the running as a Vice President running mate for Joe Biden. I don’t want to stop her from advancing her career, but a selfish part of me really wants her to stay and be my Governor and continue to keep me and all my friends safe and secure, in pandemic times and new normal times. Some other stats Craig gave me this morning and a little food for thought. The United States has 4% of the global population. Currently, it has 32% of all global virus infections and has suffered 28% of all global deaths so far. But here, we are Michiganders. We are tough and resilient and we will get through this together. It sounds so siss, boom, baa! Like a parade, but sometimes thats what we all need to hold on to. So, Oliver. Sometimes when we’re FaceTiming he ‘talks’ so loudly we can’t hear what Zoe is saying. One day soon it’ll be actual words. ��Look at this. He has cheese all over his face and hands - and shortly after this, all over his right eye. Don’t you just love that smile? In Berlin. In our first week there we visited the Spree River in the center of the city. This was our first full day. We walked along the river bank. Berliners take any break in the weather to get out, sit beside the river and drink beer in th sunshine. �The bars put out these deck chairs and they are in use all the time except when it rains. To get to the river, we had to walk through Prison Cell Park to the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station). Here are 2 photos from that first day ��The bottom photo is the remnant of the prison wall. ��This is one of the Berlin Buddy Bears. These bears are Germany’s ambassadors of goodwill. The bear is a symbol on Berlin’s coat of arms. These bears promote tolerance and peace, and are positioned with their arms in the air to symbolize kindliness and optimism. They are made of fiberglass and each one is hand painted by an artist. You know all the rules. 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_2020-05-16_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-66 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 2020-05-16 Title A name given to the resource Day 66 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/e0d579c013e3bd63927fd8efa01c2c73.pdf 28dd9a469f9863f5f18c40003c4bfa8a PDF Text Text Day 67. Really? by windoworks I was late starting this morning, I was overcome with ‘haven’t I done all this before?’ Well yes. 68 times altogether as I didn’t give the first pandemic post a number. Looking back to 67 days ago, who knew this would go on for so long? And that’s the main theme here: who knew followed by who knows? I have never heard so many experts say: we just don’t know. We don’t know what will happen when we leave our houses, we don’t know if summer weather will make a difference, we don’t know if the virus will roar back in the fall and winter, we don’t know if it will continue in wavelets for the next 18 months and we don’t know when a vaccine will be available to everyone, everywhere. We don’t know if malls will survive, we don’t know how dining out will look. I think going forward it is an individual choice. For me a lot of things like concerts, movies, malls, crowded beaches make me uncomfortable. I have no idea if my friend on Zoom or FaceTime is asymptomatic- and my friend doesn’t know either. I’m happy to meet online, but face-to-face, not so much. Masks have become almost a flashpoint. There’s those who wear them and those who won’t. Apparently it’s a personal freedom issue in that ‘you can’t make me’ way. And vehement non-maskers declare: I’m not sick! You can’t catch it from me! At this point I would ask to see their doctors certificate confirming they’ve been tested and are virus free. Oh but wait - that would be another personal freedom. I have the right to not get tested. In case you missed it, Day 67 seems to have revealed the larger than I’d like, simmering anger inside me. Anger that scared seems to be my new way of life, anger that I am stuck here far across the world from my family, some who are old and infirm and some who are brand new, and anger that every day is the same as the day before with the same tasks and the same ‘putting a good face on it’ regime. And mostly, I’m so angry that our federal government, that is, the people in charge, are so dysfunctional and self absorbed that not only are we all struggling to survive safely here, the rest of the world is doing one of two things: laughing at our president and his minions or worse - feeling sorry for us all. A friend of mine emailed me back yesterday and told me how careful he and his family had been. This week, after dinner, he and his wife made margaritas and cycled over to a friends house with their masks, ready to sit out the back around the fire pit and catch up at a safe distance. When they got there, people weren’t wearing masks, there was no social distancing and there were lots more people than they expected to see. His wife burst into tears and they turned around and rode home again. I know just how she felt. Will I feel this angry and sad forever? I don’t know but I hope not. �“Hope” is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops - at all - Emily Dickinson ��New chalk art on our block. ��The long line to be admitted into the Fulton Street Farmers Market on Saturday about lunchtime. Craig said he thought it was about an hour wait and the line stretched across the road through the traffic lights. There were security guards at the top entrance and bottom exit with all side entrances firmly closed. There was a maximum of about 30 customers in there at one time. Normally the market is a crazy, busy melee of people, everyone pushing to get through the crowds. Stats: Kent County had 2,766 confirmed cases yesterday and sadly, 54 deaths. We continue to slowly climb upwards. L �In Auckland New Zealand, Fall is coming in. ��My mother-in-law, blowing out her candle on her tiny candle cake. Her real birthday cake was much bigger but you can’t blow birthday candles on cakes out any more. And of course, an Oliver moment. ��Here he is at daycare, gazing out the window. What is he thinking about? To continue in Berlin. We visited Alexanderplatz which is a large public square and transport hub in the central Mitte district of Berlin. It has more than 360,000 visitors daily and is a popular staring point for tourists. It was named for Tsar Alexander I who visited Berlin in October 1805. It was extremely crowded, busy, noisy with interesting market booths and full of tourists. ��This was large blow up pool with these zip up balls that children could ride in and move around the pool. It looked like they were having a lot of fun. �This drum band was just amazing. More Berlin experiences tomorrow. As I proofed this edition, I wondered about posting it. Then I decided this is my blogpost and my feelings and it is up to each of you to decide if you want to read it or not. If you do, I’ll 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_2020-05-17_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-67 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 2020-05-17 Title A name given to the resource Day 67: Reallly? 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/1fcba5d73bc9533d35bf00639722c948.pdf e859351995c1fa504ba10f5ffdcd076e PDF Text Text Day 68 by windoworks About 30 days ago now, I wondered if we would still be here inside at Day 70. Obviously we will. And possibly Craig and I will be still here for Day 78 and beyond when Governor Whitmer’s Stay Home, Stay Safe executive order ends on May 28. From WaPo: To convince consumers to go out and purchase — or to just go out — is a significant challenge, because it involves their most closely held emotions about life. Consumers started staying at home long before they were forced to by government regulations, because they knew that was the right thing to do. In Georgia, which reopened everything early while publishing misleading statistics about the virus spread and decline, people went out and in the wealthier areas, ignored all distancing regulations. Most interviewed said that they wouldn’t be outside if they weren’t healthy and the coronavirus was probably being beaten up by the Liberals. Here’s the thing though, as Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania said when interviewed “The data are always two or three weeks old. And we have a hard time understanding that things are different from what we’re looking at.” Crystal Watson of Johns Hopkins University said that we wouldn’t really know how reopening had affected the virus’s spread for five to six weeks. Five to six weeks. Five to six weeks to find out if the virus had spread or not. And as one person in Georgia remarked: Anyway, I’m not in the expendable age group. As someone in the ‘expendable’ age group, I find that dammed insulting. I can’t even begin to discuss the political scene. I don’t have cable television so all my news is from National Public Radio, Washington Post and New York Times. I have online subscriptions only. WaPo bombards me all day with Breaking News. In some ways this virus must be a godsend for them - so many people to interview, so many stories to write. I remember Zoe telling me about going to see the movie Contagion at the movie theater. Remember that scary movie about a quickly spreading pandemic? Zoe said she had to catch the bus home and all the way home, she felt nervous about all the other people on the bus and whether they might be sick. Now the virus depicted in Contagion was a much more virulent virus with a huge mortality rate, but here we all are, sitting on the bus of life and wondering who around us might be sick. Stats: US, confirmed cases: 1,520,000 and deaths topped 90,000 (almost 2,000 people died on Sunday alone). Michigan: 51,142 confirmed cases and 4,891 deaths. Kent County: 2,825 confirmed cases and 55 �deaths. In the state of Michigan, Kent County ranks 4th in virus cases out of 83 counties. This is because Grand Rapids is the second largest city in the state and many more cases appear in urban areas. Yesterday, after an angry and sad morning, I asked Craig to drive us out somewhere near the big lake (Michigan) so we could eat homemade cake, drink coffee and look at the water. He is always willing to oblige, so off we set in torrential rain for the 45 minute drive up the freeway in very poor visibility, for Muskegon. We found a spot next to a marina, and sat watching the lone swan fishing on the lake - still in torrential rain. We didn’t stay too long in case the serious flooding alert began early, and we drove home via Spring Lake. We missed the turn to Eastern Road (to come home through the countryside) and when we turned around we were stuck at the lights while the entire graduating class of Spring Lake High School drove by in their decorated cars and wearing their gowns and caps. That explained the many groups of people standing under umbrellas on the sidewalk with signs and pompoms to shake. ���A long, long line of cars, all tooting and cheering as they rounded the corner. �On their early morning walk, Craig and Murphy are keeping an eye on Blodgett Hospital - whatever is going in there? And Oliver. This morning it is difficult to decide which photo to choose. ��Oliver meets a new friend. Now if that doesn’t cheer you up, nothing will! Today’s flashback. One day (I really have no idea what day) we went into the city to the Museumsinsel (Museum Island). This island is in the Spree River in the heart of Berlin. It has 5 museums all more or less clustered together: the Altes Museum (Old Museum), the Neues Museum (New Museum), the Altes Nationalgalerie (Old National Gallery), the Bode Museum and the Pergamon Museum. We visited every museum except the Altes Museum. But first we visited the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) which is also on Museumsinsel. The view from the top of the church dome looking down at the Spree River. No, I didn’t climb up there, but of course Craig did. ����This is a gorgeous cathedral, begun in 1894 and completed in 1905. There was a church built first in 1451 and 1905 was the 4th building on the site. It was reinaugurated in 1993 after the removal of war destructions. I didn’t notice any damage or reconstruction. It is a beautiful church with especially gorgeous stained glass windows. We’ll look at the museums beginning tomorrow, after I have attempted to sort out the relevant photos. Just remember, as an opinion writer said recently: the way out is much harder than the way in. Stay safe. � 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_2020-05-18_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-68 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 2020-05-18 Title A name given to the resource Day 68 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/12d147a65a732d3a4d0b235005edbb80.pdf 3f5553544ce0575caf475d85a83fb7b8 PDF Text Text Day 69 by windoworks On this Friday at midnight, 2 regions (7 & 8) in Michigan will be allowed to reopen bars and restaurants. That is the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan (where Traverse City is). These two areas have had very small virus numbers and even smaller deaths. Of course the rules for reopening are pages and pages long and the number of seated customers per square foot is very carefully calculated. The Governor’s concern was that everyone in the south would drive up there immediately and maybe some will, but hopefully most Michiganders will think first. Grand Rapids is Region 2 and the greater Detroit area is Region 1 and I am guessing that we might be the last 2 areas to reopen. In the meantime, some local restaurants who had to close temporarily to quarantine and deep clean due to a staff member being sick, are reopening for take out again. The range of delicious restaurant food on offer in Grand Rapids is just amazing. During this pandemic I think all businesses have to think fast and be nimble, as Governor Whitmer is fond of saying. Everyone either offers curbside pickup (yes you can buy clothing, shoes and books and pick it up at the curb) or free delivery, or both. In fact, its becoming harder to keep track of what we have ordered and paid for, and when it is being delivered. I have become the Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO) in this house, while Craig is now the Head Gardener and Historical Advisor (HG&HA) as well as his side job of University Professor And speaking of gardening, two developments: Craig painstakingly dug out and seeded the first trial patch of meadow in the back garden and, he harvested half of the prolific red radish micro greens and we shared some with our neighbors. Remember those? The seeds we were supposed to germinate in trays inside due to their fragility? The ones Craig planted directly into the garden instead and then had to cover them over during 4 frost alert nights? They’re prolific and delicious! First time micro greens growing luck, I guess. In virus news: The public University of South Carolina has staked out an intriguing plan: Bring students back to campus in August, teach in person for three months and switch to remote instruction after Thanksgiving. Schools nationwide face extraordinary pressure to reopen campuses to ensure they maintain enrollment and collect tuition revenue. But many are delaying announcements about fall plans until June or July as they game out tricky scenarios about how to house and teach students without running undue health risks. We receive a weekly update from President Mantella at GVSU. They are discussing some budget adjustments as well as how to teach in the fall. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to take all factors in to �consideration (student nervousness, virus resurgence, adequate sanitation, housing safety etc) never mind faculty expectations, fears etc. Again, we’re back to that old chestnut: we just don’t know. Long haul flights may not be available until next year at the earliest. This is an area we are interested in. And even when they do resume, the choice will be one flight from Chicago to Auckland New Zealand - 17 hours with prepackaged food left on your seat before you board, no blankets, no pillows and probably no seat back entertainment (high contagion areas). Oh and that will be after you go through immigration and customs and have your temperature taken and perhaps show your doctors letter saying you’ve been tested and are negative. Carryon luggage may be severely restricted or banned. Choice number 2: travel across to Los Angeles to fly to Sydney Australia, 3 flights and 3 airports and 3 transits (Grand Rapids - Chicago - Los Angeles - Sydney). Something to think about. Yesterday was another cool, windy and wet day, and on his early morning walk, Craig and Murphy went to one of Murphy’s favorite spots: Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids. The lake was wild and very muddy from all the storm water pouring into it. No ducks for Murphy to stare at although she looked and looked. �On the way home, Craig saw these signs. ��I really want both of them. I’ll have to look online. Today’s Oliver photo. It’s so hard to choose! ��Watching Meryl Streep sing because its never too early to enjoy good musicals. Every morning in Sydney, Zoe FaceTimes us as she is feeding him breakfast. He does love to eat and there’s always that little time lag before the food hits his tummy and his brain tells him he’s full. Some mornings he cries indignantly when the bowl is empty. At the end of the session, Craig and I sing a song to him - more often than not, The Wheels on the Bus. He loves music and he smiles and bounces in time. And then we say goodbye. As Craig says: its my favorite movie of the day. More Berlin. Instead of sorting through my Berlin photos yesterday, I spent half an hour putting all 1000 photos of Oliver into a folder. So lets see what I have, �����Today its all about the Berlin Wall. This was a guarded concrete barrier that divided Berlin (physically and ideologically) from 1961 to 1989. I always thought the Wall divided Berlin in half but it divided West Berlin from East Berlin and West Berlin was surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany, so it actually zigzagged around in a sort of circle. There was a wide space on the east side of the Wall which contained anti-tank trenches, beds of nails etc. Along the Wall itself were guard towers which had powerful searchlights and sirens. The Wall was built to protect East Germany from anti fascists. It seems to me that the Wall separated families from each other and caused unnecessary hardship. No one tried to escape to East Berlin but many tried to get to freedom in West Berlin. You could cross to East Berlin with the proper pass and the top photo shows the warning board for Checkpoint Charlie, the American crossing. Today it is in the middle of an upscale busy shopping street, Friedrichstrasse, and for a fee you can have your photo taken with actors pretending to be Soviet crossing guards. In the next photo I am standing on a marker for the Wall. This metal trail winds around Berlin, showing where the Wall was situated. In the third photo, Craig is standing next to a painted block from the Wall. Behind him is a Wall exhibition but we didn’t go in. Lastly, this is a section of the Wall in the eastern side of Berlin (East Berlin). This section has been preserved in place and has become an art exhibit. There were many Wall sections, all painted and decorated but this one took my fancy. Note the wire keeping tourists back from the art. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Maya Angelou I”ll just leave it there. � 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_2020-05-19_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-69 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 2020-05-19 Title A name given to the resource Day 69 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/2eb22d65962e10c8d340ad0f78e92294.pdf 6cfe9ca2ec3e10aa5e777c23132a86fa PDF Text Text Well here we are: Day 70. by windoworks My daughter asked me yesterday where I got all my information. I read everything. As Craig pointed out, I have become a sort of historian. I research and factcheck and then I include it in my post. I have developed a file of interesting quotes and some are used and some are discarded. This is what I do as a contribution during the pandemic. I’m not brave enough to be a volunteer, I don’t own a sewing machine, so I can’t sew masks, but I can record what I see, hear, think and feel every day. My blogposts will be available in a special pandemic archive at Grand Valley State University. It is gratifying to think that what I have recorded daily may be of some use to students and researchers sometime in the future. Today’s stats: US cases - 1,571,131. Deaths - 93,588. We continue to increase in Kent County: cases - 2,934. Deaths - 58. Predictions for the US are looking at a total average number of 113,000 deaths by early June. I have found an article where journalists interviewed residents in famous cities around the world and I will include 2 quotes for the next few days. Today: First up, number one: Right now, Rome is visited only by Romans and it’s a strange feeling. It’s sad that we don’t have tourism because we rely on it and it will soon be an emergency if we don’t get tourists back, but we have been enjoying this brief respite. Rome is a living museum and it is a privilege to have it all to ourselves. Number two: We all know here that the notion of quarantine began in Dubrovnik — as a 14th-century act to prevent outsiders from bringing the black plague into the city — so my friends and I are often joking about how quarantine has returned to the place where it started. It gives us more confidence these days. We’ve dealt with this before — it’s in our DNA — and on some level, we know we’ll overcome this plague just like our ancestors did over 600 years ago. As far as Dubrovnik is concerned I was going to say - who knew? But of course, Craig did. As if dealing with a pandemic wasn’t enough, over the last few days Michigan has had torrential rain. In the US there are a larger number than anyone would like of substandard dams and two of these dams breached last night and a large area around Midland has been flooded to almost 9 feet in some places. Last night Governor Whitmer came on and advised all residents to evacuate immediately to either open shelters in high and middle schools, or to go to friends or relatives. She also asked everyone to continue the 3 Ws - wash your hands, wait 6 feet apart and wear a mask, although she admitted that being in crowded refuges would make that more difficult. If you’re wondering where Midland is in Michigan, picture this: turn your right hand palm up. Put all 4 fingers straight up and your thumb out. You’re �looking at a map of the lower peninsula of Michigan. Midland is close to that soft part between your thumb and and your forefinger. Oh yes - and Grand Rapids is half way up the left side of your palm edge, but a little finger width in. I have a friend who had relocated to her parents house in Midland during the isolation and this morning she was mentioned in a FaceBook post as being safely evacuated. To show you the flooding here in Grand Rapids, yesterday we drove down to Riverside Park by the Grand River. ���One year the river rose so high that they parked a train on the train bridge over the river downtown to stop the bridge from being swept away. You can’t see it from the photos above but as we watched the river flowing very fast, lost of debris like small logs came bobbing past. And, the river is right out beyond the trees, all the water in the front is flood water. And a blast from the past. My friend Merrilyn was looking through her photo albums and found this gem. When my daughter was a few months old I joined the Nursing Mothers Association of Australia. (La Leche League here in the US). Over the years 5 of us became fast friends and strong NMA members. 3 of us became Counselors and Group Leaders, and I became a national board member in charge of Publications for a while. Our group of 5 called ourselves The Milky Bar Mums and we gathered for lunch once a month. I have lost touch with the woman in pink on the left and my very dear friend MaryAnne standing next to her, died after a long battle with breast cancer some years ago now. But Merrilyn and I remain and cherish our new reconnection. �An Oliver photo; Zoe often takes him into her bed in the early morning when he’s waking up and they read the news of the day on her iPhone. He loves to put his head on her shoulder. �Today’s flashback. Another Berlin excursion. Inside the Pergamon. �������This day was exhausting. We purchased tickets and then lined up outside for quite a long time. Our queue wasn’t too long, on other days we had walked past and seen the line winding back out to the street. Of all the 5 museums on Museumsinsel, the Pergamon was by far the most popular and the only one we had to line up to get in to. Once inside you walked all the way up the old worn stairs to the top floor. It is named for the Pergamon Altar, which we couldn’t see as it was being restored - for the next 7 years (2023). There are plans to connect some of the museums close by and like much of Berlin, there were cranes and worksites all around. From the top: the Ishtar ceremonial gate from one of the palaces in Babylon, dated 6 century BCE. During that time, you reached the gate by walking down a ceremonial avenue called “The Enemy Shall not Prevail”. Next; this is part of the Aleppo Room, the oldest and most artistically valuable painted wall paneling from the Ottoman Empire. Dates from the early 17th Century. Next: the Mshatta Facade which was part of the palace of Caliph Al-Walid I, built in Jordan in the 8th century. The Ottoman Sultan gave to the Kaiser in 1903 as a gift (!) Next: an Assyrian wall relief - probably an official, around the 8th century. Next: an Assyrian winged bull-god from one of the Assyrian palaces. And lastly: this is the floor and facade of the Roman Market Gate of Miletus (in Turkey today). The Market was built in the 2nd century and destroyed by an earthquake in the 10th century. The ruins were discovered by German archeologists in the early 20th century and they brought the fragments back and reconstructed it in Berlin. There were many other rooms stuffed full of artifacts but these are some of the ones I found most interesting. More Berlin tomorrow. And so ends the 70th blog. � 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_2020-05-20_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-70-Well-here-we-are 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 2020-05-20 Title A name given to the resource Well here we are: day 70 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/a502577eb16a1755a9dbfb62fe081052.pdf c8426610c5777c30ece81969456197b0 PDF Text Text Day 71. by windoworks A personal note to begin this morning. Is anyone else having weird dreams? Dreams about things like finding yourself hiding in a mall with gunmen roaming through the mall - and you’re still trying to hide 6 feet apart? No, you’re probably not dreaming that particular nightmare but you get my point. With my research I now have 3 pages of notes of items that I think are of interest. This morning I am going to begin with how offices might adapt. At this time, no one knows if companies will maintain all those expensive high rise buildings into the future. My oldest child Zar is still working from home. He doesn’t mind that, but if it is to continue then he really needs two computer screens and a proper desk space. It is the same for Zoe. She really needs to invest in a desk and a better chair as using a dining chair is causing back problems. Craig has a good system set up in his study/studio and he alternates between sitting at a desk and standing at his computer. And my office is mobile - have iPad, will travel. So here’s the possible future of offices: Door handles will be obsolete. The building will know where you are and open doors and call elevators as you approach. To stop the spread of germs, security stations will monitor your temperature. You may have to wait in line to get inside. Your colleagues might start working 20 minutes before or after you. And you may get an occasional alert if a colleague who crossed your path calls in sick. In some places, office staff are working in shifts. In Manhattan New York, I have read that all those expensive commercial buildings are standing silent while big companies spend weeks trying to decide how to proceed. And all those high end hotels in the area are grappling with how to bring customers back safely. Universities: around the world, universities are scrambling to figure out how to proceed. GVSU sends out daily updates of new class configurations, numbers, alternative teaching methods, housing adjustments the list is endless. It all still contains that ‘we just don’t know’ statement. Stats: Michigan - 53,009 cases, 5,060 deaths. This is a little slower than before. Kent County - 3,036 cases , 60 deaths. These numbers continue to steadily rise. In Ottawa County where the main campus of GVSU is housed - 685 cases, deaths 31. These numbers are slowly rising also. �Ahh Gretchen - where would we be without you? Yesterday Governor Whitmer said: not only are we battling a pandemic but now we have a disastrous dam failure, flooding to 10 feet in some areas and �approximately 10,000 residents evacuated. But through it all she keeps on going. Sometimes at her 3+ press conferences a week, she looks very tired. And this one made me laugh. Two more quotes from far flung places: Iceland: my whale-watching boat, The Apena, was originally built for fishing and her purpose is back to basics for the time being. The vast Skjalfandi Bay, nudging the Arctic Circle, has provided a livelihood for my family of fishermen the past 150 years. The Netherlands: I also can’t help being nostalgic for an Amsterdam that could be. The city has been so beautiful and quiet — there was a magic to it that’s not ever going to come back in any way. Aaaand the Oliver photo: �Baby chaos in the park. It’s hard to social distance with babies - they have no idea! I was talking to my counselor on Tuesday and she said: do you have a project or a hobby you could do? I thought about it later and I do - I’ve asked Craig to repaint the upstairs bathroom and the kitchen and he agreed. He picks up the paint and supplies today. Well, okay, its not actually MY project. So Berlin. Surprisingly, Germany makes no secret of the Holocaust. In the German Historical Museum in a dedicated area for the First and Second World Wars, we came across this confronting model. ��I think this is a model of Auschwitz and this shows the people crammed into the gas chamber. �This is a site called The Topography of Terror. Where I am standing is where the headquarters of the SS, SD and Gestapo stood. These buildings were bombed during the war and then demolished after the war. In 2010, the Documentation Center (behind me) was opened and depicts the Nazi regime’s many victim groups as well as the Jews and the crimes perpetrated across Europe. In this photo I am looking towards the largest section of The Wall remaining. Behind the wall is what was formerly East Berlin. This was a sobering site. Inside the exhibition were many everyday photos depicting public shaming and the like. The tourist is left to draw their own conclusions. ��These photos are of the Holocaust Memorial. It represents all the Jews gassed or shot during the Second World War. It was a sad sight. We did visit the Jewish Quarter on another day and then the bombed Main Synagogue. We thought about visiting Sachsenhausen concentration camp about 21 miles or so from Berlin. There were a number of day trips that immersed you in the space but after our visits to these sites in Berlin we felt we had seen enough. �The Brandenburg Gate. This gate was built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, a boulevard of linden trees which led directly to the City Palace of the Prussian monarchs. If you go through the arch ahead, you come to the Tiergarten, a huge inner city park. Craig and I rode through the park in a rickshaw with our driver pointing out many interesting spots. It contains many monuments and the Berlin Zoo and covers 520 acres. It wasn’t the most comfortable ride but it really beat walking though it. It is a surprisingly quiet, green space in the middle of a very busy city center. I hope you and yours are well and safe. Till 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_2020-05-21_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-71 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 2020-05-21 Title A name given to the resource Day 71 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/0e6296a8f51da7b0cc6d08ace4d50de6.pdf 58f137288aba10a8437105fc21f96748 PDF Text Text Day 72. by windoworks I don’t know where to begin. Yesterday Governor Whitmer said we could have gatherings of 10 or less (but masked and still 6 feet apart), and all retail could open but smaller stores could only have 10 customers inside at one time. Also, stores should use an appointment schedule. I was overwhelmed. I had just gotten used to being inside or safely outside, masked and well away from others and it felt like this would be my life from now on and oh! It’s changing again. I read about American Eagle Outfitters which seems to be the gold standard for pandemic times shopping. They seem to have thought of almost everything, even down to the clothes that a customer tries on and rejects. These go in a bin to be steam cleaned before being returned to the shelves. No more lingering or browsing - just straight in with your wish list, purchase (stringent precautions there) and straight out again. It might be more fun online. Michigan anti-lockdown activists extended their protests on Wednesday by orchestrating a barber shop on the state capitol lawn. Few people wore masks, no one took temperatures, and little social distancing was seen. Seven barbers were ticketed for disorderly conduct for refusing to stop. I believe the tickets were $1000 apiece. This morning I watched Madeleine Albright (first female Secretary of State who served under Bill Clinton). She spoke from her home and she looked much the same as she always has, 83 years old now and timeless. She likened this pandemic to being a child in London during the Second World War. She said that the people never knew where the bombs were going to land next! And then she said something that warmed my heart: the countries that have managed this pandemic best are all those countries with a female leader. Perhaps its our ability to multitask. Yesterday I discussed offices reopening. Today, lets look at hotels. Seven out of 10 hotel rooms in the U.S. remain empty, according to the research firm STR. And that's the hotels that are actually open. Guests will see that some of the items in the room that could likely be fingerprinted by previous guests — magazines, notepads, pens — those items have been removed from the room. And there's likely to be more. The hotel-room phone has probably seen its last days because of the coronavirus. And what about that most divisive object in the hotel room? The death of the minibar is probably finally here. The remote control will likely be encased in a plastic bag or envelope with a sticker to indicate that it has been sanitized. I’m not sure how I feel about staying in a hotel, certainly not right now. Yesterday Meijer Garden cancelled its annual summer concert series which usually runs from late June to late August. It is a very popular series (which incidentally, Craig and I have never been to) featuring big �name popular artists. It’s held in their amphitheater and is usually only canceled if the weather is bad. All the regular festivals and events for this year in Grand Rapids have been canceled at this time except the rejuvenated ArtPrize held in September/Octover. But this year, the art will be in windows or outside, and after a year off, most large venues such as museums and churches have chosen not to be involved anyway. Speaking of museums: From a UNESCO spokesman on World Museums. There are 95,000 museums in the world and approximately 98% are currently closed. They anticipate that 13% or 1 in 8 will not reopen for financial reasons. Of 200+ countries in the world, only 20 do not have a minister for culture – the US is one of the 20. Well there’s something to think about. The flooding in Michigan has had other consequences. Yesterday in Muskegon (remember we drove there in torrential rain the other day to look at the lake?) a flood surge powered a new course through the dunes at Pioneer Park and left this destruction: ��As I look at the long range weather forecast, we have 6 days straight from Sunday 24 through to Friday 29 with a 30-50% chance of thunderstorms and the average temperature ranging from 78 - 88F (24 - 29C). We’re putting the a/c in the bedroom window today! And the next two quotes from far flung popular tourist sites around the world; 5. After being confined indoors, it’s natural that you see things with fresh eyes. UsuallyBarcelona lives at night, but now when the sun sets, it already seems super late. The city and the air are cleaner. There seems to be a different light or somehow more light. 6. I have taken a real secret pleasure rediscovering the beautiful buildings and having the streets to myself. All the locals I passed were smiling too. I have the impression of having found a quality-oflife closer to what I desire, meaning more local interaction and less pure consumption. Real life has returned to this corner of Pariswith families and children who play in the street, and getting to know my own neighbors Two photos courtesy of Zar in New Zealand: �Shop dummies to allow proper spacing at tables inside a restaurant. And small glasshouses for safe isolated dining. Of course, now its Oliver photo time. ��Oliver in the kitchen with his favorite toys: Tupperware! And so to Berlin once more. One day we caught the train to Charlottenburg. Charlottenburg Palace was built at the end of the 17th century by Frederich I, Elector of Brandenburg for his wife Sophie Charlotte. You know that the area we call Germany today was in fact a collection of independent states and the only thing that linked them together was that they all spoke the German language. These states were divided by religion - some were Catholic and some were Protestant. These religious differences (among others) led to constant warring among these states. And remember, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was so named because it led to the city state of Brandenburg. It was a gorgeous day. We went through several rooms in the palace that were open to the public. It was constructed in the baroque style. ���In the top photo Craig took this shot in the Ballroom. In the middle photo, I am in the Green Room, and the bottom photo shows part of the silver service And then we went out into the grounds which were huge and gorgeous. Imagine how many gardeners this takes! ���The top photo is looking out at the grounds. These were also designed in the baroque style by a gardener influenced by Andre Le Notre, who designed the gardens at Versailles. I tried to find out how big they are and all I can say is big, but not as big as Versailles. In the bottom photo I am looking back at the palace which was undergoing extensive renovation. It was another hot day. So thats it for today. As Dr London says: stay positive, stay heroic and stay healthy. � 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_2020-05-22_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-72 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 2020-05-22 Title A name given to the resource Day 72 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/ccfab6134b66229a7e9cf81fe3e25999.pdf 428c289079dc1c5b40631c13e4e9aba5 PDF Text Text Day 73. by windoworks Well, here we are again then. So last week I broke down and decided I had to try to trim my hair. Now this is a lot harder than you’d think. I tried to mimic my hairdresser’s methods and I did quite well with the sideburns and my bangs (fringe). Then, after much agonizing and careful instruction, I let Craig trim the very back of my hair at the neckline. Very stressful but I think he did a good job and overall I don’t feel shaggy anymore. Of course, the grey streaks keep creeping forward and I can’t do much about that. When I finally do get to a hairdresser, I think I’ll have them dye my hair silver, so if we’re confined again, I’ll just have to keep it trimmed. So where are we? The US has 1.64M cases and coming up on 100,000 deaths (rising as predicted). So here’s what we find hard to understand. The disease progresses slowly. May’s declining cases are the result of April’s physical distancing, and the consequences of May’s reopenings won’t be felt until June at the earliest. This long gap between actions and their consequences makes it easy to learn the wrong lessons. The pandemic is shaped by many factors. Social distancing matters, but so do testing capacity, population density, age structure, wealth, societal collectivism, and luck. … No single factor can explain differences across nations or regions. The disease spreads unevenly. “Super-spreader events,” which are rare but pivotal, become especially important when cases dip. … If a state reopens and sees no immediate spike in cases, is that because it was justified, because insufficient time has passed, because other things went right, or because unlucky super-spreader events haven’t yet happened? In a patchwork, these questions will be asked millions of times over, and many answers will be wrong. So to lighten the mood, here’s social distancing done well on a French beach. Now thats clever! �And in news from far down at the other end of the world: New Zealand has come up with a creative way to boost tourism: a four-day work week to encourage domestic travel. While the decision on whether to institute a shorter work week will be between employer and employee, Ardern encouraged businesses to think about this option, "because it certainly would help tourism all around the country." Packing our bags now. Ever since this isolation began (and we’re in the 11th week now), the children on the other side of the road from us, in 3 houses, have played and played and played. Some days they built forts on one front lawn, some days they race up and down the sidewalk in wagons, on windy days they have run up the middle of the street with kites and recently, there must be a pool up in one of the backyards as small children have appeared with swim suits, bare feet and towels. Every evening a parent will walk along the block collecting child size deck chairs, blankets, and an assortment of tricycles, wagons and such, and then its all over for another day. All the smaller children will remember of this time, will be that it was an endless summer of playing and that makes my heart glad. Yesterday Craig harvested the last of the red radish micro greens and I washed them, trimmed them and then bagged them up. We have shared them with 3 other neighbors and everyone has enjoyed them. As �John said when I told him this was the last: we’ll just look forward to next spring then. (I’m smiling as I type this, what a lovely memory from such a difficult time). My sister-in-law, Kym, who lives in Canberra, Australia, sent me a link this morning to her choir doing a virtual performance of “Your Song”. As she said, it made her realize what this virus has robbed us all of. I can’t put the video on this blog (some things are just beyond me) but it was lovely to see her face among the other choir members. Sadly, choir rehearsals are one of those most risky events because of all the air expelled and then taken in again. In Midland where the flooding was dreadful, here is a photo taken before the water began to recede: Both dams that collapsed are privately owned by the same man and both didn’t pass inspection. Sadly he didn’t bother to fix the problems - but I guess he’ll have to now, and pay compensation. I debated about this next photo. When he decided to visit a Ford plant the other day, trump refused to wear a mask, mainly because he didn’t want a photo taken. In one part of the plant, masks were obligatory and so he agreed. Someone managed this shot, much to his chagrin. �See, its not that bad with a mask! The last of the notes from popular tourist destinations overseas; Venice: It’s a good thing, we don’t want to go back to how things were before. Overtourism was the norm, but it wasn’t normal, the city was overwhelmed, it was like a transumanza. We had to deal with tourists at every waking hour, everything revolved around them. I live in Cannareggio, one of the less touristy neighborhoods, and even here Venetians were outnumbered. I used to have breakfast at the local cafe every morning, and it would be four locals and ten tourists from the bed-and-breakfasts nearby, that’s how my days began. Around St. Mark, it was really all hit-and-run tourism, people staying here one of two days, always in a hurry, with eight minutes to eat lunch. Prague: You just see the beauty of the city. I read this also somewhere on social media: People were commenting that they notice different details in the city now. For me, Prague seems greener, and I would say its beauty really came out. For example, I was looking down from Petrin Hill, and I had the feeling that Prague itself, that the buildings and everything just look brighter. I don’t even know how to describe it. �Galápagos Islands; This is the Galápagos we dreamed of. People are waking up to the revival of the islands, having a cap on tourists. We are already surviving without any activity. Every day, you have the freezer truck with the fishermen, giving away fish. Whoever can afford to pay, pays. What beauty have you seen revealed where you live? Today’s Oliver treat: ��I think I remember when that brown hoodie was purchased. Oh and the new top tooth is almost here! Today’s flashback. This is a mix of food and sightseeing. ��Potsdamer Platz. This area was totally destroyed during the Second World War and was then bisected by the Wall. Now it is a busy building site with this impressive atrium in the middle. ��There are cafes and shops all around and you can sit in the middle, drink coffee and watch people passing by. This is KaDeWe in the dining hall area on the 6th floor. KaDeWe is short for Kaufhaus des Westens (Department Store of the West). This is the second largest department store in Europe after Harrods. You ride up on the escalators through floors of expensive and exclusive clothes, shoes, hats, jewelry, makeup etc. and reach this floor with many different food stations and speciality counters. The range of cuisines is impressive and at each station, it is cooked in front of you. We had several delicious lunches there - this time it was excellent Chinese food. ��This is the remnants of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church completed in 1906. It was badly bombed in 1943. It is a famous landmark in Berlin and has been nicknamed “The Hollow Tooth”. Every Christmas they hold an extensive Christmas Market around the church and in December 2016, 4 months after we left Berlin, the Christmas Market was devastated by a big truck driven by a terrorist, through the shoppers, killing 11 people and wounding more than 70. Since then, extensive anti terror security measures have been put in place around the church. ���Under the remaining part of the church is this room with these amazing murals. Have a wonderful, safe, healthy Memorial Day weekend. � 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_2020-05-23_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-73 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 2020-05-23 Title A name given to the resource Day 73 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/0946aeafe5ed8062da31408d284cf8c0.pdf c1771409d26921d259939faaa35fbcb5 PDF Text Text Day 74. by windoworks 75 days! That includes the first post which didn’t have a number. And congratulations, Reader, if you stayed with me the whole time. So on Friday morning this happened: One day after loosening social and business restrictions, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday afternoon extended the state’s stay-at-home order to curb the coronavirus pandemic through June 12. She also extended the state of emergency that enables the executive orders, including the stay-at-home order, through June 19, citing a recent Court of Claims ruling that determined she has the power to do so without the Legislature’s approval. Both orders, which she first made in March, were set to expire next Thursday. “While the data shows that we are making progress, we are not out of the woods yet,” So, another 21 days, and who knows what will happen then? The state of emergency is extended to June 19, one week later, so we could be at home for 28 more days. While I grumble, two things are true: (1) I’m not going out in crowded public places any time soon and (2) I think she’s doing a brilliant job. Stats: yesterday Kent County recorded an increase of 77 new cases to bring us to a total of 3,308 and 2 new deaths to a total of 67. If you look out the window it looks perfectly normal. It’s early on Sunday morning, so there’s not too many people out and about. The weather has turned and the warmer weather of summer is here. Yesterday as I was sitting on my porch swing, a tiny cottonwood fluff sailed past me. The fluff is part of the seed produced by the female trees. Male cottonwood trees don’t produce fluff covered seeds. Unfortunately, I seem to be allergic to the fluff and at this time of the year it gathers in huge drifts on roads, sidewalks etc. it is a short but intensive onslaught and is the first real sign that summer is approaching. I also find ragweed hard to cope with, but that’s a story for the fall. It’s Memorial Day Weekend and across the US, people have flocked to the beaches. Some beaches are trying to enforce social distancing and some states seem to have given up. It’s a bit nerve wracking waiting for 2 weeks to see if this causes a surge or not. All 50 states have begun reopening to some extent and all 50 still have active virus counts. It’s hard to close an entire country down as New Zealand did. It certainly helps if you are 2 small islands in the middle of the ocean. But while New Zealand is reopening for citizens, the ports and airports are not open to overseas visitors. Because here’s the thing - you can pretty much control or eradicate the virus in your country, but the moment you allow overseas visitors, you might be letting the virus in again, and thats virgin territory for COVID-19. Whenever I think about this I remember the ad for Mucinex (I think), where the disgusting little green bacteria people move in to clean sinuses and take up residence. Remember that? I found some explanations for what is high, medium or low risk activities for summer. There’s quite a few, so I will add 2 a day for your interest. Here goes: �1. A BYOB backyard gathering with one other household: Low to medium risk Meeting in a spacious outdoor area with only a small group isn't too risky. But our experts say that safety here depends on who you invite and what their behaviors have been. "If you have a gathering with one other household that [has] followed social distancing, this would be a low-risk activity," says Dr. Judith Guzman-Cottrill, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Oregon Health & Science University. What alters risk? To lower risk, avoid sharing food, drinks or utensils — make it a BYO everything party. Dr. Andrew Janowski, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Washington University in St. Louis, notes the food itself isn't the risk, but touching shared dishes or utensils could be. Watch out for drinking, says Dr. Abraar Karan, a physician and public health researcher at Harvard Medical School, as it can make people sloppy about social distancing. It also increases the odds that people will want to use your bathroom. "Once you move into the house with others, the risk profile goes up," he says. 2: Eating indoors at a restaurant: Medium to high risk Indoor dining "is still amongst the riskier things you can do," Landon warns. The trouble is, says Miller, "people tend to linger in restaurants. So even if spacing is okay, the duration of exposure is longer." Also, he says, talking "appears to lead to some release of the virus." Karan notes that one outbreak in Guangzhou, China took place in a restaurant with no windows and poor ventilation, and the air conditioning appears to have blown droplets between tables. What alters risk? Janowski says the risk level depends on how well the restaurant has adapted for the pandemic. Eateries should reduce and space out seating, require servers to wear masks, and offer easy access to hand-washing stations. They should also provide single-use options for condiments so you don't have to touch shared ones, says Janowski. And they should close all self-serve areas like soda fountains or buffet tables. If you do go to a restaurant, look for outdoor seating. Landon says she would only go with members of her household, because "I don't want to have to take my mask off in the close proximity of a bunch of other people." And here is a sign of how frustrating it can be dealing with the public: �Oh dear! And here’s another document but completely unrelated, just to make you laugh: �I’m trying to imagine a turnip shepherd. Nope! Today is Day Two of the Great Bathroom Repainting. Two things have become apparent: (1) everything I normally use is on top of the chest of drawers in the spare room and I only remember that when I’m IN the bathroom and (2) painting necessitated the taking down of the bathroom curtain which means one house behind us can look in and see me sitting on the toilet. Hmmm. Well, Craig’s doing a beautiful job and we’re on track to have it all finished and furnishings etc restored by this evening. I really don’t mind, I’d just like the curtain back on the window. Later next week, Craig will repaint the kitchen. I’m excited but I have no idea how hard it will be to produce food during the painting. Our trees are slowly opening their leaves and the back garden is very pretty. The clematis on the arch are growing happily but after our long, confusing phone conversation with the gardener at the garden center, the first beautiful blossom is pink and not white as promised. I console myself that it is gorgeous, both plants are healthy and they will float like pink stars in the sky. Stop laughing Mary Alice, I can hear you. ��An Oliver update. Yesterday when we FaceTimed with Zoe and Oliver he was very grumpy which we all attributed to overtiredness due to daycare. It turns out that he has Hand, Foot and Mouth virus ( also due to daycare). It’s extremely contagious and he’s off daycare for a week. I have no memory of Zoe getting it as a child, so she may catch it from him as well. I am embarrassed to say that my frequent answer to questions like these, seems always to be: I don’t remember, which is very frustrating for Zoe. Anyway, here’s a photo from a happier day. ��Mmmm. Egg. Good to play with as well as eat. A new adventure in Berlin. One day we booked to go on a day trip on a boat on the Mugglesee. This is a lake in the eastern suburbs of Berlin. It has an area of 2.9 square miles. So we boarded the boat at lunchtime and then we were off for about 3 and a half hours cruising up the lake. It was hot and sunny and the commentary was in German only so we had to rely on other kind bilingual passengers who occasionally translated for us. Apart from the opportunity to sit up in the broiling sun on the top deck, there was the other opportunity of eating and drinking for the entire trip. We sailed along large expanses of lake, as well as some canals. We saw lots of water birds, kayakers, canoeists and at least one other tourist boat. ����We had to sail along the river to get to the lake and then we got off at a different wharf to catch a bus back home. We got off at Kopenick which has a tower of interest, but we found a welcome cafe for tea and a snack. The trip home was long and arduous, probably because I was tired and sunburnt but the boat trip was worth it! 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_2020-05-24_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-74 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 2020-05-24 Title A name given to the resource Day 74 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/866a34e1881ff832afdc8f20d0d24f90.pdf 17152ff82529768e15ed904d7d6c1bfe PDF Text Text Day 75 by windoworks Every day I do research. I read all kinds of articles and stories and I watch many different programs, video clips etc on tv and online. It’s as if I have to know and this morning I found this quote online: I feel better when I’m informed. That’s my ironic happy place, just knowing what’s going on. It’s stressful, terrifying, horrifying and heartbreaking, but I just need to know. And that describes me perfectly during this pandemic: I feel better when I’m informed. So in a long expected event, the pandemic has begun moving from the big urban hotspots and like patchwork, is appearing in rural areas across America. To epidemiologists and physicians, this checkerboard spread was all very predictable. It was never a question of whether the virus would hit rural America, but when. Many of these communities are isolated and hard to reach. They were largely spared from the disease shutting down their states — until, suddenly, they weren’t. Rural counties now have some of the highest rates of covid-19 cases and deaths in the country, topping even the hardest-hit New York City boroughs and signaling a new phase of the pandemic — one of halting, scattered outbreaks that could devastate still more of America’s most vulnerable towns as states lift stay-at-home orders. Here in Kent County, the numbers continue to slowly rise. In April we had a small number of cases (its hard to read the Kent County graph exactly) probably about 20 or so and the count of confirmed cases yesterday was 3.359. The large majority of these are here in Grand Rapids. Dr London says we are doing a lot more testing and we have the capability to do a lot more. In some places in the world, you just have to be 18 years or older and you can walk in for a test anytime. Not here. Here you still have to be okayed by a doctor or a hospital. If we have almost 3 and a half thousand confirmed cases with limited testing - how many do we really have? As I write this it is Memorial Day Weekend Monday. Usually there are parades, concerts, picnics, camping out - the list is endless. This year most of our block has stayed home (its hard to tell if people don’t come outside). We have had careful backyard gatherings, spaced sidewalk parties, and another paddling pool has appeared in a front yard complete with parent lifeguards. It’s not the usual Memorial Day Weekend, but its the best we can do. Yesterday afternoon, after two intensive days, Craig finished painting the main bathroom. When looking at the photos, bear in mind that the previous owners of the house had painted the upper walls a deep charcoal grey. After 17+ years, I felt it was time for a change and Craig obliged me. ���I really like it - and look, the curtain is back on the window! It was an exhausting job and yesterday the temperature reached 83F (26-27C) so Craig needs a week off before repainting the kitchen. To continue the risk factor for summer gatherings, today we read about church services and beaches and pools. 3. Attending a religious service indoors: High risk Worship services involve people from different households coming together indoors, for an extended time. "All of the ingredients are there for the potential for a lot of people becoming infected in the short amount of time," says Kimberly Powers, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She points to outbreaks linked to churches: In one, 35 out of 92 people who attended a service at a rural Arkansas church developed COVID-19. Singing — whether from the pews or the choir — is high risk, several experts noted, citing a study of a choir practice in Washington state where over half of attendees became infected. What alters risk: If people are appropriately socially distanced, wear masks and avoid singing, it may reduce the risk, Karan says. Also avoid any shared worship items like hymnals, Janowski adds.Risk goes down if places of worship adapt, Guzman-Cottrill says. "My parish began having in-person services last week," she says. The church had advance sign-ups to limit attendance to 25 people. Attendees were required to be healthy, wear face coverings and sit at least six feet apart. 4 . Spending the day at a popular beach or pool: Low risk As long as you can stay socially distanced, this could be a pretty safe activity, our experts say. The water itself is not a risk. "The sheer volume of water will dilute out the virus, making the water a highly unlikely source of infection," says Janowski. What alters risk? The key question is how close are you to others? "Can you ensure that you can stay six feet [or more] from anyone outside of your designated family?" asks Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center. Watch out for crowds at entry points and bathrooms. Maintain social distance both on land and in the water.Landon says her biggest worry about pools and beaches is kids. At pools, "they make friends with everyone," she says. "If you want to be able to see grandma for Sunday lunch, because that's what's really important to your family, then you don't want your kids running around with other people's kids." She says a beach is better than a pool in terms of space. Go early in the morning or late afternoon when crowds are lower, and look for beaches that mark off spots for people to set up their areas. Tomorrow: weddings and public restrooms. And here’s an unusual way of showing appreciation: Here in Colorado, at 8 p.m., everybody opens their doors and windows or steps into their backyard, and kids and adults, they howl like wolves. That’s our way of recognizing all the health-care workers. �After a very sleepless night for Zoe, with Oliver waking and getting very upset at regular intervals (he has little sores or blisters in his mouth), yesterday was a slow sleepy day with naps cuddled next to mummy and also a little musical entertainment. West Side Story was the day’s choice. Here’s hoping to a slow recovery. ���Because music always makes us feel better. So after a month, Berlin drew to a close. I loved Berlin and I didn’t really expect to. Why? I can hear you asking. I’m not sure but I did fall in love with it. Neither of us speak German and our landlord didn’t speak English but his partner did. It was only towards the end of our stay that we found out that he ran the business and she was a forensic pathologist! We never did have a chance to ask her about her job. When the taxi arrived to take us to the airport for our flight to London, they came outside to say farewell and gave us both little gifts. We were astonished, it was so sweet. I would go back and stay again tomorrow (but not right now). Grocery shopping was an interesting experience and the women behind the checkout counters recognized us and always kindly helped us. Eating out was exciting - you were never quite sure what you were going to get. The Hauptbahnhof had a wonderful sushi train restaurant that we loved. (Sushi train restaurants are big in Australia). The food comes by on different colored plates - cheap to expensive. You take the plate off the train as it passes and at the end of the meal the waiter adds up the plates and thats what you pay. We did an enormous amount of walking. I think I lost a few pounds and I did feel fitter. The only downside was that all tv was in German except fo the BBC news which got tiresome quickly (they repeat the same stories over and over). We figured out how to link Craig’s laptop to the tv and we just watched movies on Netflix. ��Napoleon’s Hat in the History Museum. His hat! Extensive wolf sculpture which suddenly appeared outside the Hauptbahnhof one day and then just as suddenly disappeared about a week later. I didn’t show you photos from the Reichstag as I already did in an earlier post. �And this is it. Our last night in Berlin, waiting at our table at a restaurant near our apartment. It was hot and we chose to sit outside with the traffic whizzing by. It was sad and exciting. London was our next stop. Stay safe and healthy - it isn’t over yet. � 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_2020-05-25_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-75 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 2020-05-25 Title A name given to the resource Day 75 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/6936c10974a4575d674d92718e732682.pdf b596555aa43fc798335277d40d52a750 PDF Text Text Day 76. by windoworks It’s 7:30 in the morning and Craig has taken Murphy for a walk before the heat of the day strikes. She is booked in to Wash and Wags next Monday for some daycare time before a proper bath and a much needed haircut. In the meantime she is suffering in the heat. Yesterday it reached the upper 80s and today the temperature will reach 91F (30-31C). Thank goodness Craig put the a/c in the bedroom and another one in the living room. At least we are sleeping okay. Yesterday a friend sent me a link to a NYT article about Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Included was a link to the first online video she made on the day they announced the lockdown. From the article: Pandemics are often described as crises of communication, when leaders must persuade entire populations to suspend their lives because of an invisible threat. Watching Ms. Ardern on Facebook, her favored conduit, is a lesson in rhetorical blending: epidemiology brightened with empathy, law leavened with mom jokes. And it has been strikingly effective. Ms. Ardern helped coax New Zealanders — “our team of five million,” she says — to buy into a lockdown so severe that even retrieving a lost cricket ball from a neighbor’s yard was banned. Now the country, despite some early struggles with contact tracing, has very nearly stamped out the virus, exiting isolation with just 21 deaths and a few dozen active cases. PM Arden’s advice: act as though you have COVID-19. How simple is that! New Zealand breeds tough, independent women who seem to rise to the top more easily than in other countries. Perhaps it is that isolation at the bottom of the world. And its not just women, but people in all kinds of occupations: Ernest Rutherford (nuclear physics); Helen Clark (first female prime minister); Hone Heke (first Maori Chief to sign the Treaty of Waitangi); Sir Edmund Hillary (first person to scale Mt Everest); Katherine Mansfield (most famous NZ author); Dr Truby King (best known for the Plunket Society focusing on the health and nutrition of babies); Kate Sheppard (figurehead of the suffragette movement); Jonah Lomu (a rugby all time legend); Sir Peter Jackson (I’m just putting Lord of the Rings here); Sir Colin Meads ( Player of the Century). You can see with 2 rugby players in this list that NZ has a strong affinity with sport. As a teenager I remember attending international rugby games - I saw the British Lions, the South African Springboks and the French Roosters play the New Zealand All Blacks. I wonder how many names you recognized. Stats: Kent County had a total of 3,385 cases yesterday and 68 deaths. The US deaths have risen to almost 100,000 and the experts are saying this may be underreported - there may be as many as 130,000. �With a freeing up of different levels in different states, here’s one concern: experts in Tennessee are also concerned about people from other states beginning to flock to Nashville and Memphis on summer vacations. If a surge happens, the tricky part will be putting the toothpaste back in the tube by shutting down again - as one expert noted. Today there are many stories of people flocking to pools and beaches with some states providing self distancing props and some not bothering. In some states, police and sheriffs were brought in to help address the ensuing chaotic situation. And when did wearing a mask become an infringement on my rights? In a state that set itself up as a guinea pig experiment: Meanwhile in Missouri 140 clients at a hair salon in Missouri have now potentially been exposed to COVID-19 after a second hairstylist at the location tested positive for the coronavirus. On Friday, the city of Springfield said 91 people had been exposed to the coronavirus after a stylist worked for eight days while showing symptoms. Among the 91 were 84 clients and seven employees. Now, 56 more clients have been “potentially directly exposed,” the city said Saturday, explaining that the second stylist at the Great Clips salon tested positive and worked five days while “experiencing very mild symptoms.” As Springfield health officials continue to trace the contacts of the stylists, the city is grappling with other workers at client-facing jobs testing positive for COVID-19, including at a Walmart, a gym, and a Dollar General. Not visiting Missouri any time soon. Today’s risk assessment: An outdoor celebration such as a wedding with more than 10 guests: Medium to high risk Family-oriented celebrations are usually a summer tradition, but they come with a lot of risk right now. Many weddings have been postponed, and with good reason. "Outdoors reduces the risk, but as people are celebrating and drinking, it seems like they may not social distance as readily," says Abraar Karan, the Harvard physician. "These types of events end up being large crowds where people are having extended face to face conversations." The larger the guest list, the greater the potential that one of them is infected, says Kimberly Powers, the UNC epidemiologist. What alters risk? The danger varies greatly depending on the size of the gathering and how closely people gather. If you are considering hosting a celebration, make it a small one, with mostly local guests. "Bringing people from other communities," is high risk, says Landon at the University of Chicago. "If people have to travel by car, by plane from other places, you're really asking for it." And really think twice about inviting your relatives, particularly older family members or those with underlying conditions. People may feel pressure to attend, even though it's hazardous to their health — �and even more so if you emphasize that you're going to try to make it safe, says Landon. One of the largest clusters of deaths from the virus in Chicago occurred after a funeral in which one of the attendees spread it to many of his family members. Using a public restroom: Low to medium risk Restrooms have been designed to prevent disease transmission, says Landon: "There are all sorts of things that you can catch from other people's poop, and you almost never do because they're set up with all hard surfaces that can be cleaned." The risk depends on the number of local COVID-19 cases and how clean the bathroom is, says Janowski at Washington University, noting that a bathroom involves multiple high-touch surfaces. There isn't yet sufficient data to know if there's risk from toilet flushes aerosolizing the virus. Landon says that other viruses, like norovirus, can be aerosolized by flushing, but norovirus doesn't often spread that way as long as bathrooms are cleaned. The CDC says it's "unclear whether the virus found in feces may be capable of causing COVID-19." What alters risk: Miller says the main risk comes from restrooms that are small, busy, and poorly ventilated — like "those restrooms in a gas station off the highway where the restroom is outside." Choose a bathroom that looks clean and is well stocked with supplies like paper towels, soap and toilet paper. Avoid bunching up in a line to use the toilet or staying there long, if you're within six feet of others. Wash your hands after you go, and sanitize them if you need to touch any surfaces after that. Tomorrow we look at letting a friend use your bathroom and going to a vacation house with another family. I hope you’re finding these risk assessments as useful as I am. And in totally unrelated news: when you wake up hungry and there's nothing to eat, the most sensible thing to do is acquire snacks. In this, bumblebees are no different from humans. If they wake early from hibernation to find a scarcity of pollen, the insects have a cunning way to force plants to flower. Using their mandibles and proboscises, bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) chew holes in plant leaves, causing them to bloom weeks earlier than they usually would, in turn supplying the bees with food. How clever. And even though they’re fat, they fly because of the way they move their wings and other complicated aerodynamics. While I’m on the subject: have you ever noticed how much a large airplane resembles a duck coming in to land? Nose up, wings turned up and wheels down like splayed feet? All thats missing is the splash as the duck hits the water. New Oliver developments: still suffering from Hand, Foot and Mouth but the regular dosing of baby painkillers is helping, along with some big daytime naps. And.... one of his top teeth has pushed through! ��A new hat from Uncle Asher. Yesterday on a walk, Craig and Murphy came across this: ��A big branch had snapped off and fallen across several parked cars. �More chalk art. �Another view of the back garden. And today: London! We stayed in London for a week before heading out to our month long rental in the countryside. London was, of course, its usual interesting self. ��Trafalgar Square. ��This is a Mews which is a row or courtyard of stables and carriage houses with living quarters above them. Nowadays the carriage houses and stables underneath are all converted into apartments. ��The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. This was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who died in 1861. Victoria reigned for 63+ years, only beaten now by Queen Elizabeth II who has currently reigned for 67 years. ��This is the coronation portrait of Elizabeth I. She never thought she would survive long enough to reach the throne but she ruled, fairly and prosperously, for 45 years. She never married because she wanted to rule in her own right and so left no heir. She established Protestantism in England and defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. She had a terrible temper which she inherited from her father Henry VIII. More London tomorrow. One last thought for the day: As New Yorkers fled their apartments in recent weeks, many abandoned house plants outside their apartment buildings. In response, plant caretakers of all kinds, from good Samaritans to hired professionals, are dealing with the remnants: One plant enthusiast — who chose not to leave the city out of concern for his 60 plants — is adopting some of the plants that people have left behind on the curb. So remember - act as though you have COVID-19. � 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_2020-05-26_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-76 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 2020-05-26 Title A name given to the resource Dy 76 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/91b359fd1f8bfddd741906c3d2f8a10d.pdf b0fed4264572c3ad4712fc7f8159baf1 PDF Text Text Day 77. by windoworks Today marks 11 weeks since we began staying in our bubble. The Craig, me and Murphy bubble. So what have I learned? In the first few weeks I had a lot of difficulty sleeping. I would wake up at about 3am and lie there worrying. Then I stopped waking up and began dreaming disturbing dreams instead. That still happens occasionally. I tried grocery shopping, first wearing gloves and then with no gloves but wearing a mask. I only ever shopped in person about 5 times before my anxiety level became so extreme I couldn’t go into any store. I have a friend who has to brave a shop excursion every so often and I see from his FaceBook posts that not everyone is wearing a mask, and it is upsetting. Yesterday, on our daily drive to calm me down (Craig says: we’ll just keep driving until your anxiety levels come down, and usually they do), we stopped at a little pop up farm stall where Craig got out to see if they had tomatoes. Big tomatoes are hard to come by through Instacart, cherry tomatoes are all they offer mostly. As he stood there 6 feet back and masked, waiting his turn, the woman in front of him, no mask, breathing over the produce, leant across the booth to write with her finger on the assistant’s cellphone. The assistant (a high school graduate), then used her finger to close the transaction. And there we are. No understanding by either person of how the virus is transmitted. The assistant’s very next action was to pull her mask down, touching her face. Yes, he did buy the tomatoes, with cash and waiving the change, and we did wash them carefully once we got home. We wash or spray and wipe all the groceries that are delivered, all online deliveries and the mail each day. I have no real idea how long the virus survives on such items or even how much there is on an object. We work on the ‘better safe than sorry’ principle. It helps me sleep at night. Stats: Michigan: 54,365 cases and 5,223 deaths. Kent County: 3,420 cases and 72 deaths. We are still increasing here in Kent County. Craig is receiving daily emails from Grand Valley, endlessly discussing what classes will or will not look like, online or face-to-face but reduced in time and students, or maybe a mix of both (hybrid teaching). I believe that through all this planning, they, like everyone else, have no idea of what will happen next. And here’s an interesting development: A new USA Today/Ipsos poll shows that “1 in 5 teachers say they are unlikely to go back to school if their classrooms reopen in the fall, a potential massive wave of resignations.” The majority of teachers are women. They have not lost their love of teaching; they are understandably afraid. And they are not alone. �“A separate poll of parents with at least one child in grades K-12 finds that 6 in 10 say they would be likely to pursue at-home learning options instead of sending back their children this fall.” So what does this mean for universities and community colleges? I wonder. And here’s a really interesting development under the ‘what now?’ category: Most surprising was evidence that the lungs of people attacked by the SARS-CoV-2 virus grew new blood vessels. “The lungs from patients with covid-19 had significant new vessel growth,” the researchers wrote, a discovery they described as “unexpected.” Speculation states that may have been an attempt by the lungs to pass more oxygen to hypoxic tissue and that may be one of the things that gets people better. By the way, this discovery was made by autopsy, in case you wondered. Here are 5 things to keep from this lockdown experience: 1. Keep zooming, walking and biking, especially the exercise and fresh air part. 2. Keep making grocery lists. This encourages us to use food thoughtfully and not waste it as we might have done before. Craig and I have become really adept as using up leftovers. 3. Make meat the exception, not the rule. This is a hard one, but all forecasts point to meat scarcities in a couple of months due to the devastating numbers of meat packers who have tested positive right across the country - The number of Tyson Foods employees with covid-19 has exploded from less than 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis. Meat companies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on protective gear, paid leave and ventilation systems. Despite the safety precautions, the industry has still seen a significant surge in cases, showing how difficult it is to get back to normal, even in essential fields such as food processing. 4. Keep avoiding needless spending. Not so much impulse buying especially online. The hardest thing about online shopping is finding exactly what you’re looking for. So far I haven’t made many mistakes. 5. Trust science. Hugely, hugely important. Did I go to college for all those years, do the research and continue to keep up on new developments in my field? No, I didn’t. Instead I trust scientists who did - just like I trust pilots to fly a jumbo jet safely, or a dentist to fix my teeth, or a plumber or an electrician - you get the picture. So yesterday we drove out to Grand Valley, through the campus and into the Grand Ravine County Park behind GVSU. Craig often walks there at lunchtime on school days, but it was the first time I’d been there. �It was a gorgeous but hot day so I stayed in the car in the a/c but Craig got out and took some photos of the Grand River. The river is very high and there is significant flooding along the length of the river which begins on the East side of Michigan and flows right across and empties into Lake Michigan at Grand Haven. It is the longest river in Michigan. Look at the trees on the far bank, submerged to the foliage. Today’s risk factors: Letting a friend use your bathroom: Low risk Landon doesn't think it's a big risk: "What happens in the bathroom is going to be sucked out of the bathroom ventilation and you can clean all the hard surfaces really easily." Miller agrees: "You can run the fan, leave the door open after (so air flows), and clean the bathroom later. And if you use the bathroom after they do, just wash your hands." What alters risk? It's possible that your friend is infected but asymptomatic, says Janowski. "It would be reasonable to decontaminate the bathroom after a friend uses it, including cleaning the high touch surfaces of the door, toilet, and sink." �Going to a vacation house with another family: Low risk Experts said that if both families have been quarantining and limiting their exposure to others, this is pretty safe. "If one family is very active or parents have higher exposure jobs, then the risk increases," Miller says. Landon thinks this arrangement could be a good idea, especially if the house is "in the woods where you're not going to have a lot of contact with other people," she says. What alters risk? Landon suggests talking with the other family beforehand, to make sure you share the same expectations for the precautions everyone will take in the two weeks before arrival and while you're there. Ensure that no one has signs of illness — if they do, they need to stay home. Miller recommends cleaning the major surfaces in the house on arrival. "And the more that people can reduce exposure in the days leading up to the trip, the better," he adds. Tomorrow we’ll look at staying at a hotel and getting a haircut. I just put this in because its a beautiful photo of Auckland New Zealand at sunset looking across the bays to downtown. Thanks Zar. ��Oliver, in the kitchen with his favorite kitchen toy - a whisk. Apparently you comb your hair with it. Today’s flashback: Hampton Court. �����The top photo: the entrance to Hampton Court. It was built in 1515 for Cardinal Wolsey, who was a favorite of Henry VIII. In 1529, when the Cardinal began to fall from favor, he gave his palace to Henry, hoping to get back in Henry’s good graces - sadly, it didn’t work. Henry loved Hampton Court and extended it to house all his retinue. Hampton Court and St James’ Palace are the only two surviving palaces that Henry owned. Since we last visited, I think the palace had been further restored and we had a lovely day there. The portrait in the second photo is of Henry himself. It’s large and it is hung, halfway up a staircase and he gazes imperiously down at you as you walk up. In the third photo, we came into the Great Hall just as a play was happening in which Thomas Culpepper was being arrested for having an affair with Queen Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife. At that time Henry was 49 years old, obese, glutinous and self indulgent. Catherine was 17 years old. She lasted 1 year or so before falling from grace, being stripped of her title and subsequently beheaded. It is said that her ghost runs screaming down the corridor towards Henry’s chambers some nights at Hampton Court, begging for forgiveness. As I’ve never been there at night, I can’t say if that’s true. �The fourth photo is of the palace kitchen. How many years has the smoke caked on the wall above the main fireplace? The last photo is of the huge walled kitchen garden, still producing fruit and vegetables for the cafe inside the palace. I had a long talk to a gardener and with the excellent lunch we ate in the cafe, that all made for a wonderful day - and the weather was perfect. So remember, act as though you have COVID-19, but keep on smiling. � 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_2020-05-27_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-77 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 2020-05-27 Title A name given to the resource Day 77 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/4795162ead284d952e077271685c6301.pdf e7668af725745c881cee15f801c58632 PDF Text Text Day 78. by windoworks It’s a ‘give me a minute’ morning................ okay. Where are we now? In Kent County the average of new cases is holding steady at about 30 a day for the last 3 days, but our deaths are still climbing. This is a result of the cases diagnosed 2-3 weeks ago. I always find that the hardest thing to understand. We won’t know what our actions will result in, for 2-3 weeks. On the national scale, people are beginning to ask “when will it be over?” According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. So when they ask that question they really mean, the social end. More and more, scientists feel that the virus will persist in much the same way that other viruses such as the seasonal flu persists. There’s much discussion of herd immunity which I don’t really understand, there’s even more discussion of a viable vaccine. And this is perhaps the disheartening part: even if the vaccine was perfected and made available tomorrow, could we all afford it? Would there be enough pieces of equipment necessary to vaccinate? (rubber bits etc). How many anti-vaxxers wouldn’t have it? Would there be enough doses for everyone? Even more disturbing, not only were we poorly placed and unprepared for this pandemic, researchers and scientists are saying we should begin preparing for the next pandemic. The next one? But here’s something I hadn’t thought about: as people start returning to work after weeks of sheltering at home, local officials are starting to worry about a return to clogged traffic. Some of that traffic may be from motorists who previously took public transit, but are too apprehensive to do so now. Eve Strother, a lawyer in Boston, says she won't be getting on the T anytime soon because she’s worried about being close to people who refuse to wear masks or follow social distancing guidelines. I really understand that and if GVSU resumes face-to-face classes in the fall, Craig will be driving out to class and back. The Enrichment Committee for the Women’s City Club have begun the big task of switching the next 4 weeks Thursday programs to virtual ones. As a committee we had weekly programs in place for the rest of 2020 and the first 3 months of 2021 - I’m a great believer in planning ahead. From working a year out, we can now only plan a month in advance. We have had discussions of possible parking lot coffee meetings with each car at least 6 feet apart but although we are eager to meet up again, we are uncomfortable at the thought of possible risks. This week on my block we discussed a possible backyard meeting of the book club, but again, that word ‘uncomfortable’ was voiced by some members, including me. I think it is the perfect word. It’s not �aggressive or rude, but it explains your feelings perfectly. I don’t know how long we might all feel uncomfortable. In Australia and New Zealand, life is opening up again, if carefully. In the next few days PM Ardern in NZ may allow gatherings of 100 people as there is no one in hospital with the virus! Unimaginable. In Sydney Australia, 2 high schools were suddenly closed again after 1 student tested positive in each school. In both countries they have a cellphone app which you turn on when enter a premises. This app notifies you if you’ve been in contact with someone who’s positive. In Italy they are opening up museums, but with limited numbers and you have to wear a necklace which vibrates if you are standing too close to someone else. What a clever idea! It’s the same principle as the alarm that sounds when you get too close to the artwork. And remember, this is Italy where they literally locked everyone in their home for weeks, and everyone complied. And to cheer themselves up they leant out their windows and doors and sang to each other. Antidepressants or Tolkien? Look this quiz up online. It’s fun and surprisingly hard and I read all the Tolkien books, and a lot of antidepressant names closely resemble elven names in particular. Risk assessments of today: Staying at a hotel: Low to medium risk The consensus is that staying at a hotel is relatively low risk, especially once you're in your room. It's best to limit your time in the common areas such as the lobby, gym, restaurant and the elevator, where the risk of exposure is higher. What alters risk? Bring disinfecting wipes to wipe down the TV remote and other common surfaces. You might also want to remove the bedspread since it may not be cleaned after every guest. Ask about the hotel's cleaning policies, as many have new COVID-19 protocols. Beware of the elevators. Use the knuckle of your little or ring finger to press the buttons. Other suggestions: Order room service rather than eating at the restaurant, avoid the exercise room, and wear a face covering in public spaces. Getting a haircut: Medium to high risk A haircut involves close contact and breathing, that is extended for several minutes. This is the primary mode of transmission. And cloth masks certainly are not perfect for this. This is one of the highest-risk scenarios on this list, because there's no way to keep six feet from someone cutting your hair. All it takes is one asymptomatic but infected worker and suddenly many customers are at high risk of infection. (To remind you, this happened this week in Springfield, Missouri and 140 people were at risk and had to be tested). What alters risk? The risk is not terribly high if both you and your haircutter wear masks, and COVID-19 is not very prevalent in your area. Look for a salon or barbershop that has (and enforces) policies to protect its employees, like wearing protective gear and sanitizing hands, because by protecting their �employees, they're protecting you. And make sure that your barber or stylist is all business as stopping to chat at close distance is something we all love doing with our barbers normally but this is not the time for it. Tomorrow we’ll look at going shopping at a mall and going dancing at a bar or nightclub. Just so you know, today’s risk assessments were numbers 9 & 10. There are 14 altogether, so we have only 4 left to learn about. An Oliver photo. He hasn’t been a happy little boy lately and although he is grumpy, he still tries to be cheerful. Two days ago he grumbled when Zoe turned her phone around so he was looking at the back of the phone instead of us. He tried to look behind the phone and protested until she turned it back again and then he gave us a big, beautific smile. ��Favorite purple blocks. Maybe its the shape? ��Sitting on the front porch and eating dinner. Still in London. Today these are photos of different days during the week. ��Inside the Imperial War Museum which was Bedlam Hospital at one time. Bethlehem Hospital opened in 1330 and was a psychiatric asylum, It relocated 3 times since then and this building was one of those moves. It’s nickname was Bedlam (a shortening of the name) and that word is now part of the English language meaning: uproar and confusion, referring to the noise inside such an establishment. This is an impressive museum which aims to study the history of modern warfare and wartime experience. Two experiences the visitor can have are the Blitz experience and the WWI trench experience, both excellent. I have to say the cafe inside had exceptional food with many gluten free choices. The London Eye Ferris wheel. We didn’t go on it this time but we had on a previous visit. It moves extremely slowly and gives you a fantastic view of London especially if its a sunny day. �An old horse trough left over from horse and carriage days, now used as a raised garden bed. ��This just caught my eye. I can’t even remember where it was in London. The Thames River with a kayaker. ��About to cross the Millennium Pedestrian Bridge. St Pauls Cathedral is behind us and ahead on the South Bank you can see the facade of the Tate Modern Gallery. We were on our way to dinner before attending a performance of A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Globe Theatre. I’ve written about this performance before. It was a highlight of the London visit for me. This is inside the Globe, waiting for the play to begin. Although the theatre is an exact replica, the atmosphere ims remarkably modern. In Shakespeare’s day there would have been more interest in the food for sale, assignations and business deals than the play - which is why he always had a song and dance number at the end, so that disgruntled patrons didn’t stone the actors or burn down the wooden playhouse. “If we shadows have offended, think on this and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear” So, no offense - its just a story. On another memorable night we had dinner at an Ottolenghi restaurant just off Regent Street. This had been on my wishlist and we ate, sitting at a communal table and the food was the chefs choice. It was absolutely delicious and fun, right up to moment standing outside on Regent Street when Craig said: my lips and throat are a little numb. After a small panic attack on my part, we went back to the hotel using �the Underground and by the time we reached our room, the numbness had subsided. No more trout (or salmon) for Craig! The 3 W’s: Wear a mask, Wait 6 feet apart and Wash your hands. It’s not even somewhat over. � 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_2020-05-28_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-78 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 2020-05-28 Title A name given to the resource Day 78 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/7cc1418568e266b511cab786d4f1aa1b.pdf bd534e178248e2524f77a70a8f50ef0c PDF Text Text Day 79 by windoworks Well I thought it would be exciting to get to Day 70 and now here we are, barreling down the hill towards Day 100. Unbelievable. I was talking to my counselor yesterday during my now weekly session and at the end we were trying to organize the next session. She has changed her schedule recently so her husband can have some dedicated work-from-home time too. She then offered me a weekly spot for June and I jumped at it before someone else took it. This is a sign of how deeply distressed we all are and how hard it is to cope. She is working a full load! As my neighbor said yesterday: its gotten old now. I thought about the riots that are happening in big cities but especially Minneapolis, but you can read more than enough online. For me, its an example of: every action has a reaction - and many actions have consequences. What I find hard to understand is how something is recorded and the resulting consequence does not fit the action - it falls very short. I do understand that there is one rule for people like me: white, older, privileged, educated. I don’t have the same born to it privilege of a white male (but thats a soapbox for another day). There is another rule for seemly everyone else, depending on the color of your skin. Two things that stay in my mind: every female alive now and every female born any time in the future share the Mitochondrial Eve gene - the matrilineal ancestor. I am related to all these other females through this gene. And I will always be related. The other thing is something a Futurist (look it up) said in a lecture I attended: If we all stand outside at night and join hands with our neighbors, across the world, and gaze up at the stars - how can hate exist? From my trove of notes, ideas, reports etc. Filmmaker Taika Waititi is ambling his way through Roald Dahl's classic novel, James And The Giant Peach, chapter by chapter on YouTube to raise money for COVID-19 relief. This week, he's getting help from Meryl Streep and Benedict Cumberbatch who play the parts of James' miserable, mean aunts. Cate Blanchett and Eddie Redmayne play the magical insects who help James out. each week there are different actors helping. I have only watched Episode One so far but I highly recommend it for everyone, not just children. And on an eewwww note: Rats are growing increasingly aggressive in their hunt for food as restaurants across the US remain shuttered to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned. With many restaurants now only open for takeout services, the bins that used to be filled with �scraps and refuse the rodents once feasted on are much emptier - and they are getting desperate. I think I read that they have begun eating each other to survive. Today’s risk assessments: Going shopping at a mall: Risk varies How risky this is depends on what kind of mall it is, how crowded it is, and how much time you spend there. Crowds with high density lead to substantial increase in risk. The major mitigating factor is that people don't mingle in a single place for long. What alters risk? Outdoor malls are preferable to indoor ones. And empty malls are better than crowded ones. Avoid the food court and go with purpose, not leisure. As much as you may like retail therapy, you should browse online before you go. Know what you're going to pick up or try on. Wear your mask. Go in, look at it. Make your decision and get out. Be alert while you're there to avoid close contact. Maintain your space and try to go at off peak hours.Bring hand sanitizer, and use it frequently, especially if you touch any shared surfaces like handrails or elevator buttons. Going dancing at a bar or nightclub: High risk There is consensus among the experts that going to a club is a very high-risk activity. Crowds, ultra-close contact, singing, sweating, and inhibition-loosening alcohol are a potent cocktail of risk factors. When drinking, people become less compliant with rules, and they may breathe heavier from the dancing — which means more virus is being shed. If there's an infected person in the mix, the virus can spread easily. This is a very high risk situation for an outbreak. Don't go to bars or clubs right now. What alters risk? Nothing makes this a good idea right now. If you want to dance, have a dance party at home with the people in your intimate circle. If it's a small outdoor gathering, dancing under the stars — six feet apart — would be much less risky, too. Tomorrow the last 2 risk assessments: going camping and exercising outdoors. ��I love this photo of Oliver. Here he is, enchanted by the noise and action of the washer - he thinks its better than TV! In Oliver news: the Hand, Foot and Mouth virus seems to be on the wane and he’s eating again. Today’s flashback: after our wonderful week in London, we picked up our leased car and drove north east to the town of Brandon where we had rented a cottage for 5 weeks, beginning in September. What we had rented turned out to be a tiny 2 story flint cottage on a main road out of the town. We were 2 doors up from one of the local pubs and one block over from the horse farms. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. The galley kitchen, living room and bathroom were downstairs and up the narrow twisty stairs was 2 bedrooms, one single and one double. If I left the bedroom curtains open in the early morning, the people upstairs in the double decker buses could see me sitting up in bed. If we left the front door open, people walking past would say hello to us as we were sitting on the couch. I am cured of tiny house living forever. Our flint cottage. Looks quite big, doesn’t it? �Here’s our car parked in front. Now, the cottage looks smaller. It’s built from flint, and Brandon was established as a flint knapper center. The whole area of Suffolk (the county) was a flint industry area for thousands of years from the Neolithic Era. Flint is mined underground and then knapped to produce stone tools etc., and the flat faced stones for building as above. �This is the town sign and you can see flint knappers at work. ��Craig took this photo of the stairs after I fell down them, bruising my back. You can see what I mean by twisty and narrow. And this is the Little Ouse River at the bottom of the Main Street. Many people asked us why Brandon? And we replied, because it seemed central to many other places we wanted to visit. Tomorrow I’ll show you our first week’s adventures, Stay safe, stay healthy, stay brave. � 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_2020-05-29_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-79 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 2020-05-29 Title A name given to the resource Day 79 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/7e713b8a393477cfbcb5871feec84ead.pdf 3cfa0d04dcf95d3f6f707abc3e785b9d PDF Text Text Day 80. by windoworks I can’t even. In the midst of this life altering global pandemic, when entire continents have been brought to their knees, when compassion for your fellow man and deep understanding of the distress and fear we are all experiencing - right across the world, RIGHT ACROSS THE WORLD (yes, I know I’m shouting), this, this was the moment to carry on as normal and smirk into the camera and be filmed while kneeling on another human being’s neck. And it would be something if this was the first time an atrocious act like this had happened and we were all shocked and protested loudly and it never happened again because we all knew better, but no, its normal. It’s not even the new normal, its the same old, same old normal. It’s this strong belief that somehow, the color of my skin matters. You're really smart, for a black person" - I was told once. "Don't worry, she's probably so curious because she's never seen a black boy before" - I was told by a neighbor when I was around 9 years old, about her granddaughter, who was an infant. "If you weren't a black boy, I'd kick the shit out of you" - I was told once when I was 10 or 11 and hadn't delivered the newspaper to my customer's satisfaction. "You speak really well for being, you know, black" - I've been told more than once. "Do your parents know, that he's… (black)" - past girlfriends have been asked. "You're the whitest black person I know" - I've been told as if being adorned with a medal of achievement. "You're not really black, you're really a white man trapped in a black man's body" - I've been told, almost as a term of endearment. "Hey James, can you teach me ebonics?" - I've been asked by co-workers who are now pastors. "Nigger" - I've been called this more than once. These are the words said to the kind, gentle man who lives 2 doors down from me, who adores his wife and daughter (who thinks the little path through the curb garden Craig built, was put there just for her and she walks through it every day) and who is excited for his new daughter, coming in the fall. When I �read this post on FaceBook this morning, it broke my heart. I thought about giving you all the quick lesson in how skin color developed (you can’t help but learn these things when you live with a Big Historian) but I’m not writing my blog to educate. I’m writing this blog to record history as it is happening and is seen through my eyes. We need to do better. From Eric Payne, Grand Rapids Chief of Police: “I want everyone to know I share your concerns, I feel your frustrations and I hear you. Our department’s thoughts and prayers are with the people of Minneapolis and everyone in our community and across the country who are impacted by the events there. We share your anger over the death of Mr. Floyd and we offer our sincere condolences to his family. Our hearts are with community members who are hurting, angry and afraid. We stand with our fellow officers around the country who serve with honor and integrity in asking that our communities do not allow this tragedy to define our profession. While I typically do not comment on an incident in another jurisdiction, I believe this situation needs to be addressed by law enforcement leaders across the country. We must hold all of our employees to the highest of personal and professional standards”. Today I have moved the Oliver photo up. ��Look, you can even see his 2 bottom teeth! The last 2 risk assessments: Going camping: Low risk As far as summer activities go, this is least risky from a virus perspective. You're outdoors and isolated. But, if you're going with a group, be sure you can trust your fellow campers. Have they been socialdistancing and following the guidelines? If not, they could be asymptomatic spreaders of the virus. What alters risk? Of course, risks can creep in, depending on the particulars. Are you camping in an isolated outdoor location with your family? This is the lower risk scenario. It's more dangerous if you're at a crowded campground with a shared restroom and communal picnic areas. Sleeping in tents together with others [not in your household] can certainly be a setup for transmission. Bottom line: The activity itself is low-risk, but the people that you'll be in close contact with during the trip could increase the hazard. Exercising outdoors: Low risk Unless you're playing group sports, exercising outdoors is a good way to burn off steam while staying socially distant. Our experts agree that sports such as golf and tennis are safer than contact sports such as basketball and football. Its probably better to avoid contact sports until we have a better sense of transmission risk. And running? If you're not on a crowded path where people are brushing past each other, that's a great form of exercise right now. What alters risk? The more people involved in the activity, the higher the risk. It's possible to spread the virus when you're in close proximity to others — even if you're asymptomatic — so it's best to wear a mask if you can't stay socially-distanced. The risk depends on the sport. A game like basketball is tricky. You're touching the ball and you're going to be breathing in each other's faces, so perhaps playing only with people in your household is better. Tennis carries a much lower risk because you're far apart on either side. That's definite social distancing. Herd Immunity: this is a term I found confusing but this is a good explanation. London, Madrid and other cities around the world have only a small fraction of the coronavirus cases needed to achieve herd immunity, according to new studies. Experts believe herd immunity — after which new infections will no longer cause large outbreaks — is reached when between 60 percent and 80 percent of the population has contracted the virus. Even New York, the city with the world’s highest known infection rate, is barely a third of the way there, according to the studies. Well that’s concerning. Plus herd immunity is when we don’t have to worry about the virus any more. �Here’s my friend, Merrilyn’s book, Bear Hunt. There is interest from the West Australian State library’s COVID-19 collection and she’s talking to her local library about putting it in the children’s reading room. How exciting! Our walk yesterday. The birdsong and frog croaks were wonderful. ���One of our first day excursions was to Sandringham House in Norfolk. We drove there just after I had fallen down the stairs so I was in a bit of pain for most of the day. Sandringham is the private home of Queen Elizabeth II and it is surrounded by gorgeous gardens and parkland. The Queen spends about 2 months each winter there and it is at a small desk in one of the drawing rooms that she broadcasts her annual Christmas message. She first opened the house and the grounds to the public during the summer months in 1977, so we were able to tour the grounds and the house. There’s also a large tearoom there where we had lunch. ���Parts of today’s post were hard to write. I put a lot in and then took a lot out. It has been 11 and a half weeks of coping, trying to stay safe and healthy and trying to remain cheerful and tamp down the daily anxiety. And now there is the added overwhelming anger and grief across this nation, my adopted home. The terrible question of: how can this keep happening? We have to be so much better. � 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_2020-05-30_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-80 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 2020-05-30 Title A name given to the resource Day 80 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/cb1951200a65399880c917ffe2d3a7ae.pdf 41e7ca63179b78b1c318ab058993a99f PDF Text Text Day 81 by windoworks And I thought yesterday was the hardest day. In the late afternoon, one of our high school graduates on our block and her 3 friends, dressed in black (as instructed) drove downtown to attend the silent demonstration organized there. About 8pm they all came back and Craig and I thought no more about it. No, we didn’t smell the smoke. This morning my FaceBook feed and the local news stations are all full of this: I guess it doesn't hit home until it HITS HOME!! They totally destroyed Downtown Grand Rapids. They broke into banks, the GR Arts museum, destroyed the WOOD TV news center on Monroe Center, hotels, jewelry stores, restaurants, destroyed the courthouse and police station, Secretary of State Bulding, burned police cars and much more. I thought living downtown was a luxury until we had to keep looters from breaking our glass doors and running into our building. They broke into the resturant (Sundance) and bank (West MI. Community Bank) in our building. It's 4 am and it still not over!!! ���Apparently most of downtown has been affected in some way. There are reports that these ‘protestors’ (like every other city affected in the US) are not part of the demonstrations but others with a different agenda. It is chaos and confusion, anger and dismay. We live pretty close to downtown and I wonder what tonight will bring? In 1967, there were riots here in Grand Rapids. Again it was anger and frustration by the black community. I have friends who talk about the looting and fighting along Wealthy Street which is at the south end of our block. In 53 years, I wonder how much has really changed? I see that many FB friends are saying they will go downtown this morning and help with the cleanup. As well as the graffitied walls, there are many windows knocked out, police cars and other parked cars burnt out. Some news outlets are predicting a summer of violence. Why did I think Grand Rapids would be unaffected? I am surely not that naive. People keep screaming about their constitutional rights and yet hardly any of them have read the constitution. Craig and I have because we had to, to become citizens. And this seems a calculated attempt to override the justifiable anger of the persons of color and turn demonstrations into chaos so the real issues are not heard. That is the worst bit. And all the while, the virus is still here, still active, still killing people. Health officials are investigating the potential spread of the coronavirus in central Missouri after a person who attended some of the crowded pool parties at the Lake of the Ozarks over Memorial Day weekend tested positive for the virus. The Camden County Health Department said in a statement Friday it was working with health officials in the area to inform “mass numbers of unknown people” about the person’s diagnosis. Mass numbers! Mass numbers! Listen up people! it isn’t over. All the scientists and the doctors and the researchers are all still formulating theories and ideas and offering predictions and possibilities and probabilities, but when you get right down to it, we’re still here, stuck in the We don’t really know zone. I have never heard some many eminent people say: we don’t really know, but we think,,, In an alternative universe, Craig began painting the kitchen yesterday. This was the second of my projects �There will be photos tomorrow of the finished room. And can I say, its really hard to organize lunch when the kitchen’s being repainted. Yesterday at about 3:30pm I watched the SpaceX rocket Dragon lift off into space and begin its journey to the International Space Station with 2 astronauts inside. As I write I think they’re about 2 hours from docking with the Space Station. It was nerve wracking and exhilarating watching it launch. It went straight up very fast and took 9 minutes to reach beyond Earths atmosphere. You could tell when they reached zero gravity because their feet floated up. It reminded me of the day that they landed on the moon for the first time in 1969. That was my first year teaching and my class and I listened to the broadcast over the speakers at school. I remember looking at the moon that night and like everyone else thinking: there are men up there. What astonished me about yesterday’s launch was that the booster rocket landed safely back on earth - reusable! Wow! And not to overload you but in the Wait, what now? Section: An infection of the blood vessels would explain many of the weird tendencies of the novel coronavirus, like the high rates of blood clots. Endothelial cells help regulate clot formation by sending out proteins that turn the coagulation system on or off. The cells also help ensure that blood flows smoothly and �doesn’t get caught on any rough edges on the blood vessel walls. Finally, infection of the blood vessels may be how the virus travels through the body and infects other organs — something that’s atypical of respiratory infections. Endothelial cells connect the entire circulation [system], 60,000 miles worth of blood vessels throughout our body. Is this one way that Covid-19 can impact the brain, the heart, the Covid toe? Does SARS-CoV-2 traffic itself through the endothelial cells or get into the bloodstream this way? We don’t know the answer to that. So apparently it begins as a respiratory disease but then develops into a blood infection. At least I think that’s what the article said. Here’s the daily Oliver photo to lift our spirits. ��Such lovely smiles! So, today’s flashback: about 7 miles from Brandon is the bigger town of Thetford. Just on the outskirts of Thetford itself is the remains of Thetford Priory. This was a Clunaic monastic house (creating art and caring for the poor). It was founded in 1103 and was dedicated to Our Lady (the Virgin Mary). In the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it was closed in 1540 and was one of the last to be dissolved. It is reputed to be haunted and although its a lovely place to wander around on a sunny day, I wouldn’t want to be there at night. ����In the top photo I am walking across the open area. The site was huge and now I don’t remember what every part of the ruins were. However in the second photo I am gazing up at the impressive gatehouse which gives you an idea of the wealth and influence of the priory. In the third photo Craig is reading the plaque at the other entrance to the site and in the last photo, this was the Prior’s house and also accommodation for visitors. If you had money and were traveling in England, monasteries were often safe places to stay overnight, especially if you gave them a little money to cover your stay. Although the visitors rooms (cells) were plain and the beds hard, they didn’t have bedbugs and the food was often better than inns. And travelers felt safer inside the walls with the gate securely locked. Henry VIII viewed monasteries and nunneries as places of wealth to loot for his royal coffers and didn’t consider the relationship between the towns and farms surrounding these religious houses - but that’s a history discussion for another day. Here’s hoping that wherever you are in the world, that you are safe, healthy and heroic. 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_2020-05-31_BenjaminPamela_PD-Day-81 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 2020-05-31 Title A name given to the resource Day 81 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